Just like any mother

June 18, 2008 7:03 AM

A Turkish Celebrity, Bulent Ersoy; a popular singer of Ottoman classical music, has gone on trial charged with attempting to turn the public against military service. What makes this a bit different is that Bulent is a 56 year old transexual. It has been suggested in local daily news that this is the Revenge of the oppressed sexual identity. Here is Bulent Ersoy performing as a man and as a woman.

Turkey and Free Speech have a history of not getting on very well. (previous + related )

posted by adamvasco (20 comments total)

Interesting post, adamvasco. With draconian anti-free speech laws like this, good luck with getting into the EU there, Turkey... Hope Ersoy will come through this okay, that is, not sentenced and jailed.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:26 AM on June 18, 2008

This reminds me: the only other transsexual musician I can think of is Wendy Carlos, who made quite a splash (back when she was Walter Carlos) in 1968 with Switched On Bach, which is available in a newly remastered version.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:39 AM on June 18, 2008

the only other transsexual musician I can think of is Wendy Carlos,

*cough* (she once nearly killed one of my favorite bands' frontmen with a mike stand, but they've reconciled and even dueted)
posted by jonmc at 7:56 AM on June 18, 2008

What band would that be?
posted by ghastlyfop at 8:30 AM on June 18, 2008

*cough*

Also, Meryn Cadell would like you to return his sweater now.
posted by cortex at 8:32 AM on June 18, 2008

Seems there's a cough going round... *cough*
posted by evilangela at 8:54 AM on June 18, 2008

So this is the thread where we cough transsexual entertainers! *cough*
posted by No-sword at 9:14 AM on June 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

(flapjax at midnite, you at least should have known that one!)
posted by No-sword at 9:14 AM on June 18, 2008

God, I'm actually coughing here, you bastards. And Genesis P. Orrige is now kinda transexual, innit 'em?

Maybe I was thinking of Ersoy, but I could swear there was an older Turk guy who did psych who also went from man to woman and got all weirdly trad-sound after the transition.
posted by klangklangston at 9:56 AM on June 18, 2008

God, I'm actually coughing here, you bastards.

Me too. Bad cold.
posted by jonmc at 10:02 AM on June 18, 2008

I had no idea that Meryn Cadell was transgendered. I'm very glad that he's happier now, though I can't help but selfishly admit that I'm a bit sad he's no longer batting for my gender. His songs were an inspiration to a lot of girls my age. (well, my age, and Canadian, and buying feminist indie albums) - it was a model of womanhood which I really related to.
posted by jb at 10:02 AM on June 18, 2008

*cough*

Now back to drinking tea ...
posted by needled at 10:09 AM on June 18, 2008

*old-school cough*
posted by desuetude at 10:18 AM on June 18, 2008

This reminds me: the only other transsexual musician I can think of is Wendy Carlos, who made quite a splash (back when she was Walter Carlos) in 1968 with Switched On Bach

She was also instrumental in bringing attention to and popularizing electronic music and synthesis, which before Switched On Bach was limited entirely to a few avant-garde experimentalists, and worked closely with Bob Moog during the early modular synth days to help refine his designs into a true performance synthesizer that could be used by musicians. She also created one of the best film scores of all time for A Clockwork Orange, and was on the bleeding edge of digital synthesis and microtonal synthesis in the 1980s, and was one of the earliest adopters of MIDI and computer sequencing. She's a criminally underrated genius and one of my idols.
posted by DecemberBoy at 3:38 PM on June 18, 2008

Her marabou microphone is fierce.
posted by brain cloud at 4:15 PM on June 18, 2008

(flapjax at midnite, you at least should have known that one!)

But I didn't! Nor any of the other coughs! Thanks, MeFiers, for the informative coughing!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:38 PM on June 18, 2008

Oh the irony, YouTube is blocked in Turkey right now.
posted by OldReliable at 5:24 PM on June 18, 2008

BTW, Wendy Carlos REALLY hates to be referred to as a "transsexual (whatever)", and the word "transsexual" doesn't appear even once on her voluminous website. She hates it even more when she's referred to as "formerly Walter". The only time she's ever discussed transsexuality publicly was an interview with Playboy in the 70s, which she also hates and claims was unfairly edited. I think it's mostly because she's older and had her surgery at a time when there was far more prejudice and misunderstanding about TS folk than even now, and considers it a painful time in her life that she doesn't want to remember or talk about.
posted by DecemberBoy at 7:00 PM on June 18, 2008

Huh. I thought it was a rule that all Turkish music videos involved a wind machine... guess not.
posted by miss lynnster at 8:30 PM on June 18, 2008

"BTW, Wendy Carlos REALLY hates to be referred to as a "transsexual (whatever)", and the word "transsexual" doesn't appear even once on her voluminous website."

She was also a tremendous asshole to Momus over what was a fairly complimentary song.
posted by klangklangston at 9:25 AM on June 19, 2008