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Well, I can't say as I ever had a crush on him. I do acknowledge that he was quite pretty in the conventional sense. Sophie Turner apparently got quite insulted when she was told she looked like him. Clearly she never watched his early works. Just watch Karma Chameleon and you'll never unsee it.

He really was, though. 🖤

*swoon*

So say we all! What a moment to be in a repressed little Catholic school... but right there on the screen were these larger than life icons that twisted gender right around.

oy, Annie Lennox. confused the heck out of this homo Gen xer. she’s always been on my celebrity freebie list.

Annie Lennox and Prince, but same

If I was tempted to wander down that particular road, I’d be more of an Adam Ant guy.

Then along came Alex Winter in The Lost Boys and I was just so confused

Same but with Joan Jett. Didn't know if I wanted to marry her or BE her.

You're right and you should say it. And I ping-ponged between them and the new glam metal hair bands and everyone seemed so confident in their presentation and it really did have an impact on me in my hormone-fueled years.

I was, at that time, an out lesbian and my youngest son was asserting gayness at 5. So when my older son told me he thought he was bi-sexual you would have thought I would be supportive. But I was in a hurry to get to work so I snapped “you’re a 14 year old boy, we’re lucky the cats are safe”.

The sad irony is that Boy George is transphobic. It came as a surprise to me, as well.

There was a lot of this, and then the 'If you're gay you must die' which kind of warped the national messaging stuff for a while, and I think that a surprising number of people (mostly men) in gen X simply never bounced back from that.

I thought Culture Club was the perfect band because they had a blond guy, a brunette guy, a Black guy, and a girl (Boy George). 😂

Annie Lennox is still a huge crush. Confused the hell out of me and look where I am now.

I'm all for skipping the labels.

Had a huge crush on Cindy Lauper when I was young, and her sexuality can best be defined as "yes".

I had a dream that I could be femme and it would be OK. I’m living that dream today regardless of whether or not, they “really wanna hurt me” We have made some gains. We will make more.

Sweet Karma Chameleon Dreams!

RuPaul for me. And when I learned she was a guy doing drag, I didn’t care. She was/is gorgeous. And Elvira. So—I have a thing for drag.

and don't forget David Bowie, Prince

Well… as a the imaginary in sweet dreams was S&M role play I think it is the point 😆

Lol I was confused between Debbie Harry and Phil Oakey.

I would have loved to embrace my inner Boy George had I known it was possible. Maybe it wasn’t possible. I still wish I could have tried. I would have been pretty. But I was too busy watching Sting in David Lynch’s “Dune” (repeatedly) and wondering what my hormones were telling me. 🥵

Same ♥️

Crush on Annie Lennox, when I didn't know who this amazing creature was, just that they rocked.

And we wote pink polo shirts.

Queen?

I wasn’t confused because I read The Diary of Anne Frank and she talked about wanting to kiss her same sex friend at a sleepover and yeah I felt the same thing so it was totally normal.

Eh I wore blouses like that as a kid. The shoulder pads were thin but they were there.

Don't forget Grace Jones, my first crush.

Grace Jones was that for me. I'm ok with it

Yeah. It applies to a lot of 70s sex symbols. Honestly, more recent than that, and the process got cheapened by a return to pretty boy/girl movie stars. The last 10 years in particular have felt like a return to pre-WWII studio systems, and not in a good way.

Yea how are you doing

Absolute treasures.

Loved culture club. It was all over the radio. I'm 46. It was confusing who boy george was at the time, but not in a bad way

The great 80's hair bands were *pretty* too.

I STILL find androgyny sexy as hell and I'm ACE 😆

Might have just been the pic I saw. I hope you in no way thought I meant anything bad. I just thought I saw something similar. I hope you and your family have wonderful holidays.

Oddly enough, understanding the differences between sex and gender really helped me sort this out. I'm attracted to traits that are loosely gendered, not strictly tied to sex. Being attracted to the person in this image to me has nothing really to do with a sex preference. It's just an aesthetic.

Yep me too!

Everyone I know did. He was just like that. :)

I KNEW I wasn't the only one...and I was a Marine at the time! CONFUSING

Those two voices? Your crushes were totally understandable.

As teen I was definitely confused by Annie Lennox and Pete Burns and what gender actually meant as well as what sexuality actually meant. And luckily I knew most the queer kids in school so I could discuss with others which most couldn’t in the 80s.

A couple of guys in my high school were in love with the ladies of the band Poison. Much confusion when it was revealed they were all dudes. I couldn't believe anyone could like Poison regardless..

In the 80s, I wasn't a fan of Boy George but then a neighbor girl asked if I wanted to come watch a Boy George concert on HBO that was going to be simulcast on WIGY while her parents were out of town and we could fool around. I lost my virginity that night. I'm a *BIG* fan of Boy George.

Between him and Michael Jackson, I was VERY confused about the blurring of gender lines.

Same. But I’m a mostly straight woman. I can’t explain. It was the eighties!

The look was so distracting that you didn't notice that he was a *really* good singer.

We got to see him as Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge on Broadway earlier this year. He's still amazing. For his curtain call, he performed some of his CC songs like a Boy George mini-concert.

It’s alright John. I’ve always been more fluid than a lot of my friends. Even to this day.

Boy George looked just like a female friend of mine who I had a minor crush on. Lol. Quite distracting.

I remember this guy dominating MTV for an entire summer and I didn't like it. Karma Kameleon 24 times a day with too much for a guy who wanted to hear Van Halen and AC/DC. :-)

I once saw a photo of Stryper around 13, and had a crush on the cute girl in the band.

So did my mom and she was 64…..🤣

To be fair to the boomers, they also grew up thinking Liberace was straight and devastatingly attractive 🤷‍♀️

Happy that there were so many Grace Jones gifs.

When I was 5-years-old I had a beloved stuffed clown that I named Boy George because I thought Boy George was supposed to be some kind of clown. 😆

Good news! His family live near where I grew up. My mum knew them from her work, and said that every single one of them was lovely. (Past tense only because my mum retired years ago. I'm sure they're still lovely.)

And the Boomers had Bowie and Queen and Mick Jagger.

OMG same.

I am still blown away by what Dolf Lungren had to say about his history with her, and how she completely changed his life track- entirely new information to me within about a year.

I mean I’m not worthy but 💯

*Shore

Yes, I think the impact is forgotten. At the time even my middle-aged mother commented on the impact Boy George was having on women's fashions. As for Annie - so memorable; the power of her really came out in her songs.

And thank goodness are only getting older.

See also: my adolescent crushes on male hair metal rockers. The more they looked like girls, the better I liked them. WHO KNEW?!

It was A View to a Kill for me. May Day will always be one of the hottest Bond villains.

Annie Lennox played with gender like it was her personal toy! youtu.be/pISsAndOLmA?...

Culture club, Prince, and Hair bands. They need to stop pretending.

I had crushes on Annie Lennox and Adam Ant

Who wasn’t?

Just a bit to young to have had to face that dilemma.

We all had a crush on him and Annie Lennox

my first boyfriend was the prettiest young man in drama club, and I was his willing beard. almost all my partners trended blond, slender, smooth and boyish, eventually married the cutest one.

Most underrated song - the crying game.

Who didn't, honestly?

I remember a friend (he/him) telling me: I'm as straight as one can be, but leave me in a room with Sean Connery... And then you remember that gender is a spectrum and no one is never 100% anything.

Exactly! I remember the outrage against Anita Bryant (deserved). It surprised the right.

I hear you.

I feel like that was a lot of the 80s. "What gender? Idk, but pretty."

Annie Lennox is one of the timeless signposts that I am not a straight person (along with Joan Jett and Shirley Manson)

Yeah but Annie Lennox had PIPES. Ever listen to her "Love Song for a Vampire" late at night? Haunting.

Oof. And them too.

I dunno. Most of the parents I knew were into it at the same time as our kids. Just a lot of damned good music and exciting (in many senses) performers.

Honestly Boy George has probably aged better than any of the New Romantics and is arguably even better looking now. No shame in recognizing that early.

Preteen me in 1983 was enthralled by him

I just know that an orgy video never made me reach for a sock.

For me it was Prince. Damn those eyes. Baby bi me had a huge crush on him.

oh yeah, goood point. I forgot about tahat too