Welcome back to the “Latinas in Tech” TV show coming to you “live” and direct from The Femmebots FACTory in downtown snOrrrrrlando starring Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots® and tonight’s fabulous guest:
Adrian Loving
Author of “Fade to Grey: Androgyny, Style & Art in 80s Dance Music.”
Adrian is obviously NOT Latina. He’s our first interviewee who doesn’t fit our target demographic, so I am excited to step outside of that box during this episode. Besides, most Femmebots like to roll with a diverse group of friends. We love anyone who brings even more cultural riches to the table, but for the #marketing we promise to stay at least 75% Latina, okrrrrrrrr?
Bueno — Adrian played “the DJ” in some of The Femmebots early episodes in Washington, DC. It was an important role because music was how Dr. Nutmeg “controlled” her newly programmed Femmebots. But Adrian has also been an integral contributor behind the scenes, as an expert in gender, and as a teacher who mixes music, visual art, social history and emerging technology “wrapped up in witty stories and cultural anecdotes.”
For example, he came up with the name of his book, “Fade to Grey” after the obscure music video by the British synth pop group Visage popped up while he was watching VH1 one day.
“Fade to Grey…is an appropriate analogy for androgyny. It symbolizes the blending of all these elements into an undefinable grey area away from the constructs and limitations of black and white.”
Dr. Nutmeg: I love this because I present as super feminine sometimes when I dress up, but my attitude is more masculine when I am working behind the computer or taking risks. I also think of my Latina identity as the “gray” between black and white, especially as it pertains to growing up on the mainland U.S. which segments us into colors in a different way than Latin America does (even though the same colors exist there). In Brazil, for example, everyone identifies as their nationality, ie Brazilian, regardless of color, whereas here in the U.S., people become hyphenated versions of their original countries or get pushed into black or white (brown is usually the invisible in-between)
I always thought it was a superpower to blend easily into either extremes, whether I was at a white hipster Burning Man alumni rooftop party in Bushwick, or a dancehall club whinin’ with Caribbeans in Bed Stuy.
Questions
What happens when gender becomes secondary to mission and personal fulfillment?
What a question! I don't even know how that came into my head but I think at the time you know in context with the artist that I was writing about it's like sort of this concept of post-racial. If you're focusing on race and gender, and that is I think for these artists back in the eighties, it's just what was happening.
Bowie was exploring these different characters, Grace Jones was exploring her visual identity through her album cover art and through her performance art.
Prince was going through these changes as a musician. And I think this glam rock and androgyny was just pervasive within the music industry. These artists are not necessarily putting it first, but they are certainly not shying away from it. And it's ringing up success and ticket sales, you know, people are buying the albums, so there is some financial success in incorporating the look or these looks.
Androgyny did not stay around that long within dance music and popular music. Eventually it kind of left in order for hip hop to come into play and different kinds of house music and different kinds of R&B that were making their way into dance in American music in the late eighties and nineties up until now. But there always were some androgynous artists that were still in the mix.
You played “the DJ” in some of The Femmebots early episodes in DC — what kind of music were you playing in 2010 vs what you’re playing in 2025?
2010 - Hmm, in that era you know that was just before I started teaching at the school. I was playing a lot more clubs and more lounges like Lost Society.
You can see Adrian in our conceptual film school version of The Femembots, before the characters were fleshed out (the music isn’t his - we were just pretending), so check out his Soundcloud, too:
In your book “Fade to Grey,” there is a whole section about Latinas in the 80s and freestyle girl groups like Cover Girls, Exposé, Lisa Lisa, Sweet Sensation, and others I grew up listening to on New York’s 103.5 in the 80s. Can you tell us about our them?
Well that particular chapter of the book talks about the last homegirl. And it's like, “When did this idea of the street rugged sassy female MC performer turn into this very sexualized version of women in the hip hop space?” There was a definite change, and I sort of put it at around 1990 when Yo-Yo, the West Coast L.A rapper came under the Eazy-E and N.W.A camp. Yo-Yo was kind of like one of the last mainstream edgy girls. After that, you started to have Foxy Brown and Lil' Kim and all these other artists who were more sex driven or their their lyrical content was just far more sexualized and raunchy, yeah it was um provocative you know in that way so, what were the values of these girls? So I had to dive into that period in history of those values.
Tell me about the Real Roxanne and why she was a groundbreaking Latina in the hip hop scene in the 80s.
Her beauty and influence inspired other Latina artists. I mean, you wouldn't have JLo really without the Real Roxanne. You know what I'm saying. You wouldn't have Christina Aguilera without the Real Roxanne. You wouldn't have the Fly Girls from In Living Color without the Real Roxanne.
What projects are you working on now?
So I've always been into house. I've always been into dance music. As of late I've gotten way more into disco and Middle Eastern music and things like that. I'm producing now and have been producing for the past like 5 to 7 years. So I collect music for listening and for production ideas — I like those drums, I like those vocals, I like those violins. Maybe I want to use those or sample them in my music. So sometimes I collect music for sampling and then sometimes I collect music for research. For example the book that I wrote - Fade to Gray - I need to look at album credits, producer credits, I need to dive into the history and archive of a certain artist to understand them better. So some music is for collecting for research you know and maybe not playing. I would like to actually go back to Malta again and DJ because I have a community there that I've been building, and potentially Spain. Those are on the short list of international travel for the summer.
So you can follow me on my website design-diversity.org where you can find my projects and more information about the book and the music things that I'm working on and events. That's the sort of best way to follow me or Instagram @summerloving71.
Check out more interviews with Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots®: Ashley Rivera Mercado, Barbara Negron, Edith Quintanilla, Erika Mayol, Isabel Custer, Marisa Diaz, and Valeria Avila Guerrero.
Would you or your company consider sponsoring a TV show about Latinas working in Tech?
There is a crew and a trademark for Dr. Nutmeg’s Femmebots,® so we’re like…for real.
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