1980s. Gender benders
The 1980s saw a new expression added to the English language – ‘gender bender’.
The concept itself – adopting some dress codes of the opposite sex, as opposed to straightforward cross-dressing – was far from new. Marlene Dietrich had done it in the 40’s when she appeared in a man’s evening suit and top hat. More recently, David Bowie went through a very heavy ‘frock and make-up’ period in the early Seventies.
But unlike the isolated cases of Dietrich and Bowie, it seemed like there was a lot of it about in the Eighties – hence the need to give it a label. Boy George was one of the first high profile ‘benders’, leading the long-locked, lipsticked charge at the front of Culture Club in 1983.
Jumping quickly on the bent bandwagon was ‘Marilyn’ (a.k.a. Pete Robinson), who achieved global fame with his record Calling Your Name in 1983.
Essentially a one-hit-wonder, Marilyn managed to sustain his public profile beyond its natural shelf life by virtue of his gender bending image. This was helped massively by his appearance in the Eurythmics video for Who’s That Girl. (He’s about one and a half minutes into it. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it!)
Which makes for a rather ironic juxtaposition given that Eurythmic Annie Lennox – in very girlie attire in this particular clip – was very much known for her manipulation of gender stereotypes to create her own absolutely iconic image.
It was a powerfully androgynous look, which she carried off with immense success, undoubtedly inspiring thousands (women, men, gay and straight) along the way. (Although I don’t actually recall the term ‘gender bending’ ever being used to describe her look.)
And then there was Pete Burns…
First seen in 1985, as a relatively straight front man for Dead or Alive, Mr Burns just went further and further into ‘transformative surgery’ to become the world gender bending champion.
The picture on the left is him at the beginning of his journey. More than twenty years on, it seems that journey is still underway (although I gather he recently said that his face will fall off if he has any more plastic surgery. Perhaps we could take that as a sign that an end is in sight?)
It’s fascinating how it took until the 80s with Boy George for the term ‘gender bender’ to really coin itself, especially since Marlene Dietrich was rocking the top hat and suit back in the 40s. I always associate David Bowie with that style transition in the 70s, but it makes sense that the label only stuck when it became a wider cultural movement rather than just isolated artists.
Yes. You make some interesting points about Marlene Deitrich and David Bowie. Why weren’t they labelled ‘gender benders’? Perhaps the media of those times weren’t prepared to risk using such risqué labels in case it encouraged others to break the more strict dress codes of those times?
It’s interesting how it took until the 1980s to coin the term ‘gender bender’ when Marlene Dietrich was already pulling off that look with her top hat and suit back in the 40s. I guess trailblazers like David Bowie and Boy George really pushed it into the mainstream spotlight to the point where society finally needed a name for it. It makes you realize how much fashion evolution relies on these key pioneers.