Sam Smith on Feeling 'Just as Much Woman as I Am Man'

Rolling Stone ^ | October 23, 2017 | Joyce Chen

[EdnaMode]

Prior to the release of his sophomore album, Thrill of It All, Sam Smith told U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times about his own gender fluidity.

"I love a heel," Smith said. "I've got loads of heels at home. … People don't know this, but when I was 17, I remember becoming obsessed with Boy George and Marilyn, and all that. There was one moment in my life where I didn't own a piece of male clothing, really. I would wear full make-up every day in school, eyelashes, leggings with Dr. Martens and huge fur coats – for two and a half years."

"I don't know what the title would be, but I feel just as much woman as I am man," he added, explaining that he doesn't consider himself a cisgender man. (The British singer also made mention of his favorite drag shop in Sydney, Australia, House of Priscilla, which he raids every time he's in town: "Oh, my God, I just buy everything – heels, dresses," he said. "We have a great time.")

Smith, who came out publicly in May 2014 in the lead-up to the release of his debut album, In the Lonely Hour, also addressed his sexuality.

"Looking back on it, it was the fear of saying the wrong thing and offending," Smith said of why he decided to wait before coming out to fans. "And I was 19 when I started writing the first album. I'd just moved to London from a village – I was literally the only gay in the village. I didn't know what I wanted to say."

Part of his hesitation, he explained, was in wanting to have his talents be the topic of conversation, not his sexuality.

"I remember, at the beginning of my career, being called a 'gay singer,' and I didn't want that," he said. "I wanted to be seen as a singer first, before people spoke about my private life. And now it's changed – I've changed. I realize that maybe I don't mind that title."

Smith added that his new songs mark a departure from his former, more reticent self, now that he is able to be more open about who he is.

"I think they show my growth, my confidence," he said of the tracks off his upcoming album. "I feel like they show me. They show the gay guy I've become."

[EdnaMode]

There are only two genders.

[Tea Party Terrorist]

Things have a gender. People have a sex. There are only 2 sexes.

Take back the language.

[Lurkinanloomin]

There are only two sexes.

Gender refers to language.

[Lurkinanloomin]

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

FREEPATHON UPDATE


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[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Well, that’s great. Now, who is this person?

[faithhopecharity]

These folks have a difficult condition to deal with in life. I wish them all the best. But I wish they’d stop telling us all this stuff. They cab tell their clergy and psychiatrists but I don’t want to hear their problems all the time. Again, I sincerely wish them well. It’s just that this stuff is a terrible replacement for real journalism 😉and there’s nothing I can do to help them

[Pollster1]

'Just as Much Woman as I Am Man' . . . "I love a heel," Smith said. "I've got loads of heels at home . . . I would wear full make-up every day in school, eyelashes, leggings with Dr. Martens and huge fur coats – for two and a half years.

I know and love a lot of real women - my mother, my wife, and my daughters. Not one real woman whom I know wears full make-up even every few days, let alone fake eyelashes. The reason they have special drag shops is that these freaks don't dress like women; they dress like some fetish parody of women. It's not just clothing size that is different for these oddballs. He is in no way a woman, not like any woman I know or want to meet. Women are people. They are normal. They don't get titillated over that sort of thing, not in the way that drag queens do.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

"I love a heel," Smith said. "I've got loads of heels at home. … People don't know this, but when I was 17, I remember becoming obsessed with Boy George

Yeah....none of that makes you a woman, pal.

[workerbee]

If you have teenagers, like I do, this is the s**t you’re fighting 24/7. And this is actually tame compared to a lot of it.

[dfwgator]

That’s the guy that ripped off Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”, right?

[databoss]

Shut up Sam.

[Dr. Sivana]

From Fowler's "Modern English Usage" edited by Sir Ernest Gowers (Oxford, second edition, 1965):

"Gender, n., is a grammatical term only. To talk of 'persons' or 'creatures of the masculine or feminine gender,' meaning 'of the male or female sex,' is either a jocularity (permissible or not according to context) or a blunder."

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/27/opinion/l-gender-can-t-replace-sex-but-what-can-667090.html

[RetiredTexasVet]

So why should anyone care about your freakish ways?

[Pilgrim's Progress]

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[Trillian]

[Yaelle]

Oh wow, I never thought about that before. Stay With Me and Won’t Back Down... wow.

[Gay State Conservative]

What is it about showbiz that attracts so many freaks,losers,perverts and scumbags?

[dfwgator]

Look who is running the industry? Guys like David Geffen.

[lefty-lie-spy]

You and Lazamataz are in full poofter cahoots today, aren’t you?