Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

by Andrea Lawlor

“Think about it,” said Paul. “When women cover songs by men, they don’t swap the pronouns. Is this a.) a lack of anxiety about convention, b.) a biologically essential fluidity native to humans with vaginas and/or two X chromosomes, c.) rampant queerness among women singers, or d.) the universal male default?” “Um, C?” said Dallas. “Yes!” Paul cried. “It is all that and more. Usually the gender reversal of the singer deliciously implies queer desire, as in Siouxsie and the Banshees’ ‘Dear Prudence,’ The Slits’ ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine,’ Joan Jett’s ‘Crimson and Clover,’ Everything But The Girl’s ‘Alison,’ or Patti Smith’s ‘Gloria,’ in which her seductive gutterpunk vocals make the Van Morrison original sound as played-out as the locker-room boasts of a high-school football star.”