Here is a speech from Audre Lorde’s book Sister Outsider… So much to learn! 

Presentation Version, Shorter Cut

A Lifetime With Quentin Crisp

Queer Rhetoric. 

Girls Again

Question Gender, Question Desire, Question Love.

Escaping the Body, Part II

Furthering my examination on whether physical “perfection” equates to a reduction to the physical or a transcendence of the physical, my second film in the Escaping the Body series takes a less sexual and provocative approach.  Whereas the first film was very contrived and glamorized, shot exclusively in black and white, with my movements largely in concert with the music, this second short film is more “real”.  It is “real” in the sense that in many shots I am bereft of makeup, or any other kind of cosmetic or “man made” adornment…but does this make me more or less real?  Are we at our most real when we are able to construct ourselves, putting our “best face” forward?…or is reality closer to an absence of these tropes and signifiers, whether they be masculine or feminine?  My film opens up just as many questions (perhaps more!) than answers, and above all, is a prompt to start those who watch it (and its previous film) to begin to think about “perfection” in absurdist and Lacanian terms.  

—-Charlie

heyfatchick:

(via Things you can tell by looking at a fat person « Dances With Fat)

Recording a process of performance

So often, drag queens are constructed as over-the-top, entertaining, performance and its finest…but why does it just stop there?  Why is it that male femininity, when done “artfully” is conflated with humor and a stage as opposed to genuine lived-experience and passion?  I know when I put on makeup and more “feminine” clothing, while I will not deny the performative nature of what I’m doing (where does performance begin and expression end), but it is rather towards ends which are more political and self-affirming (for me)…surely not all in good fun, for laughs.  I think glamour and expression through things like makeup and clothing should not be relegated to the domain of “femininity”.  Men can similarly be glamorous, beautiful and seductive.  After all, these are all constructions…I don’t see it as a re-appropriating of femininity so much as a signal that everything is drag.  However, when it comes down to it, what I express is what I would refer to as an “alternative masculinity”…but that’s another topic, and perhaps another post…

—-Charlie

This is a project from my last year’s Gender and Sexuality in Art class.  I thought to include it here because it speaks to the destabilization of which bodies matter, which are claimed as ideal and conforming.  Speaking to much of what we have read throughout the course, there is often a polarization of the gay and straight worlds, hegemonic expression and “deviant” expression.  I sought to question whether or not the attainment of physical “perfection” is an escape from the physical, a transcendence, or the ultimate confinement, reducing one to the body and one’s visual self.  As an individual who identifies as genderqueer, hegemony, while it surely informs my expression and desires to a point, (to what extent?…perhaps a future post will cover) is more of a sparring partner than a space I wish to occupy.  That is not to say I go day in and day out with a hostility towards hegemonic masculinity.  On the contrary, I rather disidentify with it than reject it fully.  I attempt to provide an alternative space, and genderqueer seems to be the most fitting label I have in the dynamic and ever-changing process of identify formation and realization.  There is a part two to this project, which approaches the theme with a very different assortment of visuals and content.  More to come…

—-Charlie

Now, an entire week after Halloween, I can’t help but resurrect the zombie that is the “bar-sexual”. Two years after Katy Perry’s “I kissed a girl and I liked It”, straight identified women are still kissing each other in bars in order to invite the male gaze. In lieu of all the attention “barsexuals” have gained in the media in the last few years, I can’t help but wonder: Is the prevalence of “bar-curious” women growing? And if so, could that be due to the normalized representation of their behavior in media?  

Tyra Video 1: Lesbian vs. Barsexual

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1I8svs-kWo

Tyra Video 2:  Queer Women of Color Responds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p9og0KFmMo

Katy Perry : I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAp9BKosZXs

Jezebel’s Take on Things

http://jezebel.com/5057642/straight-women-who-kiss-one-another-for-attention-are-problematic

Straight Girls Kissing – Rupp and Taylor

http://contexts.org/articles/summer-2010/straight-girls-kissing/