Subjective

Verse 1

Mama handed me a makeup kit

On my fourth birthday,

Plastic shadows, plastic lipstick,

Teachin’ me the world’s old way.

I said, “Mama, I’m gettin’ pretty,

Pretty just like you.”

She spun around like a thunderstorm

And said, “That’ll never be true.”

Chorus

She said it was subjective,

Just her opinion, just her view,

But her words cut like a razor

And every one of them was true

To the darkness in her heart

That she carved into my youth.

Oh, she called it subjective—

But I knew it was her truth.

Verse 2

Didn’t know what that word meant,

But I knew what she meant to do.

Every time she said “subjective,”

Another bruise inside me grew.

Told me I was stupid, ugly,

Told me no one’d ever care,

Told me even my own father

Wouldn’t want me anywhere.

Chorus

She said it was subjective,

Just her opinion, just her view,

But her words cut like a razor

And every one of them was true

To the darkness in her heart

That she carved into my youth.

Oh, she called it subjective—

But I knew it was her truth.

Verse 3

Half my fifth‑grade year went hungry,

Breakfast gone and dinner too,

Said a girl my size was shameful,

Said starvation’d “fix” the view.

Swim lessons at the country club?

“No, you’re too fat to be seen.”

And the child who only wanted joy

Was trapped inside her scheme.

Verse 4

Ten years old in New Mexico,

Sweatin’ in long sleeves,

Coverin’ up the marks and welts

From the lies she let him believe.

Said, “Don’t let the neighbors see it,

They’ll know what a child you are.”

And she twisted scripture like barbed wire

’Til it scarred me like a scar.

Chorus

She said it was subjective,

Just her opinion, just her view,

But her words cut like a razor

And every one of them was true

To the darkness in her heart

That she carved into my youth.

Oh, she called it subjective—

But I knew it was her truth.

Bridge

She mocked her sisters, mocked her students,

Mocked the weak and mocked the small,

Said their struggles were “pretending,”

Said she had the right to call.

And when I grew and faced her,

She hid behind God’s name,

Said forgiveness was my duty

While she never owned her shame.

Verse 5

But years have ways of teachin’

What childhood never could,

And I learned the truth she feared the most—

She was never strong or good.

Just a broken, bitter woman

Who mistook her pain for right,

And used a single twisted word

To justify her spite.

Final Chorus

She said it was subjective,

Just her opinion, just her view,

But her cruelty was deliberate

And every child inside me knew.

Now I speak the truth she buried,

And I say it calm and understood—

If I call her what she truly was,

Well…

I’m just bein’ subjective,

Mother—

Just like you said I should.