Point of Disgust — Perfume Genius & Alan Sparhawk
#365Songs: November 23rd
Once, I was lost
To the point of disgust
I had in my sight
Lack of vision
Lack of light
There will be no marches, no pussy hats, no protests in the streets. We’re all too tired for that, too defeated. And besides, if this plays out the way we suspect, the way HE indicates, too much public resistance will be met with armed militias and the National Guard.
Do I believe that will happen? I do. Will there likely be some resistance on the inside from leaders and soldiers with a conscience? Sure, I buy that, but it won’t matter. Our military is trained to honor one MAN, and that MAN is the President.
Nah, we won’t protest that way this time. Or, at least, the masses won’t. That doesn’t mean we’ll be quiet. It just means we’ll find new ways to scream from the darkness, our collective voices and expressions together mounting a more soulful, perhaps more desperate resistance.
It begins with artists, as it always does. The writers and musicians, filmmakers and photographers, dancers and street artists. Raw truth through the most human form of expression, stories and symbols built on metaphors and empathy, exposing the systemic cracks while dreaming up other possibilities.
That’s what we do when it all comes undone, that’s how we rebuild, reconnect, stay sane, find hope.
I fell hard
I fell fast
Mercy me
It’ll never last
then, in the dust
All the things
We discussed
Were thrown to the wind
There have always been countless vulnerable Americans, beginning with the indigenous peoples who were mass slaughtered in the name of colonization and “freedom.” From there, we enslaved millions, established systemic laws to imprison and devalue non-White lives and women, underpaid migrant and immigrant populations while capitalizing on their labor, and minimized the lives of queer and counter-normative lifestyles. Though we’ve made progress, slowly, we’ve also reversed many of those trends in recent years.
Now, the anti-Woke movement led by those least likely to understand the concept of “Woke” is once again in power, thus making life more and more dangerous for tens of millions of Americans.
We’re a country that loves to punch down, to find the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us and make life even more difficult. Life has never been easy for the Trans community, but this election cycle has demonized, misrepresented, and targeted a population that asks for nothing more than recognition, peace, and safety.
And that gets us back to art as protest, the one tool we have to tell the stories that best represent the broad range of human experiences. Last week, Red Hot dropped the 46-track compilation, TRANSA, featuring over 80 artists — many of whom are Trans and non-binary, and singing alongside allies.
According to the New York Times, Dust Reid, one of the album’s architects, “pushed for ‘Transa’ to feature an overarching narrative, delineated in eight sections meant to echo the number of colors in the original rainbow flag. Together, the segments trace the emotional evolution of anyone discovering, exploring or working to accept their gender, from ‘Grief’ and ‘Survival’ to ‘Acceptance’ and ‘Reinvention.’”
So at last
We begin
’cause we fall hard
We fall fast
Mercy me
It’ll never last
Last month, I wrote about Sade’s track on the compilation, Young Lion, a gut-punch apology letter to her Trans son, Isaak. Another standout is Point of Disgust, a stunning collaboration between Perfume Genius and Low’s Alan Sparhark — who originally wrote the song with his late wife, Mimi.
It’s been rare these days, but when I can look beyond the darkness of this moment there’s still an optimist in me, the voice in my head that reminds me how much beauty is created when we’re at our most desperate, most vulnerable. TRANSA is a hell of a start, the exact proof we need of what happens when we organize and bleed magic and meaning back into the world.
We fall fast
Mercy me
It’ll never last
~
Start following the #365Songs playlist today, and listen to each new song with each new article!
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