The Gendered Making of Ungendered Style

This chapter notes the discourse alleging androgyny, genderlessness, and/or asexuality in the work of Laurie Anderson. It then argues that such claims are shortsighted and that, in fact, the seeming illegibility of Big Science’s sexuality was the result of a highly gendered multiyear artistic strategy. Shedding rare new light on Anderson’s early artwork from the 1970s, the chapter demonstrates a progression away from sexual frankness that is congruous with both her increasing fame and the sexist pressures externally placed on her either to conform to, deviate from, or otherwise speak for women’s sexual archetypes. Central to this process is Anderson’s development of a strategy that the chapter dubs “doing-not-telling,” which becomes a signature move in her later works.