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Original poster

Skin (Skunk Anansie)

91 replies

Shedbuilder · 07/11/2020 19:45

Skin is appearing at the Hay Festival. Apparently she's an LGBTQ+ activist. First I've heard of it. I'm a lesbian and I keep an eye out for lesbians in the media and entertainment world and I failed to spot her. The blurb from the festival says she's been championing LGBTQ+ issues during her 25-year career. Who knew?

www.hayfestival.com/p-17148-it-takes-blood-and-guts.aspx

OP posts:
jj1968 · 07/11/2020 22:49

@DidoLamenting

That is such a hyperbolically silly thing to say. I find quite a lot of the gender critical stuff hyperbolic but that's hardly a sensible counter.

Obviously there are different shades of right wing conservatives, but there's are certainly elements in the American right who would seek to see LGBT people criminalised or somehow eliminated from society in other ways, as they would feminists. So whilst few right wing conservatives would support death camps many of them do very much want a society without feminists and LGBT people in it. How they hope to achieve that varies. So whilst a touch hyperbolic, she's not entirely wrong in her sentiment. Hard right and religious conservatives are a very real and present threat towards both feminists and trans people, and we are better off working together against them. As we will should that threat ever truly materialise in the UK. Well most of us will.

7Days · 07/11/2020 22:47

Bit much Skin, it Was Ok When We Did It, eh?

Not very consistent.

Loved them.back in the day.

PersonaNonGarter · 07/11/2020 22:47

I knew. She snogged my neighbour.

Smellbellina · 07/11/2020 22:44

@DidoLamenting love love love you username!

DidoLamenting · 07/11/2020 22:42

I'm a year older than you OP.

Smellbellina · 07/11/2020 22:42

I absolutely love her and I love their music.

I don't agree with her stance regarding feminism and trans activists, but I still love her and her music.

Original poster
Shedbuilder · 07/11/2020 22:35

I'm clearly too old! I was aware of Skunk Anansie and Skin but I was clearly too old to be reading the relevant music press/ watching the right TV programmes in the late 90s. The reason I used to keep an eye out for high-profile lesbians was because for several years I wrote a little column on famous lesbians for a local lesbian newsletter and would have loved to have included her. Though not quite so keen now I see she's swallowed the koolaid.

OP posts:
Butterer · 07/11/2020 22:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DidoLamenting · 07/11/2020 22:28

I've socialised in lesbian and gay circles for the last 40 years and I've genuinely never heard her mentioned as a lesbian

I'm as heterosexual and heteronormative as you could find and I've never knowingly heard her music but even I knew she was a lesbian.

BlueCatRedCat · 07/11/2020 22:27

@tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz

She's beautiful, Hedonism is possibly the most gorgeous song ever and her voice on it is incredible. The nostalgia is I feel for that time when I hear it is almost painful.
I remember watching an interview in the '90s with an opera singing teacher, who said Skin was the one popular artist (at that time) who could have been an opera singer.
OnceUponAMidnightBeery · 07/11/2020 22:27

@tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz

She's beautiful, Hedonism is possibly the most gorgeous song ever and her voice on it is incredible. The nostalgia is I feel for that time when I hear it is almost painful.
This. Also didn’t know she was appearing, thanks for the heads up.
DidoLamenting · 07/11/2020 22:25

The enemy to feminists are right-wing conservatives who want all of us fucking dead

That is such a hyperbolically silly thing to say. I find quite a lot of the gender critical stuff hyperbolic but that's hardly a sensible counter.

I've heard of Skin and Skunk Anansie but have never knowingly her any of her or their music. I listened to a few things on YouTube and was underwhelmed- nothing held my interest to the end of the song.

This is the rest of what she has to say about "T*s"

T*s

“It’s a really dated approach. I can understand that women are angry but I think it’s counterproductive, the point of it is – we shouldn’t have territories. We should all feel free to be in each other’s worlds and be accepted by each other. I was part of a black women-only group in my early 20’s, the reason why we did that is we felt we weren’t included in any gay stuff at all. It was all just white men. So we created something for ourselves. We wouldn’t need to do that now. Back then we did it for strength but nowadays inclusion is so much more powerful

Butterer · 07/11/2020 22:23

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LordLancington · 07/11/2020 22:21

I thought she was almost the stereotype of a lesbian! I was aware of her being one decades ago.

Butterer · 07/11/2020 22:19

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Original poster
Shedbuilder · 07/11/2020 22:09

I've obviously missed every single opportunity she's taken to speak out in support of lesbians: my mistake. One of my unknown unknowns. I'm just about to turn 60, I've been an out lesbian since my early 20s, I've socialised in lesbian and gay circles for the last 40 years and I've genuinely never heard her mentioned as a lesbian, let alone a spokeslesbian fighting fearlessly for our rights.

I was, as spotted by one pp, alluding to the fact that when she started her career there was just LGB, trans wasn't a thing and the people calling themselves queer were us (in an attempt to rehabilitate the word.)

OP posts:
jj1968 · 07/11/2020 21:04

@OhHolyJesus

I think the OP is pointing out how the BGT have been added to what Skin championed, or at least the G and the T.

You could champion lesbian rights only or awareness of lesbian issues only but you would still be labelled as being a champion for LGBT as you can no longer have the one without the other 3.

At least I read this as the point of the OP. I still love Skunk Anansie and always knew Skin was a lesbian, not that it meant much to me at the time, I just liked their music, very angry, it suited me as much then as it does now.

She has vocally supported trans people

I feel very strongly that liberal people and left-wing people are very good at tearing each other apart. Trans people are not the enemy to feminists. The enemy to feminists are right-wing conservatives who want all of us fucking dead, and I think we can put so much energy into excluding each other and tearing each other apart that we make ourselves as a whole, much much weaker! Right-wing people use that weakness to make themselves stronger.

gcn.ie/sexism-racism-homophobia-skin-skunk-anansie/

eddiemairswife · 07/11/2020 21:04

She apparently went to my old school.

Jbck · 07/11/2020 20:57

Me, I knew.

HalfBrick · 07/11/2020 20:51

I think she was the first out lesbian I remember growing up (Navratilova et al weren't really shouting it from the rooftops though obvs we knew). Those lyrics about 'smelly fingers from the sex we had on Xmas day'? Had a male friend who thought that was outrageous Grin She still has that cute high pitched speaking voice #icon.

ArabellaScott · 07/11/2020 20:48

She is majestically awesome. I walked past her on the street once and it was quite a jaw dropping moment.

InFlagranteDerelicto · 07/11/2020 20:45

I always thought she was fantastic, much more my type of music than Boyzone or Take That, that my friends were into.

AgathaTabathaBagatha · 07/11/2020 20:42

Not sure what is the point of this thread....

NiceGerbil · 07/11/2020 20:40

Op so she's been an out lesbian for decades.

Does that help with your question?

Butterer · 07/11/2020 20:40

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