(Guelph) The University of Guelph Central Student Association saw fit last week to apologise to the world over how they had included the 1972 Lou Reed's record “Take a Walk on the Wildside” on a playlist. It appears that without even listening to the record, they labelled it ‘Transphobic”.
What is it about these lily-white children who find fault everywhere they look? The record isn’t transphobic, but actually it is a recognition of trans people, released at a time when homosexuality across the Western world was mostly against the law. Not only that but Lou Reed at the time lived with (as in the biblical sense) a number of trans people. The lyrics for ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ were ground-breaking and risqué for the time, telling stories not usually told in rock songs up to then, and containing references to prostitution, transsexuals, and oral sex. Not only did Reed reference and recognise actual trans people into the song at a time when they were seen as deviants:
Not many people from that generation had no issues with the song, and less have for each generational iteration since then. I mean if they did, stars such as Elton John/Freddy Mercury/Divine/Boy George/Marx Almond/Barry Manilow wouldn't have done as well as they did. But hey, the latest bunch of so called adults have fake concern at how the song may have offended somebody. Gee, I wonder what 'Rachel', Lou Reed's muse at the time, thought of the song, seeing as Rachel was actually a trans person born Tommy.
Message to any infantile students who happen to come across this post: Minorities have seen more doors open for them during the last 45 years than in the thousands of years before 1972. Look in the bloody mirror, the biggest group of intolerant bigots are looking back at you.
Just what is it about today's snowflakes who can find offence everywhere they look?
What is it about these lily-white children who find fault everywhere they look? The record isn’t transphobic, but actually it is a recognition of trans people, released at a time when homosexuality across the Western world was mostly against the law. Not only that but Lou Reed at the time lived with (as in the biblical sense) a number of trans people. The lyrics for ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ were ground-breaking and risqué for the time, telling stories not usually told in rock songs up to then, and containing references to prostitution, transsexuals, and oral sex. Not only did Reed reference and recognise actual trans people into the song at a time when they were seen as deviants:
Holly" is based on Holly Woodlawn, a transgender actress who lived in Miami Beach, Florida as a child. In 1962, after being bullied by transphobes, the fifteen-year-old ran away from home; and, as in the lyrics, learned how to pluck her eyebrows while hitchhiking to New York.
"Candy" is based on Candy Darling, a transgender actress and the subject of an earlier song by Lou Reed, "Candy Says". She grew up on Long Island ("the island") and was a regular at "the back room" of Max's Kansas City.
"Little Joe" was the nickname of Joe Dallesandro, an actor who starred in Flesh, a 1968 film about a teenage hustler.
"Sugar Plum Fairy" was a reference to actor Joe Campbell, who played a character by that name in Warhol's 1965 film, My Hustler. The term was a euphemism for "drug dealer".
"Jackie" is based on Jackie Curtis, another Warhol actor. "Speeding" and "crashing" are drug references.
but he named the album it came from: Transformer (big hint, dickheads?)
Not many people from that generation had no issues with the song, and less have for each generational iteration since then. I mean if they did, stars such as Elton John/Freddy Mercury/Divine/Boy George/Marx Almond/Barry Manilow wouldn't have done as well as they did. But hey, the latest bunch of so called adults have fake concern at how the song may have offended somebody. Gee, I wonder what 'Rachel', Lou Reed's muse at the time, thought of the song, seeing as Rachel was actually a trans person born Tommy.
 |
| Rachel |
Just what is it about today's snowflakes who can find offence everywhere they look?
