Back in the 1980s, Prince was everything: the cool brother with perfect hair, arched eyebrows, modish threads, and an exquisite female companion on his arm. He also made some of the most eclectic music of the era. Having debuted in 1978 with the For You album, back when he still dressed in regular off-the-rack fashions from the men’s department while sporting an amazing Afro, Prince was a cute pin-up boy whose handsome looks fit perfect with the other teen idols (Switch, The Jacksons) in the pages of Right On!

Although For You was a commercial failure, the following year, after setting off the disco dance floors and Black radio with “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” the first single from his self-titled second album in 1979, the Minneapolis native began establishing himself in the ears and eyes of Planet Pop as an artist ready to rebel against the status quo of music, fashion, and sexuality. While the album’s back cover showed a nude Prince riding on the back of a Pegasus, the soft photo projecting a storybook sweetness captured the wild boy he’d unleash a year later.

Prince’s third album Dirty Mind (1980) was a coming-out album in terms of sound, style, and sexuality with him testing us from the moment we gazed at the stunning black and white album cover shot by Allen Beaulieu. Posed in black bikini briefs, trench coat and bandana tied around his neck, he stared defiantly as though daring you to question him; flipping the cover, we saw Prince laying on the couch in thigh-high stockings looking both sinfully seductive and homoerotic as a Robert Mapplethorpe subject. Is he waiting for a woman or a man? “What difference does it make as long as the music is good,” the picture replied. After the release of Dirty Mind and his rise as a musical innovator, Prince’s constantly changing look foretold and inspired an androgyny movement in Black music in the ‘80s. https://www.design-divers...-and-links

[Edited 4/18/21 14:56pm]

Yeah ... no. I'm not giving you a click.

jfenster said:

This is some gay writer?? Quoting his lyrics to IWD4U implying its some androgenous reference is ignorant. They r not gonna make him a gay icon.

Androgyny is the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics into an ambiguous form. It has nothing to do with being gay or and this essay has nothing to do with turning Prince into a gay icon. Don't be afraid.

this just made me remember that whole "AndrogyNINE" mess

Prince and "androgyny" is like Prince and "musician".

It was part of his toolkit.

Dude even combined the male female symbol in the Purple Rain artwork.

I remember some critic joking that in the When Doves Cry video when he and Appolonia were making out horizontally, he didn't know who was who for a second.

But many 70's rockstars onward used androgyny (Bowie)... and then in the 80's it went hyper.

I was listening to the Bruce Springsteen & Barrack Obama podcast “Renegades: Born in the USA” and they started to gon into their music heroes, and also views on cultural appropriation....

And Springsteen mentioned that back in the day of Elvis being on the Ed Sullivan show... Elvis was considered androgynous... he wore eye makeup, dyed his hair, and wiggled his hips and moved like a female "stripper" according to the macho contingent at the time.

And of course you can go back to Little Richard's image.

It's hard to really now why Prince 'flirted' with a gay/androgynous look in the early part of his career - from what we know of his early life he was very much brought up as a straight blackman in a religious environment. He was also bullied for looking 'cute', so making a conscious decision to add that to the 'armory' in his early career was definitley a choice he made and wanted to do. For what reason I don't know - My personal view is that it was a combination of a 'mask' or character that he could become to allow his sexual/edgy side to emerge and also a gimmick of sorts to attract attention. He gradually tuned down the visual/sexual imagery (as well as lyrics), as he grew older and wanted to present a more mature/straight image as his religious beliefs became stronger. So bottom line it was a role he was playing much like Bowie had done.

Dandroppedadime said:

It's hard to really now why Prince 'flirted' with a gay/androgynous look in the early part of his career - from what we know of his early life he was very much brought up as a straight blackman in a religious environment. He was also bullied for looking 'cute', so making a conscious decision to add that to the 'armory' in his early career was definitley a choice he made and wanted to do. For what reason I don't know - My personal view is that it was a combination of a 'mask' or character that he could become to allow his sexual/edgy side to emerge and also a gimmick of sorts to attract attention. He gradually tuned down the visual/sexual imagery (as well as lyrics), as he grew older and wanted to present a more mature/straight image as his religious beliefs became stronger. So bottom line it was a role he was playing much like Bowie had done.

I feel that he used androgyny any time he put on dramatic eyeliner, which was also late in his career as well. Androgny was part of being a pop/rock star when he was coming up. Androgyny was cool, and in fashion for men in the 80's, and Prince kept at it through his entire career, although he did try dropping it on his face a bit early in the Lovesexy promotion (no eyeliner, and he let his brows grow) and then at the end when he seemed to be going more natural.

But lyrically he also seemed to blend in a female perspective in his songs too.

Androgynous:

Masculine style (in the face not the hair!)


Androgynous style:

That's a great article. I remember it exactly that way. Also, scrolling down the page, it looks like there are some other good articles I'm gonna have to come back to and read later such as the ones on the early Chicago house music scene, the Detroit club music scene and the TV show with Nat Morris, and the New York DJs from Stonewall to the Paradise Garage.

vainandy said:

That's a great article. I remember it exactly that way. Also, scrolling down the page, it looks like there are some other good articles I'm gonna have to come back to and read later such as the ones on the early Chicago house music scene, the Detroit club music scene and the TV show with Nat Morris, and the New York DJs from Stonewall to the Paradise Garage.

Interesting article but is it true? Was Bowie really "one of Prince’s musical and style heroes"? Never heard about Prince saying anything about Bowie other than that brief comment at one of his last concerts about Bowie once being nice to him... And Prince used to read about the Blitz kids in The Face (!) Really?! Again, where's that ever been reported before...

Prince's androgyny made him more affirmingly heterosexual in my opinion. In the sense that, he seemed very confident and secure in expressing his sexuality. Many of the opposite sex found this highly attractive, and maybe some of the same sex too.

It wasn't just aesthetic either, inwardly Prince appeared able to express aspects of himself by occasionally becoming fluid in his performance and music, thus the androgyny.

The questions remains for me: Do women and men both innately hold corresponding masculine and feminine aspects? And if so, can they naturally be expressed without challenging codified biologically (societally?) enforced norms that define male and female?

Might get Jungian up in here

Robbajobba said:

vainandy said:

That's a great article. I remember it exactly that way. Also, scrolling down the page, it looks like there are some other good articles I'm gonna have to come back to and read later such as the ones on the early Chicago house music scene, the Detroit club music scene and the TV show with Nat Morris, and the New York DJs from Stonewall to the Paradise Garage.

Interesting article but is it true? Was Bowie really "one of Prince’s musical and style heroes"? Never heard about Prince saying anything about Bowie other than that brief comment at one of his last concerts about Bowie once being nice to him... And Prince used to read about the Blitz kids in The Face (!) Really?! Again, where's that ever been reported before...

I was referring to the decriptions of the outfits on the early album covers and early television performances along with Prince's attitude and the reactions from some of the males at the time. Also, the "Right On" magazine references because that was THE magazine for black music back in the day. As for the British references such as Adam Ant, I never paid much attention to that back then because I didn't pay a lot of attention to rock until the 2000s but I do recall a recent interview with Andre Cymone mentioning it. I personally, always detected a little Sylvester influence in Prince and I recall Susan Rogers saying that Prince used to listen to Sylvester all the time.

mikemike13 said:

jfenster said:

mikemike13 said:

Androgyny is the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics into an ambiguous form. It has nothing to do with being gay or and this essay has nothing to do with turning Prince into a gay icon. Don't be afraid.

IWD4U is about the spirit...nothing else

The spirit is androgenous, right?

ufoclub said:

jfenster said:

ufoclub said:

The spirit is androgenous, right?

No its not human [Edited 4/20/21 7:22am]

So it's alien?

Dandroppedadime said: