“Rebel rebel, your mom’s in a whirl, she’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl.”
Androgyny is fascinating, it’s been here forever but it stays so taboo. It’s been “in” for every decade since the ’70’s, where pioneers like David Bowie and the New York Dolls helped push it into popular culture, yet it’s never fully “in,” because genderbend isn’t ever fully “in.”
Rock and rollers have done a lot for androgyny, from Bowie and Grace Jones to the guyliner-wearing rockers of today. For our androgyny edition, here’s an excerpt from an interview with Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz, followed by a classic quote from an interview with Gregg Alexander from The New Radicals.
Pete Wentz, being featured in the Advocate’s “Big Gay Following” section:
The Advocate: You made a lot of gay fans happy when you admitted that you’d kissed boys because “anything above the waist is fair game.”
Pete: [Laughs] I actually mean it. That’s just kind of how I am. I’m a little bit of a make-out bandit. I don’t discriminate too much.
The Advocate: What’s the closest you’ve ever come to taking the boy-on-boy action to the next level?
Pete: I haven’t really gotten that close, ’cause honestly, I’m not a real big fan of penises. Like my own, whenever I look at it, I just don’t find anything attractive about it. I can’t believe girls are into it.
The Advocate: You’ve also said that people who aren’t fans of yours will sometimes call you an antigay slur. Why is that?
Pete: I don’t know. I thin it’s a real cheap, easy word. At some point when we were doing this band I was like, “You know what? I’m going to be the most androgynous person that I can possibly be. I’m going to wear girl pants and makeup.” I looked to David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and people like that, and I was like, “That’s what’s missing in all the bands that we’re playing with right now! You need this effeminate edge.” Did Mick Jagger and David Bowie make out? Probably. Who knows? I think sexuality is a lot more ambiguous and more blurred than people make it out to be.” [Emphasis ours]
Rock on, Petey!
Here’s the quote I promised you from The New Radical’s Gregg Alexander :
“‘I’ve tried most drugs, most positions under the guise of most religions, with most genders, on most continents … but I’ve always come back to one thing: life and love.”
And there you have it folks! More on androgyny soon, but let’s leave you with a metrosexual quote from hobbit / Lost star Dominic Monaghan.
“I wear make-up and I paint my nails. I wear high heels. This is all true. I like wearing skirts. I should probably be gay but I like women too much. I am kind of metrosexual in the sense that, if I do get lost, I do ask for directions. I pull over to gas stations and ask. So I don’t know. I guess guys have a lot of pride.”
