Songs for Saturday: Black Tie, by Grace Petrie

Sun, 19 Feb 2023 03:28:22 GMT

If you're non-binary, trans, or any other kind of [insert favorite gender-nonconforming alphabet soup here], or know someone who is, this video is for you: Grace Petrie - "Black Tie" (Official video) - YouTube It's upbeat, hopeful, encouraging, and I think just about the right amount of angry.

"Black Tie" by Grace Petrie 2018

Well, it's a jungle out there The year 2018, I didn't think We'd still be sorting babies into blue and pink And all our progress Well, I wonder what it means That the only girls' clothes that work for me Turn out to be boyfriend jeans Well, that's fine 'Cause I decline A narrow set of rules that just don't work 'Cause these red lines They're not mine And if you need me you can find me ironing my shirt 'Cause I'm in black tie tonight Get a postcard to my Year 11 self In a Year 11 hell Saying everything's gonna be alright No, you won't grow out of it You will find clothes that fit And the images that fucked ya Were a patriarchal structure And you never will surrender To a narrow view of gender And I swear there'll come a day When you won't worry what they say On the labels, on the doors You will figure out what's yours And it's a bloody nightmare Trying to fight the spread of bigotry and fear That's uniting Piers Morgan and Germaine Greer And all our progress Yeah, I wonder who it's for When I dared to utter that trans lives matter, yeah And all I got was a TERF war You will figure out what's yours And that it's got Nothing to do with fitting neatly in a box That was constructed to make it seem Like people come in just two teams And anything that's in between ain't good enough And you will love And you'll be loved No, you never will surrender To that narrow view of gender And there's folks you've yet to meet But you're exactly up their street And they've been waiting just as long To hear someone sing this song And better days are one their way When it won't matter what they say On the labels, on the doors You will figure out what's yours And girl, you're gonna be so happy And girl, you're gonna be just fine And girl, you're gonna be so happy Down the line, down the line

From a locked post, with a tip of the hat to @L, who can identify themself if they want to.

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Songs for Saturday: Black Tie, by Grace Petrie