Blonde was Frank Ocean’s first album since blowing up as a mainstream artist with multiple award nominations and commercial success. “Seigfried” is a reflection on that reality, as well as bravery, nirvana, sex and Elliott Smith. Ocean is known for incorporating his hobbies obsessions and educated perspectives into his lyrics, to formulate songs rounded out by his outstanding baritone and falsetto voice and daring instrumentals that have resulted in him becoming one of the most successful artists of his time. Seigfreid was originally used as a demo, performed during 2013, without many of the trademark musical features or lyrics that have resulted in both its critical acclaim and mainstream popularity, but was officially released on Blonde in …show more content…
Based on the mention of “a speckled face”, the song may be about a notable male model with whom Ocean was rumoured to have had a brief affair with Ocean. The hero Siegfried of Norse mythology is often depicted as a handsome man with long, flowing hair, much like the supposed love affair. The narrative of the song is difficult to follow, but seems to closely follow the structure of many Ocean projects. The song moves from his love life, to his inner life, and then back out to his love life. In the first verse Frank begins by addressing a lover in a failed romance and goes to reflect on his own life. Frank’s reflections become increasingly more penetrating: they move from wondering about his life choices and then transition to thoughts about the nature of his own mind and God. The song then seems to move back into a consideration of lost love and ends with a declaration “I’d do anything for you.” The lyrical melodic sing song has no hook and before it ends has a 120 second spoken word verse, with rich poetic quality, detailing his own frailty, mortality and using subtle double entendre and allusion to strengthen the impact of the …show more content…
Frank’s unique idiosyncrasies—and possibly his struggles with his sexuality—make it hard to him to fit himself into mainstream society. “I can’t relate to my peers” could then relate to feeling alienated for having such a different view on love than other famous male artists in the game. Morever, despite refusing to categorize his sexuality, his love affairs with men have captured the public’s interest and he has become well-known as an “LGBTQ artist.” LGBTQ artists find themselves under a tremendous amount of pressure to be a “model” minority—to speak for the whole of their demographic. Since Frank prefers not to be labelled, he might not feel like he can relate to the LGBTQ community, and feels alienated from queer circles as well as from mainstream society. “I’d rather chip my pride than lose my mind out here” then becomes a retreat from his fanbase’s rabid curiosity about him and the following he’s received as a “queer icon.” This verse is only one of countless examples within the song where reading between the lines unearths a deep reflection of society and how Frank Ocean as an artist views his fame and his image under the scrutiny of those who unknowingly influence
Taste, which is, after all, the insecurity of the middle class, became the homosexual's licentiate to challenge the rule of nature,” (Rodriguez 124). This stereotype communicates to the general public that homosexuality or the ones that fall in the boxes of LGBTQ (and more) are the individuals that have taste in fashion, makeup, food, home decor, etc., also even by claiming to be something out of heterosexuality disrupted the laws of nature which is smart for Rodriguez to input in Late Victorians. In addition, the use of symbolism in Rodriguez’s essay regarding homosexuality is portrayed as a home. The Victorian houses that were built for middle-class individuals, which were being claimed by homosexual men to live in, marry, or start a family in, in San Francisco. The portrayal of home as a place of comfort, safety, and family were things that homosexual men (or women), and anything in between craved for in mortality like heterosexual beings. Apart from the symbolism, I noticed that Rodriguez liked metaphors, anaphora, hyperbole, and repetition in his
But he does not simply dispel the myths of early 20th century gay life, he also details such myths to...
The tragicomic Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel, is generally considered one of the most important pieces of the modern LGBTQ canon of literature. The graphic novel tells the story of Alison Bechdel’s attempt to find the truth about her father’s sexuality and what lead him to possibly commit suicide. Along the way, Bechdel finds her own sexuality. Bechdel’s choice to write about her and her father’s simultaneous journey to finding their sexuality was revolutionary at the time. Very few authors were writing openly about their own sexuality, and something even more revolutionary that Bechdel addressed was mental illness.
... homosexual being felt in the world around the 1970’s and 1980’s. The time period in which this play was written was one of great dissonance to the LGBT movement. For Harvey Fierstein to be so bold and public with his own lifestyle was truly admirable and brave. Fierstein shows us that ignorance can destroy a life because of what is unknown.
They mention the transition of “the closet,” as being a place in which people could not see you, to becoming a metaphor over the last two decades of the twentieth century used for queers who face a lack of sexual identity. Shneer and Aviv bring together two conflicting ideas of the American view of queerness: the ideas of the past, and the present. They state as queerness became more visible, people finally had the choice of living multiple lives, or integrating one’s lives and spaces (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 245). They highlight another change in the past twenty years as the clash between being queer and studying queerness (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 246-7). They argue that the active and visible contests over power among American queers show that queers now occupy an important place in our culture. They expand on the fact that queerness, real, and performed, is everywhere (Shneer and Aviv 2006: 248). This source shows the transformation in American culture of the acceptance of queerness. It makes an extremely critical resource by providing evidence of the changes in culture throughout the last two decades. Having the information that queerness is becoming more accepted in culture links to a higher percentage of LGBTQ youths becoming comfortable with their sexual identity. However, compared to the other sources, this
On television, I watched characters such as Marco del Rossi and Paige Michalchuk on the Canadian teen-drama Degrassi. These were the first positive experiences I had of what gay culture was like. Of what I saw, I did not feel like I fit into that lifestyle/group. On the other hand, the movie The Matthew Shepard Story shared the violent side of homosexuality’s history in the retelling of Matthew Shepard’s murder.
homosexual liberation. Some have demonstrated their anger and concerns about prejudice against homosexuals in both riots and artistic forms. Therefore, these people seek to prove to the heterosexual world that homosexual ‘deviancy’ was a myth.
Andrew Sullivan, author of, What is a Homosexual, portrays his experience growing up; trapped in his own identity. He paints a detailed portrait of the hardships caused by being homosexual. He explains the struggle of self-concealment, and how doing so is vital for social acceptation. The ability to hide one’s true feelings make it easier to be “invisible” as Sullivan puts it. “The experience of growing up profoundly different in emotional and psychological makeup inevitably alters a person’s self-perception.”(Sullivan)This statement marks one of the many reasons for this concealment. The main idea of this passage is to reflect on those hardships, and too understand true self-conscious difference. Being different can cause identity problems, especially in adolescents.
The opening poem brings up ideas of unfamiliarity and distance. Frank is confused with how his house has changed so much after he has come back from war, but in reality, he was only denying his past, deceiving himself. The lock and the key represent how even though Frank wants to get rid of his bad memories, they’ll always stay with him, just like how his past can never be erased. In contrast, at the end of the novel, the poem positively finishes the story, using words such as “strong,” “beautiful,” “alive and well.” It completely contrasts the beginning where darkness looms with the “shadow” of the house. Cee in the end, says the words “Let’s go home,” again emphasizing her pride for her home, Lotus. Also, the novel’s last word, “home” resolves the internal battle that has recurred throughout Cee’s and Frank’s
The first stanza describes the depth of despair that the speaker is feeling, without further explanation on its causes. The short length of the lines add a sense of incompleteness and hesitance the speaker feels towards his/ her emotions. This is successful in sparking the interest of the readers, as it makes the readers wonder about the events that lead to these emotions. The second and third stanza describe the agony the speaker is in, and the long lines work to add a sense of longing and the outpouring emotion the speaker is struggling with. The last stanza, again structured with short lines, finally reveals the speaker 's innermost desire to "make love" to the person the speaker is in love
The topic of homosexuality has become a constant issue throughout our society for many years. Many people believe that being gay is not acceptable for both religious and moral reasons. Because being gay is not accepted, many homosexuals may feel shame or guilt because of the way they live their everyday lives. This in turn can affect how the person chooses to live their life and it can also affect who the person would like to become. Growing up, David Sedaris struggled to find the common ground between being gay as well as being a normal teenager. He often resorted to the conclusion that you could not be both. Sedaris allows us to see things through his young eyes with his personable short story "I Like Guys". Throughout his short story, Sedaris illustrates to the reader what it was like growing up being gay as well as how the complexities of being gay, and the topic of sexuality controlled his lifestyle daily. He emphasizes the shame he once felt for being gay and how that shame has framed him into the person he has become.
Right away Macklemore establishes his credibility and knowledge, ethos, by stating, "When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay, 'Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight" (Haggerty, Lewis, Lambert, 2102). With such a forceful statement, he shows that he can relate to this issue, which gives him the credibility that people look for in such an important topic. By speaking of personal experience, this gives the audience a closer look into his life and may feel a connection that many people might need to relate and understand the lyrics or topic of the song. With the song beginning with an anecdote about Macklemore as a third grader fearing he was gay brings a great sense of the ethos appeal. This directly illustrates society’s corruption of an innocent child’s mind with the fear of being gay and believing that being gay would be a fault. This opening anecdot...
Not everyone may realize that sexual behavior and sexual identity are two distinguishable ideas, though they are closely related. Sexual behavior is, as it sounds, the way one acts sexually. Sexual identity is how one interprets themselves in regards to sex, gender, and sexual orientation. Sexual identity has more to do with performativity, than physical sexual acts. This paper aims to identify the ways in which sexual behavior becomes known as sexual identity and how the queer theoretical insights of Marinucci and Mottier lead to the understanding of this development.
He felt personally attacked by these assumptions as a young child and speaks about it in his song: “When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay/‘cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight” (Macklemore Ln 1-2). There are a couple of prejudices in these lyrics. He is giving you the idea that men who like art are thought of as gay and that men who do things that are associated with women tendencies, such as keeping their room straight, are also gay. These are a few examples of how people typically try to identify a gay man. He continued these lyrics with “…bunch of stereotypes all in my head/a preconceived idea of what it all meant/for those that liked the same sex/had the characteristics” (Macklemore Ln 6,8-10). He is explaining here that society believes that gay people have certain characteristics that make them who they are. It is this kind of judgment that makes people not want to be linked to these stereotypes. With imagery, he shows a father and son playing football happily in their front yard. This is the normal idea of what a boy should grow up doing. He also shows two young girls playing with dolls which is another idea of gender roles. If someone sees a boy playing with a doll, they are likely to think it is wrong because society thinks that that would make them gay and that that is not right. In “Same Love” Macklemore
...viant, thus marginalized even demonized. While in recent times there has undeniably been a greater sense of acceptance toward homosexuals, there are definitely generalizations that tend to hinder the overall perspective on identity. The issue of sexual identity and gender has recently been brought to the forefront of social discourse due largely to the major activism of the LGBTQ community and countless progressive institutions. Through the recognition of the gender binary one can see that there are an array of preferences for being and behaving. Rather than having to follow traditional roles people should be able to be masculine, feminine, androgynous, aggressive, vulnerable, or indifferent. The issue is not necessarily diversity, but rather openness to gender possibilities and the freedom to experiment and shamelessly explore facets of one’s individual expression.