That Time Annie Lennox Was Asked To Prove She Was a Woman
On the price and power of image
The eponymous incident is a rather small one, but it carries big implications. It takes place in the 80s, although it could also take place today. Time is a circle, and one of its many curves finds us on tour with the Eurythmics in America. Preparing for performances and riding off the back of their uber-successful hit Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), a familiar snag hits their stride.
Can anyone really be sure Annie Lennox is a woman?
She wears suits and short hair, after all. Did you see the way she wielded that riding crop? Surely, that’s a man’s tool! All of this furor culminated in her being asked to show her passport to prove she was born a woman, which was equated with sex, but I think we know better by now.
In order to understand how we got there, we must first flashback to one of their first singles released called Love Is a Stranger. The video for this song premiered during the early days of MTV when it was just beginning to be a real hot spot and career-maker for musicians. This exposition is for those of us who have only known it as a former husk of what it once was.
They submitted the video in a rush, so it couldn’t be reviewed before it aired…
