As I watched Ziggy Stardust, I found myself comparing Bowie’s performative style to Weimar cabaret culture, which we discussed in class a number of weeks ago. Bowie’s frequent costume changes, theatrical makeup, and transgressive exhibitions of sexuality all signaled an emphasis towards artificiality, decadence, and display, rather than authenticity. However, whereas cabaret performances often served a guise for disseminating political ideologies and critiquing aspects of society (as we saw in Jelavich’s article), Bowie claims his performativity had no message whatsoever. Indeed, in a personal interview, he tells Crowe, “I can’t keep track of everything I say, I don’t give a shit…maybe [the audience] will come up with a message and save me the work…” (Bowie and Crowe, 310). By refusing to take semantic responsibility for his own work, Bowie permits various causes and groups to exploit and assign meaning to his performance of gender and sexuality, whether it be negative or positive. While Bowie wished to exploit the appealing and transgressive aspects of his persona (his bisexuality, his feminized stage presence) for capital gain, his refusal to politicize his persona allowed it to take on a matrix of meanings. I, for one, have seen Bowie championed as a groundbreaking genderqueer performer, whose work advocated for LGBT recognition and acceptance. Bowie himself seems disinterested in this kind of work, claiming that “…the gays…knew I wasn’t what they were fighting for” (309). By refusing to take a strong position on social or political issues, Bowie could be championed for a number of causes, while also serving as a profitable product to be enjoyed for his entertainment value.
Also, an unrelated question: Bowie’s music and performance style is often sexually explicit; additionally, he was quite candid about his sex life during his interview with Crowe. Considering the lack of female performers in the glam rock scene, I’m curious whether Bowie (and other glam rock performers) statuses as male allowed them to speak and perform in the manner that they did. Why do we think glam was predominantly male, despite the central role that gender-play served in the genre?
