TOP 3 ICONS FOR QUEER FASHION: homage

David Bowie the queer icon who shaped the way, but was he really gay?.

Elton John the multi feathered piano man and Prince who made the rain purple.

David bowie is known as the queer fashion and music icon of the century, but it all started in the 1970s where musically, creativity and visually he is just the whole package, to me and many feature artists he completely shaped the industry. Inspiring many artists but today I’m going to focus on Prince, Bowie set the queer blueprint allowing Prince to flourish as an artist in the 80s and 90s.

“Bowie's shameless androgyny helped women express their masculine strength without losing their feminine glamour and sensuality”

Elton John and David Bowie were both known as gay icons in the '70s for their elaborate styles, designs and costumes. Elton John came out as bisexual in the '70s, which at the time lead to much controversy; before coming out as gay in the '80s.

ELTON JOHN 1970S. daisydodsworth

But when Elton did come out, he paved the way for other musicians to be open about their sexuality. At the time many artists had flamboyance and charisma but as soon as they were outed it lost them many conservative and homophobic fans. For this reason, I believe therefore Freddie Mercury’s sexuality was kept on the low until he died of AIDS; and this is when his sexuality became apparent, and many had opinions on this. When I spoke to my mum about Freddie after taking a huge love for this music over lockdown, I questioned her and asked her how she didn’t know or suspect he was gay until he passed, and she simply said no one had any idea. I recon one of the reasons was due to Bowie, a "closet heterosexual," he defied gender norms with his androgynous style and alter ego Ziggy Stardust but isn’t/ wasn’t gay and had many heterosexual relationships in this time in the spotlight.

Sadly you cannot deny the impact bowie has had on our lives, he happened to just be heterosexual, but he allowed queer people to feel comfortable in the idea in expressing gender, and even heterosexual people too.

PRINCE. daisydodsworth

The same with our third icon Prince, he too was a heterosexual man, yet he was very sex positive and shaped the way for flamboyant sexual liberation moving through the 80s and 90s. At the time his look was boundary-breaking, especially for a Black man, he was becoming a symbol of androgyny and sexual fluidity, bringing in the mainstream audience to queer liberation.

“I’m not a woman, I’m not a man / I am something that you’ll never understand”

However, after the millennium he has converted to religion and there was a few articles that clam of homophobia from the icon himself, which for me has ruined a lot of ideas I had of him. Saying this, since this blog is about pre 21 century as that stands Prince was an absolute icon.

Out of the three, regardless of being one of the greatest piano men of all time and his elaborate stage costumes, Elton was arguably most daring with his anthem "Elton's Song," detailing a young gay boy's crush on another boy.

DAISY D.