In 1984, Culture Club’s Boy George was interviewed by then pop-culture bible “People Magazine;” in which the author never once referred to the full-drag singer as she: “…in an era when sexual ambiguity sells, few performers practice gender blending with the brio of Boy George. Onstage he is walking Pop Art, a confection of sight and sound that appeals to everyone from grannies to third graders…At times not even the singer himself seems to know where to find the sexual boundaries.” Yet, almost exactly 30 years later, the worldwide internet “People” replacement, “The Daily Mail,” makes it an unwritten policy to label sexually confused teens with the pronoun, usually the opposite, of their choosing: “Transgender teen takes his life a year after being crowned high school homecoming king;” “‘I am no longer Mia. I never really was’: Powerful moment transgender teen, 13, came out to his entire class;” “‘Just remember me as someone stayed strong for as long as I could’: Transgender teen, 16, steps out in front of car and kills herself ‘after years of bullying;’” “Transgender teen Jazz Jennings, 14, who has lived as a girl since she was five, signs on to star in TLC reality series to show the ‘love, acceptance, and support’ of her family and friends;” “Transgender girl, 17, who killed herself after leaving heartbreaking suicide note ‘received more support from her classmates than her parents’, neighbors claim.”
Since the millennium, there has been a continuing obsession with all things gender related; focused on a self-absorbed preoccupation with personal identification – resulting in a myriad of confusing trans-slang terms: boy mode, deep stealth, and transman to name just a few. Identification has become highly personal and requiring immediate recognition – symbolized by the case of top-secret leaker Bradley Manning and the instantaneous acceptance of his female alter ego, Chelsea, by the media. As witnessed through the frequent headlines from “The Daily Mail,” children are also being swept up in the trans-fever: with prepubescent boys and girls choosing to dress and behave as the opposite sex; oftentimes causing confusion and chaos within society as questions ranging from bathroom access to eligibility for prom-queen are debated by parents, school administrators, gay advocates and politicians. The mood, unlike the gender-bender fad of the 1980s, seems to be un-celebrity fixated, despite the continuing popularity of Ru Paul and the rise of Laverne Cox, but concentrated on disturbed teens and adults turned reality stars. In fact, the influence of Boy George was primarily short-lived and based more upon those that followed him, namely: Pete Burns, Marilyn Manson, even Rob Zombie, and, of course Madonna; their success in over-shocking the public, hence creating a sort of perpetual passed-on numbness, has made the careers of Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, and Katy Perry possible. Yet, here, especially with Madonna, the transgender phenomenon has gone beyond the mere aping of the famous, but to a dark heart of spiritual corruption and perversity.
A landmark breakthrough occurred in 1990 with the release of Madonna’s video for the single “Vogue.” Though contemporary critics focused on one particular scene in which Madonna wears a see-through top, in terms of transgenderism – the most significant aspect of the video were the numerous male dancers: fluttering about like neutered birds trying to fly even though their wings have been clipped; at the same time, it looked both glamorous and desperate. This is the first example of what I classify as secularist self-castration. For, in some of the earliest religious cults known to man, specifically the practices surrounding the goddess Cybele which go back to 1250 BC, there was a castration ceremony performed by the male initiates. The impetus: the consort of Cybele, the demi-god Attis, caused frenzy in his worshippers triggering the male priests to become eunuchs. Hardly relegated to the Greek backwoods kingdom of Phrygia, where the cult originated, the religion endured and eventually spread to Imperial Rome itself. Apparently, a form of this bizarre ritual continues to this day; for, when civilization is in decline there is always a rabid return of superstition; a form of moral panic occurs when society throws off all traditional means of self-regulation and censorship: the Church and the force of public decency are disregarded and silenced. Currently, the most popular and widely apparent form of this reaction towards a slip into barbarism is the phenomena of tattooing, piercing, and body modification. These forms of self-flagellation are an attempt by the unknowing penitent towards order; a desire to recreate the body in an age when life is becoming more and more anaesthetized and disassociated. Crossing gender is the most extreme example of this need to make sense with our bodies out of the present-day senselessness. Only, like Madonna’s spayed dancers, it becomes anxious and flailing – since there is no cultural reference back to the original archetype. Without a God – the worshippers turn in on themselves. Hence, in its current suburban American manifestation, it also becomes angry and vicious: centered around strained and sometimes peculiar family dynamics spilling out into social media via Twitter rants. And, as with the body transformers and modern flagellants, it is also grounded in self-hate. Far from content, they become demanding - lashing out at even those who are sympathetic, but deemed uncooperative; epitomized by the recent obsession with childhood bullying, then, an adoption of the same tactics when the movement is organized and focused on cajoling through threats the minds and votes of politicians. Here, it takes on the form of religious zealotry – a manner of extremism focused not a supreme being, but on the self-created image of the individual; a throwback to the 1970s “Me generation,” only it’s a looking out for #1 mantra gone berserk; with gender confusion, self-indulgence is secondary to a conscious self-annihilation: the suppression of puberty through hormone treatments, the shaving of the Adam’s apple, the violent ripping off of genitals and breasts; for, ultimately, these procedures take on the signs of a bloody human sacrifice.