Boy George is back, but don't call it a reinvention. It's been more than 15 years since Culture Club blazed and guttered across the pop stratosphere. The liminal boy-girl, with tender heart face and a voice of an angel, brought the urban transgression of clubland to the provincial playground. In the ascendant, the immediate, mainstream ubiquity of hits like "Do you really want to hurt me?" brought a new language of sexual ambiguity to a generation of suburban youngsters.

Fame is not a gentle mistress. More than a decade on, the band is touring again. At 38, George himself now enjoys a thriving second career as a club D.J., as well as penning a column for London's "Express" newspaper. As he continues to obviate definition. "I don't think of it as reinvention," he said. "I see it as getting on with your life. Reinvention is a press term. It's more of a survival technique for me".

Boy George has never looked like anyone else. "Sometimes I know I look ridiculous, but the more ridiculous I feel, the more confident I am; the more outrageous the outfit, the less I care whether people laugh at me."

The nexus between performer and person offers rich territory for amateur analysts. But with Boy George, there is no shock at seeing him clear-eyes, make-up free. He has no illusion about his illusion; being with him in one state is as truthful as the other. "I'm a bit draggy and I am a bit blokey, which confuses people because I don't fit any of the classic homosexual stereotypes."

Tolerance is a chimera. Boy George says, "People ask you an interesting question, but they don't want an interesting answer. People tend to stick within safe parameters: be queer but don't be too queer."

"I think that's where dressing up becomes a hindrance: people can focus on that and it keeps it cute and unthreatening. "

Through ostracism or assimilation, society is practiced in negotiating with its deviants. "People see me as a talking hat, " he said, ruefully. He is so much more than that and, importantly, he knows it!

Polare is published in Australia by The Gender Centre Inc. which is funded by the Department of Community Services under the S.A.A.P. Program and supported by the N.S.W. Health Department through the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Branch. Polare provides a forum for discussion and debate on gender issues. Advertisers are advised that all advertising is their responsibility under the Trade Practices Act. Unsolicited contributions are welcome, though no guarantee is made by the Editor that they will be published, nor any discussion entered into. The editor reserves the right to edit such contributions without notification. Any submission which appears in Polare may be published on our internet site. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, The Gender Centre Inc.I, the Department of Community Services or the N.S.W. Department of Health.