Blondie icon Debbie Harry ‘always felt entitled’ to bisexuality and to being ‘the man she wanted to be’
Debbie Harry talked sexuality and gender on the Homo Sapiens podcast. (Getty)
Debbie Harry talked candidly about her sexuality and “masculine drive” in a new interview.
The Blondie legend confirmed in 2014 that she is queer, but three years later said that her bisexual days “have gone by”.
“I have great affection for some of my female friends but I think maybe when I was younger it might have been a little more hormonal and our hormones change,” she said in 2017.
Appearing on the Homo Sapiens podcast, Harry revisited the topic with hosts Chris Sweeney and Alan Cumming.
Discussing bi-erasure, Sweeney asked if she had ever “felt the need to qualify” her bisexuality.
“I always felt entitled,” Harry said, “and I don’t think that is a very feminine characteristic.
“Except for in certain ways, in certain levels of society, a lot of women feel they are entitled. But I always felt entitled to be the man I wanted to be.”
Debbie Harry ‘had to employ an aggressiveness’ to succeed.
Debbie Harry said that being the front woman of an otherwise all-male band meant she “really had to employ an aggressiveness that perhaps I wouldn’t have in other situations”.
“This was natural,” the Blondie star continued. “I don’t know that it had to do with sexuality. Sexuality is such an almost kind of a nebulous thing in a way… it’s so different to each person.”
She added: “For me it has to do with fascination and crushes… I’ve had crushes on all different kinds of people, all different sexes, and some of them have come to fruition, and others haven’t.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Harry reflected on the early days of her career and on being inspired by the New York City punk scene.
“It was always interesting to me that they had such diverse and interesting lives,” she said.
“It wasn’t always dictated by sexuality, but I think it was dictated by… a freedom of sexuality, a freedom of choice. I think in some ways that experimental attitude has returned… but I think kids take it for granted now.”
She credited her own “masculine drive” with helping her to succeed.
“I always felt that Patti [Smith] and Chrissie [Hynde] and myself had a certain masculine drive,” she said. “I was happy to feel that I had that.”
Homo Sapiens is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
