Supplemental Post #7 - Erin Cooney

Since we chatted about Janelle Monáe in class yesterday, she came out! https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/cover-story-janelle-monae-prince-new-lp-her-sexuality-w519523 The whole interview is great and she talks about being queer and identifying with bisexuality and then pansexuality (it does also mean that I will have to go lie down on the ground for like 4 months while a bunch of media outlets attempt to define bisexuality vs. pansexuality to VASTLY VARIABLE RESULTS, but that's fine (for one example: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soloish/wp/2018/04/26/janelle-monae-comes-out-as-pansexual-what-does-that-mean/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.74640aeb3812)). In the interview, she goes on to chat about how her queerness was already visible in her previous work and also speaks a little about how her new album will engage with sexuality and queerness. I think it's really rad to hear her open up about her sexuality and make explicit a lot of the themes and conversations she's been having about this in her music for a long time, so I would definitely recommend reading the interview! She's great and I'm super excited to hear the rest of her new album (it comes out tomorrow?? is that true???), I hope she continues to thrive forever. And we'll see what this does for her image and how people interact with that/respond to her; queer folks in the public eye get a lot of particular pressure on them to be out (and to be out in particular terms, really), but when they are able and willing to take on that pressure and that openness, there's no doubt that there are a lot of positives that can come from that, which also seems to be part of what Janelle Monáe's reflecting on in the interview. It's probably a weird position to be in, but I think it's rad she came out and I hope it helps her to be and do well as she goes forward!