David Bowie: Style Icon, Gender Iconoclast

On January 10, 2016, David Bowie, gender-bending style icon, died after an eighteen-month battle with cancer. His music career spanned over four decades, and his fashion trajectory was just as meteoric. Most recognizable as Ziggy Stardust, Bowie reinvented himself over and over during his decades in the spotlight.

In a world increasingly more understanding of gender fluidity and the ambiguities of sexuality and gender identity, Bowie’s early contributions to drag and cross-dressing were important milestones.

Vogue‘s “Style File” on Bowie points out that his various personas appealed to men and women alike, and Vanity Fair highlights how Bowie’s sexually ambiguous characters challenged the idea that a person could only identify with one set of norms.

One of Bowie’s first subversions of gender expectations was his cover image for The Man Who Sold the World (1971). The vintage dress he wore on the cover reflected his habit of dressing like his wife Angela in maxi dresses and blouses.

1972 – 1974 marked the Ziggy Stardust phase—heavy face makeup, red hair, and shaved eyebrows.

Bowie’s album Aladdin Sane (1973) proved one of his most gender-defying looks. In a CNN article that explores Bowie’s gender transgressions, Lisa Perrott describes Sane as mutating “beyond gender. He is reborn as an exquisitely androgynous, carnal alien, who plays with the alienation of being ‘Other’” (CNN).

Bowie challenged the cultural assumption that you could only be one thing. On Saturday Night Live he wore a dress with a toy poodle at his feet that held a TV in its mouth. Rolling Stone called him the “grand patriarch of gentle gender ambiguity” (Rolling Stone). His mass appeal to middle-class audiences encouraged fans who attended his concerts to imitate his cross-dressing characters. These acts encouraged a wider acceptance for cross-dressing and androgynous fashions among middle-class teens (Vanity Fair).

In her book Gender Trouble (1990), Judith Butler defines drag as “an ongoing process by which gender is performed, imitated and re-performed” (CNN). David Bowie’s experimentation with drag, which capsized society’s expectations of gender performance, are important in the ongoing struggle for acceptance for those who identify outside the strict gender binary of male versus female.

A music legend in his own right, Bowie will also be remembered for his outrageous stage personalities. His exploration of gender through style makes him an icon of cutting edge fashion.

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