David Bowie. Prince. George Michael. All gone in 2016.
Completely aside from their musical contributions, I don’t think it’s possible to overestimate the impact all three of them had on society’s definition of what it means to be male. Especially for those of us who grew up with very traditional, narrowly-defined representations of masculinity as the only available role models. ESPECIALLY for those of us who group up with normalized homophobia as the norm, and struggled to understand anyone who would voluntarily choose to live outside those narrow lines.
We eventually learned. Some of us took longer than we should have.
It doesn’t matter what point on the sexuality/gender spectrum you represent: the world is a little more accepting of you and how you choose to present yourself today thanks in part to these three artists.
“And I guess it was enough for me
To win the race, a prettier face
Brand new clothes and a big fat place
On your rock and roll TV
But today the way I play the game is not the same, no way
Think I’m gonna get me some happy”
Get you some happy, love who you are, love who you love, let the world know, shout it loud and proud. Let’s mourn that George Michael has passed away, but let’s jam in our “Listen Without Prejudice” cassettes, line up “Freedom! 90”, crank up the fucking stereo and dance our thanks that he was here in the first place.
Like a blog, but for humans 