Colloquium - Presenters
Queer Icon, Poseur, or Both? A Comparative Analysis from Ziggy’s birth to David’s Death
Chris Vrijenhoek
ABSTRACT
David Bowie’s androgyny and subversive performance styles make him a highly relevant figure in the studies of gender and sexuality. A still relatively young field of study, academics had merely scratched its surface at the time of Bowie’s breakthrough in terms of (Western) societal significance and impact. This presentation is based on a literature review examining a selection of both popular and academic sources from the 1970s and 1980s as well as those from roughly the 2010s and 2020s. Methodologically, a comparison has been made between Bowie’s reception in a time of relative gender-and-sexuality-illiteracy to a time in which we can analyze the past through a lens of newly acquired insights as well as explore half a century of aftermath. Through topics such as authenticity and gender normativity, I have explored how Bowie may have influenced societal norms and values in terms of gender and sexuality, individual experiences of fans and other performers, as well as the art of performance as a whole. For this, I have made use of concepts such as Judith Butler’s gender performativity (Butler 1999) and influential historical notions of sexuality such as Freud’s interpretation of inversion (Freud 1905). The main aim and relevance of this research is to gain insight into the potential societal impact of pop stars, particularly in times of major change. Additionally, it considers the ways in which commerciality might play an exploitative role, especially as it concerns the LGBTQ community.
KEYWORDS
Pop music, LGBTQ, queer, Bowie, gender, authenticity
BIO
​Chris is a musician and educator originally from The Netherlands, now based in Toronto. Aside from holding a BA in Musicology from the University of Amsterdam, they spent two semesters at UofT Jazz studying Voice as part of a Global Exchange Program. They are currently pursuing an MA in Music at York U, with research focusing on queerbaiting and queer identities in pop music, as well as teaching voice, piano, and guitar, and volunteering with the Toronto Wildlife Centre.