I hadnât planned on saying anything about Frank Ocean (except for congratulations on a fantastic new album and for that other thing), but Iâve come here today to ask Ann Powers and other intrepid music journalists with English Literature degrees a huge favor: Can we please not do things like close-read Frank Oceanâs coming out letter? Because stop it and youâre wrong.
Excerpt #1: âIn his note, instead of embracing an identity, Ocean shared a set of memories and explored complex feelings, just as he does in his songs. Unlike the standard coming out gesture â newsman Anderson Cooperâs public email to his friend Andrew Sullivan, âThe fact is, Iâm gayâ â Oceanâs presented sexuality as something that arises within particular circumstances, defined by shifting desire and individual encounters rather than solidifying as an identity. In the age-old debate about whether sexuality emerges as something we are or through something we want or do, Ocean carefully rested on the side of feeling and deed.â
I realize that terms like âshifting desireâ and âemerging sexualityâ sound awesome in queer theory textbooks, but in the reality of identity formation and coming out, itâs just not so much about the desire as it is about the acceptance. In other words, as a teenager, I was perfectly happy to enjoy the pleasure of watching Brian Benben take his shirt off on Dream On, but to call it that â to acknowledge my desire for Benben and fully embrace the fact that this was, in fact, gay desire â is something that often takes years to work through. Almost paradoxically, one can technically âcome out of the closetâ and still feel this conflict. So while Powers seems to think Frank Ocean is not âembracing an identity,â itâs more that Frank Ocean is not embracing an identity she is familiar with. Ask a gay person and theyâll tell you: The walk outside of the closet is, for most of us, a long and tenuous one. Itâs not as clearcut as the cover of People magazine.
It should also be pointed out that this âdebate about whether sexuality emerges as something we are or through something we want or doâ is a false one. The relationship between who we are and what we want or do is a symbiotic one, and in the coming out process, there is no taking sides. I can honestly say Iâve known I was gay since I was a young child â since before I had a word for it â but I didnât really come out until 1998, when I was 24 years old. How come? Because I needed to experience my desire before I could truly identify with it. The fact is, we donât know where Frank Ocean lies in this continuum, nor is it any of our business. He is sharing himself with us in the way that he feels comfortable to do so, and seriously, we should just be happy and supportive of that.
Excerpt #2: âIn the fantasy space of performance, artists have often been able to articulate what they otherwise feel they must hide. Oceanâs statement is a kind of performance; certainly itâs a creative work⊠By telling a tale that also reflects the more problematic side of âfluidâ sexuality, the side thatâs about denial and taking refuge in more conventional heterosexual relationships, Ocean reflects on a much-discussed experience within African American communities and avoids the kind of grandstanding that might put off some fans. Like The New York Times critic Jon Caramanica, whose eloquent profile of Ocean appeared just as this news was breaking, I thought Ocean might just be playing with characters when I first heard his songs using male pronouns. In a sense, he is â but in the same way that anyone on the down low does. The character you create may be your own tragically false self.â
Sometimes, the Assumption Monster can come into a writerâs world and just take the fuck over. Letâs survey his devastation.
First of all, Oceanâs letter is certainly written in an artistic style â heâs a writer! go figure! â but to call it a âperformanceâ is to reduce his coming-out process to a contrived strategy and to conflate his job with his sexuality. The truth is more banal: Oceanâs letter represents the most common way that LGBT people come out. Believe it or not, whenever I meet a new person, I do not pull them aside after ten minutes of conversation for âthe talk.â Itâs usually inside of a conversation that I say something like, âMy boyfriend and I are going to Toronto this weekend to celebrate my birthday.â Which is true. Which in the process of telling you a fact, I also divulged another fact. Which is that I have a boyfriend. You can deduce the rest for yourselves without pinning me to a wall for ânot really coming out.â
But can we also talk about how the Assumption Monster just created a singular monolithic experience for African American gay people throughout every region of this country? Or how Powers totally just slid Ocean into âthe down lowâ â which is a very defined subculture that is not simply synonymous with the closet â without consent or evidence to do so purely based on the fact that he is a young black man? Because the real question we need to be asking is: Why are we so suspicious of Frank Ocean?
In the end, of course, Powers appreciates the ambiguity as a reminder that âwhile proudly declaring an identity can be a politically crucial gesture, often the human heart is not so sure-footed.â And thatâs true. But what so many people seem to be failing to grasp in this conversation, is that Oceanâs letter is more important than âartâ or âpoliticsâ in that itâs a story from his life. By pulling this letter out from the original liner notes for Channel Orange, itâs possible that Ocean didnât want this personal story to go through the same artistic scrutiny as his music â which is, unfortunately, exactly whatâs happened. Regardless, this much is not ambiguous: We donât get to judge if he came out âright,â or if he came out âenough,â or if he even came out all. Itâs not about us, nor will it ever be.
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