JD Samson: Messing with Gender Stereotypes
“Jean Paul Gaultier shook my two hands with his two hands. Looked me up and down and landed at my eyes. Thanks to human beings for being human.” We spoke to Jocelyn Rachel “JD” Samson who is best known as leader of the band MEN and for being one third of the electronic-feminist-punk band and performance project, Le Tigre.
JD’s career as a singer, producer and DJ has taken her far and wide, bringing the world of music, art, activism and fashion together. Ssd – sds
Fashion and music merge in Samson’s world “I see clothing as an everyday curation of artwork and visual taste. It is somewhat important to me to always have some kind of visual element to my music work and a lot of time that includes costuming. Clothing is one of the only things you can show as you walk down the street, as an art form so in that case I find it extremely exciting and visible,” she said.
Messing with gender stereotypes, conceptual ideas of cultural complications, and working with punk aesthetic are what Samson is known to do and bring to light through her work. “I try to write often about my own struggles with the binary system of gender, governmental depression, and other issues of oppression and hope.”
Samson will be performing on Friday 24 October as part of ‘Friday nights at Jean Paul Gaultier’ at the National Gallery of Victoria. She also plays frequently in
