Can the (cis) boys just wanna have fun?
Added 2021-12-16 19:12:06 +0000 UTCI didn’t expect to make this one but it was fun to talk about. Aka…we talk about gender equality, gender constructs, being gender fluid or gender queer, but we seem to only extend that ”play” and exploration for anyone that isn’t a cis or cis straight man.
Can we (all of us) have the conversations we need to be having when we police straight men who dare to step out of the box of strict masculinity.
clearly I love talking about this stuff
Comments
Howdy, I really appreciate this vid. As a queer person that doesn't really engage in RuPaul's Drag Race I have only seen the peripheral commentary on this casting. From what I have seen it was a lot of "oh this straight white dude is going to steal the show" and so that message was hanging around in the back of my head coming into this video. WOW you really challenged this and created a great dialogue for me to process my feelings on this and similar situations. I started to think about where I see Cis boys/men expressing femininity or wearing more effeminate clothes, like when boys in my school would wear skirts during powderpuff cheerleading (homecoming activity where boys dress in girls uniforms and perform a routine as a joke), or when cis boys would wear skirts to school to protest the dress codes. I think where I have landed is asking myself, who/what is this for, what are the intentions, and does it hurt anyone? The powderpuff cheerleading is clearly a joke, and the joke is that boys would wear skirts and do a "girly" sport, and that doesn't sit right for me (especially, with the hate that boys get for doing more "girly" sports). But there are other instances where boys are using crossdressing to express themselves, challenge the status quo, or poke fun at gender norms and thats great! I think we are in a time where queerness is more widely accepted among the rising generation, and so parts of queer culture will become ubiquitous in mainstream culture. Is that good? What aspects do we want to keep for ourselves? I don't have the answer to that, but I'll keep marinating on that thought... The last thought I have is how people from dominate identities should and can enter into marginalized spaces. And where I land as a white woman is that I have to be invited, it is not my place to invade spaces that have a deep historical meaning to marginalized populations. Does that apply to drag? What is lost when it becomes more mainstream and how does the drag community preserve its history without becoming straight/whitewashed? I am very interested to see how this trojan horse does impact the Cis audience and their expression of gender and femininity. Anyways, just a couple thoughts, thank you so much for this video and all of your videos this year, the number of times I have referenced/cited your work is crazy! So thank you <3
Courtney Martinez
2021-12-19 16:05:21 +0000 UTCIt really makes you question the idea of a safe space. In the sense that we need them BECAUSE people don't understand and due to that they attack. So you would think that if we are using the strategy of 'someone like you is in this space and therefore giving you the capacity to empathize with and understand this group of people' - this would be a good thing. We really WANT more inclusion and less division in the sense that we want a world where more people can 'identify' with others as being ME - as this is what creates that shift of togetherness we want to see in society. But at the same time, exactly as you stated here, that fear of things being watered down, made into something they aren't, taken out of context and literally changed so much as to be NOT what they WERE in order to get this understanding/inclusion - that's a huge issue. The fact that we need to see similarity in others before we can empathize with them, before we can desire for them to be safe, before we can take their needs into account and work to create a society where they can exist peacefully - that seems to be what holds us back from so much progress. Why can't we just SEE one another as an 'us' no matter how 'different' - recognizing that EVERYONE is HUMAN and deserving of space, access and safety? I love what you express here about pointing people to your message coming from a different body. That's incredible of you. Really. I get SO frustrated with that reality. But you're right - the message is what matters. This was awesome. Excellent Trojan horse.
Aliyah Mystery School
2021-12-17 07:09:18 +0000 UTC
