Mimicry + Mediocrity = Clone Harmony

Happy #musicmonday! Before we talk about any great music, let’s ponder another idea….

I was in a room the other day and there were at least 6 twenty something guys wearing the same plaid shirt. Ok, it wasn’t the exact same shirt. There were variations in the width of the plaid and there were subtle differences in colors. But, basically they all went to their closets and picked out the exact same shirt to wear that day. What’s that all about?

Ok, now for my music post. Back in 1979, before madonna, gaga, beyonce, fill-in-your-favorite-diva, Pat Benatar ruled the airwaves. For a gay boy coming of age in Maine, Pat’s songs, lyrics and especially her voice, soothed me in a way no other musician could. When I put one of her records on the turntable I was transported to heaven. She said it was ok to be different in a world that said conform.

The 1979 album In The Heat of The Night was Pat’s debut album, and the hit Heartbreaker sent Benatar towards stardom. But, it wasn’t the hit songs Heartbreaker or even I Need A Lover that caused me to fall in love with Pat. It was the more obscure song My Clone Sleeps Alone that spoke to me. I’ve never wanted to run with the pack. I’m a loner by nature. I don’t need anyone to mimic me and I just can’t follow the leader. I want to be an individual.

That brings us back to those boys in plaid shirts. They’re too young to remember the 70’s phenomenon known as the clone. Imagine the leather man in the Village People or Freddy Mercury and you’ve got the picture. The clone came to life as a reaction to gay men being stereotypically categorized as feminine. It was also a way of identifying each other. When you saw a hyper-masculine man in tight jeans, a leather jacket, a mustache, and a hanky in his back pocket, you knew exactly what his sexual preference was – or atleast other gay men knew. The clone still flew under the radar of mass culture.

That’s what made the clone so special. He was still a bird of a different feather. His nonconformity to society’s idea of how he should dress was a rejection of mass consciousness. He wanted to be different. He didn’t want to blend in – rather he wanted to stand out.

Now you can’t tell a gay boy from a straight boy. Everyone is Equal in the safety of their plaid shirts and it’s kind of boring. If equality means conformity then mimicry + mediocrity = clone harmony.

I’ll take a little discord – thank you very much.