Stings 25-year-old daughter Eliot Sumner self-identifies as gender fluid

(As I started writing this, I leaned on Kaiser when I was having trouble writing sentences without traditional he/she pronouns for gender fluid individuals. She gave me this great website for reference. For this article, I will use the Ze/Zir pronoun when refer to Eliot Sumner, who identifies as gender fluid.)

Eliot Sumner is the 25-year-old daughter of Sting and Trudie Styler. Eliot followed Sting into the music business years ago. I am listening to a few tracks off Eliot’s new album, Information – they exhibit an interesting departure from I Blame Coco. After Dark and Firewood are pretty good; the compositions are nice. People talk about Sumner’s voice sounding more like zir father’s, Sting, but I think the whole sound has some undertones of early Police work. I feel a little bad saying that because Sumner wants to be judged on zir own merit, understandably. Sumner does understand the Sting comparisons, saying, “I think I’ll always be in the shadow of my parents. But that’s OK. Everyone has a challenge. If I’m proud of the music I am making, that’s all I can ask for. If I put it out into the world, it’s not up to me any more.”

In addition to promoting Information, Eliot also addresses zir two year relationship with model Lucie Von Alten and explains where ze comes down on gender identity:

She said she did not believe in  gender “labels” and preferred to dress down, shunning the glamour attached to some singers.

Asked whether she identified with a particular gender, she replied “no”, saying she defined herself simply as a “musician”. “I don’t believe in any specifications,” she said.

“I think forever I was trying to figure out maybe … what I am. But I don’t think anyone should feel pressured to have any kind of label or tag on them.

“We should treat everybody the same. Me, I don’t like to be put down to a specific thing. We’re all human beings.”

[From The Evening Standard]

Miley Cyrus‘, who also identifies as gender fluid, and Eliot’s reasoning differ from each other but both do a really good job explaining why they don’t identify with only one gender. I think if you can’t decide on a label, you shouldn’t have to use one. I find the way people describe themselves fascinating. Of the artists I know, they define themselves more through their art than anything else, so I can understand why Eliot would prefer to be identified as a musician than a gender.  I don’t; I write and I would love someone to think of me as a writer but it is not how I would describe myself unless someone asked me what I did for a living (or, as my mother in law would say, the way I waste my time).

We all grew up with labels – good ones, bad ones, ones you wanted to avoid, ones you desperately wanted affixed to you – I can see how we place too much emphasis on them. I don’t think we should get rid of them but I prefer people to identify themselves and not having to select from a limited group of pre-approved labels. Language is just more interesting when we create the correct expression rather than trying to shoehorn in one that already exists.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.

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