by Christie D’Zurilla • April 22, 2022 • Los Angeles Times

Janelle Monáe’s gender-identity journey is continuing, with the queer multitalented artist coming out publicly this week as nonbinary. And what are Monáe’s pronouns, you might ask?

“My pronouns are free-ass motherf— and they/them, her/she,” the performer and newly minted author told The Times in a feature published Thursday ahead of her appearance at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Earlier in the week, on Facebook’s “Red Table Talk,” the “Pynk” singer declared it a spiritual thing, saying, “I’m nonbinary, so I just don’t see myself as a woman ... solely. I feel like God is so much bigger than the he or the she. And if I am from God, I am everything.”

At the Festival of Books on Saturday, Monáe will speak about “The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer,” which dropped Tuesday.

The style maven said she wrote the book to further explore themes introduced on “Dirty Computer,” an album released after Monáe identified as pansexual. The book is a five-story science-fiction collection that addresses queer themes, and each story is co-written with a different collaborating author.

“We wanted that to be clear we were celebrating queerness, celebrating being trans and nonbinary,” the “Hidden Figures” star told The Times. “We wanted to make sure we spoke about how beautiful it is to be able to embrace the spectrum of gender. And how beautiful it is for people to stand up for you even if they don’t identify the same way as you. “

Still, Monáe is holding firm on one personal stance: “I will always, always stand with women. I will always stand with Black women,” the “free-ass m—" said on “Red Table Talk.”

“But I just see everything that I am beyond the binary. When I see people, I see your energy first — I don’t see how you identify — and I feel like that opens you up to fall in love with any beautiful spirit.”

Tickets are still available — with or without a copy of “The Memory Librarian” included — for Monáe’s Ideas Exchange appearance at this weekend’s festival. L.A. Times columnist Erika D. Smith will join Monáe in conversation, starting at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at USC’s Bovard Auditorium.

Me too. On Red Table Talk, one of her statements resonated (and it's in the article):

"I feel like God is so much bigger than the he or the she. And if I am from God, I am everything.”

onlyforaminute said:

I might get the book. The possibility of being one note is worrisome but who knows she is quite creative maybe the topics are layered.

Yeah, I wondered that. I always wondered if she was going to do more with Cindy Mayweather. It always felt like a book waiting to happen.

Ol' girl blocked me on Twitter years ago for suggestion she could be at least bi-sexual. Clearly, she didn't like that, but here she is now waving her pansexual non-binary flags. Sorta feels like I'm due an apology or something.

Edit: Monae explores the ideas of people being computers and being cleared of their memory, yet we've heard this narrative before. Where?

"Computer Blue." Prince talked about being "blue" because he's wondering "where is my love life? Where can it be? There must be something wrong with the machinery," which is a reference to his inner self, his soul and mind. How do we know that?

Because no one is internet dating in 1984. It's a song of self-doubt and insecurity (which is also one of the rooms in the hallway speech). He says in the song:

Poor lonely computer

it's time someone programmed you

it's time you learned love and lust

they both have four letters

but are entirely different words

The female voice is almost an overseer, a godhead; someone in control. She sees the computer - aka the narrator's - flaws and sees the obvious remedy. Reprogramming. The computer - aka Prince, a human - is searching in his soul (love) and mind (lust) for the problem.

In Monae's narrative, people are referred to as computers, and their memories are wiped clean (aka reprogrammed) to reflect what the government believes how people should think and act.

Both narratives related to Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four, where Big Brother uses Newspeak to control through via language, and directly control thought through doublespeak. (War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Slavery is Freedom.)

Both songs/albums/projects happened in a timely manner. Prince's was released in 1984, the year of Orwell's novel, where he foresaw a dystopian totalitarian government.

Monae's narrative was written in the age of the internet and people being more free to explore the world through the interwebz. Yet the government comes in with things like the NSA and other listening devices and hacking methods to monitor citizens. We saw manipulation tactics in the campaign where one of his workers directly targeted street blocks or neighborhoods with ads. They, in general as most politicians try to do, controlled thought by language and suggestion.

So, whether Monae's characters over the years was directly inspired by "Computer Blue" or not remains to be seen. I'd say it's a 70/30 chance, 70 being she didn't directly pull from Prince's song. But both certainly had the same thoughts about government and crowd control.

I'm sorta suprised Monae never covered "Computer Blue" on any of her Arch-Android records.

[Edited 4/24/22 14:36pm]

"FREE-ASS MOTHERFUCKER"

nice rep for the movement

i liked Janelle more as a musical artist.

Its really no different than Elton John back in the day putting out that he was bi-sexual, though back then it lost you certain things, even fans, now its more celebrated because it is more accepted in life. Which is why I constantly say people need to GET OVER this whole going back and trying to impose their views now, on those times and try to cancel the past, sorry but proving that you are "morally" better now by pointing out the past is just ignorant. Theres a lot that was accepted in the past that isnt now and vice versa its called evolving and changing views. I was reading this article the other day how someone was saying the actor who played "Fred Mertz" on I love Lucy made a lot of racial comments back then and we should cancel the lucy show from being seen now, and I'm like I am going to guess that most of the population then made racial comments because it was in the narrative then it was the 1920's and 30's, women were still not allowed to do certian things, can we just move on. But one thing I will say for the celebs of today, try to avoid social media with your life as much as you can IF you have a thin skin, because social media is the cancer of our society, it has a few benefits but MOST of its torn this society and divided us and also allowed anyone to say what they want true or false from behind their screen.

nayroo2002 said:

i liked Janelle more as a musical artist.

Better as a scripted Cover Girl model. I don't buy anything this chick sells.

That's ironic about "Fred Mertz". I saw a you tube video yesterday about all of those actors from back then who were very racist, homophobic, alcoholics and sexist and got away with it (Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Walt Disney). Yet, "It's A Wonderful Life" is still aired every year around the holidays. ..That was the unfortunate narrative back then as stated before..Mel Gibson seemed to trickle up some of that old time mentatlity too.

SPYZFAN1 said:

That's ironic about "Fred Mertz". I saw a you tube video yesterday about all of those actors from back then who were very racist, homophobic, alcoholics and sexist and got away with it (Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Walt Disney). Yet, "It's A Wonderful Life" is still aired every year around the holidays. ..That was the unfortunate narrative back then as stated before..Mel Gibson seemed to trickle up some of that old time mentatlity too.

but that's the whole idea of cancel culture and today people trying to be moral police for a century ago, society is really painting itself into a bad place with this stuff, live in the now. No one watching I love Lucy is being effected because Fred Mertz May have had racist comments then. I mean shows then thought women should stay in the kitchen cook clean etc...so we evolve thinking to today where women are bosses and this and that, we don't look back and apply today to then you can't, and this kind of thinking is half the reason the USA is where it's at.

SolaceAHA said:

but that's the whole idea of cancel culture and today people trying to be moral police for a century ago,

Cancel culture isn't really new, it's just social media and the internet made it more widespread & mainstream. Back in the 1950s the NAACP got the sitcom Amos n Andy taken off the air. Then in the late 1960s Bill Cosby was one of the people behind getting the reruns from being shown in syndication. I don't think its been shown since, at least not on any official channels, maybe on public access or something. CBS still has the original footage, but won't do anything with it although the show has long been sold as bootleg VHS/DVD which is how some episodes are on Youtube. But the bootlegs have poor video quality. Disney edited out the Sunflower scenes from Fantasia back in the 1960s and they have never been on any of the re-releases in theaters or the home video versions. Its the same with old Warner Brothers cartoons.

It was common for movie theaters & TV stations in the southern USA to edit out black actors in movies or not show the TV program starring non-whites on their local channels. That's why programs like The Nat King Cole Show didn't last long, they couldn't get sponsors. Parents of 1950s (white) teenagers tried to get rid of Elvis Presley and rock n roll in general. Some white preachers also spoke against rock n roll. They thought Elvis music & dancing was vulgar and they called him an n-lover. That's when he was started to be shown from the waist up on TV. They accused rock n roll music of promoting juvenile delinquency. Same with the long haired Beatles in the 1960s. People burned Beatles stuff and their plane was shot at in Texas because of John's Jesus Christ comment, which was taken out of context. Then there's the rock music fans in the 1970s with the disco demolition and "disco sucks" bumper stickers/T-shirts. In the 1980s there was Tipper Gore with the parental advisory stickers and people writing in to the then new Fox TV network to get them to cancel Married... With Children.

MickyDolenz said:

SolaceAHA said:

but that's the whole idea of cancel culture and today people trying to be moral police for a century ago,

Cancel culture isn't really new, it's just social media and the internet made it more widespread & mainstream. Back in the 1950s the NAACP got the sitcom Amos n Andy taken off the air. Then in the late 1960s Bill Cosby was one of the people behind getting the reruns from being shown in syndication. I don't think its been shown since, at least not on any official channels, maybe on public access or something. CBS still has the original footage, but won't do anything with it although the show has long been sold as bootleg VHS/DVD which is how some episodes are on Youtube. But the bootlegs have poor video quality. Disney edited out the Sunflower scenes from Fantasia back in the 1960s and they have never been on any of the re-releases in theaters or the home video versions. Its the same with old Warner Brothers cartoons.

It was common for movie theaters & TV stations in the southern USA to edit out black actors in movies or not show the TV program starring non-whites on their local channels. That's why programs like The Nat King Cole Show didn't last long, they couldn't get sponsors. Parents of 1950s (white) teenagers tried to get rid of Elvis Presley and rock n roll in general. Some white preachers also spoke against rock n roll. They thought Elvis music & dancing was vulgar and they called him an n-lover. That's when he was started to be shown from the waist up on TV. They accused rock n roll music of promoting juvenile delinquency. Same with the long haired Beatles in the 1960s. People burned Beatles stuff and their plane was shot at in Texas because of John's Jesus Christ comment, which was taken out of context. Then there's the rock music fans in the 1970s with the disco demolition and "disco sucks" bumper stickers/T-shirts. In the 1980s there was Tipper Gore with the parental advisory stickers and people writing in to the then new Fox TV network to get them to cancel Married... With Children.

But again there is a difference between something happening in the moment and then thinking you can impose something from today on decades and centuries ago to make yourself look morally superior that is what a lot of todays "woke" and cancelling is about. Disco Backlash and Burning Beatle records were all present at the time, no one is going out there today and smashing bee gee records or donna summer records, no one is pulling up a John lennon jesus qoute today and saying all his music needs to be banned for that. There was never this kind of thinking of building yourself up morally by going through a book from a hundred years ago and pointing out the wrongs of then, it was a hundred years ago, there was a lot of things wrong, and there are a lot of things wrong today that need to be worked on, the past is over, we need to stay in the now, many dont get this.

SolaceAHA said:

There was never this kind of thinking of building yourself up morally by going through a book from a hundred years ago and pointing out the wrongs of then, it was a hundred years ago, there was a lot of things wrong, and there are a lot of things wrong today that need to be worked on, the past is over, we need to stay in the now, many dont get this.

But didn't some schools in the 1980s ban old books like Tom Sawyer/Huckberry Finn because of the slave characters? That wasn't in the moment like the disco demolition. Those were written in the 1800s, long before the 1980s.

MickyDolenz said:

SolaceAHA said:

There was never this kind of thinking of building yourself up morally by going through a book from a hundred years ago and pointing out the wrongs of then, it was a hundred years ago, there was a lot of things wrong, and there are a lot of things wrong today that need to be worked on, the past is over, we need to stay in the now, many dont get this.

But didn't some schools in the 1980s ban old books like Tom Sawyer/Huckberry Finn because of the slave characters? That wasn't in the moment like the disco demolition. Those were written in the 1800s, long before the 1980s.

...and that was ridiculous. Huck Finn is one of the best books ever written on race. The language is harsh, but so what. It was the language of the times, no different than 'Roots'. This move of trying to pretty up America's past is silly.

uPtoWnNY said:

MickyDolenz said:

But didn't some schools in the 1980s ban old books like Tom Sawyer/Huckberry Finn because of the slave characters? That wasn't in the moment like the disco demolition. Those were written in the 1800s, long before the 1980s.

...and that was ridiculous. Huck Finn is one of the best books ever written on race. The language is harsh, but so what. It was the language of the times, no different than 'Roots'. This move of trying to pretty up America's past is silly.

Yeah there were little things like this, also Bill Cosby trying to eliminate the Little Rascals, as if he is an authority on morality. 99% of the time those pointing out morals or trying to erase the past, are the ones with the most issues in present day.

SolaceAHA said:

uPtoWnNY said:

...and that was ridiculous. Huck Finn is one of the best books ever written on race. The language is harsh, but so what. It was the language of the times, no different than 'Roots'. This move of trying to pretty up America's past is silly.

Yeah there were little things like this, also Bill Cosby trying to eliminate the Little Rascals, as if he is an authority on morality. 99% of the time those pointing out morals or trying to erase the past, are the ones with the most issues in present day.

Current society has a "feelings over facts" mentality, where everything has to be sugar coated, and too many younger folks can't handle criticism or a difference of opinion without falling to pieces. I see it so many times at my job or even hanging out with family/friends.

SoulAlive said:

TrivialPursuit said:

onlyforaminute said:

Bought the book. Only on the 1st story. So far it's ok, a lot of inner monolgue, yes one note or rather 2 note storyline. Oh well. World building takes a long time. Interesting person nonetheless.

Without giving spoilers, let us know how it is as you go along.

Couldn't give a shit what she defines herself as, she's still among one of the best live artists i've ever witnessed.