And your androgyny
Androgyny by Garbage.
Posted by XylophoneGender on December 11th, 2011 at 08:00 am
Androgyny by Garbage.
You can call me… Kelly
I identify as… moi. A gamer, a geek.
As far as third-person pronouns go, … anything goes.
I’m attracted to… men, originality, free-spiritedness, and the chronologically displaced.
When people talk about me, I want them to… be honest.
I want people to understand… that the world is what we make it.
About Kelly
I’m an illustrator trapped in a fine art school. I’m a writer and a dreamer.
» Define yourself. «
Oringinally posted by Ariel at OffBeatBride, a post on the wedding of queer femme Aly & genderqueer Elroi. Want more? Their album, their logo special, and Aly’s post on parenting outside the gender binary.
You can call me… David
I identify as… a genderqueer transman, sometimes just man, sometimes just a person but never male.
As far as third-person pronouns go, … Hy, hym and hys; he him and his is acceptable..
I’m attracted to… femmes with a boyish edge, girls with gruff sexy voices, girls wearing converse all stars with short hair, blondes with short hair, redheads, unusual looking girls, skinny girls, girls with long legs, girls with short fingernails and girls who don’t mind getting dirty doing hard work..
When people talk about me, I want them to… say anything they like because what anyone thinks of me is none of my business. Seriously, you can’t control what people say about you- all you can control is your reaction to it.
I want people to understand… that i don’t give discounts if they’re rude. (i work in a sales job!)
About David
genderqueer transguy who likes nice people. and being nice. and babes. and custard tarts.
» Define yourself. «
You can call me… Cassidy Pink
I identify as… two-spirit. i try to avoid cultural appropriation, but while i’m not native american as far as i know, i see gender as developing earlier than culture, more of a message i send out to the world than a role given to me.
As far as third-person pronouns go, … I like he and him…for now.
I’m attracted to… people interested in creating tribal polyamory.
When people talk about me, I want them to… talk TO me first.
I want people to understand… how to love themselves.
About Cassidy Pink
I scooped ice cream for four years and now I’ve been lifting old folks for over two. I plan to bring Theatre of The Oppressed to Burning Man in 2012.
“The idea of art as self expression is historically weird.” -Keith Johnstone
» Define yourself. «
You can call me… Gatsby. I went through a multitude of names, but now I finally settled upon Fitzgerald’s “Gatsby”. That’s been my pen name and online alias for years. I’ve been more honest online than offline. It’s about time I make that into a reality.
I identify as… dynamic. In flux. Changing. I am not static. I strive to develop, grow, and evolve. I am constantly recreating and reinventing myself. As far as gender goes, I AM neither, but I can act AS either. Gender should be something fun and exciting to express- not oppressive social roles used to limit people’s true potential. However, I am most happy with being “Gatsby” and not “boy” or “girl.” Labels are convenient, but not enough to define me. I am an open question. I like it when people make the effort to explore and discover who I am. But does “human” suffice for you? It does for me. I’m just another human with fears. Trying to be a little braver day by day by learning how to love myself and others.
As far as third-person pronouns go, … “He/him/his” are preferable. “She/her/hers” are tolerable. “Gatsby” is the best. The benefit about Korean and American Sign Language is that gender neutral pronouns are used constantly. I wish English was like that more often.
I’m attracted to… passionate people- especially those who love the Arts (visual art, theater, music, literature, etc.) People who love Art more than themselves, who show their love for Art through each action and every word, who allow Art to work through them to benefit society. People who view words like “live” and “love” as verbs- not just mere standalone concepts. I look at people at their most fundamental state: human beings. Humans with ambition to turn visions into reality. Humans that are not victims of their circumstances. Humans that acknowledge their imperfections. Humans that love Muse, Ayn Rand, Fitzgerald, plaid shirts, literacy, breaking rules…Gender does not matter to me. Excuse my French, but I don’t give a damn. As an artist, I see physical attributes from an objective point of view (angles, directions, form). Initially, people are shades of gray. It’s after I discover what’s underneath that a person lacks or gains color, and oh, do I love color. With that being said, I know a person of amazing color, and I love her, endlessly.
When people talk about me, I want them to… be honest and clear. If you knew me before, then I know that you’re apprehensive and afraid. You’re afraid of losing me, but hey! I never left. You can’t lose me. I’m not dead. I’m still here.
I want people to understand… to let go of the people that deny you. To love the people that accept you. To deny yourself love is easy to do, but to love and let yourself be loved is so frightening, yet courageous. Try to think that you only have 15 years left to live. It puts everything in a different perspective: you are productive each second, you strive to love strangers, and you actively create an altruistic purpose. Make a conscious effort to do something a little brave each and everyday. As Atticus Finch said, “I wanted you to see what real courage is instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”
About Gatsby.
Gatsby is an artist. Lives by his own dynamics. A city kid at heart enjoyed time in the South, but it’s time to go out into the bigger world. A fanatic lover of Muse and Jonsi. Seventeen, young, and changing. Caught up in the velocity of how fast the kid’s evolving. Learning how to love himself. Excited to see what tomorrow brings.
» Define yourself. «
Photographer: Brian Shumway. Model: Unknown. Originally posted on Brian Shumway Photography as part of his “True Men” project.
Shumway writes, “Expression of one’s manhood, especially in public, must remain within a narrow range of acceptable social norms. Little boys are conditioned as such from birth, almost as a universal absolute. But this ignores the full story of male identity… The men in this portrait series fall outside traditional notions of manliness and masculinity. They possess an effeminate manner, dress, or look, a ‘girlishness’ that is as much a part of being male as weightlifting and football.”
Shumway is also looking for NYC-based effeminate men or masculine women (straight or gay) to continue the project. Email him at hi@brianshumway.com if you want to take part!
You can call me… Trey.
I identify as… a greedy bi-sexual. I love all who love me and more, and I detest being boxed into a sexuality. My babies call me Mashu. I’m a mommy and a lover and a pretty big question mark. Call me The Ambiguous One.
As far as third-person pronouns go, … Slut, Slag, Skut, Harlot. I’ve gotten most of my friends used to calling me derogatory words. I don’t know why but I love them. Especially Harlot.
I’m attracted to… interesting characters. People who can kill and love in the same breath. People who lick what tastes good and spit out what doesn’t. Denizens and drop-outs, sluts and virgins. I love the ones that don’t pretend to be normal, happy or sane, when they’re not.
When people talk about me, I want them to… Speak louder so I can join in. I’m too comfortable with my flaws to die over it. We can both call me a loser, I need a good laugh!
I want people to understand… that we could die today. That life is not just a solid lump of either beauty or ugliness. It’s all mashed together. Tomorrow will be horrid and the next day will be pure gorgeous. Stop trying to control it and just love it. At the same time, you can make your world EVERYTHING you want it to be. People talk, they laugh, they point, but everyone lives in their own little universe. And you can definitely omit them from yours. So don’t worry. Everything goes…and that’s always going to be true.
About Trey.
I’m a writer and a mother before anything else. I dabble in the capturing of souls here and there, but it gets boring. Maybe I’m the most normal person you know.
Truth is, I’m pretty much a lover of destruction. Chaos and just giving up and letting the real beauty of life soak in drives me. I feel trapped in relationships and I kinda believe in short love. My loves are nicknamed The Boy Chin Wonder and Dude Ranch and they mean everything to me. I crave loneliness at times, and really, I am in love with myself.
My website is: We-Eat-Flesh.blogspot.com and I hope to make it more than a blogspot one day. You’ll love my sick, rancid stories, I think, and I’ll love you for loving them.
Let’s be disgusting, friends.
» Define yourself. «
by Erica Stratton
This month’s episode of Gender Heroes shines the spotlight on Majestic Legay, co-creator of Glitter Politic. When not collecting Body Love Letters, Legay promotes an obese lifestyle, practices gay witchcraft, wears amazing jackets and cultivates zir mustache.
Legay lives in a shared house in Vancouver with fellow Glitter Politic founder Ashley Aron and Smith, who started Queer, Fat, Hungry. Legay calls this twist of life-imitates-Internet-awesomeness “gay fate!”
Genderfork: How would you describe your gender identity now? What’s your preferred pronoun (if any)?
Legay: If I had to choose an identity category I would say I am a non-binary trans (or genderqueer) femme. I usually use ‘they’ pronouns with people I am close with, but I am pretty serious lately about going by any pronoun. I am starting to gravitate towards that because I am feeling really complicated about all pronouns and they aren’t central to the way I understand my gender right now.
To be honest, the most accurate description of my gender for me at this moment would be that I am a sex crazed teenager who peacocks as a daddy. Everything about my gender seems performative and is constantly shifting and that feels like a funny and accurate way for me to describe this particular moment. My lover once said to me “if prince and a tough but tender cowboy made love and gave birth to a baby wolf and the afterbirth was glitter, that would be you I think” which made a lot of sense to me. I’m not trying to be pretentious, I just have a non-binary experience of my gender and sometimes talking about it in terms of baby wolves and glitter and vintage glamour and leather daddies makes way more sense to me than things like pronouns.
Genderfork: One of the first critiques that were leveled at Genderfork was about the lack of body diversity (See “Why don’t I see more [insert group here] represented on your site?” in our FAQ). After looking for photos of androgynous fashionistas for three years, I think there is also a problem with the common perception of what body type is “androgynous”: skinny, hipless, and boobless. How can we smash this idea to smithereens?
Legay: I think we need to remember that the very notion of “visibility” is very, very loaded. We need to ask ourselves, “who is visible and why?” and “is visibility always a good thing? Is it always a choice?”. Visibility is often really about who has privilege in certain spaces and is often raced, classed, and gendered in complicated ways. For example, white, thin, “androgynous” queers dominate queer fashion blogs and websites while those who are more feminine, have different bodies, who aren’t white are often vastly undervalued and underrepresented. I am doing some writing on queer visibility in November and I hope to be able to better articulate this critique then. I think we can smash this idea to smithereens by recognizing that visibility is constructed in a way that makes certain people and bodies totally invisible. I don’t think people have to “look” androgynous to have complicated experiences of their genders. I’ve identified as trans for a really long time, but that’s not always how people saw me (I was often read as a cis femme). Visibility fails me and many of the people I love whose bodies and aesthetics don’t fit into the narrow confines of the dominant ways we see “queer”.
Genderfork: What message are you sending with your fashion?
Legay: I construct my visibility on my own terms but I acknowledge that I have no control over the ways that other people see or interpret that. I once said to my friend “I want people to see me and feel uncomfortable. Like they are simultaneously disturbed and really turned on“. This reminds me of an article that Dean Spade wrote on resistant aesthetics called Dress to Kill, Fight to Win. In it he says, “I want to be disturbed by what you’re wearing, I want to be shocked and undone and delighted by what you’re doing and how you’re living. And I don’t want anyone to be afraid to put on their look, their body, their clothes anymore. Resistance is what is sexy, its what looks good and is hard to look at and what sometimes requires explanation.”
I suppose that part of what I am trying to do is redefine people’s understanding of beauty with a forceful aesthetic that leaves people with no other choice than to notice that beauty, gender and desire are much more complex than mainstream media says they are.
On a less intense note, right now my style is teen werewolf because it’s fall and I am growing out my moustache. This means a lot of black clothes and glitter and trying to reclaim nailpolish.
Genderfork: Where do you get your clothes? It’s already difficult to find decent plus size fashion, and finding decent queer fashion just seems to add an additional level of frustration for a lot of people. (In other words: OMG, that purple rain jacket! *swoons* Where can I get one???)
Legay: I’ve been going to thrift stores since I was a tween. I get most of my accessories, t-shirts, button ups, jackets and sweaters from thrift stores. I pride myself in being able to work a thrift store like a boss and I love to shop for my clothes there as much as possible. That being said, PANTS ARE THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. Finding pants as someone with big hips is really, really hard. I actually don’t really fit into boy pants, because I have a super wide waist. I usually always wear jeggings and women’s pants and usually get mine from Old Navy or Torrid. Finding decent fashion can be really time consuming and annoying. I would say, go to the thrift store, have patience and try everything on (because then you will find things like cropped satin purple jackets that make it all worth it!).
Genderfork: Any resources/style guides/fellow androgynous radfatties that you’d like to recommend?
A Dark Congregation (GQ Fat Latina Swag)
Callout Queen (Blogging for Brown Gurls)
Deli Sub the Femme Cub (Deliciously Subversive)
Dressupbox (Trans Queer of Color)
Fat Genderqueers
Fuck Yeah Chubby Butches!
Fancy and Dandy Fatties
Glitter Geek (Queer Geeky Glamdrogynous Korean Flowerboy Adoptee Fat Crip Artist)
Hickies ‘n’ Hotpants
Many Bothans (webmaster for Glitter Politic)
Pens and Paper ( Queer. Fat. Trans-masculine Bigender Boi.)
Queer Co.
Queer, Fat, Hungry (Queering Eating)
Trans (Fat)shion!
Genderfork: And… what are you thinking about gender right now?
Legay: I feel like there is a lot of misogyny in queer spaces (misogyny = the hatred of the feminine), and I have a lot of internalized misogyny I am dealing with right now. I feel like masculinity is often at odds with femininity and constructing my masculinity in a way that is not predicated on the hatred of the feminine but actually embraces and celebrates it is very important to me. Right now I am trying to explore masculinity while thinking about misogyny and transmisogyny a lot. My understanding of how misogyny feels personally is shifting with my gender presentation, and I don’t ever want to forget that as a femme I am committed to making misogyny visible in all of its forms so that I can resist it for myself and also be in solidarity with other femmes and feminine folks.
On a less serious note, my gender idols right now are Elvis and Prince because they both have a very meticulous masculinity and wore fancy makeup. Embracing blush and mascara like it’s going out of style is really important to me all of the time and you can often find me drinking coffee and contemplating the merits of different shades of blush.
Photographer: Dirty Richmond. Model: Unknown. Originally posted at Dirty Richmond (Where the city is dirty but the people are not).