gender performance language wierdness
Apr. 23rd, 2007 07:50 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
tgjerusalem.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
transThis is something I've been thinking about for a while, and am still not sure what to make of it.
I'm a transman. Very specifically male identified - I am a man, who was also born physically female. But at the same time, I'm also a freakin' glitter fag. I'm pansexual/bisexual/whatever, and could never in any conceivable frame of reference be described as "butch." And this is cool, I have no real conflict there.
My question is about performance, in the specific, on-stage kind of way. I've been in a couple of amature drag competitions, always as a queen, both pre-T and post-T. But they were all at my old (very queer) college, honestly I can't sing/dance/act and get stage fright like a deer in the headlights, and it was always performances in front of people who were already friends.
But thinking about performance, and I would love to perform again, if I ever get the courage/ability/opportunity to perform again (it would have to be *very* amature/just for fun type stuff). And I doubt I'll ever have the courage to do it, but I would love to do a specifically *trans* thing. Not drag, that's the wrong word for it. It's like... I would love (but doubt I ever will) to do an act as a transman, a man with a trans body.
Part of me is inspired by acts I saw at a sex worker's art show, including a screening of the film "Venus Boys," where among other things people were doing acts that were gender performances, acts that were about gender but weren't about drag or "crossdressing" or whatever.
I'm not sure what to call this kind of performance. Is there a language to describe them, other than "gender performance"? To be honest, I wish I had the chutzpah to do "I am what I am" (from La Cage a Faux) topless as a transman. No idea when/where I could do this, and realistically I doubt I ever could. But it would be awesome. But damned if I'd know what to call it.
X-posted on FTM
I'm a transman. Very specifically male identified - I am a man, who was also born physically female. But at the same time, I'm also a freakin' glitter fag. I'm pansexual/bisexual/whatever, and could never in any conceivable frame of reference be described as "butch." And this is cool, I have no real conflict there.
My question is about performance, in the specific, on-stage kind of way. I've been in a couple of amature drag competitions, always as a queen, both pre-T and post-T. But they were all at my old (very queer) college, honestly I can't sing/dance/act and get stage fright like a deer in the headlights, and it was always performances in front of people who were already friends.
But thinking about performance, and I would love to perform again, if I ever get the courage/ability/opportunity to perform again (it would have to be *very* amature/just for fun type stuff). And I doubt I'll ever have the courage to do it, but I would love to do a specifically *trans* thing. Not drag, that's the wrong word for it. It's like... I would love (but doubt I ever will) to do an act as a transman, a man with a trans body.
Part of me is inspired by acts I saw at a sex worker's art show, including a screening of the film "Venus Boys," where among other things people were doing acts that were gender performances, acts that were about gender but weren't about drag or "crossdressing" or whatever.
I'm not sure what to call this kind of performance. Is there a language to describe them, other than "gender performance"? To be honest, I wish I had the chutzpah to do "I am what I am" (from La Cage a Faux) topless as a transman. No idea when/where I could do this, and realistically I doubt I ever could. But it would be awesome. But damned if I'd know what to call it.
X-posted on FTM