PHOTOGRAPHY MARKUS BIDAUX // AS TOLD TO TIM HEAP
Growing up as an effeminate boy in Dundee in the 1980s was pretty tough. My home life was comfortably middle class but school was a different story. Scotland has a kind of macho culture when it comes to boys, and I just didn’t do any of the things that people expected little boys to do, such as play football. The things I liked were not considered acceptable by many people — and one of those was pop music.
From the end of primary school and right through secondary school, I faced a lot of name-calling and bullying. It was for lots of things but the one that stands out is being vilified for my taste in music. I have this memory of being in class, in my first or second year of secondary school, and at the time I really loved the Madonna song, Cherish. I had no idea it would be something I would be judged on. It was just a song that I liked and I thought, “It’s music, what’s there to be ashamed of?” But a girl decided to tell everyone and it became one more thing that I was bullied for.