Trans anthems

I’ve been put in the position of thinking about musical anthems in past weeks. That’s because Kate Pierson of the B-52s released a song planned to be included in her upcoming solo album – a song she hoped would become a “trans anthem.” The name of that song is “Mister Sister.”

It’s strange to think of life in terms of anthems. All of our lives are more complex than three to five minute songs, but many of us have a song or three that is a theme song or anthem for us. And, maybe it’s a community anthem as well.

I’m older than 20, so I tend to think older songs when I think about anthems. When I think of anti-war anthems, I think Country Joe McDonald’s “Feel Like I’m Fixing To Die;” when I think about student anthems, I tend to think about Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” and Nirvana’s “Teen Spirit;” when I think about LGBT community anthems, I immediately think of Queen’s “We Are The Champions.”

Pierson’s stab at a trans anthem hit the trans community with a thud. “Misgendering is always wrong,” wrote Jamie Cooper Holland –a queer and trans writer, musician, audio engineer, activist and student from Berkeley, Calif. – for the Huffington Post. ‘’’Mister Sister,’ beginning with the title itself, is a reminder of the constant water-torture drip that trans people endure day in and day out when we’re addressed as the wrong gender.”

Which, of course, is a bad starting point to begin with. Trans women are women; trans men are men; referring to trans women who identify with the honorific “Ms.” rather than the honorific “Mr.” isn’t a really ingratiating way to begin a community anthem.

And, creating a song one hopes to be a trans anthem that defines the trans community only in terms of those who transition from male to female … well, that erases trans masculine and genderqueer experiences. Basically, we’re not all sisters.

But then there are the tropes of the lyrics, as well as the video, for the song. The words and imagery focus on the appearance of trans women reflected back to them in mirrors.

“[A] young transfeminine person clicking on this supposed ‘trans anthem’ would be made to feel like a costume, a fraud, worthless,” wrote Mya Adriene Byrne, a trans woman, performing artist and writer for The Advocate, “ –as I did too in that moment, struggling to remove myself from the swirl of self-doubt and self-hatred that comes from having one’s existence invalidated by inaccurate portrayals of trans lives.”

What reflects back to the hearts of many trans people is internalized transphobia; internalized transphobia many of us have to confront and deal with in our coming out processes. An embraced trans anthem isn’t going to validate any misgendering societal tropes about external appearances; an embraced trans anthem isn’t going to incorporate the societal misconception that trans people’s lives are inherently deceptive.

So, maybe trans anthems should originate in trans community.

There are literally dozens of trans written rock, rap and folk songs written and performed by trans people that could be considered trans anthems; everything from Coyote Grace’s Joe Steven’s “Guy Named Joe” to Heidi Barton Stink’s “Labels;” Angelica Ross’ “When Two Worlds Collide” to The Cliks’ Lucas Silveira’s “Still.” Mya Adriene Byrne and Mitch Kellaway over at The Advocate identified 37 songs written and performed by trans artists that could be trans community or personal trans anthems, and that list wasn’t by any means exhaustive.

My personal trans anthem wasn’t found on that list of 37 songs. My personal trans anthem is the song written and performed by Venus DeMars fronting All The Pretty Horses. It’s “If God Were Caught” from All The Pretty Horses’ 2002 album Creature.

I know you try…

sometimes you’d rather die.

And life is a lie.

When night is through

all this will be true.

For me, the lie is who I was trying to be before transition; the pathway through that transition often felt like night, and the truth of who I really am was found in and through that darkness.

So, my own thought on Kate Pierson’s hope that “Mister Sister” would be a trans anthem: just please leave it to the trans community to write, perform and embrace our own anthems.