Reply #19: A hypothesis I've had for some time: gender ambiguity

[Oeditpus Rex]

I think your three points are quite valid, as are others in this thread, especially those that address their sheer talent. But since the '80s, I've pondered such elements as long hair, make-up and high notes and other aspects considered "feminine" in stereotype. The Beatles were the first with the hair, and they shook it, "girlishly," as they hit the high notes on such passages as "...and you know you should be glad — wooooo."

I have to wonder if that didn't have a large, esoteric appeal to their predominant audience of teenage girls, who (so we're told) already have some confusion about their sexual identity. Same with Journey; Steve Perry had hair almost to his tuchus and stuck the high notes, as did bands like Poison, all the time singing about love and (covertly or overtly) sex.



Or maybe it's just that Freud's stuck in my head, bangin' his cup on the bars and making me think these weird things. :shrug: