Cycle I: Coming on Strong
The Hidden Voice
The Record · 16 (v2.00)
THE HOUSE OF ZAN — Zan
VOICE ADVISORY: The speaking voice is resistant self-definition questioning what identity labels reveal and conceal. Contains themes of attraction, sexuality, identity, prejudice, assumptions, compatibility, and self-expression.
My lived experiences have shaped my turn-ons just as much as my turn-offs.
No great revelation there.
The problem starts when someone wants all of that reduced to something that fits neatly beside a checkbox.
Straight.
Gay.
Bi.
Queer.
This.
That.
Alien.
Prefer not to say.
Some of those words might describe me accurately.
Some have at one time or another.
Some might again if someone impresses me enough.
None of them have ever managed to follow me around long enough to explain everything.
I try to keep my door to the universe open to anything positive that might want to walk through it.
That becomes considerably harder when someone decides what is behind the door before knocking.
It can also shut out someone who might have otherwise walked right through.
Sometimes the person you filtered out was the person you were looking for.
That seems like a fairly stupid way to miss each other.
Labels can be useful.
They can tell you where someone has been.
What they like.
Who they might want.
Where they feel comfortable.
Sometimes they can even help people find each other.
Useful little things.
Sometimes.
A label can tell you where to start. It shouldn’t tell you where to stop.
Right up until somebody mistakes the label for the person wearing it.
Tell someone I am a “straight white male” and one version of me starts forming in their head.
Change one of those words and another one appears.
Add a few more and suddenly I have opinions I never expressed, beliefs I never held, people I apparently hate, people I apparently sleep with, and probably several bumper stickers I would never put on my car.
Great.
Just great.
I didn’t even have to participate.
Anyone who spends enough time with me will eventually discover that I am far more complicated than whatever demographic Mad Libs they mentally completed before placing me inside their catch-all definition of a label.
I would rather give someone enough room to express themselves, change, contradict themselves, and become whatever the hell they are becoming before I decide I understand them.
I would appreciate the same opportunity.
As a past or present card holder for nearly every alternative lifestyle or self-identity I could reasonably qualify for, I find the whole thing cosmically hilarious.
Apparently, the purpose of discovering yourself is to eventually become easy enough for strangers to categorize.
Or to know what products to purchase from companies when that special day, week, or month shows up on a calendar.
There is value in knowing what somebody calls themselves.
There is considerably more value in finding out why.
One tells me which word they selected.
The other might actually tell me something about them.
That is the part I care about.
I do not need someone to arrive without labels.
I just need enough room left around them for a person to fit.
Same goes for me.
So, do you think you know any better if I am “in or out”?
Let’s try a third option:
Does Not Apply.
Companion Track: “In or Out” — Ani DiFranco
VOICE FEEDBACK: Planetary Exploration — X3