Also, the constant misgendering leads to conversations, when I have the energy to educate about gender and identity that otherwise may be avoided in day to day interaction, I am grateful and proud to have the opportunity to engage others in the complexities of gender identity and to teach through my queerness. This is the strength of the ‘girl’ and that is something I try and emulate every day. If I can help people reevaluate the way they see ‘girls’ then I am willing to face the constant misgendering. A ‘girl’ to me is someone who achieves their dreams despite the world being against them, someone who defies the odds and comes out on top regardless of how naive, precious or weak people perceive them to be, or how much the world underestimates them. The word is used to belittle young femmes and to reinstate harmful gender ideals. There is a major flaw in the way society has defined ‘girls’. My definition of ‘girl’ is much greater than a person’s chosen gender. Firstly, they helped me see that I can and still do identify as a ‘girl’ and that doesn’t have to mean I identify as female. How could I take up space in the industry as female, something I do not identify as? After we launched, I turned to my dearest and queerest to talk it through and they brought a bunch of valid, eye-opening points to me which changed the way I perceive the stage name.
I hold myself to a very high standard when it comes to honesty and authenticity and this name seemed – at the time – like a lie. I was a little distraught at first to say the least. I wasn’t feeling safe or comfortable enough to come out when the project was launched, so ‘imbi the girl’ was the go. I wanted and still want to bring attention to femmes in the industry and take up space unapologetically. It was – and still is – a political move. It’s quite a funny story because I actually came up with the name with my manager just about a month before I hit the crux of my gender crisis and realised I was non-binary. How did you come up with imbi the girl for your stage name? We caught up with the up-and-coming artist to discuss the meaning behind their stage name, the common misconceptions about non-binary people, and the struggles they face in the music industry as a non-binary musician. “However since coming out I have been privileged enough to be accepted and encouraged to live my truth by almost everyone in my close circle, and after experiencing that huge sigh of relief, I refuse to go back into the closet or pretend to be anything other than who I am, imbi.” “I tried to convince myself I was straight, tried to convince myself I could be ‘wom*nly’ in the way the world wanted but it just didn’t work.
“I’ve known I was queer from a very young age, but attending a Jewish school and being a part of a fairly conservative community made it very difficult for me to overcome my engrained homophobia,” they told us. Imbi the girl has just released their first EP (For Me), a stunning collection of alternative hip-hop and soul tracks, which the Australian artist describes as a product of their experience and a reflection of the “complexities of this existence”. “When I have the energy to educate about gender and identity that otherwise may be avoided in day to day interaction, I am grateful and proud to have the opportunity to engage others in the complexities of gender identity.”