“Let the rumors be true.” Janelle Monáe is not, she finally admits, the immaculate android, the “alien from outer space/The cybergirl without a face” she’s claimed to be over a decade’s worth of albums, videos, concerts and even interviews – she is, instead, a flawed, messy, flesh-and-blood 32-year-old human being.
And she has another rumor to confirm. “Being a queer black woman in America,” she says, taking a breath as she comes out, “someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker.” She initially identified as bisexual, she clarifies, “but then later I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.’ I’m open to learning more about who I am.”
Janelle Monae Frees Herself, Rolling Stone April 2018 (x)
we been knowing, but so proud of her for coming out. we only stan legends on this blog!
“Janelle Monae‘s sexuality has long been the topic of speculation, and the “PYNK” singer has finally given her fans a definitive answer. The singer, 32, identifies as pansexual. There you have it! “Being a black queer woman in America,” Janelle told Rolling Stone, “someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherf**ker.” She initially identified as bisexual, “but then later I read about pansexuality and I was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with, too.’ I’m open to leaning more about myself.”
Janelle told the magazine that she wants LGBT youth to listen to her music, especially her new album, Dirty Computer, and feel her support. “I want young girls, young boys, nonbinary, gay, straight, queer people who are having a hard time dealing with their sexuality, dealing with feeling ostracized or bullied for just being their unique selves, to know that I see you.” […] “This album is for you. Be proud.”
She has historically ducked questions about her sexuality, frequently saying that “I only date androids” when asked. Janelle revealed that the truth has been present in her music this whole time. Nobody picked up on the clues. The songs “Mushrooms & Roses” and “Q.U.E.E.N.” reference a character named Mary whom she loves. Mary comes back in a film accompanying her new album, Dirty Computer, played by Tessa Thompson.”
Read the full piece here
YES!!! PAN PRIDE AND VISIBILITY NOT ERASURE!!!
More Janelle Monáe posts
lolol str8s missed the clues
I’ve listened to Mushrooms and Roses so many times for almost a decade. How could you not know it was about a woman’s love for a woman?
Another good one is “Cindi” from her Archandroid debut album. I always suspected she was queer and it has always been there and I’m so proud that she’s finally getting so much attention. Just hope she doesn’t stop making music.
my main and love of my life
I don’t know what fantasy land Janelle Monae is queen of, but I kind of want to go there and swear allegiance to her.
THE QUEEN IS EXPECTING!!
The shoulders of the women that we stand on are three American heroes; Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson. Without them, we would not know how to reach the stars.
“When I started my musical career, I was a maid,” she told the audience. “I used to clean houses. My parents, my mother was a proud janitor. My stepfather, who raised me like his very own, worked at the post office and my father was a trash man — they all wore uniforms. And that’s why I stand here today in my black and white and I wear my uniform to honor them.”
I don’t even care that I already reblogged this because seriously, how is this not a masterpiece painting hanging in the Smithsonian? Everything about this photo just says Romanticism to me
FUCK
if i feel like i just had a religious experience watching that, holy fuck, i can only imagine what that girl felt like.
im honestly sick to my stomach she is amazing
So cute omg
This is the sign the fan was holding!!!!!
this is my favourite.
but wait, there’s more.
nope, not done yet.
hold on… almost done
oh trust me, I can go on.
Yeah, Nicki Minaj seems like a terrible role model to me.
But really, Nicki Minaj isn’t here to mother your children. She’s confident in who she is as a woman and she’s not afraid to show it off.
Thanks to @chescaleigh I actually Googled unprofessional hair. I’m looking for hairstyles for my daughter now. Good looking out.
Apparently I should be checking out this miniseries adaptation of Shakespeare’s history plays, immediate-style.
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG! A black woman playing a white English queen? And I’m not even talking about the armour nonsense. What’s next a native american roman emperor wearing a grass skirt? A white Ghandi wearing ripped jeans and psychedelic shirts?
If you throw reality and historical accuracy out of the window for being PC you’re movie isn’t worth watching because it can have no real message.
And this is why I don’t have any plans to stop blogging here anytime soon. Until the concept that “historical accuracy” means “only cast white people” dies a well-deserved death, I’m going to keep posting art and documents that prove that casting historical adaptations with people of color is MORE accurate that leaving them out. When it comes to Black women characters in European Medieval and Renaissance theater, you can go back to PRIMARY sources and see them for yourself:
It sickens me that after three years of posting my research, there are still people who look at images as beautiful as these and say that it’s wrong. This is a Shakespeare adaptation; are you seriously sitting there thinking that everyone’s in Shakespeare’s writing, or in Elizabethan England, was white? The idea of people of color existing outside where YOU think they should be is somehow ridiculous?
Just a few highlights from the Met Gala. It turns out Beyoncé’s dress may have been the most polarizing of the night, while Lupita Nyong’o stole the show with her stunning sky-high hair.
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