Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory (June 23, 2017) Album • Page 16

This is phenomenal

 

I had to cite a direct quote from a book in an assignment for my summer class, and the quote came from page 745. Can you guess what song will be stuck in my head for the duration of the morning?

 

I'm late and the convo is dead now but the conversation around "male artist using female names/pronouns/whatever" can get pretty uncomfortable. I'm aware I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but I want to talk about it. So if you want to ignore what I'm about to say, just scroll past idc.



Contextually speaking, I'm a trans woman in a band otherwise comprised of cis men and our band has the world "girls" in it. Back when that article Panda Bear had linked first came out, I was not yet "presenting/passing as a woman" but was about 6 months or so into taking hormones, and it honestly felt conflicting then and it still does now. Around that same time, a cis woman mocked my band for being "a band with no women in it, yet using the world girls in our name" after we made a tweet calling someone out on their misogynistic behavior. Needless to say, I was in an incredibly vulnerable place at that time and this simultaneously infuriated me and also amplified the dysphoria I was already experiencing, and this call out tweet was supposedly done in the name of "feminism" yet ended up doing harm to a trans woman.

I guess my point is that people are constantly tripping over themselves in these scenarios and a lot of arguments used reek of certain feminist ideologies that make little to no room for trans folks. The way those bands came off in that article was indeed pretty awful, and I don't want to say they didn't deserve to be called out... it just can become problematic when you're assuming identities or intentions based on how you gender certain bodies. There are non-binary folks in this world. There are closeted trans women in this world– people you might just assume to be cis men who, for one reason or another, do not wish to disclose their trans status or feel unsafe presenting in a way that gets them read as "female" or at least "visibly trans." At one point, you likely would've assumed me to be the same.

I don't know anything about Sophie, but it seems to me that a lot of these (seemingly well-intentioned) call-outs towards "appropriation of femininity" are not entirely well-thought out. If Sophie happened to be trans and this was a way for them to feel comfortable or explore that side of themselves without explicitly disclosing or committing to a label, then things like this could cause tremendous internal issues for them (guilt, anxiety, dysphoria, etc.), and possibly make them feel pressured to come out (which is really not okay at all).

Idk, there's a lot to it, and I think that there's often a lack of nuance in these discussions. I just wanted to shed light on that and give my own personal experience on it.

/rantover

 

that moment in yeah right where Kendrick is just rapping with the beat building up and then it finally drops and he goes all in is pure bliss.

It's like lord have mercy I didn't deserve this.

 

Appreciate this - it's certainly not a rant and I know I'm not the only one on this site that will always read & take on board posts like this. I should not have been so short-sighted and ignorant with my posts the other day.

 

I always appreciate when you weigh in on stuff like this since these kinds of things directly affect you your perspective is extremely valuable, so thank you

 

Honestly, it's totally understandable and I wouldn't beat yourself up over it. Being that you're (presumably) a cis man, you pretty much have to follow the lead of oppressed voices and sometimes those voices are in opposition, or at least some kind of conflict, to one another and it can be hard to navigate it! I think a big part of the problem is that big issues for cis and trans women, while often overlapping, are sometimes very disparate. Cis women can be shitty towards trans women, and vice versa (though I'd argue that usually trans women being shitty towards cis women is a reactionary/defensive thing). Sometimes this comes from a place of misinformation, lack of understanding, and well-intentioned folks fucking up, and sometimes this comes from people who want us eradicated from the planet lol. It's important to draw a distinction there and respond accordingly, and I do my best not to respond to someone I feel falls in the former category in a manner more suited for the latter. People are learning, I get it. There's a lot to it.

 

Thank you. As Jake said, your perspective is extremely valuable and I genuinely appreciate these posts - didn't want to just click the 'like' button without letting you know that!

 

Alright I just bought tickets for that Gorillaz tour to see Vince

 

Only song I'm not really high on here is SAMO. Everything else is so damn good though.

 

interesting song choice to perform, but I dig

 

yessssssssssssssssss so happy he knows of this

 

I love Big Quint so much.

 

Indeed.

 

big quint reaction to yeah right is basically me everytime I hear it

 

i want to smack that caterpillar off of fallon's fucking face

 

Kilo Kish is my favourite.

 

how's her solo stuff?

 

I am listening to this album rn in case anyone was curious!

 

sooooooo whatcha think?

 

My is well documented in this thread, I was just making everyone aware I was listening at that moment

 

oh whoops! you got gorillaz tix 4 vince. make sure to bring your sprite

 

It's really good. Reflections in Real Time was one of my favourite albums of last year. She's an incredibly unique artist.

 

I'm gonna have to check it out!