So as an artist who has been known to play a few instruments, I've been thinking about this recent thing radfems are doing, where they’ve decided, seemingly out of nowhere, to just wildly shit on ukulele music. And not just the music, but to brand it as “cringe transmasc music.”
And look, even if that wasn’t deeply racist, it would still be stupid. And wrong. But the fact is…
The ukulele is a Hawai'ian instrument, descended from the machete de braga, a small Portuguese guitar brought to Hawai‘i in the late 1800s by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira. Hawaiian luthiers adapted and reimagined it into what became the ukulele. It’s a cultural symbol with a history of colonization, cultural appropriation, and resilience, born from the blending of immigrant traditions with Native Hawaiian artistry.
When you reduce it to some internet stereotype, you’re not just making a dumb music take, although you are also doing that, more importantly you’re participating in the long tradition of white mainland culture flattening and mocking Indigenous Hawai'ian traditions for sport.
It’s also worth noting that the ukulele’s popularity didn’t explode because it’s “quirky” or “internet twee”, it’s because it’s approachable. The instrument is physically small, light, and low-tension compared to guitars or violins. You don’t need huge hand strength to fret it, the (usually) nylon strings are soft, and it can be tuned in a way that’s forgiving for beginners. That makes it accessible to disabled musicians, kids, elders, and anyone without the privilege of formal music education. You can teach yourself entirely off the internet or even practice alone if you're dedicated.
I say this as someone who used to play violin and piano but now plays ukulele and ocarina because those are instruments my bad back and hand tremor will actually allow me to enjoy.
My own ukulele was an investment, imported from Hawai‘i, made of mango wood, rosewood, and bull bone. It’s a gorgeous instrument, it’s one of the most expensive things I own (a very spicy $500), and I cherish it deeply.
But here’s the thing: you don’t need a $500 ukulele to make beautiful music. You can get a perfectly playable one for cheap, especially secondhand.
That means this is an instrument that’s accessible to poor and working-class people, including those from marginalized communities who often don’t get the same access to “prestigious” music education or expensive instruments or expensive equipment and programs to make music digitally.
So when I hear someone mocking “cringe transmasc ukulele music,” here’s what I know immediately:
They’re definitely not an artist making art with any real value
They’re transphobic toward trans men and likely nonbinary people too
And if someone is happy being a mediocre artist who’s also multiple kinds of bigoted, that’s their prerogative, but I’m not going to respect their opinion on art, or trans people, or disabled people, or Indigenous people, or poor people.
I genuinely don’t have much more to say. That’s it.
You make fun of ukuleles like it’s an aesthetic crime instead of a living piece of Hawai'ian culture and a vitally accessible instrument for marginalized folks, you’ve told me exactly who you are.
