“One of Us?” Not As Much…On Fatboy Slim’s Queer Behavior

“The most ironic thing is that most of what we do was invented by black, gay Americans in the first place.”

– Fatboy Slim, on EDM / House Music

Fatboy Slim: Queer…or Just European?

Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) is not one to dither around or dilly-dally when it comes to sonic expansiveness and creative perception. While serving as producer, writer or DJ, Fatboy “Jack-of-All-Genres” Slim happily bounces from genre to genre to suit each new mood, project or opportunity. His range of landscapes at-play include Independent Pop, British Hip Hop and House, Big Beat and Dance music, naturally.

Born Quentin Cook, this UK underground boy gone massive came from punk rock beginnings and scruffy indie aesthetics before heading away to college in Brighton, then segueing into club and DJ culture.

Cook enjoyed a brief stint as the bassist for UK alt-pop outfit The Housemartins and experienced his first dash of fame during the band’s “Happy Hour” phase. Soon enough, Cook worked his way back to clubbing and DJ’ing, finally gaining a critical mass of attention and fans with his production and mashup skills, and eventually coming into his own with the fame and success of the hypnotic tracks “Praise You” and “The Rockafeller Skank.”

Some lads hear it more than others, but the “Is He Gay or Just European?” trope prevails in a culture where a metrosexual is a term the British media coined to describe a distinctly European look, sensibility and sexual fluidity (often but not always attached to disposable income and class). Such themes include but are not limited to: effeminate fashion, unisex/asexual presentation and (ahem) sexual experimentation or fluidity. The fact that all metrosexual men are “straight” is of course hogwash. Too–more and more, youth culture refuses to “pick a team” or define themselves by any label whatsoever.

So now, we have the news that Fatboy Slim is a regular Pride entertainer, a staunch LGBTQ advocate, and has ‘experimented with’ men sexually.

If you’d hear it from Cook himself, it’s N.B.D., but perhaps of some interest: back in 2004, Fatboy Slim told the press, “Well, everyone’s had one try-out experience, haven’t they?”

On his relationship with wife Zoe Bell, Fatboy Slim went on, “Me and Zoe have always been convinced [our son is] gay anyway.”

The fact that such goings on were mostly laughed off and minimized typifies the sexual fluidity that is our shared human experience. In less of a “bi-chic” moment and more of a “yeah, that happened” moment, Cook’s language wasn’t quite politically correct but his sentiment speaks to a nonchalance that reveals how natural and fluid sexuality is.

Is this something we can or should ignore?

Being that Fatboy Slim’s son’s still of a tender age, Cook may be keeping laser-point specifics of his son’s life private and deflecting the concept of queering personal life or relationships. However last year, Cook told Pink News UK his that supporting equal marriage is a ‘no brainer’ and revealed, “I talk about the issue with my son.”

Cook, who’s done much education and advocacy work for local young artists in his hometown, once performed at the Terrace Bar of the House of Commons to support even more community-based music initiatives for youth. By having done so, could he be, however subconsciously, helping to open the minds of UK lawmakers to queer culture, sexually fluid living and LGBTQ art and iconography?

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, are Fatboy Slim’s remarks about his own ‘sexual experimentation’ dismissive…or “normal?”

In essence, you cannot un-queer yourself, culturally or sexually. What’s definitive here is that Cook is decidedly an ally. And for the time being, the rest is none of our “B.I.-IZ-NESS.”

Have a nosh on the concept while you nod your head to Fatboy Slim’s video, “Weapon of Choice” feat. Christopher Walken.  (Yes, Hunty’s: come back and share your thoughts with us after the jump-off.)

 

 

He Said, She Said, They Sang: The Bi Pride Playlist

Bi Pride (http://gayagenda.com/first-u-s-bisexual-pride-day/) is important to think about, to embrace and to celebrate. Centrally important to the issue of Bi Pride is the need to make oneself visible in a particular way—a way that’s very hard to articulate, and a way that should be celebrated.

So many music artists are granted the leeway to be—at the very least—quietly bi, because selling sex, sexuality and even sexual ambiguity is the name of the game in the entertainment business.

Many music artists and entertainers—among them Ani DiFranco, MeShell Ndegeocello, David Bowie, Margaret Cho and countless others—have helped to write the soundtracks to our lives. Because life is ambiguous and we harbor so many secret (and not so secret!) desires, musical expression provides a pleasurable reflecting pool and point of contact for checking in with every color of our feelings.

That said, here are a few recommended tunes—a playlist created to celebrate the beauty of bisexual culture. The following songs allude to or straight up embrace bisexual culture—though being bi isn’t the same thing as being polyamorous, some of these tunes play with those dynamics and ideas, and/or gender ambiguity.

Listen up to:

Joan Jett (Orig. The Replacements) – Androgynous – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bs6QT82Tu4

Wale – Bad – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TIIu9CERgI

Common and Kanye West – Go – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCe1gC5VaW4

Ani DiFranco – Shameless – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjizt4Ixt6E

Prince: If I was Your Girlfriend – (find on iTunes)

Meshell Ndegeocello: Who Is He And What Is He to You – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giVuQ0TEi5w

Blur – Girls and Boys – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDswiT87oo8

Girlyman: Young James Dean – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue_ia7Dikq0

Cyndi Lauper: She Bop – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFq4E9XTueY

Lady Gaga: Poker Face – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESGLojNYSo

Meshell: If That’s Your Boyfriend, He Wasn’t Last Night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpdzEpGIqtY

Katy Perry: I Kissed A Girl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAp9BKosZXs

Ani DiFranco: If He Tries Anything – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRBIc6gfzLk

Blue Aeroplanes: You Are Loved – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e97y_aBS1Sg

Breaking Benjamin – Polyamrous – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fniQYGAzabU

David Bowie –  Rebel Rebel – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa6bI_95G9I

Want to hear the whole set  in one go? Click here.(http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBRcoGrPV–bdOqsfNliO5CuBuZJEHkDs)

RuPaul – Free 2 Be – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcvnwGJnq1E

Lady Gaga – Born This Way – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1FrqwZyKw

Madonna – Sanctuary – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67IUheyPQ7w

Surely this playlist is lacking that “one, next perfect song.” Got any suggestions?

Not Separate But Not Equal? Bisexuality Explained (At Least 13 Times)

Demonized, ostracized, unrecognized, and sexualized…what gives?  Though the “bi” in “bisexual” brings to mind either/or dualities, true-to-life bi experience is entirely unique.

Every year, Bi Visibility Day is observed on September 23.  (http://september23.bi.org).  Still, when it comes to bi visibility and/or invisibility, myths and misconceptions abound.

Dr. J.R. Little has identified 13 prevailing types of bisexuality.  On the face of it, these discoveries seek to classify bi experience as seen through a control group study.  At the very least, this reveals the fluidity of sexuality in general.  Predominant bisexual traits Dr. Little found are the following:

1. Alternating:  May be with a man, then after a   relationship ends, may choose a female partner for a subsequent relationship, continuing to alternate.

2. Circumstantial:  Primarily heterosexual, but will choose same sex partners only if they have no access to other-sex partners, like in gender-segregated circumstances.

3. Concurrent Relationships:  Have primary relationship with one gender only, but other casual or secondary relationships with people of another gender concurrently.

4. Conditional:  Either straight or gay/lesbian, but switches to a relationship with another gender for a specific purpose, like young straight males who prostitute with men for money or lesbians who marry men for social acceptance,  or to have children.

5. Emotional:  Have intimate emotional relationships with men and women, but only have sexual relationships with one gender.

6. Integrated:  Have more than one primary relationship at the same time, one with a man and one with a woman.

7. Exploratory:  Either straight or gay/lesbian, but have sex with another gender just to satisfy curiosity or “see what it’s like.”  (Bi-curious.)

8. Hedonistic:  Primarily straight or gay/lesbian but will sometimes have recreational sex with a different gender purely for sex.

9. Recreational:  Primarily heterosexual, but engage in gay or lesbian sex only when under the influence of substances.  (Party-sexual.)

10. Isolated:  100% straight or gay/lesbian now but has had at one or more sexual experience with another gender in the past.

11. Latent:  Completely straight or gay lesbian in behavior, but has strong desire for sex with another gender (having never acted on it).

12. Motivational:  Example – straight women who have sex with other women to please their male partner who requests it for his own arousal.

13. Transitional:  Temporarily identify as bisexual while in the process of moving from being straight to being gay or lesbian, or going from being gay or lesbian to being heterosexual.

No matter what your orientation is, sexual discovery is a process.  Whether or not you agree with Dr. Little—or bisexuality in general—if you seek to understand bisexuality, do your best to meet bi folks where they are, without trying to marginalize them or  inflict a sense of “wrongness” on them for having their own experience.

Nirvana wrote a song saying, “Everyone is gay.”  Did they get that right, or is everybody really bi?  What does bisexual consciousness mean to you?  Let us know below.

 

Bisexuality Exists

Bisexuality does exist and is celebrated throughout the world each year. Every year on September 23, Bisexuality day is observed by members of the bisexual community and their supporters.

There is a flag dedicated to bisexuality. The colors of the bisexual pride flag are pink, purple and blue which represents the community in unity. We usually only see the gay pride flag which represents all colors of the rainbow.

Bisexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward males and females. Most who call themselves bisexual like both sexes close to equally and it’s hard to give up one sex sexually.

There are many critics out there who believe bisexuality is just a phase or a way to hide their real sexuality. How do you feel about bisexuality? Does it really exist out there in your opinion?

I was bisexual for a few years and ultimately decided that I was into men more. I do believe that you can be in love with both sexes for the rest of your life. Being bisexual is tough because you have to deal with critics and your dealing with both sexes. If you are bisexual share your story in the comments below.