'Feminine Appropriation'

I agree!  Combined with those early press photos, I think it's easy to see how someone like Grimes thinks that SOPHIE is "pretending to be a girl."

What's more, I don't think we can dismiss this suggestion outright, that there is a certain air of put-on or simulated "femininity" running throughout the SOPHIE project [yes I am aware that "femininity" is a socially constructed concept, bear with me here].  I think where Grimes gets it wrong is the intention, or at least what I perceive to be the intention, behind this stuff.

Although the actual human named Sam Long doesn't seem to be "pretending" to be anything (he gives straightforward and honest interviews with little discernible pretension), I suspect that when he had his then-girlfriend pose for his early press photos, or when he chose the name SOPHIE, or at the very least when he chose to send out a drag queen onstage to be "SOPHIE" for his first high-profile performance in Los Angeles, that there was some intention or at least awareness about how people were going to read that. 

Let's list some facts here: Sam Long has stated that he would "rather collaborate with my friends who are whatever gender they please, or have very fluid ideas about gender [than with people who make "man music" and adhere to pre-defined ideas of gender]."  So we may assume that SOPHIE is not someone who has terribly rigid ideas regarding gender identity.  Regarding music and the identity of the artist, he has stated that "The music is not about where someone grew up or what they look like against a wall therefore you should try to use every opportunity available to say what you're trying to say instead of saying here's my music and this is what I look like. Nobody cares."  So we may assume that Sam Long is uninterested in making the SOPHIE project be about Sam Long.

In this light, and especially in light of the drag queen "incident" (which I personally think was brilliant) and the press photos, I think we can conclude that Sam Long enjoys fucking with people's expectations and assumptions.  Regardless of what journalists assumed about SOPHIE when they got the press package around the time "Bipp" and "Lemonade" came out, what they got was a made-up, dress-wearing, somewhat androgynous picture of Sam's girlfriend.  Regardless of what people expected when the SOPHIE show began at the Boiler Room event in LA, the person who emerged onstage was, not unlike the press photos, a kind of blurred-gender individual.  Neither a straightforwardly female-passing individual, nor the usual mid/late-20s white dude you see so much of in EDM.  

I personally approve of this kind of fuckery quite a bit.  There's an interview with A.G. and Hannah where A.G. says that SOPHIE likes "playing around with" gender, and a good Hannah quote about SOPHIE's music: "a really interesting hybrid between something that’s really hard and aggressive but also has that feminine energy." 

Even if "masculine=aggressive" and "feminine=pretty" have no real basis in human nature, and are just socially constructed terms, many people really do hold these associations to be valid. That's why music as hybridized and polymorphic as SOPHIE's does a really good job of blurring our usual perceptions of those concepts, and of opening new doors for what sounds "work" in EDM/club music.  Just like his PR does a good job of blurring the usual identity-fixation that the press has on artists.

All that said I reeeeally would love to see more PC vocalists credited, if only because they're mostly women...SoundCloud uploads are all well and good but usually higher-profile releases come with track credits, no?  Maybe the Columbia deal will be a roundabout way of getting us answers, guess we'll see with the D.L.H. EP

To start with I think you need to distinguish between Sophie and PC Music. Although I think Grimes's comments were petty and I generally think applying critical theory to pop culture is moronic, I can see where you guys are coming from in some places about Sophie. You could argue that when he was just starting out in 2013 and people had little more than a name then it was appropriation. Maybe not directly, and I'm sure his intention wasn't to try and get fame for being "female", but at least appropriation by implication. I don't think the other stuff (the press photos, the drag queen) is though because at that point it was known he was male. I suppose it depends how seriously you take his motivations. He could have been pranking people, he could have been making a serious social comment, or (I hope) he could have just thought it was funny. Buuuut again... I understand where the argument comes from, I guess.

The stuff about other PC Music artists appropriating is straight up bullshit though. If cuteness and women singing means they're "appropriating" femininity then they're also "appropriating" enough other stuff that these people should find something else to listen to because it's never, ever gonna be good enough for them.
But they won't, and they'll will be complaining about irrelevant bullshit until they grow up or find something else to interest them.

Just treat it as a "warning: I'm completely boring" signal and avoid them when possible.

If what you mean is "is it meant to be applied to pop music", then no.
I mean I think Zizek is fun and all but in general acting like this stuff matters is the reason this stuff has never caught on outside tumblr and grad school.

The real question is can one really "appropriate femininity"?? Cause that kinda seems like a stretch.

Based on SOPHIE and what he's done so far, industry heads knew he was male and after some live shows we knew he was male. But why would we assume that he's a girl? He used a "drag queen" but they could have easily been someone who is gender nonconforming. It goes back to was he "appropriating femininity" or reinforcing it. Cause there is a lack of femininity in electronic music from both men and women. For example, Arca's imagery of himself is really feminine and a lot of people thought he was a girl before he started making his way around and becoming more public with his face and doing interviews.
So what would be "appropriating femininity"??

I had the same problem as friopi. I brainstormed a pretty nifty commentary, based on what I read here, trying to show that I have some kind of opinion right now. Then I closed the wrong tab.

Well, in essence, what I was going to say is that maybe he's just having fun, and this whole shebang that arose from the deal with Columbia, putting him and PC Music on the spotlight, doesn't really affect what he thinks it's fun for him and, well, if it doesn't affect him, why should he have to deal with it? When, and if, it starts to bother him in some way, he may release a statement of some sorts. Until then, let him be.

disclaimer: As I am not female nor identify as one, this is my standpoint in this whole deal, as a gay-cis-man.

I may well be being stupid but I'm struggling to see where the controversy is. As far as I can tell what happened was that Sophie attained a moderate amount of attention and success by adopting some elements of femininity in his work within an industry and music scene where adopting those kinds of elements has traditionally led neither to attention nor success . And then some people got mad.

If the argument is that he's 'stolen' something from female producers by making music in that way then surely that implies whatever it is that he's stolen should only be the preserve of female producers. And the flip side of that is there must also be certain "masculine" traits which should be the sole preserve of male producers, which I'm sure none of us would agree with. Like to me that whole thought process seems to be reinforcing binary gender stereotypes more than anything else.

I dunno. Maybe I'm chatting bs.

Ok, I'm going to try this again. So for me, when thinking about anything being problematic, it's less useful to consider offense than it is to think about harm. My first concern is always "Who, if anyone, is being harmed by this behavior?" (This could be direct harm to individuals on a personal level, or it could be harm to larger groups on a societal level.) So looking at the facts and thinking about who might be harmed, this is what we have: SOPHIE goes by a traditionally female name, has used pictures of women for his press photos, used a female voice on that radio interview and got drag queen Ben Woozy to stand in for him at the Boiler Room show. He has also gone to some effort to obscure his identity, avoiding photo ops and personal questions, and generally playing up the "mysterious" angle. So while I don't think he has been "pretending to be a girl" per se, I think it's fair to say he has tried to obscure his gender. Then there's his music itself, which some people might read as feminine. To me, this last critique is completely meritless (and the same goes for criticisms of PC Music appropriating femininity in their music).  I don't think male producers making music that includes elements coded as feminine is harming anyone. If anything, I see it as tending to deconstruct the gender binary. So my critique is going to focus solely on the non-music aspects.

Note that for the purposes of this post, I am taking it as a given that SOPHIE is a cis man. For reasons I've stated before, I believe this is a fair assumption, but of course if SOPHIE were a woman or non-binary person, this would all be quite different. Who could be harmed by SOPHIE obscuring his gender and encouraging people to believe he is something other than a cis man? Well, first off, female producers face a difficult industry where they are sorely underrepresented. Several people have remarked that they were disappointed when they learned SOPHIE was not a woman. I do think his choices have unfortunately played out a familiar story where women are the image/performers, while men are the "brains" behind the scenes. By leading people to believe he might be a woman, then eventually revealing himself (there was no way his gender wasn't going to come out eventually) SOPHIE has reinforced the gendered stereotypes around music production, and benefited from doing so. It's debatable to what extent, as obviously his music is brilliant and stands on its own, but I think it is fair to say that the possibility he was a woman definitely got him more press. These stereotypes are the reason female producers face challenges to their authorship that male producers don't. For example, Bjork has spoken about the fact that people assume her male co-producers have done the majority of her production work. Grimes has also faced a lot of sexist questioning of her authorship, which I assume has made her extra sensitive to anything that plays into gender stereotypes about production. Personally I don't see the name itself as problematic, but combined with the efforts to obscure his gender, it is harmful to female producers. I don't think it's an especially egregious behavior compared to the rampant sexism of the music industry at large, nor do I think SOPHIE intended any of this, but it's a valid criticism.

Secondly, and IMO more importantly, I believe SOPHIE's efforts to obscure his gender may be harmful to non-binary trans people. It is all well and good to state that you have fluid ideas about gender and that gender identity shouldn't be a factor in assessing someone's music, but a cis man who deliberately obscures his gender does not face any of the daily abuse and questioning of his gender that trans and non-binary people do. Many people refuse to acknowledge that trans people--and especially non-binary people--even exist or have a valid identity. Leading people to believe he might be non-binary, then eventually letting it be known that he's male, tends to reinforce the idea that non-binary people are truly just men or women "pretending" they are not men or women. Being non-binary is already stereotyped as a "liberal hipster trend" and obscuring his gender while actually not being non-binary... is not helping non-binary people, to say the least. Especially when speculation about his gender was one of the reasons SOPHIE was getting so much press. Being non-binary or trans is not something you can put on and take off as it pleases you, and it's not a marketing gimmick. Again, I don't think he intended any of this, and I like to think that these concerns are part of why he's been a bit more open about his gender recently.

In sum, I think the way SOPHIE and PC Music artists play with gendered tropes in their music and imagery is brilliant and subversive, and tends to celebrate femininity while undermining the gender binary, and SOPHIE's gender non-conformity is also wonderful, but his efforts to obscure his gender were misguided at best and harmful at worst. It might seem like I'm being a bit harsh, but personally it's the media and artists I love the most that I find it most valuable to critique rigorously. SOPHIE already seems to be doing better, and I'm confident that my high expectations for him going forward will be met and exceeded. I'm also very glad this subject came up and pleased with the level of conversation happening in this thread and in the PCM fandom in general.