I guess, I mean, I'm confronted everyday to the fact it's highly difficult for total cis-gendered people to ponder about transgender/genderqueer people's issues, since cis-people fit so well into the gender shapes expected from society, and don't have to face discrimination, violences, or the simple questioning coming from being a sort of outcast. But I do think it can do no wrong to anyone to have a little curiosity and empathy, so even if you don't feel concerned, I'm sure it's still interesting to try to think about genders, about your own, about those who don't fit in as easily ; and about other way to express and identify yourself and the others.
I've been fighting lately with the use of neutral pronuns. I don't identify myself as a girl ; I don't feel I'm a "she". At least not all the time. But I don't feel I'm a "h" neither ! And it's a bit irritating to be always defined the wrong way, or in a reductive way, by words. I like to use "ey" in english (ey/eir/em) for talking about my genderqueer mates, and I'd be very grateful if you also use it when talking about me. Give it a try, it's also funny in a way to train your mind to think a bit differently and to fight talking habits which are quite mind-shaping.
Pareil en francais. C'est beaucoup plus difficile etant donnee la feminisation/masculinisation de notre langue, et surtout partant du principe que le neutre est masculin par defaut, mais j'essaie vraiment de trouver des maniere d'exprimer la neutralite, ou la diversite du genre meme dans le language. Passer librement du masculin au feminin en variant les accords d'adjectifs et de verbes, utiliser il/elle selon l'humeur du moment ; ou utiliser le pronom invente "eile", voila quelques idees pour jouer avec le genre. J'essaye de parler "d'eile(s)" a propos de mes amis genderqueer, n'hesitez pas a faire de meme quand vous parlez de moi. Essayez ! C'est assez interessant et amusant aussi d'entrainer son esprit et de contrer les reflexes qui, l'air de rien, faconnent l'esprit et la pensee.
Les gender studies pour les nuls
Bettina Rheims, "The Gender Studies"
"Over a year ago, we got a request from "Candy magazine", an yearly publication on transexuality and drag, to publish once again, and twenty years later, the "Modern Lovers" and "Les Espionnes". A body of work on androginy and transgender shot during the hardest times of aids. It gave me the idea instead to check, If things were different today in the world of gender, from the eighties.
We opened a Facebook profile, showing a few of these early pictures (among them the first image Kate Moss ever shot) with a message encouraging people who felt "different" to get in touch with the Studio. I "Skyped" with young boys and girls from all over the world, they told me the most beautiful stories about their lives. There was nothing pathetic or sad in their stories, just a feeling of being different. A lot of them knew from childhood, that they were born in the wrong body and had decided, many with the help of their parents, to correct the original mistake.
But what struck me as being completely new, were the ones who refused to choose between the two options, and had decided to live using both identities. Depending on the day, the mood; why not have it all ? In Australia, last autumn, for the first time, someone got the mention -X- on his/her passport, recognizing for the very first time the existance of a "third sex".
While we were Skyping, I got taken away by their voices, and the words they used. Voices that cannot be desguised very long, that broke during our conversations, going back to their original nature. Accents from everywhere, speaking english / french / spanish, talking about magic and witches and god fairies, and dreams of princess.
I had 27 of them come to the studio from all over the world, and working together with a great sound artist, Frederic Sanchez, we recorded them in the studio right after the shooting. I also worked very closely with my friend, and wonderful designer Jean Colonna who helped to glorify these new "Modern Lovers". It was amazing. So the installation will be. A large square / rectangle room. These portraits looking at the viewer. A sound installation going around, in an hypnotic way, following the viewer as he is lingering through the exhibition. But if you stand in the middle of the room, you will be able to listen to the voice of the new third sex !"
"Two shadows disappear and I become myself." (by Alvar Grav)
"I don't know if I'm too pleased with that title anymore, but that's the title I gave this work when I sent in to apply for art schools. And I haven't thought of an alternative yet, so it'll have to do for now.
It's about the dream of being read correctly (?), being liberated from something uncomfortable, for a moment. I suppose. But I mean, I am myself. Regardless of the shadows.
I never get around to "publishing" any work like this, that centers around aspects of my gender identity, because as soon I step back and take a look at it, it reveals its problems. It reveals the ways it could cause harm both to myself and to others. First and foremost others.
There's a violent conflict in how I feel about altering my own body and what kind of expectations I may continue to push onto other people and their bodies while doing so. My body is white, thin, able... As a genderqueer/androgynous body it is very close to the narrow accepted ideal for what that kind of body should look like. Yes, I promise you there is a world of cis-people out there with the opinion that: "Gender ambiguity should look like this fashion spread in i-D Magazine or it's totally gross." There's this tiny exception where it is OK to "deviate" from the ideal cis-body towards a more fluid one, but only because it fulfills all these other ideal standards. And also, in this context, there's almost never any personal statement. Like, I bet, it's going to annoy people that along with the images above this text there is, you know, the text. BLAH BLAH BLAH boring I want to look at the pictures. Iâm gonna post it to my thinspo blog.
Well,
I don't want to be one more thin, white, punch in the face to all the queer/trans bodies that are devalued in this horrendous world because they aren't thin or white or able or ALL OF THE ABOVE and a myriad of other reasons.
But I am.
Lord knows there are things that are not ideal when it comes to my body, but the privileges are apparent, abundant. I see someone who is closer to the ideals I have personally internalized, and I admit, I feel ugly, or like a failure in relation to what I should look like, no one escapes this poison, but these sort of feelings don't compare - at all - because I don't face the kind of oppression that so many other people face because of their bodies. I simply don't. And I have understood that my body will make other people feel bad about theirs. I can work my outmost to not ignore these privileges I have. At keeping myself aware and careful. And still, it won't work, by default it won't work, I am still me, speaking from a place that's going to injure someone else, because my voice is heard and not theirs. Due to my privileged position. My work is personal, sure, it is not meant to represent any story or journey but my own, but whatever - art is never just art, one person's struggle is not just one person's struggle. Everything builds and affects someone else. Or intrudes upon and demolishes someone else.
So, this torso. I set out to create an object that would make me feel comfortable posing topless/in something that reveals the chest in photographs, at least, (because the torso of course is not comfortable enough to wear outside). I don't know what I ended up with. I set out to explore in imagery what it would be like if the real alteration of my breasts weren't up to "gender investigators" and the fucked up system you need to pass through to transition - and of course you can only transition from one end of the binary to the other in Sweden, so any surgical alteration isn't possible right now. But I only took a few portraits in it and since these first ones I haven't taken any more. I don't like the fact that I'm in long johns and briefs. I'm missing the femme extravaganza that this torso needs to be accompanied with, in my mind, to make it revolutionary. A body decorated with lots of draped velvet, sequins, lace and fabulous make-up.
When I get it back from the school I turned it in to as an application I might try and give it nipples. Or I might burn it in the forest behind the house.
Sorry I can't get your pronun right !
From photographer Nicola Okin Frioli's portrait series entitled 'We Are Princess in a Land of Machos'. They drink beer, they are part of the government, and they are a symbol of good luck for their family: They are Muxes - homosexuals of the pueblo Oaxacaqueno de Juchitan, Mexico - more than 3000 homosexuals who enjoy respect and admiration in all the country. Los Muxes (in Zapotec language means homosexual) are considered a blessing to their families. It is luck for a homosexual to be born in Juchitan, where in a population of 160,000 they walk proudly in the streets, dressed as women with huipiles and enaguas, typical dress of the Tehuantepec Isthmus. A resident of Juchitan says "A lady living here has a son Muxes, and then she has winned the lottery, it is a real blessing. Everybody should accept them as they are, in every place they are." Says Felina, a 36-year-old Muxes and owner of a beauty salon: "A lot of us are this way because our parents converted us and treated us as a female. I'm not a man. I'm not a woman... I'm a Muxes and there is a place for everybody in the Vineyard of the Lord."
Read more about the Muxes of Oaxaca and
en francais.
The pink tabs are for murder, purple for human or animal sacrifice, blue for rape, yellow for slavery and green for misogyny.
As requested, a gender-neutral version of the Planned Parenthood poster. Apologies for the exclusion in the original. We all have tingly bits in need of easy-access, low-cost, no-judgment care and maintenance.
from
What I may do with my naked body
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