My reaction to the inevitable comments. Genesis treated cosey (another idol of mine as a former SWer) like shit. I find cults weird and gross. Genesis was human. Humans can do shitty things, and still be absolutely trailblazers and inspirational in other ways. You can hold both opinions at once.
I think with transfemmes, it is even more important. I don't think Genesis being nasty to Cosey is enough to eradicate their contribution to music, especially to transfemmes. It is a known aspect of transmisogyny that trans women (and NB femmes like genesis) are punished far more severely for wrongdoing than cis men and women (and yes, transmascs) for identical behaviour. If we were to persona non gratae Genesis after their death for, say, dropping bricks on Cosey or the weird cult stuff - then we should be absolutely consistent. This likely mean we'd have very little art, philosophy, music and historical figures left as 'unproblematic'.
Finally, one of the worst parts of having an audience as a trans woman is the demand that I be perfect. I must pass. I must be attractive. I must be morally perfect. I must never have a meltdown. I must never have a crash out that might hurt somebody. Obviously these pressures to be perfect in front of the transmisogynistic panopticon stack up. It is why trans women who don't come from money, who mostly are highly traumatised and neurodivegent crash out, quit and un-quit and re-quit their bands, get into pointless fights, say problematic shit and take it back seconds later... the entire impossible expectation of perfection in front of an audience that WILL read you in the most paranoid fashion possible is frankly traumatic. The 70s-00s when Genesis was active would of been even worse.
Of course, I am expected to clarify "this does not excuse awful behaviour". Y'know what, sometimes it does. Yes, transmisogyny can make you so fucking insane, paranoid and dysregulated it can lead to violent acting out. I think while this behaviour is wrong, it can be sometimes excused. I'd say the same for disabled people and especially black folk too. Minority stress can be equivalent to psychosis. Does this apply to Genesis? i don't know. Only they did. Its an ambiguity autistic and black-and-white minds like mine don't tolerate well.
What is sad is before Genesis died, she didn't admit or do any accountability for how she treated Cosey. This sucks. But, if she did, would it of improved her life while battling cancer? Likely not, instead the negative press would of been used as ammo for the then-nascent anti-trans culture war in the UK. There is very little incentive for us to improve, we're going to be called groomer demons anyway.
We need to make spaces for transfemmes to be given second chances. We're going to act out. We can't pretend that sheer willpower and ethical consistency will be enough. We're going to crash out, hurt people and believe stupid shit. We should not tolerate or ignore the behaviour, but create safe spaces where somebody can go "yeah, I was an abusive piece of shit" without threat of social murder and community help actually improving behaviour. Obviously, some will exploit this. But the demand for perfection - or even to act as sane as a cis person - is far more exploitative. Those who can fake being perfect can get away with all kinds of terrible abuse.
So yeah, Genesis P-Orridge was a hero of mine, so is Cosey - who survived some unambiguously abusive behaviour from Genesis (I believe Cosey's account). I wish there was a world where Genesis had felt safe enough going "Yeah, I was awful, I'll do better" without threat of social murder. I understand why she didn't. I also understand Cosey's anger, vulnerability and disappointment.
Because I have done shit too, and been the victim of shit happening to me. I've crashed out at friends and partners and said awful shit, kicked holes in walls, made awful threats. I've been at the receiving end of all this and far worse. Please don't expect perfection from me. Nor any other doll. I lack the sanity to be a role model. Even if my heart is in the right place, my actions may follow my amygdala, my trauma rather than my genuine ethical beliefs. The same applies to you.
Expect humanity, and give compassion. Demand accountability, but don't expect accountability without a safe space and culture to do it. Believe survivors, but also believe in the capacity for the cycle of abuse to end. Above all, believe the terrible systems behind individual acts of awful can be changed. Obviously some people are irredeemably awful and hide behind the above rhetoric to avoid accountability. I know some who have a LOT of accountability to do to ever be welcomed back in their local queer communities (not talking about cishets, different story - especially cis men). But notedly among queers, this is often rare. Usually it's just an endless of loop of hurt people hurting people.
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Imperfection is the condition for the possibility of existence.
If you demand that somebody be perfect, you risk killing them.