Recommendation: Additive Gender
maymay recommends…
Additive Gender
A prom photo.
A prom photo.
Additive gender is the idea that by amplifying signals from one gender, you don’t necessarily negate the existence of others. Here’s a picture from a close friend’s prom in which she goes as one of her same-sex friends’ date. She plays a masculine role but rather than decide to try and pass by, for example, binding her breasts, she decides that it’s more self-expressive to keep all her femininity present and simply add masculine overtones.
I think it’s stunningly sexy.
Posted by Zory on October 20th, 2009 at 08:00 am
Category: photos, recommendations 7 comments »
October 20th, 2009 at 8:10 am |
Sexy Sexy. ^_^”
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October 20th, 2009 at 2:22 pm |
Wow, thank you so much for this. I feel like there’s a lot of pressure sometimes (at least in my life/social sphere!) on trans/genderqueer/androgynous/etc. folks… that you either need to:
appear gendered/transgendered in one direction only,
look completely genderfucked,
or appear perfectly genderless.
It’s nice to see someone appreciate a little of this and a little of that all together.
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October 20th, 2009 at 2:35 pm |
I can only echo the comment above about how lovely it is to see someone appreciating the best of both…and i love the photo, your friends expression is so very cool :)
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October 21st, 2009 at 7:36 am |
Oh, this post makes me so happy. For me it’s been about piling on the gendering, so I love seeing that others are working that way as well. Yay!
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October 21st, 2009 at 5:01 pm |
This is how I feel a lot of the time. Unfortunately, for a female-bodied person in a community that is not dominantly queer, most people just see that as “tomboy”, not genderfuck. :(
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December 6th, 2009 at 2:23 am |
Interesting, kyprieth. What do you suppose the reaction would be if the person presenting with additive gender were male-bodied instead of female-bodied?
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December 6th, 2009 at 9:04 am |
I think sometimes genderfuck is only validated if it is overt / in-your-face / etc…at least that’s how I’ve felt based on my experience. I see genderfuck here…it’s just more peripherally subversive, more refined. More…look, stop, think, double take, register, light bulb [but turned up with dimmer, not just snapped on.] A-ha…smile. It’s just a different vibe. I like it lots.
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