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RMDavison recommends…
This is a wonderful collection of photos of dapper genderforking individuals. I have a feeling this will be my one of my new favorite pages in the very near future. I’m think I’m already hooked!
A reader recommends…
Red is one of the few people I follow on youtube, mostly because she is hilarious and keeps it real. Recently she went on tour with the Tranny Roadshow, and some kind person put this up on youtube. Red talks about life as a transwoman, offers the audience a metaphor they might want to use in their lives (but only if they find it useful!), and is just generally all kinds of awesome.
A reader recommends…
A high schooler (now a recent grad, I think) decided to blog her way through an issue of Seventeen magazine, using tips and advice from it every day for a month. It was pretty interesting in and of itself. She noted the assumed homogeneity of the Seventeen reader (thin, “good” hair, etc.) not to mention the myriad other problems with teen media and decided to address the problem.
Now she is asking people to submit pictures of themselves with the prompt, “Hey Mainstream Media, I Am…” She has not decided what to do with the pictures yet, but wants to make them somehow visible to media execs. You do not have to be a teen or a girl, and I thought that the gender-variant, androgynous, and otherwise awesome readers of Genderfork would have some great ideas for submissions.
giulia recommends…
The CocoRosie sisters are not only talented avant-garde musicians, they are also inspiring genderbenders, who mix male and female in an unique way. Click to see a video made to promote their new album, Grey Oceans. Dressed as men, the sisters dance and pose. They never looked so hot.
Erica (the photo curator) recommends…
A Flickr group combining my two favorite things: gender bending and high geekery. Be sure to check out the Princess Leia and Hellboy costumes!
B/D recommends…
Fariba Tabrizi seeks asylum in Germany from persecution due to sexual identity in Iran. A fellow refugee commits suicide, so Fariba assumes his identity. Jasmin Tabatabai gives a wonderful performance as Fariba. You can watch Unveiled instantly on Netflix.
A reader recommends…
Liu Zhu is a contestant in China’s ‘Super Boy’ singing contest who caused some controversy by entering a male-only talent show while dressing as a woman. From interviews it seems that he is happy calling himself a boy and presenting as a beautiful woman, and while he’s been strongly criticized (and harshly questioned by a guest judge on the show) there are plenty of supportive voices out there too. Best of luck to him in the contest, I say!
Tor recommends…
Probably the most entertaining half-hour of gender study ever! Halberstam makes me want to add a minor in Gender Studies to my degree…
RBG recommends…
Torchwood is a spinoff of Doctor Who, starring Captain Jack and his own crew back on Earth.
The lead actor, John Barrowman, is openly gay, and his character is a pansexual guy that flirts with everything and everyone.
Almost every character on the show has relations with every sex. It explores gender in a loose but comfortable way, and opens your mind without your even realizing it.
A reader recommends…
Written in 1966, this song was intended to be about a time in the future when parents can choose their children’s gender and a family chooses to have four girls, but end up with three girls and a boy, so they decide to pretend the fourth child is female.
However, I find it could just as easily be a song being told from the point of view of someone expected to act female, but longs to be male.
J recommends…
This is one of my favorite books, ever. I first read it when I was a teenager, and eventually gave my dogeared copy to another teenager. I have bought and shared three or four copies over the years.
It is a unique book in that it is a fantasy story in which the protagonist is physically genderfluid, both male and female by turns. Also unique in my reading experience was that it was a book in which several of the characters are queer, and it was mainstream published, and nobody is treated as a stereotype. It’s about growing up in a world where you never quite fit in and in which love and sex are by turns magical and complicated and frightening.
I have recommended this book to many people, and it holds a special place in my heart, as girl who wore suits and hung out with boys in dresses. I might even say it’s like Tolkien for Queer kids.
kal recommends…
100 Butches is a book that Torontonian artist Elisha Lim is putting together. It’s full of drawings that are original in their simplicity, and offers snippets of butch-encounters, which come across much like entries from the artist’s personal diary. It’s a work in progress, but I can’t wait to read it all.
Zachary Bosch recommends…
Kill Your Darlings is a film that has that incredibly rare thing: a gender-variant character who is treated like a human being, and whose identity, just like those of the cisgendered characters, is of entirely no consequence whatsoever.
The film itself is a bit of a twist on the typical American road-trip thing, and it took me a couple of watches to understand it, but it left me feeling rather happy for no particular reason, which is always a plus (and it has Alexander Skarsgard in it, which is an even bigger plus…).
Harper recommends…
Patrick Wolf occupies a genderworld constructed entirely of glitter.
nick recommends…
As a story about the struggle to be uniquely yourself, this autobiography by gay icon Quentin Crisp has few rivals. Both sad and immensely funny, The Naked Civil Servant tells the story of Quentin’s refusal to hide his homosexuality and flamboyant lifestyle.
Chace asks…
I’m tired of being told not to be butch, but I have no idea how to tell the important people in my life, who see me as a woman, that I’ve been living a lie. I’m not a boy, I’m not a girl. I’m a queer pansy gentleman and I’ll act like one and be loved as one. What’s a good way to explain to them that I’m just not a girl?
Please post your response in the comments below.
» Ask Genderfork «
itsbetterbarefoot asks…
Hello friends. I am a biologically identified queer woman. I have been seeing a trans man for a little bit now, and I think I’d like to keep him around. He recently asked me what my parents would say if they knew I was dating a trans man. The same question has been on my mind for a while. My mother is supportive of my queer identity, but my father mostly ignores it. My mom and I are very close, and it is difficult to hide anything from her. How do you bring up such a topic to those you love who may not be so familiar with queer issues? Any thoughts would be helpful…
Please post your response in the comments below.
» Ask Genderfork «
Momo recommends…
I’ve simply fallen in love with Bill Kaulitz – not necessarily because of his music, but because of his utter disregard for gender norms and for his androgyny. He’s a beautiful boy who simply enjoys expressing himself, regardless of the tabloids questioning his sexuality over his eyeliner, long hair, and tight pants.
To see a celebrity—a well-known celebrity—pushing the envelope on gender is refreshing and exciting, especially when he’s doing it on MTV or strutting the runway during Milan fashion week in heels and studded leather.
I’ve been trying to get my parents to call me “he” for the last five months and, while they try, how can I gently correct them without seeming rude about it?
Please post your response in the comments below.
» Ask Genderfork «
