I have wondered this my whole life. I used to think it was a sexual innuendo, but now that I’m older, I really can’t imagine what that even references. I googled it and couldnt find a real answer.
Anybody have any ideas or context they can provide here?
Comments
Lyrics sheet for reference:
https://genius.com/Pat-benatar-hit-me-with-your-best-shot-lyrics
Guys stereotypically put notches in their bedposts to count how many girls they’ve slept with. This is presumably the female equivalent
It’s a play off of “notch in the bedpost” – i.e. recording the number of partners.
Just another notch on his belt can refer to man considering a girl just another hook up. I assume he means essentially the same.
It’s innuendo.
Ever see a dog dick? Pops out like lipstick.
Where do you keep lipstick?
She put a dick in her ‘lipstick case’.
In the Wild West days, gunslingers would carve a notch in their pistol for every man they killed. This was a score of how many confrontations they were in, where they survived undefeated.
Hit Me With Your Best Shot is a song about a guy who has a reputation for getting women to date him, but then breaking their hearts, leaving them devestated. And the person singing the song is in the midst of a tangled relationship with this notorious man.
He’s like analogous to the Wild West outlaw, who’s earned a reputation for killing lawmen.
When the singer refers to a notch in her lipstick case, she’s saying, “I will survive this confrontation undefeated.” She’s saying that she will not allow this guy to break her heart.
A bunch of other people are saying it means, “add one more man to my running tally of men I’ve hooked up with”, but that makes absolutely no sense when you consider any of the other lyrics.
She’s talking about her body count before that was a phrase that people used.
Fun story, this song was written by Eddie Schwartz, and it’s about having a pillow fight when he was younger. Pat Benatar got a hold of it and gave it that “empowering” sound, and changed some lyrics, too.
The part about notches in the lipstick case could refer to someone keeping track of how many people they’ve either beat up or slept with. In this case, I’m inclined to think it’s about how many people they’ve beat.
There’s no question what she meant by that, and there’s no question that everyone wanted to put her in her place too.
A record of her sexual conquests.
All hail The Queen!
It’s like fighter pilots that keep track of their enemy kills. This is her bodycount. It’s how many men she’s slept with. It 100% is innuendo.
Dude really. The song is pretty obvious.
I just heard tush by ZZ Top. Anyone know what they’re talking about?? I’ve listened to it 3000 times and I’m confused. Is it about global monetary policy?
Hummers
Sex
Body count
It’s about tracking sexual partners. I saw Pat in concert about 10 years ago. She refused to sing that line in the song, because her husband is in her band.
The phrase was to add a notch to your bed post for every encounter. This means add another sexual conquest to her list.
Well you’re the real tough cookie with a long history
Of breaking little hearts like the one in me
Before I put another notch in my lipstick case
You better make sure you put me in my place
It’s more innocent than a body count. That paragraph is saying that her romantic partner has a history of breaking hearts, and the notches in her lipstick case keeps track of her failed relationships.
Before I sleep with you, you will try to show me that I am less important, but go ahead and try, man because I am snot gonna get my hest broken by you.
That’s how I interpret the stanza:
Well you’re the real tough cookie with a long history
Of breaking little hearts like the one in me
Before I put another notch in my lipstick case
You better make sure you put me in my place
She put some lipstick on another dipstick?
Also see Robert Cray, Because Of Me: “But she was just another notch on my guitar”
Notch in one’s belt means an achievement. This phrase is usually used in reference to a man; however, nowadays, just about anything goes, so one may hear it used occasionally in reference to a female. Often times, the achievement tends to be selfish and/or refers to something sexual (though not necessarily).
“He does not genuinely love and care about the girl he just had sex with, to him, she is just another notch in his belt.”
“He is not in love with me; I do not want to have sex with him and be just another notch in his belt.”
“Do not have sex with him. He might care about you, but at best you two are just friends- he is not in-love with you; do you want to be just another notch in his belt?”
Basically, sexual conquest.
Notch in the bedpost means a person you’ve had sex with. Derived from the practice of tallying the number of sexual partners you’ve had by indenting your bed post. It is often used in derogatory fashion, by representing that a person is recognized solely as a past sexual achievement.
Tom: Hey, what happened with that girl…Sarah?
Kyle: Meh. She was just another notch in the bedpost.
Basically, sexual conquest.
It’s always been my assumption that a notch in the lipstick case was a feminized version of this traditionally masculine concept.
Gunslingers would put a notch on their gunbelt to indicate how many men they had killed.
Maybe someone from Denmark can speak to this, but my favorite notch story: I was in Denmark when the kids were graduating high school. all summer they were riding around at night in the back of big flatbed trucks, partying in their school uniforms, including caps. The story I was told was they put a notch in the cap for each sunrise they stay awake to see. With the goal of having the hat fall apart at the end of the summer.
As to the lipstick case, it’s sex.
Since it’s sexual, and she has to reapply lipstick, maybe she gives lots of blowjobs
Christ, now i can’t get that song out my head
I took it to be the female version of “putting another notch on the bedpost”.
Call me Captain Obvious, but that seems like a pretty bald-faced reference to nookie time.