Wendy Carlos Quotes

“Instead, she was hurt because of how little he and magazine had printed about what she called the “real” her: her interests, observations, philosophies, humor, and other things that she said made her a “three-dimensional” person.47 She asked Bell why he couldn’t have allowed just a little bit of her “soul” to peek through in the interview instead of focusing “monomaniacally” on her gender and the “medical stuff.”48”
― Amanda Sewell, Wendy Carlos: A Biography

“Carlos didn’t use the Moog synthesizer because she was transgender or because she was trying to “escape” or “transcend” her gender identity or her physical body. She had been a workaholic since childhood, and she has said those work habits were responses to fear, depression, and isolation that she experienced. She couldn’t disclose her gender identity to anyone out of fear of how they might respond, so she didn’t date, had few friends, and threw herself into work. The Moog might have been the recipient of the workaholic energy that resulted from her isolation and depression, but it was not a tool through which she channeled her gender identity to create music.”
― Amanda Sewell, Wendy Carlos: A Biography

“One user wrote that they were frightened by her because “the whole sex-change thing doesn’t sit well with me and I really don’t feel comfortable associating myself with it in any way.” When pressed, the same user said they would throw away their King Crimson albums if Robert Fripp transitioned to female because “I don’t want anyone to have a reason to think I am a pervert.” Several users mocked her and made crass suggestions about medical procedures she had undergone, such as one user referring to “the chop” and another suggesting that a person whose “outie became an innie” would be making “regressive” rock, instead of progressive rock. This thread is one example many in which a question or discussion about Carlos’s music is almost immediately derailed in favor of a discussion about her gender.”
― Amanda Sewell, Wendy Carlos: A Biography

“The responses often include everything from insults to photos to music that is posted with the single intention of injuring her because she is transgender. Further, her gender is what is used to injure her. Nobody tries to seek their revenge by claiming that they now hate her music or that she isn’t talented. E.E.R., for example, removed its positive reviews of Carlos’s music and replaced them with a photo of her taken before she had transitioned, as opposed to replacing the positive reviews with negative reviews.”
― Amanda Sewell, Wendy Carlos: A Biography