Step 10: Break The Mold

As you might have heard, Prince passed away yesterday.

Farewell, my sweet... uh... well, you know.

I'm not going to claim to be the biggest Prince fan out there. I don't even know all the lyrics to "Purple Rain", which is, like, the anthem of the 80's. In fact, I'm more familiar with the pop culture references surrounding him than the man himself.

Want some pancakes?

But, as with most people who haven't been living under a rock since The Beatles broke up, Prince has had a subtle influence on me in a very specific way. Another artist that we lost this year had a particular sway over me in much the same way.

You've probably never heard of him.

I've been a David Bowie fan since his turn as the Goblin King in the Jim Henson film Labyrinth.  I'm not sure if a three-year-old can have a sexual awakening, but I knew as soon as I laid eyes on the Thin White Duke's barely-veiled, uh... lil' Ziggy, I would be forever enamored by the shapeshifting chameleon once know as Aladdin Sane.

[HEAVING BREATHING]

I went on to become an avid follower of Bowie's music--Life On Mars? is a personal favorite--but, truth be told, it was his stage personas that attracted me even more than his musical prowess. Like Prince, he was a master at pushing the boundaries of sexuality and gender, which is something that has held a curious appeal to me for as long as I could remember.

I have yet to meet anyone who makes a pink boa and pearls look this fabulous.

Gender is a funny thing. I personally identify as cisgender, but I've always been captivated by men who weren't afraid to explore their feminine side. Whereas other people might be repulsed by a man in a dress, I find it intriguing--provocative, even. Not that I fetishize trans or gender-nonconforming individuals, but at the same time, I'm drawn to the idea of questioning what it means to be a man or a woman. Neither Prince nor Bowie gave any fucks as to what others thought when they shattered the image of conventional masculinity; in their minds, rules were made to be broken.

Exhibit A.

Nowadays, with questions surrounding gender being a part of modern dialogue, one could argue that the gender-bending trope is so last year, an old idea scarcely worth mentioning. Most people with atypical gender identities don't want to be solely defined by how they present themselves, and see it as little more than a footnote in their overall lives. Still, we wouldn't even be having this (non)conversation if people like Prince and David Bowie hadn't been pioneers in breaking down the walls of traditional gender roles like the goddamned Kool-Aid man riding in on a glitter-encrusted unicorn. For that, I applaud them both.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today 2 get through this thing called '2016'.