shot of gender talk with a Broadway mixer
Last night λ and I were at Broadway Backwards 6. Once a year, in support of a local youth LGBT center, Broadway Cares brings together a concert -- increasingly star-studded as each year goes by -- in which women sing songs traditionally song by men and men sing songs traditionally sung by women, not changing most of the pronouns (usually, although
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This night sounds AMAZING.
I also agree with you on so many of the things you said, and it's funny that this comes up here because I spent a lot of yesterday discussing a lot of things such as the movie The Kids Are All Right, my feelings on bisexuality and how it's perceived (which has to do with, of course, gender and privilege and why can't experimentation just be experimentation, EITHER WAY, with whomever, in a perfect world where there isn't an assumed norm, blah blah blah blah blah), and "looking gay," and why I want my queer characters to look or not look a certain way, and the awesomeness of minority characters having plots that aren't about Being A Minority, and queer lit and film and how I wish it weren't so often so depressing, because I know those are stories, but why are they the only stories we tell, etc., etc., (although this is changing, as the world changes, hooray) and I LOVE what you said about gender binary, because, yes, me, too, so much, and I'm sometimes reflexively heteronormative in my head, too (although I think I actually feel a little better about that now that you mention, gender discrepancies do exist within gay couples even if sex does not! which is obviously not to say that someone is a guy/girl, OBVIOUSLY, but there are dynamics that we associate, although, ugh, I wish there weren't dynamics that we associated, even though, personally, I happen to play into them fairly well), and then I get so upset because I don't want to be this way but it happens. (I should clarify, I by no means am one of those idiot jackasses who's like, "So who's the dude/girl?" and it's not necessarily appearance-based and there are real-life and ficitional couples where it doesn't apply, period; but sometimes it does and I think it.)
I know a lot of the songs you're talking about, obviously, and I'm fascinated by all of what you've mentioned but especially Summer Lovin', just for funsies, On The Street Where You Live, which I always hated because it was actually sung by a somewhat annoying (but very bright, and very nice to me) boy who happened to be gay and was very bad at "playing straight" (which is another issue to tackle, what playing straight means, but it's...in the case, it had a lot to do with his not being a very good actor and no one ever being able to remove him from himself, blah blah blah never mind not the point right now) and I don't like the original character and blah, blah, what an annoying song!!!!!! and it sounds so fascinating the way it was framed here. And Stars and the Moon, which I actually do like, but I don't think I ever thought about it in as strictly gender role/privilege/finance-related ways as you. (I don't know your background; but I wonder if it may have to do with the environment I grew up in; and possibly being younger, too.) But oh, wonderful.
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