At the age of 57, Prince died on April 21, 2016 at his Paisley Park recording studio and home in Chanhassen, Minnesota. He was one of the few superstars whose personality could match the gender-fluid indulgence. His music with flashy pansexuality and gender norm dalliance was compelling by his amazing talents as a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor. Before the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), Prince presented a living case study in the glorious freedom a world without stringent labels might offer.
Before diversity became a popular word, Prince was doing that throughout his life by being colorful in his masculinity and femininity. He believed in creating your own identity outside traditional boundaries. For example, the time Prince wrote the word “slave” on his face.
In 1996, he told Rolling Stone “People think I’m a crazy fool for writing ‘slave’ on my face, but if I can’t do what I want to do, what am I? When you stop a man from dreaming, he becomes a slave. That’s where I was. I don’t own Prince’s music. If you don’t own your masters, your master owns you.”
Prince also embraced gender and sexuality. When he decided to change his name to “the Love symbol” in 1993, he recreated the gender symbols to to signify trans, genderqueer, or intersex people.
Prince inspired not only people who were genderqueer. He also inspired other musicians. For example, he inspired Adam Levine. In 2011, Levine and his wife, Behati Prinsloo, posed nude for Cosmo U.K. while his wife’s hands covering his junk. The image was a reiteration of a cover Prince did decades earlier for Notorious, wearing a bouffant, hoop earring, fuzzy purple coat, and the wandering hands of a female lover. Another example of inspiring other superstars is Ruby Rose. She made a short film about gender roles, Trans, and what it is like to have an identity that deviates from the status quo.
Even though Prince was very open of gender fluidity, his personal life and sexuality was still a mystery. Some of his songs seemed to be pansexual and this led his fans to believe he was gay. On Prince’s song Controversy, he addressed his multiracial background along with his sexuality: “Am I black or white? Am I straight or gay?” Also in When You Were Mine, it was a song about sleeping in bed with a girl while her new boyfriend being in between them. Lastly the opening line from I Would Die 4 U, “I’m not a woman. I’m not a man. I am something that you’ll never understand.” Prince has told concerned interviewers that he was straight, but more often, he held a grudge about why does it matter? That didn’t stop even straight-identified men from embracing after him.
In his personal life, Prince became a Jehovah’s Witness in 2001. He believed in heterosexual marriage and a pleasant immortal afterlife. When Prince was asked about his perspective on social issues (gay marriage and abortion), Prince tapped his Bible and said, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’”
Prince had such a big impact on people’s lives and left a legacy. He taught us and helped us understand what the difference is between identity, behavior, and perception. In other words how we think of ourselves, what we do, and how others think of us. Prince dismantled and queered what contemporary culture has tried to bracket. He broke boundaries. Prince created both transcendent music and his own identity and did neither for anyone’s approval or opinion. He was the voice for the silent. Just being a music icon wasn’t enough for him. Prince was an icon for those to wear makeup and whatever clothes people wanted to. He never cared whether his choices were on the gender binary. Prince was Prince.