[Image: Deana Carter, circa 1995]

A bit of urban folklore which I sort of remember (and sort of don’t) from years ago, regarding a difference between the sexes: Boys roll; girls fold. The rolling-and-folding in question was (supposedly) of paper programs for events like football games, concerts, and church services. (I may have mixed up the verbs and subjects — I can see it either way — but I think I’ve got it right.) Whether or not the folklore is true is almost beside the point: it’s so simply expressed, and it’s such a… such an interesting — outright weird — idea, that we instinctively feel it should be true.

Another such formulation I’ve heard has probably a bit more common experience behind it, and it’s certainly got the popular-songwriter vote sewn up: Guys use love to get sex; women use sex to get love. Because, y’know, guys are lying heels and women are shameless vamps; as soon as either side gets what they want, they show their true colors.

Accounts (often weepy) of evidence for that general truism — and the sense of betrayal which follows — may litter the pop-music landscape. But I can’t think of another song* with a premise quite like today’s Midweek Music Break selection, the title track from Deana Carter‘s debut album; it sings not of heartbreak, but of annoyance at a partner far too boneheaded to know the rules of the game, let alone to play along:

[Lyrics]

I’m definitely not a fan of the video for the song; if I’d seen it before hearing the song, you’d probably never be reading this post. From all evidence, Deana Carter is a very good-looking woman, with something of Naomi Watts about her. But in that video, she shines not at all as an actress. She’s dressed and made up — and acts — way too cutesy (almost winking), as though we need her help to get the joke. (And if we still don’t get it, at least we’ll think she’s adorable.) At any rate, she treats the role that way right up until the closing shot. Finally, in that moment, she seems to become the narrator, at last capturing a genuine sense of disbelief in her own naivete (and yes, the guy’s ignorance).

The song does make me wonder about the counterpart from a male point of view… Maybe just, “I said that I loved you, for this?”

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* Nominees gratefully received, though!