You seem to have misunderstood me.

The definitive answer to all questions relating to Morrissey (including the sexual one) is that there is no definitive answer, as you say. That was my point, and why the Dean reference is so typical of Morrissey's wily ways; the ambiguity is what makes his lyrics so powerful - open to interpretation, and wilful misinterpretation (as in the case of politically motivated people who try to make out he's a paedophile, or a racist, or a cripple-hater).

'Just sexual' means mind your own beeswax.

I know virtually nothing about James Dean, apart from a biographical film I saw recently, which is where I found the line. I know nothing about him, but Morrissey knows a great deal, as I'm sure you're aware.

On the Irish politics question, this apparent combination of political and personal (sexual) persecution themes would seem to follow the pattern set in 'The Queen Is Dead' and 'A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours' (Irish Nationalist slogan of the 19th C).

I am of Irish descent (North and South, protestant and catholic), and very interested in the political history of the country. Yes, I do know who Oliver Cromwell was, and I'm certainly not a fan of his.

Everything in Morrissey's songs has multiple layers of meaning. The 'hands tied' idea could refer to almost anything, but as this is a 'statement' song, a sort of manifesto, I would guess it has to have a sexual meaning, as sexual politics were covered in all his other 'statement' songs previously. ('Shoplifters Of The World Unite' refers the law passed in 1984 which made the promotion of homosexuality through popular culture a 'listed crime' - Morrissey's, or the narrator's, 'only weakness'). The parallel with Dean's quote is too striking for an obsessive fan like Morrissey to have done it by mistake, I think.

If Morrissey wanted to make an outright statement such as "I am gay", "I am straight", "I am bisexual", or anything else, he could very easily do so. He doesn't, and this is a large part of his cunning method of playing the press and the public to stay where he wants to be. (Nothing wrong with that.)

Finally, I certainly do not suffer from political correctness, the most un-Australian philosophy imaginable, ridiculed in this country, as it thoroughly deserves to be. Not wanting people to be villified, beaten and murdered - hated for loving - is hardly a modern illness, it's just basic humanity.

I was severely disabled for several years, and suffered then, and now, from the implications of PC thinking - basically a politically device, imported from America, to withdraw funding from essential services by pretending disabled, and other vulnerable, people are 'as good as anyone else', or in other words, 'they should be able to fend for themselves' (when they obviously can't). This cynical thinking applies to all the needy groups who fall under the PC umbrella, and they're paying the price for other people's gullibility/hypocrisy/good intentions.

Cheers,

~Foxy