Aand We're back!

Hoping your year has been kind, and your Holiday season lovely & bright 💝

Here is a video of me loosely discussing my take-aways from this big ol' book. Overall I'm glad I read it & learned a lot, but also I have mixed feelings on how the information was presented.

And the title itself, I feel like after having read this book, I'm not so much given a picture of how "David Bowie made [Bullock or anyone] gay", so it does feel like an absolute attention grab. It worked for that purpose, but I'm still left with this feeling of "ok, so... what?" It feels like a sideways nod to the academic essay How to Bring Your Kids Up Gay.

One crucial video note I forgot to clearly mention -- The author, Darryl W. Bullock, does appear to be a gay man himself, as the title would indicate. This is certainly an important note to consider in my ramble about his perspective regarding political leanings & experiences. With this we take into account, that yes, he is included in the LGBT umbrella! However, I also consider the complexity of [queer] groups regarding individual experiences, and how some groups work together or impose exclusion/limitations, intentional or not. I've known [gay] folks who are oddly defensive or competitve about their identity, or who have difficulty respecting pronouns of enby & trans folks. So, I'm just a little wary that a (seemingly) gay cis-man is handling deadnames & pronouns in a way that does not appear to have much method or tact. Folks in any group are not a monolith; one minority does not necessarily or inherently have knowledge & sensitivity towards another.

After editing I also realise I left out the name of the particular trans-woman composer who worked on Star Wars (among other things) -- Angela Morley.

And lastly -- He does end the book on a note & quote where Tom Robinson remarks that it's "marvellous that people can just make music & it's kind of incidental what their sexuality is... I'd like to live in a world where we don't have to have a label" (Bullock, p327). I think there is something to be said of the usefulness of labels in the society in which we live, but absolutely believe that oughtn't impose limitations or assumptions upon any individual. I do appreciate the spirit of that. 💜