I love how Kate Bush songs constantly reveal new layers, even if you've listened to them many times. I had thoughts about maturation+gender in "The Fog" while listening to it on my walk to work that'd never occurred to me in the many times I'd heard it before so here they are-

The Fog is about the scariness of being in love, especially relating to losing that person (through letting them go), which KB compares to the feeling of being released/let go of by her father into water to learn to swim. As a child she learned to grow comfortable w/discomfort...

+eventually learn to swim in the "deep and dark" water, and now has to grow comfortable with the discomfort relationships present, esp that they might not last and how love overpowers her (like in Hounds of Love) the way drowning would if she can't navigate water/relationship.

I'm fascinated by how this song about growing up starts with the image (+sound) of KB being let go of by her father's hands, and now she's trying to be-and stay-held by another man. This reflects how for women, maturation is seen as going from father to husband's possession...

For women who aren't het this is problematic bc if you don't transfer from father to male lover, in the eyes of society you thus haven't "succeeded" as an adult woman. But either way, society tells us to run from the familial embrace to another's arms+have partnership as endgoal

If we “slip into the fog”+end up alone, what happens? Do you drown, or can you float without the father/lover’s presence behind you, ready to rescue you if you can’t swim?

I see “The Fog”’s theme as the importance of feeling held/finding someone who feels like home to us (per MIDSOMMAR) over the course of the lifespan to avoid the scariness of the deep dark water or the fog. From father to lover, we are released and aim to be held again.