One thing that stood out to me this week was Aristophanes’ part of the Symposium, where he details the three original genders. I thought it was really cool that it showed up in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” especially the changes made to the story.
I’ll start out by acknowledging how weird the story is. Imagining humans rolling around like that is really weird. I tried explaining it to some friends and we all agreed not to think too hard about the anatomy from before humans were split up. However, at its heart, creative license as to the shape of humans aside, it is a story about soul mates. Like Aubrey mentioned in class, it is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, known example of soul mates (I also welcome anyone correcting that statement).
Personally, I like the idea of soul mates. I’m a romantic optimist that way. The thought that there is someone out there who is perfect for you certainly is appealing. It guarantees that there is someone who will love you. Someone who completes you. However, there are plenty of problems with soul mates. It limits people with the expectation that there is someone “who completes you,” when really, relationships are about communication and compromise. To expect otherwise does a disservice to your partner.
In thinking about this post, I’ve listened to “Origin of Love” a lot of times and some parts stood out to me. It doesn’t really have a happy ending. It has two people looking at each other who were once connected, but neither recognizes the other. It compares love to pain. A pain which comes from being separated from your other half. It calls humans “Lonely two-legged creatures.” It really emphasizes the tragic aspect of love, going so far as to call the origin of love a sad story. We would not have love if we hadn’t been separated and become lonely. It’s honestly quite a sad song despite it’s more upbeat tempo.
Within Plato’s Symposium, there is the implication that, because Love hates old age, you have to find your soul mate when you are still young. If you don’t, you will never find love. Ignoring the ageism of this, it makes the concept of soul mates more tragic and like a threat. You have to find it early, otherwise you will live your life without love. In a way, the song accidentally captures that sense of melancholy at not being able to find your soul mate.
Another thing I noticed with the song that surprised me is the lack of gender within it, given all the discussion of gender within “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” While there is the discussion of the three different original sexes, they otherwise play it rather straight. I found myself, upon repeat listens, wondering what group I’d be a part of. At the most basic, gender at birth definition, I’d be one of the children of the moon. However, that isn’t right, as I identify as male. But given the imagery that went along with the song, there seems an emphasis on biological sex, which was very interesting given the songwriter, Hedwig, is trans herself. The song just left me with very mixed feelings. I love the rhythms, and I find the emphasis on the sadness of love interesting. However, I’m also saddened by said sadness of love, as well as from the exclusion of trans and non-binary folks from it. While that is also true for the source material, given the inclusion of every god under the sun, not just Greek gods, I am curious why creative license didn’t add even a glimpse of nontraditional genders.
Transgression In Action 