when two musicians sing into the same microphone and lean in very close to each other… like omg are you guys gonna kiss now to relieve the homoerotic tension?😳
THIS IS NOT ABOUT ONE DIRECTION I DON’T KNOW WHO THIS “HARRY” PERSON IS GO WATCH BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND CLARENCE CLEMONS KISS ON STAGE RIGHT NOW
op is the only valid person i’ve ever met. everyone else needs to come to the light
Okay, but this is really important: Bruce Springsteen occupied this really weird place in music history. His songs were all from this pessimistic, nihilistic view of an America that had let him down:
Just like the anti-Vietnam War protest songs that we associate with the 1960s, or the early nihilism that spawned punk music in the 1970s. But he didn’t *sound* like a punk anarchist; he sounded like a country rock singer. When he released Born in the U.S.A. people completely misinterpreted (or possibly ignored) the lyrics in favor of the tone of the music.
Politicians used his music to promote their ‘Murica Yes! brand, and he had to literally explain that that was not what he was about. He’s over here asking when we’re going to have jobs and heathcare, not stanning the politicians who weren’t helping the people.
It was also kind of a big deal that he had an integrated band, because even as late as the 1980s music was still kind of segregated and MTV was straight up racist. They refused to play and promote black artists and then claimed that were no black artists in the first place. Michael Jackson’s record company had to threaten a boycott of their white artists to get MTV to play his Thriller video.
Plus, the first black/white interracial kiss on TV was in 1968 (OG Star Trek). Also it took us until the 70s to get sympathetic gay characters on screen, and the 90s to get gay characters to kiss onscreen. And all of those firsts were met with outrage.
So keep that in mind when you see Bruce Springsteen not just playing with an interracial band, but engaging in an interracial, gay kiss on stage repeatedly.
Passages from American Popular Music by Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman
I used to think that Bruce and Clarence kissing onstage was exuberance, showmanship, and telling racist homophobes to fuck off. Like, they picked up a certain kind of audience and went “Racist homophobes? Not in our house!” And started the kissing then but then I actually looked it up and
It was a story where… we remade the city. We remade the city, shaping it into the kind of place where our friendship and our love for one another wouldn’t have been such an exceptional thing. - Bruce Springsteen
It wasn’t about showmanship or rejecting bigots or anything it was just. Damn right that was one of the loves of his life and damn right he was going to kiss him onstage
It gets me a little that Bruce has had a divorce, that he’s been married twice, but he loved Clarence for the rest of Clarence’s life and will presumably love him the rest of his own
Clemons said in one interview. “Bruce and I looked at each other and didn’t say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other’s lives. He was what I’d been searching for.” In another version of the story, Clemons says “He looked at me, and I looked at him, and we fell in love.”
I’m having some emotions about it!
“He was elemental in my life,“ Springsteen adds, “and losing him was like losing the rain.”
Not just! I love you pure and deep and true but! I am going to love you like that in front of the whole damn world!
We have fewer narratives about taking risks and making statements for platonic love rather than romantic and supposedly it would be easier to downplay this onstage than romance and! They refused! They fucking refused! In front of hundreds of thousands of people, over the course of years! In the spotlight, in word and deed, I love you!
I think what’s important to remember about fatphobia is that it’s most damning consequences (the brutal abuse and death of fat people) serve to reinforce its structuring logics (that fat people are always and already dying / evidence of societal&personal decline).
the work of undoing fatphobia thus is both pointing out the hypocrisy of a medical industry that has the audacity to call fat people an “epidemic” while actively hastening their deaths, AND about understanding the broader discourses of blame and unworthiness that allow institutions to commit murder while swearing that victims did it to themselves.
Just want to add real quick: if you are fat and have experienced medical abuse/neglect, it is not your fault. Never. Not even if you’re “unhealthy.” No one deserves abuse. Not from doctors or anyone else. The existence of medical violence is a symptom of systemic fatphobia, white supremacy, ableism, and cisheterosexism.
You have done nothing wrong. Doctors have wronged you.
Florida may be America’s favorite trash fire, but we’re not willing to give up on our home state; and we’re DEFINITELY not willing to give up on the queer and trans kids who live there.
So we’re fighting back.
All April, we’ll be raising money for Equality Florida. Between our own contributions and the generous support of anonymous donors, we’re in a position to match up to $6000 of your contributions AND offer some very cool prizes.
HERE’S WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO:
Make a donation to Equality Florida and email the receipt to xplainthexmen@gmail.com with the subject line EQUALITY or tweet it to @xplainthexmen.
AND HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL GET:
IF YOU DONATE UNDER $25 – You’ll have our eternal love and gratitude, as well as the warm, fuzzy feeling of making a difference.
IF YOU DONATE $25 OR MORE – We’ll thank you on the podcast. (Note: these’ll be straightforward thanks, not the silly kind we do for patrons.)
IF YOU DONATE $50 OR MORE – Miles, who is adamantly Not an Artist, will draw you an earnest and possibly terrible social media X-avatar.
IF YOU DONATE $100 OR MORE – We’ll record a custom voicemail greeting for you.
IF YOU DONATE $200 OR MORE – Jay will knit you a hat.
IF YOU DONATE $500 OR MORE – We’ll record a Hawk Talk on a subject of your choice.
Thank you, so much, for fighting with us. <3
-J&M
This week is our last big push, and we’re less than $500 away from $30,000 for Equality Florida! LET’S DO THIS!
