The conversations around sexuality and gender were indeed very different then. In some ways, you were a pioneer in, for lack of a better term, “gender fluidity”.
“The phrase didn’t exist then, but it was what I was aiming for with some aspects of my image and statements I made. I famously described myself as a bisexual man who had never had a homosexual experience. It was very clunky – I was trying not to position myself anywhere sexually, but ended up being put into this entire “bisexual” camp. The whole point of it was to avoid these categories altogether. I had misunderstood the way the media works – there are no subtleties, and you can’t speak with nuance.
A sense of sexual fluidity was definitely something I was trying to capture and, retrospectively, it does feel like our message then is incredibly current. I’m quite proud of that, especially if you look at the context: the ’90s were very misogynistic, with lad magazines like Loaded. Yet we were in the middle of it all talking about gender fluidity. It’s like what I said earlier about deliberately avoiding the zeitgeist. We were determined not to join in, and I’m so proud that we didn’t.” -Brett Anderson
WE ARE A BOY
WE ARE A GIRL
Brett Anderson: The heart and driving force of Britpop band Suede (Part II)
In the second part of our interview with Suede's lead singer Brett Anderson, he talks about the band's future and how his career impacted him personally.www.augustman.com
gender fluidity used to be so much more interesting and when all the most uninteresting and unappealing people in the world werent doing it it. when it was actually the domain of the interesting, the outre, and the outrageously sexy, when it represented a transgression against the norm. becoming mainstream ruined it.
gender fluidity used to be so much more interesting and when all the most uninteresting and unappealing people in the world werent doing it it. when it was actually the domain of the interesting, the outre, and the outrageously sexy, when it represented a transgression against the norm. becoming mainstream ruined it.
VIOLET. Have you chosen a topic for your paper?
FRED. "The Decline of Decadence."
VIOLET. You think decadence has declined?
FRED. Definitely. Big time. Major, major decline.
VIOLET. How?
FRED. "How" or "in what ways"?
VIOLET. Either.
FRED. Okay, take the flit movement in literature, or homosexuality—
VIOLET. What?
FRED. Homosexuality. It's gone completely downhill. Right down the tubes. Before, homosexuality was something refined, hidden, sublimated, aspiring to the highest forms of expression and often achieving them. Now it just seems to be a lot of muscle-bound morons running around in T-shirts. It's pretty disillusioning.
VIOLET. Are you gay?
FRED. Not especially, but in another era it would have had more appeal. Now, I just don't see the point.
oh my god, so true!!! im with fred!!!!This reminds me of that Whit Stillman movie, Damsels in Distress. I tend not to like his movies, but he does write some good dialogue.
I only listened to two songs, the one about Brett's mother and can't remember the other. I do not have an opinion yet, except I don't like the song about his mother. The entire album was on youtube earlier, can't find it now, I was going to listen over the weekend. I agree it's Suede by numbers, they seem to be formulaic in their writing. My husband is the major Suede fan here and he doesn't really like anything after the first 2 albums, did not like the new songs.So, what do you guys think about the three songs released from the new album??
I'm extremely disappointed! The songs are fairly basic Suede-by-numbers and they re-use all the familiar (woohoo) clichés,...but the worst thing is the attempt to go back to basics with a more direct rock approach that just makes them sound like old men trying too hard...
Night Thoughts and The Blue Hour were both fantastic late career masterpieces... which makes this even more disappointing...
D