which side her bread is buttered on; these days, the road to stardom is paved only by a clearly articulated dedication to social justice. One can be assured of Tamara’s self-sacrificing nobility, as (in a recent interview for NEXT magazine) she is excessively generous in her self-denigration: "It’s been really difficult. There’s a strange thing connected with activism, especially climate activism. If you say you care about something you’re immediately put in a box as some sort of paragon of virtue. The perception is, If you care about this, you must be a better person than me. It’s weird.”
Poor Tamara! It’s tough being good! Whatever you say about her (and I’ve never heard her music, but her hit album is, I suspect, aptly titled Ignorance) — Tamara Lindeman has mastered the requisite rhetorical tricks; she could give Trump a run for his money. If Hermogenes taught Shakespeare one thing it was that humility is the duty of the rhetor; if we are to sympathize with a speaker we must believe they are deeply flawed and humble.
Much in the same vein,Tamara alerts us to her victimhood, grabbing for the hearts of the ‘No Worries!’ generation: “Most of the musicians I know are men… something I share with most women in music you don’t receive the encouragement to play guitar or write songs or any of that” and here the interviewer intervenes: "she says, alluding to the often problematic cultural practice of socializing children differently based on their gender."
Thus, the author of this manipulative puff piece (I wish I could find their name) positions Tamara craftily not as a ‘feminist’ but a social justice activist, who is also — alluringly — possibly, trans. But the author/interviewer reaches a certain zenith of poetic subtlety when they describe Tamara’s home: "She zooms me from her kitchen, and the background reflects the unpretentious, earthy warmth of her demeanour — softly glowing fairy lights, a dried bundle of lavender, a couple of mugs, and a carton of eggs from the breakfast she presumably just finished eating."
Lavender, fairy lights, and well….eggs? Need I say more? These are, in case you missed it, symbols of a very sweet -- somewhat magical -- person, soft, gentle, unassuming, well-meaning and yes -- we assume -- fertile. Tamara Lindeman (a.k.a. The Weather Station) is just one of many ‘artists’/ entertainers/ celebrities who know that these days it doesn’t much matter how good your work is, it only matters that you are on the right — or one might say more accurately — the left — side of social justice issues. I, for one, will try my best never to inflict upon you a play novel or poem about gay rights, or any other rights for that matter. I’m all for social justice, but my creative work has never been sufficiently politically correct to satisfy the powers that be. (For instance, Toronto’s gay Xtra magazine refused to review my drag queens when they were ‘on trial’ back in 1985, wondering if drag queens are a respectful enough representation of gay men). I can never seem to tow the party line, and I’ve never been able to hide my contempt for the gay ‘lifestyle,’ while being at the same time openly addicted to it — and thus habitually and compulsively alternately venerating it and attacking it — forever. Gay culture — like democracy — is horrible and dysfunctional, but it's the best we have. Gay porn, bars, bathhouses — and even the judgey, prissy, anti-sexual sensibility that sometimes surrounds HIV — are ultimately necessary, as a lot of people will never get their minds around male cock-suckers and ass-fuckers, period. Trans-activism is popular these days for the precise reason that it is not in any way sexual — as trans activists go out of their way to desperately reassure us over and over — ‘it’s not about sex it’s about gender!' This grants parents permission -- at last -- to love their femme boys and butch girls without ever even tangentially making reference to the dreaded 'nether regions.' It’s not trans people I have a problem with, it’s the ‘no gender’ politic, which is as dangerous as climate change activism. In fact, it’s not at all odd that Tamara should yank these two equally trendy but equally dangerous issues together in her quest for fame. For though the concerns about gender and climate may be in certain ways valid — a militant obsession with them can and will lead to chilling interventions on the part of the government. I, for one, am shell-shocked after COVID-19 -- for we now know that if Trudeau is feeling self-righteous he may use anything as an excuse to take away our rights. This is why so many now despise him. His father insisted government stay out of the bedrooms of the nation, but 'Trudeau nouveau' thinks the government might just close your family business at any time, without warning, and is trying to get into your children’s underwear and help them sort out their gender (or lack of it). It’s all pretty scary.
