Transgender Community

Trans Drag

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:09:00 GMT

Posted by: justanormalgirl.livejournal.com

I watched a couple of FTM videos on YouTube and then I ran across this person (interview here and here). He started off as a female model, transitioned to male and now is a drag queen!

I have heard of a couple other people, both MTF and FTM who do drag not as their chosen gender but as their birth gender. That is to say, MTFs who are drag kings and FTMs who are drag queens.

I have dressed up as male for fun a few times. Last year, we were supposed to wear ties at work to celebrate Father's Day (I worked at a clothing store). Most people, male and female, just wore a tie over a t-shirt but I went all out and wore a suit (it is really hard to find a small men's suit!) and tie and tucked my hair up under a hat. My coworkers hardly recognized me at first and they thought it was amazing how well I could pull off being a man (little did they know, of course, that I "pulled it off" for 19 years!). It was fun!

Anyone else successfully living as their chosen gender dress up as their given gender either in a stage performance (drag king or queen) or just for fun (like me)?

( Photo )

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Mon, 07 May 2007 23:06:00 GMT

Posted by: tgjerusalem.livejournal.com

Does anyone else here do drag or gender-etc performance, even/especially just amature stuff?

I'm a transman. I specifically and strongly identify as a man. But I'm also a glitter fairy, and to be honest, I love drag. In addition to a general wardrobe that tends to include items more shiny than those the average cisgender man might wear, I really love gender-type performance. I think part of it is almost a vindication, that I can be on stage and wearing clothing way more "feminine" than anything I was ever forced to wear, and *still* be on stage as a man in fabulous glitter and sequins.

But at the same time, I never want any performance I do to be demeaning to transwoman, or for it to give the impression that gender atypical clothing or behavior is itself never more than a matter of performance/acting/wardrobe. The shows I've been in so far have all been among friends at my old (very queer) school, where there was never much of a problem of the audience being confused. But I've since graduated and am out in the "real world" thing, and god damn, I would love to perform like that again. It would have to be really amature, given my tendency towards paralyzing stage fright, but still.

Do such venues exist? And how the hell would one go about trying to do performance that isn't unintentionally demeaning? I admit, I know a lot more about the ftm side of the spectrum, and all the difficulties surrounding drag king performance. What could I do, that might make it clear to a more "mainstream" audience that my performance is performance about ideas of femininity, not something mocking transwomen? What should I avoid?

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gender performance language wierdness

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:50:00 GMT

Posted by: tgjerusalem.livejournal.com

This 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

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opinions about an FtM doing and MtF part?

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 13:48:00 GMT

Posted by: jjblue.livejournal.com

So last week I auditioned for The Vagina Monologues. Women's issues are still important to me, and I've wanted to do VMfor the last few years. Plus, it would be a chance to put a different face on female-bodied-ness, as well as showingthe universal experiences that female-bodied people go through. I showed up, read, and got complimented. They had me read Burqua (about covered Muslim women) and part of a group piece.

I came out as trans right away, telling them I am transgendered, in medical gender reassignment, and would they be open to me participating. They readily said yes and I was glad, because San Diego would not have been as welcoming. On my application I said I would do any part as long as it didn't celebrate visible femininity, and the director said fine.

Tuesday night I get a call. I am in, doing They Beat the Girl Out Of _______ and What Does My Vagina Smell Like. I said fine :) , great :) , got the rehearsal schedule.

Next day look up the piece. It is a newer monologue, the transWOMAN monologue, called They Beat the Girl Out Of My Boy. About gender, arbitrariness of gender assignment, violence against transwomen, etc. At its core it is a man who has finally become the woman she has always been inside. COULD THEY HAVE ASSIGNED ME ANYTHING LESS APPROPRIATE????

I was trying to figure this out, and thanks to a friend I found out there was some confusion. Apparently they thought I was MtF. Huh??? That's been cleared up and I'm still in, and still excited to be part of it. But I feel a little bit funny about doing an MtF piece. I just left a message with her so we can talk, most specifically about clothing and voice...how will this fly with me in a suit, because I refuse to wear women's clothing? And by then I'll be another two months on T, and probably sound and look different than I do now.

And while I guess it's no weirder than a biofemale reading the part, it strikes me as odd. I've been looking for a copy of this monologue online to no avail. I guess maybe to the director trans is trans? I think I'm going to have to do some real soul-searching on this one.

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