Androgynous
This story is my stone. I throw it with malice and intent. Once thrown this stone will follow its path; the path will be an arc. I don’t know if or when it will hit its intended target; you the reader must decide for yourself. The path starts here:
1994 The Crash Test Dummies
In 1994 I was newly married and just out of college. That’s a lot all by itself, but there’s more. On a warm summer evening in June my wife and I and all our friends went to a concert held at Northrup Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus. We were all recent U of M grads and happy to be back to our old stomping grounds.
The concert was for a relatively new band — to us anyway. The Crash Test Dummies were a Canadian folk rock group. At the time, they were the shat. A few years earlier they had debuted “The Ghosts that Haunt Me” — an album full of nothing but good stuff. We could not help but play it all the time.
If you were a fan, you would have been drawn in and transfixed by “The Superman Song,” “At My Funeral,” and frankly, the entire album.
But, I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the true beginning.
1 Samuel 17 David and Goliath
I always liked the story of David and Goliath. It’s an underdog story of good versus evil . . . who doesn’t like that?
In the biblical account the Israelites are facing the Philistines. Big battle. But they choose, as they apparently did back then, to let the outcome be decided by single combat. I always loved that part. Two dudes, one from each army, fighting for their entire tribe — to-the-death. The Philistines had Goliath. The Israelites had . . . David? That’s the best part. David was just a scrawny sheep herder.
It is said that twice a day for forty days Goliath walked out and challenged the Israelites to produce someone to fight for them. On the last day, David reluctantly agrees. (Ok, this is gonna be good . . .) Goliath steps out — huge, armored and carrying a javelin. David is carrying a sling and a few carefully picked stones.
What happens next is one of the most storied tales in history. What’s weird is that when I first heard the story all I could think about was the stone and it’s path.
Lots of people walk away from this triumphant tale with different thoughts. Some may be thinking it is better to be smart than big or maybe that David was chosen by God and that has to have helped . . . but who is thinking about the stone?
David slung the stone with a singular intention. To defeat Goliath. The stone left David’s sling with kinetic energy. David’s desire became a literal, physical force in the world . . . and the stone traveled an arc to its intended destination: Goliath’s head.
Mere intention, an idea, became a force in the universe. The stone traveled its arc through space and time to complete its mission. The arc got me thinking. Once the stone was slung, its path was inevitable. The arc is the thing.
This brings us to . . .
1853 The Moral Universe
In 1853 the abolitionist minister Theodore Parker said these words as part of a sermon for the Unitarian Church:
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”
Since he gave this sermon we have had over 160 years to watch the arc bend. The direction, thankfully, is clear.
Let’s look at three examples in America and examine the arcs: Black Americans, women and gay Americans (more broadly LGBTQ Americans.)
Black Rights: Shortly after Parker’s sermon, the Dred Scot v. Sanford case declared that slaves were not citizens and that Congress did not have the right to ban slavery in the states. That was where the world was. Blacks were not free agents of their future, and Congress could not force states to make them so.
Women’s Rights: The original colonies prohibited women from having the right to vote, own property or keep their earnings. Then, in the next hundred years, a number of additional restrictive laws were passed with the express intent of limiting women’s rights further. This was a dark, restrictive time for women in America.
Gay Rights: Sadly, there were no rights for gay people during most of American history. Just as the world that women inhabited was dark and restrictive, so too was that of gay Americans.
But unlike black Americans and women, gay Americans could hide who they were. Being gay was not as apparent as skin color or sex. So they hid, trying to remain true to themselves without being discovered by others. Their arc of justice is within our lifetimes because of this. The very idea of “coming out” was almost unheard of until the 1970s.
In spite of these tragic examples of our countries’ morally corrupt beginnings, we have increasingly protected rights for all these groups. But it is not just our laws that have changed to protect rights. Our values as a society have evolved. Indeed, in recent years we have had a black president, a female vice president (who is of both black and Indian descent), and our first openly gay presidential contender. The progress, if viewed from just a few steps back, is truly staggering.
Alas, progress for all these groups is not only incomplete; there have been very real setbacks during each of their quests for social justice. It is also unfortunate that progress has not been faster nor gone further. (On a hopeful note, one of my favorite comedians is fond of saying — based on an average lifespan of 60 years — “1850? That was just 3 people ago!”)
But through it all, key pieces, foundational for a broader and more inclusive justice, continue to get laid. Considering our troubled beginnings, we’ve achieved some astonishing outcomes.
Watching this progress, you can almost believe that justice is inevitable. In fact, it is. The reason is simple and something those who work to restrict the freedom of others and maintain the status quo have never fully understood.
It’s in our nature to try and achieve all that we can in life. And we can only succeed when each of us is free to be who we wish. So the fight for justice stems from our very nature as humans.
Those who wish to restrict freedoms are not driven by their nature, they are merely governed by a culture that believes controlling other people’s freedoms somehow secures their own. But while allowing someone to realize their freedom costs nothing, restricting freedoms requires a relentless effort to maintain control.
So while the fight for justice is ever-present and born anew every day, cultural elements that impinge on justice necessarily erode over time. It is axiomatic. Just as the stone travels its arc, so does justice.
This brings us back to The Crash Test Dummies.
1994 The Crash Test Dummies
As we filed into Northrup and found our seats high up in the balcony, I felt a charge of anticipation. The band did not disappoint. You could feel it was going to be an epic night of truly unique moments in time.
After several great warm-up tunes came the quirky song titled “Androgynous.” It has always been one of my favorites. It was written ten years earlier in 1984 by Paul Westerberg of the Replacements (#underappreciated). The song uses words that today seem a little outdated. We hadn’t yet developed the panoply of terms that tease apart the complex concepts of gender and sexuality that we have today. Yet the concepts were there then, in that song.
The crowd was on its feet and ready for a special moment. We got it.
This is where I completely fail to come up with the words to describe the experience. Transcendent? Epiphanal? They seem played out, used up.
Luckily, Emile Durkheim saves me here. Durkheim was a French sociologist with an interesting perspective on moments like these.
Durkheim believed our consciousness is comprised of two parts. One part spends its time worried about ourselves; he called this the “profane” us. And the other part? He called it the “sacred” us. It’s the part of ourselves that longs to be a part of the collective and to share and hold ideas together. We yearn for — and at times achieve — collective effervescence. (Shit, yeah!) Collective effervescence perfectly describes that moment for me. We were, are together.
“Androgynous” brought us to that moment of effervescence. Together, we understood the ideas we were hearing — and we were part of lifting them into the collective consciousness.
The ideas contained within the lyrics of “Androgynous” were the Dummies’ carefully selected stone. The crowd was the sling and the stone travelled the now familiar arc through time and space.
But what exactly were those ideas? Let’s dig in. I will share a few key lyrics and add my thoughts.
Here comes Dick
He’s wearing a skirt
Here comes Jane
You know she’s sportin’ a chain
Same hair revolution
Same build evolution
Tomorrow who’s gonna fuss?
Right from the start they came out swinging at gender norms. Asserting that the future would be a place where no one would give gender a second thought. Before we could consider what we actually thought about issues of sexuality and gender — all new to us back then — we were simply shown the inevitable future. The thought was punctuated with something we could all believe in . . .
And they love each other so, androgynous
Closer than you know, love each other so
Androgynous
There it is: the universal concept. They’ve got the same thing any other couple has: LOVE. Just like your love. Just like mine. Gender, sexuality, cultural norms: none of it matters.
Mirror image see no damage
See no evil at all
Cupie dolls and urine stalls will be laughed at
The way you’re laughed at now
Move along, there’s nothing to see here. You do your thing, they’ll do theirs. All this gender nonsense is on its way out (unisex bathrooms take a bow.) And the people who are laughing (or scared) just haven’t gotten the memo yet.
Love and acceptance continued to run through the lyrics — drawing a larger circle — a circle around all the smaller circles that we had drawn for ourselves. Within this larger circle we were all together and for a moment: collectively effervescent.
And what happened to this carefully selected stone? It has travelled its’ arc and struck very recently, with resounding repercussions.
Spring 2020 Bostock vs. Clayton County, Georgia
The Supreme Court just recently ruled, in a 6–3 decision, that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited.
Wait, what?! You are forgiven for believing this was already the case, but it wasn’t. Surprisingly, prior to this ruling gay and transexual individuals could be fired for simply being themselves.
The Dummies landed their stone and justice continues its’ relentless march.
The arc bends.
In closing . . .
An arc is merely a line through space. This particular kind of line creates two sides. Knowing the direction and forces driving the arc of history, we get to stand back and choose our side.
There is no doubt that the battles for justice continue today and that new battles will emerge. When they do, it will be your time to choose. Durkheim might have asked, “Will you choose the ‘sacred’ in all of us, or simply the ‘profane’ within you?”
Should you choose the latter, be forewarned. Given the inevitable arc, you will be standing on the wrong side of history with the many misguided who have come before you.
Should you choose the former you may find absolutely nothing changes . . . for you. But for everyone else seeking the freedom to simply be who they wish, your choice will make all the difference.
This story is my stone. I throw it with hope and intent. I don’t know if or when it will hit its intended target, you the reader must decide for yourself. . . .
For you are the target.