Page - 87 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/02

“But are as the Angels which are in Heaven” (Mark 12:25) | 87www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/2, 86–89 Yannick Schlote “But are as the Angels which are in Heaven” (Mark 12:25) Reimagining a Gender-Ambiguous Heaven in Dorian Electra’s ADAM & STEVE Keywords Pop Culture, Theological Anthropology, Queer Readings of Biblical Texts, Dorian Elec- tra, Adam and Steve Biography Yannick Schlote studied protestant theology in Berlin und Munich. He is working as an academic assistant at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Munich (LMU). His research focuses on theological and ethical aspects of digitalisation, spe- cifically on narratives concerning artificial intelligence. Furthermore he is interested in popular culture. The American singer and songwriter Dorian Electra is a queer1 phenomenon. Their2 dandy appearance – their latest album is called Flamboyant (2019) – goes hand in hand with their criticism of toxic masculinity and gender binarism. Their stage name recalls Oscar Wilde’s beautiful villain Dorian Gray and the ancient Greek tragic heroine Electra. Their trademark is the lavish use of synthesisers to lower and thereby androgenise their voice while emphasising its artificial alter- ation. Displaying the fluidity of gender not by its absence but by mixing traits of masculinity and femininity can be seen as the leitmotif of Dorian Electra’s output. One of the tracks on Flamboyant, “Adam & Steve”, is a gay retelling of the Genesis story.3 It turns on the derogative phrase, “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam 1 I use the term “queer” in a broad sense, referring to everything non heterosexual. 2 While in the lyrics Dorian uses attributes such as “guy” and “man”, I follow the use of they/their pronouns in Ben Beaumont-Thomas’s Guardian interview with Dorian Electra; see Beaumont-Thomas 2019. 3 Flamboyant (Dorian Electra, US 2017, self-released)