Page 30 - Aruba Today

A30
PEOPLE & ARTSWednesday 13 January 2016
Bowie lauded as artist who made it OK to be different Outback pub
JOCELYN NOVECK
AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s per-
haps not so surprising that
the word “androgynous”
was spiking on the Mer-
riam-Webster online dic-
tionary after David Bowie’s
death was announced, as
people looked up a word
so commonly mentioned
in connection with the rock
star’s blazingly unique style.
But while the word aptly
describes much of Bowie’s
chameleon-like appeal,
there was another, deeper
association being men-
tioned by some in the af-
termath of Bowie’s death:
the idea that the singer
was a crucial source of
support — perhaps even
to the point of saving lives
— for youngsters uncertain
about their identity or sexu-
ality in an era when gen-
der fluidity was much less
accepted than it is today.
“David Bowie showed
this queer kid from Ba-
ton Rouge that gen-
der outlaws are cool,”
wrote singer-songwriter
Mary Gauthier on Twitter.
“Androgyny=rock&roll, not
a reason to kill myself.”
Gauthier, 53, explained
in an interview that she’d
stumbled upon Bowie’s
famous Ziggy Stardust per-
sona — the flame-haired,
body-suited, bisexual alien
rock star from his 1972 al-
bum “The Rise and Fall of
Ziggy Stardust and the Spi-
ders from Mars” — when
she was 14 or 15. “I was
clearly aware that I was a
gender outlaw,” she said.
“Being androgynous didn’t
sit well in Baton Rouge in
1974 or 1975. I hung out
with outsiders. Bowie gave
them hope, and me hope.
“I do think his work saved
thousands of gender-dif-
ferent kids,” Gauthier said.
She added: “It wasn’t a
matter of what he was
saying or arguing, it was a
matter of how he was ap-
pearing. It may have been
a show, but it was authen-
tic.”
“He showed us there was
a bigger world out there,”
Gauthier said.
While the specific words
may have been different,
similar thoughts — the idea
of Bowie making those who
felt somehow different feel
more welcome — came
from far and wide on Mon-
day, a day after Bowie
died at age 69 following a
very private 18-month bat-
tle with cancer.
One of those expressing
such thoughts was Madon-
In this September, 1995 photo, David Bowie performs in Hartford, Conn. Bowie, the innovative
and iconic singer whose illustrious career lasted five decades, died Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, after
battling cancer for 18 months. He was 69.
na, who spoke of Bowie’s
androgynous image as
easing the way for her as a
young person.
“I never felt like I fit in grow- who didn’t fit in to normal
ing up in Michigan,” the
pop star wrote on Face-
book. “Like an oddball or a
freak. I went to see him in
concert ... We got caught
after, and I was grounded
for the summer. I didn’t
care. I already had many
of his records and was so
inspired by the way he
played with gender confu-
sion. Was both masculine
and feminine. Funny and
serious. Clever and wise.”
Actress Evan Rachel Wood
wrote on Twitter that Bowie
“always made me feel less
alone in this crazy world.”
And filmmaker Guillermo
del Toro, also on Twitter,
wrote that “Bowie existed
so all of us misfits learned
that an oddity was a pre-
cious thing. He changed
the world forever.”
In Berlin, where Bowie lived
for a while in the 1970s and
recorded the three albums
known as his Berlin Trilogy,
musician Mark Reeder
spoke of how the rock star
especially loved the city
because “it was different.
Because it was full of art-
ists and full of transvestites ferent is not only OK — it is
and full of weird people
society. And I think he re-
ally enjoyed his time here,
it was really important for
him, because he could be
himself, he could find him-
self.”
As many pointed out, it
wasn’t about Bowie’s own
orientation (he gave a
couple of varying answers
early in his career when
asked whether he was bi-
sexual; the father of two
was married to wife Iman
for more than two de-
cades at his death, and
earlier to Angela Bowie)
but the sense of liberation
he gave others.
“David Bowie will always
hold a special place in
the hearts of many LGBT
people,” said Sarah Kate
toasts
Ellis, CEO and president of David Bowie, their
GLAAD, in an email mes- most famous visitor
sage. “He was a beacon
for all those who felt alien- ROD McGUIRK
ated because of their gen- Associated Press
der identity or sexual ori- CANBERRA, Australia (AP)
entation, helped many to — Drinkers at a dusty Out-
understand and accept back pub raised their beer
themselves, continually glasses Tuesday to the
pub’s most famous visitor,
David Bowie.
More than three decades
ago, the mercurial musi-
cian made the 650-kilo-
meter (400-mile) drive from
Sydney to the tiny outpost
of Carinda in parched
western New South Wales
state to shoot the video for
his 1983 hit “Let’s Dance”
at Carinda’s only pub.
The pub’s current owner,
Malcolm George, said
the town of fewer than
200 people hadn’t known
that Bowiewas coming.
And they have never been
allowed to forget the visit,
which took their rustic wa-
tering hole to a global au-
dience.
“People still come in asking,
Is this is the pub where Bow-
ie sang?” George said.
George said that only one
of the local extras who
appeared in those smoky
bar scenes still lives in the
town. But news late Mon-
day (Australian East Time)
that Bowie had died imme-
diately boosted business.
“It’s been nonstop,”
(AP Photo/Bob Child) George said.
challenged gender norms, He said that when he
and proved that being dif- bought the pub a year
ago, it was in disrepair.
something to be proud of.” Many of the brown and
Gauthier, the singer, noted green tiles had fallen from
that for her, Bowie’s key the wall that had formed a
message was about gen- blond Bowie’s backdrop as
der, not sexual orientation. he sang and strummed his
“He shattered the binary guitar. But George stripped
idea of gender — as being tiles from elsewhere in the
male or female — and he pub to restore that iconic
created that middle,” she surface.
said. “He showed us what a Marie Draper, who works
man looked like in a dress, behind the bar, said a
and it was beautiful. There week rarely goes by with-
was an inner femininity, but out a tourist gravitating to
it was masculine, too.” that wall.
And he was the essential “We do get quite a
outsider, she said; in fact, few tourists who come
he gave the impression of through,” Draper said.
coming from outer space, “They ask where the spot
so other-worldly was his is and stand in front of the
ethereal appearance. tiles and get their photos
“But he was MORE than taken.”
human,” Gauthier added, Draper has lived in Carin-
“and not less than human. da all her life, but wasn’t
That’s an important differ- around when Bow-
ence.” q ie visited.q