My Body
My Body
My body’s nobody’s body but mine. You run your own body, let me run mine!
On a chilly weekend morning in late October 1979 in Milwaukee Wisconsin, I was part of group of men and women at the 6th Annual Conference on Men and Masculinity who were preparing to leave the building and march through the downtown area with signs and banners. We hoped to raise awareness about our need to address the ‘isms’ we face; sexism, capitalism, militarism, racism, ageism, sexual orientationism, and all the other ‘isms’. One banner said it best, “Let’s Make These Isms – Wasms!” My contribution to the march was my newest song, called “My Body”. It had a sing-able chorus and a strong, courageous message about everyone’s right to be in charge of our own physical body. We sang it as we marched.
When I returned home to Topanga in California, I recorded a more polished studio version on my “Draw The Line” album, and released it on Flying Fish Records. My friends Helen Hudson, Gary White and Kate Wolf sang some of the verses with me. Larry McNeely played his banjo. Peter Spelman was on bass, Timm Boatman on drums and my buddy Michele Brourman graced us with her piano playing. I was in charge of the guitar and the kazoo. Here it is.
MY BODY (original adult version)
Cho: My body’s nobody’s body but mine! G-D7
You run your own body, let me run mine! D7-G
My heart was made to be filled-up with love
Not to be ordered, or broken or shoved
My hands were made to hold other hands,
Not to hold guns in faraway lands
Chorus
My genes were made to pass on human traits
Not to be fried with your atomic waste!
My womb was made to make kids when I please
Not to obey man-made laws and decrees
Chorus
Our body’s one body, one voice is heard
We each sing for freedom when we sing these words!
Chorus
Written by Peter Alsop, ©1980 Moose School Music (BMI)
The song took on a life of it’s own, and Emily Friedman, a renowned music reviewer heard it and wrote this review in the Chicago Magazine, October 1980. Here are excerpts from her article:
“Funny Songs About Sex Roles”
Alsop is a singer and writer concerned with the liberation from sexual stereotyping. He is a feminist, a supporter of civil rights for homosexuals, an ardent crusader for the rights of children, and an important figure in the growing movement for men’s consciousness. What sets him apart from most other musicians writing and singing about sexual liberation issues is that he addresses all people. The underlying message that he wants to convey is that we are not going to even begin to fulfill our individual potentials – or accomplish anything in society – as long as we insist on labeling each other according to genitalia or sexual preference. It’s not a novel idea, but it certainly has not been the basis of much music.
He is also a born humorist, and he approaches the audience with a ‘we’re-all-friends-here’ confidence that makes everyone comfortable enough to welcome him. His thoroughly professional stagecraft, the product of many years as a successful Shakespearean actor, a vocation he still pursues, doesn’t hurt either. And he can play the iconoclast without appearing bitter or nasty about it.
His ‘My Body’ song is an angry lashing-out at those legislators and others who would like to dictate what we may and may not do with ourselves; it does not specifically address abortion, or sexual preferences, or any one subject, and in being general becomes much more powerful.
It is perhaps his wonderful sense of humor that keeps Alsop on an even keel. It is certainly one of the major contributing factors to his being one of the most accessible – and therefore successful – topical singers working today.
Emily Friedman (Editor of ‘Come For To Sing’ Magazine), In These Times, 10/29/80
Then, a wonderful play writer and producer-director from Canada, Dennis Foon, heard ‘My Body’, and saw the potential it had to be used in a child abuse prevention program. Together with The Green Thumb Children's Theater in British Columbia, they wrote some new verses and tailored the song for use as an educational piece that’s helped kids learn to protect themselves from abduction and sexual abuse. That program, and others like it, have taken this song all over the world; England, Africa, Mexico, just to name a few.
And I’ve had a number of different parents thank me and tell me, that this song saved their child’s life. Wow! What more could a songwriter ask for!? It provides a way to teach awareness of the skills necessary to fend off unwanted physical attention from adults or older kids, without terrifying the children. So, I added a few more of my own verses and released the kid’s version of this song on my award-winning, “Wha’d’ya Wanna Do?!” album in 1983. I sang it with my daughters Megan, Willow and Vinessa Shaw at the 1988 Healing Power of Laughter and Play Conference for human service professionals at the Disneyland Hotel.
MY BODY (kids version)
Cho: My body’s nobody’s body but mine! G-D7
You run your own body, let me run mine! D7-G
My nose was made to sniff and to sneeze, (ah-choo!)
To smell what I want, and to pick when I please!
Chorus
And my mouth was made to blow up a balloon,
I can eat, kiss and spit! (pttt!) I can whistle a tune!
Chorus
My mouth was made to blow-up a balloon
I can eat, kiss and spit, I can whistle a tune!
Chorus
No one knows my body better than me.
It tells me, “Let’s eat!” It tells me “Go pee!”
Don’t hit me! Don’r kick me! Don’t push or shove!
Don’t hug me too hard, when you show me your love.
Chorus
Sometimes it’s hard to say “No!” and be strong,
But when those ‘no!’ feelings come, then I know something’s wrong.
Because my body’s mine, from my head to my toe
So please leave it alone, when you hear me say “NO!”
Chorus - Chorus
(Extra verses)
My lungs were made to hold air when I breathe,
I am in charge of just how much, (hold breath), … I need!
My legs were made to dance me around
To walk and to run and to jump up and down!
Secrets are fun when they’re filled with surprise
But not when they hurt us with tricks, threats and lies
My body’s mine to be used as I choose
Not to be threatened or forced or abused!
Our body’s one body, one voice is heard
We each sing for freedom when we sing these words!
Written by Peter Alsop, © Copyright 1983, Moose School Music (BMI)
This song has been used to help teachers, therapists and parents gently bring up this usually scary subject. I’ve met teachers who loved the idea of raising a child’s awareness about sexual abuse prevention, but who still couldn’t bring themselves to use this song in their classes. I wasn’t exactly sure why, so I asked them, and they said they felt uncomfortable having kids sing “pick your nose”. Did they think that younger kids would just start ‘picking their noses’ in public? I pointed out to them that kids do that anyway! Some teachers had trouble with my line about ‘spitting’ in the second verse. It was clear to me that if someone has some resistance to using this song as a teaching tool, it is most probably because our culture trains us that children should never do anything that makes adults uncomfortable!
I wrote that first ‘nose picking’ verse, because I wanted to start off easy; make it fun for kids, rather than just giving them more ‘adult’ instructions. I’ve always found that kids are much more willing to listen to me, if I don't always follow the adult prescribed ways to ‘behave properly’. Kids love to sing and whistle and giggle! They're much more likely to listen and hear these messages, if they identify with me as a “fellow playful kid!”, rather than as one of those ‘adults’.
This song gently opens a door for us to talk with our kids about sexual abuse prevention, and it also models ways that we can talk with them about other subjects.
As teachers, (and parents), we always want to be a safe place for our kids to discuss ANYTHING. If we send the message that we only want to hear ‘okay’ things from them, then we may be shutting out a child who needs to talk to us about something that is not ‘okay’. And we may be the only place in that child’s life that feels ‘safe’ for them.
We want kids to connect with their own feelings, because then we can teach them the words to describe what’s going on inside. We can hear the stories they have that guide them in their life. That’s so much more important, than us grown-ups worrying about them picking their noses or spitting. When children have what we call a healthy ‘feelings vocabulary’, it really is an EARLY WARNING SYSTEM that will help kids protect themselves against abuse.
The whole point of the song is to empower kids to pay attention to how they feel. If a child is uncomfortable with touching that’s going on, we want them to know they have some choice. We want them to be able to speak up about it with a safe person, because it’s their body, and we do this because we will not always be there to protect them, if or when another adult offers them inappropriate physical attention.
Illustration by Terri Asher
Child abuse is a hidden and repugnant idea to many people, because many people have not had any contact with others who have gone through this kind of traumatic experience. We may unconsciously want to avoid the subject, or simply feel unequipped to deal with a discussion about it with young children, so we dismiss it out of hand, and in doing so, we miss an opportunity to gently pass some protective information on to the kids.
Statistics from the last 40 to 50 years that I’ve been working in this field, have not changed. One out of 3 young women and one out of 5 young men in the USA under the age of 18 are sexually abused.
So I’ve provided some alternative lyrics to help any adults want to use this song. It’s what we call a ‘zipper’ song, because it’s easy to ‘zip’ your own words or phrases into the song to make your point, without any discomfort!
How about: “My nose was made to sniff and to sneeze, to smell what I want, and to (pick) blow when I please!” or “My mouth was made to blow-up a balloon, I can eat, kiss and (spit) sing, I can whistle a tune!” Make up your own alternatives!
Over the years, a number of fans have written to suggest other uses for this song! Someone asked me to write about saving the whales, ... so I ‘zipped’ in these new words.
Blub, blub, blub! - My lungs were made to spout beautiful plumes
Not to be ripped by exploding harpoons!
N' my teeth were made to chew food just like yours
Not to be scrimshawed and sold in your stores.
N' my bones were made to sail the seas
Not to be corsets for fancy la-diees!
Chorus
My brain was made much larger than man’s
Not to be jammed into small catfood cans
Yeah, our voices sing out, our love never fails
Humans must stop killing dolphins and whales!
And here are some ‘pro-choice’ verses from Charlotte Schramm.
If abortion is really what makes you so mad,
Why do you say birth control is so bad?
Yes, I love the children as much as you do
But the ones who are here, still don’t get what they’re due
The lives of most children, ... just aren’t that great
Where are YOU when they’re beaten and treated like freight?
If you love these babies as much as you say
Tell me how much child support do you pay?
Food stamps and welfare – they make you see red
But sex education – you’d rather be dead.
In all tough decisions it’s my own heart I search
Leave me alone. I don’t go to your church.
Then one day late in 2020, I got an email from a man in South Africa named Mike Sharman. It said,
“Hi Peter, my name is Mike and I used to live in Van Nuys, California. I was introduced to your ‘My Body’ song in elementary school in the 90s. It made an impact because it was so memorable. We are working on a gender-based violence campaign here for an insurance company in South Africa called First For Women. We’d like to ask your permission to sample the chorus from your recording of ‘My Body’, as we are compiling a track with local South African artists where all proceeds will go towards projects tackling the eradication of gender-based violence. Rape and other forms of gender-based violence is a pandemic here in our country, and we want to use the medium of music to make an impact. Please let me know if this is possible.”
He wanted my permission to use the actual original recording of my daughters and their local Topanga friends singing the kids chorus on the ‘My Body’ song!? I told him “Of course!” I hoped I’d like their finished product, … and when I finally received a copy, I was delighted! Their version totally took my song to another level.
The new track features a number of South African artists including Lira, Juliet Harding from GoodLuck, Mariechan, who rose to fame as one third of the girl group, Jamali, and Gigi LaMayne. They told me that all funds raised from the streaming of ‘My Body, Stand Up!’ would be donated to the 1st for Women Foundation for its ongoing fight to end woman abuse. Their part of the new version was composed by Chris Snyman and Garth Barnes, and produced by TigerFight on behalf of 1st for Women Foundation.
MY BODY (STAND UP!)
Chorus: My body’s nobody’s body but mine
You run your own body, let me run mine!
Yeah, we livin’ in a dark time and we need t’change
Everyday a headline, always the same
Another women cut down again
But we can be the ones who put an end to the pain.
We gotta rise up. Walk hand-in-hand,
Lift the girl up, never fall again.
Raise a strong woman, raise a kind man
Let the world know that we taking a stand!
We need to talk about what’s happenin’ out there.
It’s not okay that we can’t walk upon these streets without fear.
You know this body is my body, sing it loud so they hear!
Yeah, all the mothers, sisters, daughters let your voice fill the air
Chorus
Stand up let the whole world see,
That we not gonna sit and take it quietly!
Stand up and let the whole world know,
If you raise a hand to one, you raise a hand to us all!
Stand up send a message clear,
No, we’re not gonna stop until we end these tears
Stand up and let the whole world know
If you raise a hand to one you raise it to us all!
One less girl, be one less t’teach ‘em
Fix that problem, I’m a believer
Stand up tall you need to say ‘some’
Let’s start here by teaching our sons
Protect and serve, be willing to learn
Who she is, well that’s our concern.
Look at the girl she shining like this!
Womandla mbokodo, Look at you sis! “Power to women!” (Zulu)
Yeah, it’s time to stand up and we put women first
We’ll walk fearless through the fire, ’til we’ve lifted this curse!
But we can’t do this on our own, now we need more than just words.
So every father, son, brother, let’s go loud ‘til it's heard!
What you do to one affects us all!
Impilo ami ibaluleke nje ngeyakho. “My life is as important/valuable as yours!”(Zulu)
Wathint'umfazi wathintimbokodo, “You strike a woman, you strike a rock!”
Angeke sikhon'ukuyimela lento. “We will not stand for this anymore!”
Chorus
Stand up! Stand up and let the whole world see
That we not gonna sit and take it quietly!
Stand up and let the whole world know,
If you raise a hand to one, you raise a hand to us all!
Stand up send a message clear,
No, we’re not gonna stop until we end these tears.
Stand up and let the whole world know,
If you raise a hand to one you raise it to us all!
One less girl, be one less t’teach ‘em
Fix that problem, I’m a believer
Stand up tall you need to say ‘some’
Let’s start here by teaching our sons
Look at the girl she shining like this! (2x)
If you raise a hand to one you raise it to us all!
1st for women
Thank you for subscribing to and supporting my work on Substack. Some of you have become paid subscribers, and that truly helps defray some of the costs of putting out the videos and reaching new people with these messages. The kindest most wonderful thing you can do to help, … is to share my Substack post or podcasts with any other people in your life, … family members or friends who might find some of these ‘insights’ to be helpful in finding more balance in their own lives. And you can recommend it to other Substack writers or followers. I’m happy to add emails from folks who might like to get onto the email list.
Thanks again, … more to come! Bye for now, … Peter
Peter you were always so very much ahead of your time--and still are. Bless you! xoxo Helen
So great. Deep thanks, dear Peter.