Editing Kim Gordon (section)

===1953–1978: Early life===
Kim Althea Gordon was born April 28, 1953,{{sfn|George-Warren|Romanowski|2005|p=912}} in [[Rochester, New York]], the second child of Althea ({{abbr|d.|died}} 2002) and Calvin Wayne Gordon (1915{{en dash}}1998).<ref name=stage/><ref name=maron>{{cite interview|interviewer=[[Marc Maron]]|last=Gordon|first=Kim|work=[[WTF with Marc Maron]]|date=March 26, 2015|title=Interview with Kim Gordon|ref=none}}</ref><ref name=memoriam>{{cite web|work=University of California, Los Angeles|date=February 24, 1998|url=https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/inmemoriam/html/WayneC.Gordon.htm|access-date=August 23, 2018|title=In Memoriam: C. Wayne Gordon}}</ref> At the time of her birth, Gordon's father, a native of [[Kansas]],<ref name=memoriam/> was a professor in the [[sociology]] department at the [[University of Rochester]].{{Sfn|Gordon|2015|p=15}}<ref>{{cite news|work=Democrat and Chronicle|location=Rochester, New York|title=3 Groups to Study Center for Alcoholics|page=3B|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22874476/democrat_and_chronicle/|date=March 25, 1956|via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref> Her mother, a descendant of [[American pioneer]]s of the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]],{{sfn|Gordon|2015|p=4}} learned to sew during her upbringing in the [[Great Depression]], and worked as a [[Dressmaker|seamstress]] throughout Gordon's childhood.<ref name=stage/><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[People (magazine)|People]]|title=Rockabye Baby|url=https://people.com/archive/rockabye-baby-vol-45-no-23/|volume=45|issue=23|author=''People'' Staff|date=June 10, 1996|access-date=August 17, 2018}}</ref> She was described by Gordon as "reserved and usually anxious" and "an unfulfilled artist."<ref name=stage/> Gordon has one older brother, Keller (1949–2023),<ref name=stage/> whom she described as "brilliant, manipulative, sadistic, arrogant, almost unbearably articulate," and "the person who more than anyone else in the world shaped who I was, and who I turned out to be."{{sfn|Gordon|2015|p=14}}

At the age of five, Gordon and her family relocated to [[Los Angeles|Los Angeles, California]] when her father was offered a professorship in the sociology department at the [[University of California, Los Angeles|University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/inmemoriam/WayneC.Gordon.htm|work=University of California|title=Wayne C. Gordon|access-date=September 20, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055009/http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/inmemoriam/WayneC.Gordon.htm|archive-date=September 21, 2013|df=mdy-all}}</ref>{{sfn|Gordon|2015|p=14}} where he later became the [[Dean (education)|Dean of Faculty]].<ref name=stage/> As a child, Gordon attended [[UCLA Lab School|University Elementary School]], a progressive elementary school affiliated with UCLA, which she described as "learn[ing] by doing. So we were always making African spears and going down to the river and making mud huts, or skinning a cowhide and drying it and throwing it off the cliff at [[Dana Point, California|Dana Point]]."<ref name="Lizzy"/> In her memoir, Gordon recounts spending summers with her family in [[Klamath, California]], near the [[Oregon]] border.{{Sfn|Gordon|2015|pages=25–26}} The family also lived in [[British Hong Kong]] for one year during her childhood.<ref name=stage/>

Gordon attended [[University High School (Los Angeles, California)|University High School]] in Los Angeles, and dated classmate [[Danny Elfman]] while a student there.<ref>{{cite news|work=The New York Times|title=Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth's Antifrontwoman, on the Band and Breakups|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/books/kim-gordon-of-sonic-youth-writes-about-her-band-and-breakups.html|access-date=August 17, 2018|last=Coscarelli|first=Joe|date=February 18, 2015 }}</ref> After graduating high school, she attended [[Santa Monica College]] for two years<ref name=nr>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[The New Republic]]|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/120936/kim-gordon-girl-band-review-when-riot-grrl-grows|title=Even Kim Gordon Doesn't Have It All|last=Friedman|first=Ann|date=February 4, 2015|access-date=August 14, 2018}}</ref> before transferring to [[York University]] in [[Toronto]], Ontario, Canada.<ref name="Barclay">{{cite web|title=Sonic Youth Time Takes Its Crazy Toll|url=http://exclaim.ca/Features/Timeline/sonic_youth-time_takes_its_crazy_toll-2|work=Exclaim.ca|publisher=Ontario Media Development Corporations|access-date=April 29, 2013|last=Barclay|first=Michael|date=July 2002}}</ref> Gordon soon grew homesick and chose to drop out of York at the end of the school year and return to Los Angeles.{{sfn|Gordon|2015|pages=72–73}} "I was less and less happy as the bleak Toronto winter moved in," she recalled. "Without the benefit of California sunshine, my hair grew darker and darker, and I had no idea how to dress for the cold."{{sfn|Gordon|2015|p=73}} She decided to enroll at the [[Otis College of Art and Design]],{{sfn|Gaar|2002|p=370}} which she said "changed my life."{{sfn|Gordon|2015|p=73}} Gordon lived in [[Culver City, California|Culver City]] and [[Venice, Los Angeles|Venice]], Los Angeles, and worked at an [[Indian cuisine|Indian]] restaurant to pay her tuition.{{sfn|Gordon|2015|p=73}} She also briefly worked for [[art dealer]] [[Larry Gagosian]] as a side-job.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/03/kim-gordon_n_3838068.html|title=Kim Gordon works with Larry Gagosian|last=Brooks|first=Katherine|work=The Huffington Post|date= September 3, 2013|access-date=August 14, 2018}}</ref> She graduated with a [[Bachelor of Fine Arts]] degree in 1977.<ref>{{cite web|work=Otis College of Art and Design|title=Interview with Alumna Kim Gordon|access-date=August 18, 2018|url=https://www.otis.edu/news/new-york-times-style-magazine-kim-gordon-wanted-to-be-visual-artist-then-she-got-%E2%80%98sidetracked%E2%80%99}}</ref>

While she was a student at Otis, Gordon's older brother Keller suffered a [[Psychosis|psychotic episode]] on the day of his graduation from the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where he had earned a [[Master's degree]] in [[classics]].<ref name=stage>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|title=Next Stage|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/03/next-stage|last=Halberstadt|first=Alex|date=June 3, 2013|access-date=August 17, 2018}} {{closed access}}</ref> He was subsequently diagnosed with [[paranoid schizophrenia]], and for a time lived in [[halfway house]]s before becoming a [[Ward (law)|ward]] of the state of California.<ref name=stage/> The song "Schizophrenia," which appeared on Sonic Youth's fourth studio album, ''[[Sister (Sonic Youth album)|Sister]]'' (1987), was partly inspired by her brother.<ref name=stage/>