Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander and model and activist Munroe Bergdorf sat down for Noisey’s two-way interview series “Back and Forth,” released Monday, and wasted no time with small talk.
“Well, a lot of people on the Internet think I’m a bottom,” Alexander says, breaking into a full-bodied laugh as Bergdorf jokes, “We know so much now.”
Related
Kidding aside, the two LGBTQ-identifying celebrities critique the constrictive ways in which people approach sexuality and gender in regards to sex, adopting clean-cut labels to make sense of something that is anything but.
“In reality — like most gay men, I’d like to remind everybody — I’m vers,” Alexander clarifies. “There’s not one way to have sex. If you’re a bottom, that’s great. But I think we’re obsessed with putting people into either ‘bottom’ or ‘top.’”
Bergdorf agrees with the singer, referencing a conversation she was having with a friend earlier that day.
“Sexuality is purely dependent on how someone else identifies,” she says. “Because you may think that they’re a man or you may think that they’re a woman, but you’re not sure because how much do you really even know anybody? You’re just in love and having sex with a body.”
For Bergdof, as a trans women of color, such body has been under heightened scrutiny by a media that have led her to be misconceived as “controversial for controversial’s sake.”
“When you’re trans, unfortunately, it’s such a hot topic at the moment and people are weirdly obsessed with our bodies,” she says. “I’m a black body. I’m a trans body. I’m a queer body. There are instantly three things there that people have misconceptions about. So when you’re also a sexual women who likes to have sex and enjoys sex, people think you’re more controversial than you actually are.”
The two also chat about spirituality, meeting for the first time years ago in the club scene, and facing critical media as queer artists.
Watch the full video below: