Pippa has decided to add to her excellences by learning to play the saxophone, and has been sending us the fruits of her lessons via video clips. This reminded me (via our shared love of David Bowie) of the sax solo on ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, which he did not perform — that was Ronnie Ross, his own teacher — and stuck ‘Walk’ in my memory. All of which leads me to ask:
How is it that we’re currently beset by anti-trans vitriol nowadays, when back in the early 70s, AM radio stations played Lou Reed often enough that ‘Wild’ hit the Top Twenty, for heaven’s sake? Yes, Reed portrayed Holly and Candy in a demimondaine culture, but between Reed and the Kinks’ ‘Lola’ (1970! Number 2 here and #9 in the US!) trans identity occupied a prominent place in the cultural thesaurus fifty years ago. (AKMA waves his cane in the air agitatedly.) Add to these Christine Jorgensen, Myra Breckinridge, and mainstream culture was well acquainted with trans issues decades before the current wave of hysteria.
I’m no hero of the revolution — I’m a staidly cis-, hetero- guy, and I don’t get either gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction. I can’t claim to know what my dear ones are feeling, except to the extent that I am acquainted with the ineradicable sense of belonging outside the in-group and of not trusting the pillars of society to demonstrate more than superficial concern about the atypical aspects of who I am. That’s not a big deal, it’s not all, or even more than a little bit, about me. But since many people, maybe most people have experienced that chill at some point, under some circumstances, we must extend our sisters and brothers the consideration of making room for their greater, deeper, well-justified sense of the society around them expecting them to play a right-handed game with their left hand.
Hey, babes — take a walk on the wild side. (It’s not that wild, honestly.) Alright.