Heather Cassils and Zackary Drucker, transgender artists using their bodies as canvases. Fascinating stuff.
(Transactivations from KPCC on Vimeo).
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It’s interesting to me, as a trans woman, because I guess those kinds of representations of fluidity (influenced by queer theory) seem to be the most common kinds of trans themed art that I’ve come across.
The idea of it being “outside of gender” like one of the artists said just makes me shudder, I don’t believe that for a second. It makes me wonder if it’s even possible to represent binary trans experience in some ways, if there’s any cultural space to talk about *that*.
Anyway, they seem interesting.
Hmm what a fascinating comment, thanks Emilia. I will have to think about this some more…
I guess what I mean is: if their challenge as genderqueer artists is to represent fluidity from (cis) binary norms, mine as a transsexual woman is to represent change-and-stability at the same time…
Yeah wow, of course, I understand now. Hmmm what an analysis. Genderqueer is different to transgender, maybe?
The labels get really complicated, and almost everything is contested and a source of friction.
Transgender can be used as an umbrella for binary and non-binary together, or it’s used as an updated term for transsexual (implying some form of medical treatment usually). Genderqueer is certainly different from transsexual in so far as a trans woman like myself generally considers herself – is – a woman-who-is-trans. Whereas a genderqueer like Zackary is on hormones and clearly lives as a woman socially, but doesn’t appear to consider herself (hirself?) a woman, precisely. So two people can be undergoing the exact same treatment and see themselves and the way they inhabit the world very differently… which makes understanding the intra-trans arguments *very* difficult.
Oh, and to add to the murkiness – a lot of genderqueers are *not* on hormones but might understand themselves in similar ways to Zackary.
Haha. Emilia, I really should have got you to write this post.
It probably would have just been a series of penguin photos in that case.
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