@exhaustedanger

2 years ago

for those curious about the meaning about the song: will wood is cis and the song is describing his experience with gender identity and femininity! interpret it for yourself as you want, but be aware of that/don't insist will is trans. here's his whole statement about it if you're interested: "Some fans have started to harass me and my friends believing that this song is an expression of some kind of transphobia. I normally try to ignore fan harassment, but I find the idea of this particularly disgusting. This song is, as I’ve said, about my experiences with my gender identity. It’s none of your business, but I once identified as genderqueer, until I realized that my attraction to traditionally feminine things did not interfere with my identity as a man. I didn’t want to define non-binary with my good old-fashioned cross-dressing, because I don’t want to speak for anyone else. I came to realize that my refusal and/or failure to meet the behavioral standards of my gender role did not make me less of a man, and anyone (cis or trans) who tells me that wearing makeup now and again makes me less of a man can shove it. After struggling for some time, I realized that my genderqueer identity wasn’t necessary for me, that I was wearing it as a prop in order to serve a purpose. The song is about my experiences and any amount of satire or targeted poking fun it does is at people who are doing what I know I did at the time. Partially in the hopes of drawing people away from that toxicity like I wish something had for me at the time. I admit that some lyrics were added after fans started refusing to accept that I am not trans, even going so far as to tell me to my face that I am regardless of what I tell them, and would not listen to my explanations of the song. My frustration with the fact that there were far more non-binary people refusing to accept my cisgender identity than there ever were cisgender people refusing to accept my genderqueer identity likely had me writing with a little more venom than I would have otherwise – but the target is still, when it comes down to it, myself. Also, I was tripping balls at a casino, leave me alone. To boil it down, the song is about how I respond to my frustration with the limitations of the male gender role, the maladaptive ways I’ve coped with that frustration, and trying to figure out if this experience or any other regarding my gender can or should define me. It reaches the same conclusion that most of my work does – and that is that nothing is real and that if something is hurting us we have the power to cast it off. As I said with my entire second album, clinging too hard to one’s identity in the wrong way can hurt oneself and others, and I know for sure that’s what I was doing – and anyone who has attacked me or my friends over it is likely doing that too. Seriously at least have the basic human decency to leave my friends out of it if you can’t resist abusing me. I, as I’ve said clearly, wholly and firmly support the movement for the acceptance on non-binary gender identities. I myself would call myself cisgender, but I believe it’s incredibly important that we as a society move toward a place where gender roles no longer limit us, control us, and hurt us. I can only clarify so much better without just repeating what I’ve already written, so I’ll leave it at that. Thanks for listening, hope this suffices, join my Patreon."

15K |