Rec | THE ART OF GENDER

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I am making a zine about the art of performing, producing and affirming our gender. A few weeks ago I was struck by a video of a piercer talking about gender-affirming piercings that exposed my bias. I, (a nonbinary hyper-femme glittery diva, obsessed with exploring, manipulating, and playing with expression, using my face, body, and essence as a canvas), realized I assume that "gender-affirming" actions, such as getting a piercing, would only refer to trans folks. There was this unconscious part of me that still gripped to the narrative that "gender" was somehow real... that cis people did not need to perform, produce, or affirm their own identity... that gender was static. This piercer exposed a hideous blind spot. They opened with a story of little girls getting their lobes pierced. This beautiful ushering into womanhood, this ritual of adorning similar style jewels to the brave and courageous women in your life. And then mothers. When mothers get their nose pierced to reclaim their bodies, to reclaim their autonomy after literally sharing, giving, everything to bring a child into the world. We all use art express our gender. We all everyday wake up and perform gender - yes sometimes in the theatrical sense, gender is drag of course - but also in the Judith Butler sense, that with every act we create a new reality. I don't know. The whole thing has just got me thinking. Especially with the state of the world today, authoritarianism on the rise globally, transgender history literally being deleted from government websites... a joyful celebration of gender, a leaning into the playful aspects of what gender can, of what it should be... is at least what I need. If you, cis, trans, unsure, whatever, have a story of a gender-affirming moment in your life, please share:) And if anyone wants to be a part of this project .... eeeeee that would be sick!

@crabbyblabbyabby

Feb 19, 2025

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@marxinista

if it would be of interest i studied sociology/gender studies in school and would be happy to share readings on this subject!

Feb 19, 2025

@moonbeams

I've also thought about this a lot. As someone who is pretty assuredly a cis woman, I do enjoy playing with the masculine side of expression. Cutting my hair in more masculine ways or dressing that way. But these presentation styles are constantly changing in society too. Everyone with the full range of identies can also present in the full range of gendered ways yknow? Given that I haven't messed around with my gender too much, to me gender affirming things are just things that really make me feel like me. Like getting a pixie cut and dying my hair. Or buying that suit for graduation. My platform sneakers. But also all my jewelry. It's just whatever makes the outsides match my insides at the time.

Feb 19, 2025

@FFH

i've been thinking about this so much for so long. i'm trans. in order for that to be true, there has to be something internal, some inherently gendered self that lets me know that. but the more my body changes and the more comfortable i get, the less i hold onto any binary identity. i'm a trans guy and i still identify as male socially because that's how i'm most comfortable, but i can't help feel like we're all some variety of nonbinary or agender on the soul level once we dissolve all the social aspects that keep us compartmentalized. before i came out and at the beginning of my transition i dressed very conventionally masculine, just some guy, trying not to be noticed, but now that my body has changed i actually like myself, and i enjoy presenting feminine. there's clearly a mind-body aspect of being trans that's very real, but the social construction of gender is very flimsy and it's mostly annoying how baked into all of us it is (myself included). i like being a beautiful creature and that's all i want to be. good luck and keep me updated on the project, sounds so cool!

Feb 19, 2025

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interesting academic writing

i studied sociology and the wonderful v interdisciplinary field of gender studies, here is a combo of my favorite papers + some of the most interesting (if not bizarre) ones. obv they are both heavy fields and i don’t remember exactly what is in each so just be warned there may be difficult topics mentioned! also i am just copy/pasting some of these from old bibliographies and syllabi lol but if you google them most have free PDFs online. i tried picking stuff related to culture but apologies if this is too long, i am a soc/gs nerd! articles: the REAL meaning and origin of the term “male gaze” (and why I get SO mad when women today misuse it instead of saying internalized misogyny): Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” 1989 Dana M Britton “The Epistemology of the Gendered Organization” 2000 Dick Hebdidge “Subculture: The Meaning of Style” 2011 (book) George Chauncey “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940” 1994 (book not article but super iconic / important) Dean Spade “Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law” 2011 (another book, v dense) Joan Acker (def check out her other work if you like this one, I love her stuff) “From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions” 1992 Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (editors) ”Our History Has Always Been Contraband” 2023 (book about Black Studies comprised of essays/excerpts of theory and about history) Evan B Towle and Lynn M Morgan “Romancing the Transgender Native Rethinking the Use of the "Third Gender" Concept” 2002 WEB DuBois “The Souls of Black Folk” 1903 (more people should read this) J. E. Sumerau, Ryan T. Cragun, Lain A. B. Mathers ““I Found God in The Glory Hole”: The Moral Career of a Gay Christian” 2016 lol Patricia Hill Collins “TOWARD A NEW VISION: RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER AS CATEGORIES OF ANALYSIS AND CONNECTION” 1993 (sorry for all caps) Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman “Doing Gender” 1987 Laurel Westbrook and Kristen Schilt “Doing Gender, Determining Gender: Transgender People, Gender Panics, and the Maintenance of the Sex/Gender/Sexuality System” 2014 (MORE PEOPLE SHOULD READ THIS! it basically offers empirical evidence / explanation of of how transphobia actually perpetuates misogyny rather than simply “protecting women” or not) Olúfemi O. Táíwò “Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics“ 2022 (book) Cathy J Cohen “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens” 1997 Colin P Ashley “Gay Liberation: How a Once Radical Movement Got Married and Settled Down” 2015

@marxinista

Oct 15, 2024

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Stryker, S. 1994. “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage” in GLQ 1, 3; 237-254.

One of my favourite reads in my studies so far (I'm a soc and women's and gender studies major). It's an interesting read: part story, part social critique, part poem, part journal entry, part really dense analytical piece. Amazing writing style too. Stryker is basically saying why trans people have so much in common with Frankenstein's monster and how this is based actually and cis people should wonder about their monstrosity to find out we are all, in fact, so incredibly socially constructed.

@ro

Oct 15, 2024

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