By Jon Pressick
Angie Bowie is far more than a famous last name. Yes, she was married to David Bowie. She is widely-considered as a main influence on David’s breakout years in the early 70’s. But she is so much more than just attached to that last name. A highly considered writer, musician, dj and bisexual advocate, Angie is a true renaissance woman.
Born in Cyprus, Angie spent her youth being educated in England, Switzerland and the United States. She was expelled from the Connecticut College for Women for having an affair with another student. She met David in 1969 and they married a year later. They have one son together. She also has a daughter with punk musician Drew Blood.
With the release of her autobiographical bestseller, Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie in 1993, and the fact that the delicious film Velvet Goldmine is loosely based on her life with David, you might think Angie Bowie is just another groupie. Far from it. This is a person who has continually challenged her self in many different artistic genres. She’s released an album called Moon Goddess and she recently released a new book, POP.SEX.
She is also a frequent commentator on bisexuality. In 2002 she authored the Pocket Essentials book Bisexuality. Her Lecture on Bisexuality can be found on her website, and it is definitely a provocative read. She also has a website for people to ask her questions. I caught up with her for bisexual.com via email, after missing her recent visit to Toronto for a djing gig.
What do you think are the major issues for bisexuals over the time since you discovered your bisexuality, from the 60s to present?
The major issues for bisexuals since the 1960s are visibility and health—the advent of AIDS and its discovery in the early 1980s and not being seen, not being known, having no voice, this was not a good time or a good thing. Focusing attention on the existence of bisexuality was more subtle and required more time and due diligence to make the case and consistently be sane and rational so that entertainment stereotypes of crazy bisexuals were discarded and there was a fair playing field for all sexuality. There was always an issue with venereal disease. Multiple partners and licentious behavior do not encourage good health, honesty or safe sexual practices.
One cannot allow one’s sexual behavior to upset the general good health of friends and partners by selfishly doing whatever you want with no thought as to the possibility that disease could be the result of not taking precautions.
One of the most disturbing trends in the United States are lobbyists and pressure groups who aim to influence our youth by peddling commercials and jargon vilifying termination of pregnancies and the right to choose whether one becomes pregnant and another group who are advocating preserving virginity until one marries. They have to advertise marriage because most folks apart from the odd future parent who does not have the reserve resources of a career or job training need a fiscal guarantee to care for the children.
There has been a significant growth in sex clubs and singles or couples sex clubs that swap partners etc.
The emphasis on taking sexuality to extremes bothers me and yet there is a huge difference in costuming and dress-up since the 1960s. Hopefully this has caused less sexual repression and more pleasure and satisfaction for the average person.
At least the talking points have been established so that now for some folks there is a way to live without the confines of marriage and relationships that are not satisfactory.
Without marriage we still benefit from monogamy.
Monogamy is a much more satisfactory and ethical way of dealing with relationships. Living one’s life as a Soap Opera is tiresome at best and fatal when bottom-lined!
Sexuality itself is an interesting subject and way to encourage folks to talk endlessly about themselves. We are all so sure that no-one has ever experienced our exact dilemma “sexually!” I am here to tell you that you’re wrong!
If you have experienced it; there are several million who share your experience. Terrifying though it is, just as there are aliens due to the sheer number of planets and stars so someone else has thought of what you are thinking and describing.
There are 20 million hermaphrodites on the planet at any one time. In my new book POP.SEX the collected facts about sexuality are remarkable and astounding; to the point that one’s previous conversations on the subject
melt like warm ice-cream.
Did you ever waver in your bisexuality? Did you question yourself?
Yes, of course I questioned myself. I never wavered in my belief that bisexuality is perfectly acceptable and a choice that one makes. But when you hear all the tired old cliches from drunken people in bars that you are not bisexual you must be either straight or gay and live that way. I wanted to respond, and have on many occasions, that that is even more unfair than the challenges that gay folks and women have endured for years. If I am not totally straight why should I be gay…because you say so?
Why should I abandon the sexuality that suits me because others think it is their place to tell me how to enjoy my sexuality? I would not practice any sexuality apart from that of the committed relationship in which ones finds oneself.
Who did you look up to as a bisexual icon or role-model?
Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde epitomizes the bisexual hero. The Ballad of Reading Gaol hastened prison reform in Victorian England. All those public School boys couldn’t bear the thought of one of their own and an Irishman enduring that sort of barbaric imprisonment for something that many of them had dabbled in at school when there weren’t any women around. Wilde’s refusal to give in to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas’ oafish father cost him his health and career after two years of hard labor he was broken by the legal system. In the British legal system at that time it was against the law to be Gay. “One could not practice sodomy either men or women. The Church was in everyone’s bedroom.” Oscar Wilde protected his wife and children from public scrutiny and humiliation; as a result we almost did not realize what a magnificent, talented, witty and devoted bisexual father, Oscar Wilde was.
Any specific persons of note these days you look up to?
Concerning sexuality? There are a few exemplary folks around but in this time of Republican rabble, their effectiveness is lost in the cacophony of moral and religious indignation about a pat on the butt or a sneak view that shouldn’t have happened of someone’s tit. It’s all bullshit. “Thou protest too much.”
Gay marriage, there’s another non-issue that the religious right drag out when the American politicians have painted themselves into a corner. That and flag burning. Most gay people are not dumb enough to want the chains of marriage. But gay and bisexual folk should have the right to ensure succession, inheritance and health insurance for their family and loved ones. Why should they stand in the corner and feel deprived because we did not stand up and make it widespread this wonderful bill of human rights that should be in every person’s house and car has not been upheld.
How do you incorporate your bisexuality into your work and your art?
I don’t think like that. I am who I am. The word art is bandied around too much by those who want to excuse laziness with being “artistic.“ You become an artist when you have painted, sculpted or whatever your forte in the fine arts and been apprenticed at a great master’s side for 30 years.
I am not judgmental about sexuality except I have no time for pedophiles or those who torture and condemn animals to participate in bestiality.
How have you spoken to your children about your bisexuality and
bisexuality in general?
My children know my music and my books, there is no necessity to discuss it with them.
How did your parents and family react to your bisexuality?
They never reacted at all. My parents had no interest in that type of conversation . They were older; I was an afterthought!
Wisdom comes with age. Wisdom includes the lack of interest in playing selection card games as we did as children and as we reach our late 30s, the selection template of our genetic make-up scrolls through the candidates for sex as we prowl through the “need-to-procreate” years. After that time we define ourselves less sexually and more intellectually as we appreciate the breadth and width of human experience.
As humans, we do not lose our interest in sex, we define our reasons for having sex more closely. Thus before one might be driven to couple due to the desire to procreate which affects humans for 25-30 years. The first 10 years we are way too young and the middle period of our sexual prowess 25-40 affords the next generation. After that we start to value the relaxation, decreased stress and all round good times of sex for exercise and well-being.
Your art has spanned many different genres...can you tell us what you’re working on currently?
I am involved in writing several books with some very good friends. I think I had better wait before making any press releases on those projects. And we are selling POP.SEX.
What types of art you might like to revisit?
I am assembling a new album of music and spoken word called Fancy Footwork. Stage work where I can still light up a stage and chew down the scenery!
What currently message do you have for the members of bisexual.com?
Enjoy life with your career, your talent, your children, your job, your family. Find endeavors that maximize your creativity and satisfaction. We have but one life, all the rest is smoke and shadows. Promises of life after death notwithstanding, surely there must be points for having enjoyed a corporal existence while in the physical plane. That’s my lot!
(c) Copryight 2005 Jon Pressick
Jon Pressick is the Feature Articles Editor for bisexual.com. He recently co-produced, with Xtra!, the world’s first queer literary festival, Writing Outside the Margins. Hi lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Reply With Quote
Re: Bisexual.com's Interview with Angie Bowie
Originally Posted by richarddennis
Re: Bisexual.com's Interview with Angie Bowie
Re: Bisexual.com's Interview with Angie Bowie
Bookmarks