What Is It About Men

The speaker reflects on repeating a painful pattern in relationships. She recognizes that she may be copying behavior she disliked in her mother, including becoming involved with the “wrong man.” The mood mixes self-awareness with frustration: she questions her choices, but does not yet seem to have an answer or an easy way to change them.

Several images suggest that these feelings are being avoided rather than resolved. The problem is “bricked up” in her head and “shoved under” the bed, as if hidden away but still present. “History repeats itself” describes a pattern that continues across generations, while “grown a mile wide” makes her destructive side sound as if it has expanded beyond her control. “Take the wrong man as naturally as I sing” suggests that this choice feels almost automatic to her.

The repeated question, “What is it about men?”, may sound like a complaint about men, but the lyrics also turn the focus inward. The speaker asks about her own desires and learned behavior, so the song is not simply blaming someone else. Her reference to a “Freudian fate” hints at a family influence, though it does not prove that her choices are predetermined. The song leaves open whether she feels trapped by the past or is beginning to understand it.