… not only am I putting up a preview of the new book tomorrow, but I’ve also found that while I’m writing I can’t just toss off ideas about gender for the blog. Thus, 80s music and all the other oddball things I’ve been posting about.
Quentin Crisp & Sting?
Okay, maybe I’m the only one who didn’t know this, because I never saw Sting’s “Englishman in New York” video, but I didn’t know QC was the friend Sting wrote it about.
Which makes me want to say obscene things to all the people who don’t like Sting or make fun of me for liking him. I think he’s a decent person, & trans-friendly as all hell: remember the skirt he wore at the Victoria’s Secret show? The fact that he cross-dresses in Brimstone & Treacle? Oh, right, and then there’s these lyrics he wrote an album or so ago:
My skirt’s too short
My tights are run
These new heels are killing me
A second pack of cigarettes
It’s a slow night, but there’s time yet
Here comes the john from his other life
He may be driving to his wife
But he slowed down, take a look
I’ve learned to read them just like books
It’s already half past ten
But they’ll be back again
Don’t judge me
You could be me in another life
In another set of circumstances
A friend of mine, he wound up dead
His dress is stained with color red
The next of kin, no fixed abode
Another victim on this road
The police just carted him away
But someone took his place next day
He’s home by Thanksgiving
But not with the living
I mean, I can’t name anyone else who’s written a song from the POV of a trans streetworker, can you?
But I promise, no more 80s music references, at least for a while. Tomorrow, though, the first preview of She’s Not the Man I Married.
My 80s
I’ve watched with some horror as the 80s have been re-written as being all about Michael J. Fox – sometimes I wonder if I dreamt it all or if I was living in another universe.
Because to me, the 80s were all about things like The Belle Stars, and Haysi Fantaysee (the Boy George line, as it were), and beautiful things like Bananarama and Funboy Three doing “Aint What You Do.”
There were all the sweet (and sweet voiced) boys, like Terry Hall (of Funboy Three and The Specials), and Dave Wakeling (of General Public and The Beat) (“Never You Done That” is one of my favorite love songs, & so damned melodically happy it hurts) and Marc Almond and Jimi Somerville, Roddy Frame and Howard Jones.
The geeks had just begun to rule the world, too: Howard DeVoto and Devo and Gary Numan.
Anyway, my 80s were not about hot cars and coke. They were more about dredlocks, lip gloss and rants about Reagan. And I haven’t failed to notice that my 80s seem to be taking a backseat historically to the super-consumerist, “we won the cold war” bullshit. Of course they love Reagan; some days I think they all have Alzheimer’s, since the queer, genderfucked, international, happy 80s seem to be disappearing from the record.
When I’m an old, old woman, I’m going to be in a rocking chair saying, “But boys did wear makeup! And girls did shave their heads!” & Then they’ll give me another little pill to forget, & I’ll hum “Europa & the Pirate Twins” till I sleep.
Joan Jett
I went to see Joan Jett with Caprice and Donna a couple of nights ago, and – well, she still rocks. She came out in her trademark low slung leather jeans, plus a bikini top. Tattoos, ripped muscles. I’ve been waiting to look half so good at some point in my life, and goddamn – she’s 48 this year. I’m 37. I don’t think it’s gonna happen.
My favorite part of the show, and the song I was most surprised to enjoy hearing, was “Crimson & Clover.” Mostly for the way she stands there looking every bit as tough as she ever did, & when she sings “my my such a sweet thing,” I’ve always heard it, “I’m not such a sweet thing.” No kidding. But then she smiles – a big, goofy, charming, smile, and you wonder if she is, or not.
Bust magazine sells WWJJD? t-shirts, which makes a lot more sense to me than the other kind.
The good news is that her next album is political and it seems she’s finally recorded her cover of The Replacements’ “Androgynous.” (Also, hopefully, coming soon to a gender book near you.)
The Joys of a Small Apartment
We have a rather small apartment – or at least quite a full one – so we eat at a table right next to the couch. I think we’ve long gotten past the idea that we’re ingesting fur with our food, sometimes.
Review: Leslie Feinberg's Drag King Dreams
Murdered Crossdressers, and Other Facts of Trans Life
review by Helen Boyd
June 3, 2006
Drag King Dreams
Caroll & Graf
by Leslie Feinberg
I’m not sure Leslie Feinberg has an actual fan club, but if there is one, I want in.
When I first read Stone Butch Blues, it blew my mind. A lesbian friend – since transitioned – made me read it. Made me, and for good reason: it’s like a sledgehammer of experience for anyone who has ever lived in the world as queer, or working class, and especially for anyone who has lived in the world as both. My friend knew it would speak to me, as it spoke to him.
Transgender Warriors was equally great, full of information, rage, inspiration. I remember practically pointing out passages to strangers on the subway when I was reading it.
But Drag King Dreams is like something from another world. Leslie Feinberg is not just remarkable as a person, and activist, but as a writer. Or as a radical, righteous soul. When I met hir at TIC (UVM’s trans conference), zie came up to thank me and Betty for what we were doing, and I could have been knocked over with a feather. I’m still astonished. Leslie Feinberg thanking me? For anything? Absurd. But now I know why. Leslie Feinberg was thinking about crossdressers, and zie was thining about crossdressers a lot, and in deep, empathetic ways.
Crossdressers: buy this book. You think I’m your friend? Leslie Feinberg is the mensch you want at your back, believe me.
The book starts with Max Rabinowitz (transman, drag king, genderqueer, bulldagger – it’s not really clear and doesn’t matter) talking to hir friend Vickie. In a moment of frustration, of ‘transer than thou’ anger, zie says something about how Vickie can take the clothes and the wig off and go back to being normal.
The next day Vickie is found brutally murdered.
And the rest of the book is Max’s meditation on friends, community, activism, family; it’s an insider’s view into being queer, being outside, being “other†while also being well-loved, deeply loving, and sorry. The book is Max’s apology to Vickie, for that moment of assumption and hierarchy that a crossdresser’s life is somehow “easier†than anyone else’s.
Throw in some amazing scenes about being ungendered online, a lovely exchange between a “tough as nails†femme and an “suit and tie bulldagger,†a remarkable speech by Vickie’s communist uncle; a chilling scene of an apartment break-in by mysterious and angry visitors, and one scene – an exchange of sweet, light coffee and flags – that was so touching, so genuine, and so intense that I could taste the coffee and jonesed for a smoke right along with Max.
The cast of characters is a veritable melting pot of transness and their empathizers: Estelle’s surviving wife being one. I’ve never seen myself in a novel before, and though I have no interest in living Estelle’s reality, some of her words rang out in ways that were profound to me. I cried a lot just thinking about her, who she is, who she is to me.
But it’s the delicacy that this book really thrives on: Feinberg doesn’t say “Max doesn’t feel solidarity with this asshole transman because he’s middle-class†but zie makes the point. Zie shows, not tells: the first lesson in fiction writing, and the one most writers get wrong.
Leslie Feinberg, THANK YOU.
You can find a discussion about Drag King Dreams, and Leslie Feinberg’s other books, Stone Butch Blues and Transgender Warriors, in our Reader’s Chair Forum. I’ve also got a list of books I recommend on gender/trans issues on my Recommended Reading page.
Five Questions With… Richard Docter
Dr. Richard Docter is a clinical psychologist and gender researcher from Los Angeles with 20 years of experience in the transgender community. Together with Virginia Prince, he is co-author of the largest survey of cross dressers ever published. In 1988 he published the book Transvestites and Transsexuals. He continues to be a frequent contributor to transgender conventions throughout the nation.
1) Your Transvestites & Transsexuals was one of the only books (other than Mariette Pathy Allen’s Transformations) that actually mentioned spouses when I was looking for information nearly a decade ago. What encouraged you to include spouses?
< Dr. Richard Docter with Christine Jorgensen, 1987. (Photo by Mariette Pathy Allen.)
There were a number of published articles about the concerns of wives published prior to 1988. I was interested in the views of wives because important family dynamics are almost always affected by cross dressing. Few wives were totally rejecting, but few had worked out an accomodation that felt good for both. The wives who seem most interesting to me are people like you, Helen, who defy the societal view that all of this is sick, sick, sick. Instead, some wives, as you point out, not only put shame on the back burner, but find ways to enjoy the joy of cross dressing that means so much to their husband. I hope you will keep collecting their stories so they can be shared with both husbands and wives.
Continue reading “Five Questions With… Richard Docter”
Gianna Israel Memorial
A note from Max Valerio about the memorial for Gianna Israel. I’m very sad I can’t be there.
Hello All,
Gianna Israel’s memorial will be at Femina Potens Gallery on Saturday, July 8th at 7:30 PM.
Femina Potens is located at: Femina Potens Gallery 465 S. Van Ness btwn 15th & 16th streets in San Francisco’s Mission District.
I was finally able to locate a space that was inexpensive, and open to the event. Femina Potens has a history of being cutting edge, and trans-friendly, it is an offbeat and artistic space with a lot of energy and activist intelligence. I think Gianna would have appreciated it.
Any donation, however small, that you can make to the space is appreciated. They do it all from donations.
It will be nice to meet whoever can attend this event. I know that not all of you are in the Bay area, and it may be impossible to attend. However, if you can make it, no matter where you are from – that would be wonderful. Bring a prayer, and a memory of Gianna.
Blessings —
Max Valerio
The Beast's Area Code
As it turns out, 666 isn’t the number of the beast. It’s 616.
Too bad all the Satan types missed out; the big day was last Thursday.
Thank You
I’m up late tonight again, as I usually am, writing – though tonight I’m writing reviews of two books: Virginia Erhardt’s Head Over Heels: Wives Who Stay with Cross-Dressers and Transsexuals (not due to come out until winter) and Leslie Feinberg’s latest novel, Drag King Dreams (which is out now and which everyone must go out and buy immediately – more on why later).
While I was compiling the most recent issue of the (en)gender newsletter (which is an abbreviated form of my blog postings for the past month), I was clicking on the new posts on the boards, and I just had a moment where I really felt thankful for all the smart, lovely people who post on the boards. Michelle’s recent post was especially moving, but so was Tobi’s thank you to SJ for sharing her androgyny experiences. Sometimes I’m just struck by how many kind-hearted, gentle-minded folks are out there, trans or partners or queer or otherwise, who post on the boards, and who keep me company during these late nights that would otherwise be unbroken editing and writing and smoking.
So, thanks to you all.