The Mean Girls of Morehouse: Defying the Norms of the Renaissance Man

The article entitled “The Mean Girls of Morehouse” was published in the October issue of VIBE Magazine. 5 men who call themselves “The Plastics” defy the standards of dress that are enforced by the very conservative policies at Morehouse College. The dress code that is being enforced does not allow students to wear “women’s” clothes as have these harmless men. Morehouse, a historically black college for males is an institution that is outwardly homophobic in its dress code policy and treatment of queer students and is very intolerant of the personal beliefs of students in the expression of their gender and sexuality.

A panel discussion was held at Morehouse the week that the article was published asking these students about their experiences at the institution and allowed for them to voice their opinions on different issues and how the administration has handled these situations. Many of the students discussed the difficult time that the administration and the general campus has given them in regards to the dress code and their sexuality during their years at Morehouse. The dress code prohibits caps, do-rags, sagging pants, and sunglasses as well as “women’s clothing” such as purses, tunics, tops, and heels; however, what is more strictly enforced according to the men in the panel is the part that prohibits them from freely expressing their gender. Although they consider themselves men, most of the students who spoke on the panel do not abide by the hetero-normative standards of dress as well as the norms in general and resist these standards daily.

This issue reminds me of the article “Sexuality and gender in the Native American Tribes” because of the ideas of femininity and masculinity and how they are not honored by the traditional Western standards. The ways in which some of the Native American tribes dressed and their ability to switch roles amongst the various gender identities indicates that queerness is natural and normal. The idea that in order to be natural one must adhere to the constructed notion of gender and match their daily interactions to their biological sex is proven to be a constructed idea in itself and is rejected by the culture of gender expression and roles in the Native American tribes. In the same way, the norms that The Plastics at Morehouse are rejecting have legitimate reasoning behind them that show us that gender and sexuality are ideas that cannot be placed into a box and vary based on the different cultures that we cross as well as the people that we cross. Everyone does not have the same formula for how they express their gender and sexuality in the same way that gender and sexuality are expressed differently in various cultures.

Lyric

"What Does a Lesbian Look Like?" - reflections on fashion and gender presentation

"What Does a Lesbian Look Like?" - from Autostraddle.com

Having stumbled across this article on Autostraddle (and admittedly scrambling to think of what to blog about for this class) I figured this might be an interesting thing to talk about.

Obviously, there's no clear cut answer to that question, and the round table-style discussion on the site makes that clear. But the varieties of responses made me think about something I've noticed more and more... that is, the queering of fashion, especially hipster fashion. For all its obvious flaws (including the appropriation of trends from marginalized cultures and the simplification and misrepresentation of political stances), hipster culture has at least had a hand in the popularization of androgynous fashion, and I can't help but think of it as a good thing.

(picture from hellagay.tumblr.com)

Whether it's girls in suspenders and men's suits, or boys in skinny jeans and scarves, this kind of gender-play may seem simple (and I'm far from calling it revolutionary) but the fact remains that if hipster culture (as irritating as it sometimes is) helps to normalize gender-bending trends, it could have far-reaching consequences. I'm thinking, for instance, of my haircut. I've had shortish hair for a while now, but over Thanksgiving Break, my amazing and talented hairstylist uncle cut it even shorter, into what my friends call "my gayest haircut ever." My (extremely conservative & Southern Baptist) grandparents didn't say a word. I think if it weren't for the presence of straight women in the mainstream media who've rocked short hair, that would've been the end of their believing that I'm heterosexual... or that I would have, at the very least, gotten a lecture about "looking like a boy."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's a good thing that things have to be "okay-ed" by straight celebrities... but I am thinking that the more representations we have of people playing with gendered fashion in the mainstream, the more it will trickle down, so that young kids in grade school may have a wider variety of images of what is acceptably "masculine" or "feminine" to pull from, thus (ideally) making the persecution of students who fall outside traditional, narrow gender roles a thing of the past.... Because gender roles, really, are the heart of the bullying issue (see this article, for example, or this one).

Gender roles are the simplest guides we get to "how to be a human" when we're born, and so when they are challenged, many people who unwittingly cling to them from insecurity (and who isn't insecure?) are made even more insecure. Narrow and strictly defined gender roles give us a guide, and guides make us feel better. When the guide is taken away and there are no rules, we suddenly have to examine why we do the things we do. Rather than participate in this self-examination, though, bullies instead will do and say terrible things, laying down their humanity in support of the "way things are"... so what if the way things were became a little more free? As the "counter-culture" style of hipsters bleeds into the mainstream, will we begin to see "average Joe" in skinny jeans and a tank top? Or "soccer moms" with buzz cuts? Do you think this could truly change anything?

(picture from tfproject.org)

At any rate, the responses at Autostraddle are interesting if only for how clearly they illustrate how useless stereotypes really are. Here are some of my favorite points from the article:

Being a lesbian has allowed me to interpret femininity through a totally different lens. From the days of my tomboyhood, I’ve gotten to redefine what it means to be a girl. Trying to strike a balance between butch and femme in my appearance was exhausting, and I finally realized that I didn’t need to try to “look” like a woman or a lesbian, because I was already both those things. - Katrina, on p. 3 of the article

If it weren’t for ladies like Portia de Rossi, no one would have a point of reference for a girl like me. - Robin, p. 4

See; something is changing. Whereas a few years ago I noticed most women identified strongly with one end of the gender spectrum or the other, something lately has granted so many of us permission to not make that choice — and we’re not talking about androgyny. We’re talking about wearing a dress on Monday and a tie on Tuesday. - Riese, p. 5

I think fashion is increasingly blurring the lines with regard to gender and orientation and I like it. I personally appreciate that it’s becoming more and more difficult to look at a girl and guess her orientation – I find getting to know people is far more interesting when there’s more mystery and less room for assumptions. - Crystal, p. 2

On a personal note, since I came out I've been kind of uncertain about if/how much I wanted to play with my personal appearance and "looking" gay. Appearance is such a public thing, and it's a thing people don't feel shy about judging or commenting on (one of the articles I looked at about anti-gay bullying pointed out that while gender presentation and sexuality was the second most prevalent "theme" of adolescent bullying, the first was still plain-old physical appearance).

I used to have really long hair, and while I wasn't super-feminine, I did own a lot of cute dresses and skirts. Still, even before I was out, I always felt more comfortable in jeans (I own a lot of jeans - it's kind of embarrassing) and I frequently felt awkward and out of place in dresses.

In some ways, coming out has made me feel better about embracing tomboyish styles and playing around with cutting my hair (it just keeps getting shorter...) but in others, I felt a pressure not to seem like I was "trying too hard". I already felt a little stupid for taking so long to come out. I had to deal with peers and family members who thought I was faking it or just going through a phase, as if it were impossible to be gay unless you had been aware of it since early childhood. I thought the best way to prove that it wasn't a phase or something superficial like that was to just keep being the same old me, while happening to date girls. But by trying so hard to police my own style, I was missing out on so much! And, looking back, I had been doing the same kind of thing in the years I spent "playing" straight... even when I had short hair, I'd try extra-hard to be feminine in other ways to make sure I didn't appear gay. I never consciously thought about it as much as I do now, but I definitely did it.

Now, I've realized that:

• genderplay in fashion is so fun, not to mention liberating;
• boxer-briefs are so much more comfortable than thongs (or anything made primarily of lace);
• lesbians come in a lot of varieties, and sometimes when I think I'm coming across as gay, I'm actually just coming across as a hipster;
  
• but most of all...
  
• my parents, friends, or anyone who feels like they can make judgments about the validity of my sexuality based on what I wear, or what I don't wear, or "how hard I'm trying" can get lost. I'm the only person qualified to say who or what I am, and that's not going to change whether or not I wear jeans or dresses or full-body glitter leotards.

What do you think? What are your experiences with stereotypes about "looking" gay, or gender presentation? Do you think these stereotypes are any better within the queer community itself?

Knock, knock...it's the Gender Police

While I’m no reader of weeklies, I do happen to be someone who walks into stores occasionally. And, even rarer, someone who stands in line at cash registers to buy things. Thus, there are few ways to spare my retinas the disasters that spew over the covers of tabloids, and when I saw Life & Style’s most recent attack on Shiloh, daughter of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, I couldn’t help but think it: blog post.

Although I must admit that I have not read the contents of this particular article about the "destructive" path Angelina Jolie is "forcing" Shiloh to tread, I have to wonder why the hell so much “concern” should be sparked for the child of two multimillionaires over, not child abuse, not drugs, not neglect, but a haircut. While the children of celebrities are expected by the mass population to be as fashion-forward as their parents (which is a ridiculous notion on its own), Life & Style's use of shock and scare tactics in order to ignite public disapproval over a child’s haircut is…dismaying, to say the least.

To me, this is a clear example of the extremes to which society as a machine will go to in order to further strengthen the gender binary. The idea that children “need” to be indoctrinated into a system of two and only two genders for their own “protection” and “health” is not new, but this policing of public figures in order to uphold the rigid definitions of masculinity and femininity is a strange (perhaps not new, but new to me) creature.

*photo credit unknown

"A Comparative Analysis of Hijras and Drag Queens" by Sandeep Bakshi

In his article "A Comparative Analysis of Hijras and Drag Queens" Sandeep Bakshi explores the ability of hijras and drag queens to question heteronormative culture. He begins his article by explaining hijras. Hijras are men who voluntarily go through castration and penectomy and thus, are neither men nor women. They perform as women at important Indian ceremonies, such as weddings and birth ceremonies, as "perceived guarantors of fertility" (213). Though they are culturally sanctioned, they are not regarded as full citizens either and have few political rights. Their community structure is very religious (each hijra has guru) and hierarchical, mirroring normative society. Their motivation for castration is part of a religious ritual to a goddess and their history is shrouded in myth. Hijras are similar to drag queens, by virtue that they parade as women, but they are not the same.

Bakshi compares and contrasts the ability of hijras and drag queens to subvert the gender binary and common conceptions of gender roles. Hijras perform in a public space and "enjoy religious and cultural legitimacy" (216), while drag queens perform in a private or alternative space. Hijras interact with the public who tend not to question heteronormative culture, while in most cases drag queens are performing to an audience that is already questioning society. One problem during the performance of hijras is that the gender roles of the audience members are reinforced, because women are passive observers and men are active participants, "controlling" the show. Drag queens also seem to reinforce gender roles because "female impersonators almost universally present stereotypical and exaggerated images of females" (218). Not only that, but power is a fundamental part of current gender dynamics and in one sense male drag queens are proving that they are "'better' women than women themselves" (218), reinforcing male power. A drag queen's performance relies on the audience's preconceived perceptions of gender and gender roles, instead of calling them into question. While both hijras and drag queens perform as women, hijras reveal their sex (or lack thereof) at the end of the show by lifting up their saris. This shocks the audience are destabilizes their experience.

Bakshi finishes his article by reminding the reader to keep national context in mind when comparing and contrasting cultural practices of the Orient and the West. Both hijras and drag queens "are subcultural byproducts of Western and Indian societies and have developed in relation to their respective mainstream cultures" (221). And they both have their limits and abilities to question the gender binary within their respective cultures. In conclusion "reading the hijra alongside the drag queen means broadening and enriching the discursive elements of identity (in)congruity and revealing the fiction of all gendering and sexualizing processes of any dominant culture" (221).

“Sexuality and Gender in Certain Native American Tribes: The Case of Cross-Gender Females” and “Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body in American Culture”

“Sexuality and Gender in Certain Native American Tribes: The Case of Cross-Gender Females” by Evelyn Blackwood is one of my favorite feminist/queer articles ever! In it, Evelyn Blackwood recounts pre-colonial Native American histories of gender that look very different from what we in the current USA imagine as "normal." She gives examples of several indigenous communities that allowed for children born a particular sex to follow the gender path they gravitated towards which was not always what their sex might predict. In several indigenous cultures female children rejected "girl" activities in favor of "boy" activities and these leanings were not discouraged. Community rituals marked these females as men in their adult life, giving them the opportunity to marry and assume all other duties of men in their societies. Part of the ease of these arrangements was connected to a non-hierarchal way of relating to gender, family, and money. Having a subsistence level economy and equal status for men and women in community made marriage less rigid and sexual activity independent of gender and marital status. You could sleep with who you wanted regardless of gender or marital status. Unfortunately, colonization by white settlers affected these beliefs, with traditional ways being suppressed by Christian ideas about monogamous marriage, male supremacy, fixed gender roles and heterosexuality. Cross-gender females were all but eliminated by the mid 19th century. This text shows the diversity of societies and the possibilities of people to think and live beyond rigid binaries.

“Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body in American Culture” by Siobhan Somerville explores the connections between the racist science of the 19th and 20th century and the naming of "homosexuals" as a particular kind of degenerate person. She maps a similar process of examining the physical body for racial difference by scientists that is then used to look for sexual difference and determine who is "homosexual" or "inverted." Large clitorises and other genital "abnormalities" were used to prove the differences between whites and blacks and heterosexuals and homosexuals. Mixed race bodies became the templates for discussing the pervert body. Somerville's work stresses the importance of talking about race and sexuality together as the language used to talk about each, informs the other. She cautions against gay rights advocates desire to prove the biological nature of homosexuality, as the biological nature of queerness is connected to this scientific racist past, that ultimately does not work in favor of LGBTQ community because it assumes pathology.

Both articles remind us that sex, gender, and sexuality are understood through a historical and social context. People living in what we understand to be the United States, just a few hundred years ago, had completely different ideas about gender and sexuality than we have now. It has been a process to create the seemingly fixed ideas about sex, gender, and sexuality that we have now. If it was made, perhaps it can be unmade again.

Dueling Dualisms by Anne Fausto-Sterling

In the first chapter of her book, Sexing the Body, Anne Fausto-Sterling pulls a part our understandings of what is normal and what is natural. She challenges the facts that we understand to be true; that there are two sexes, male and female, two genders, men and women, and two sexualities, heterosexual and homosexual (and maybe bisexual). She asks tough questions and uses real life examples that make these black and white extremes seem less fixed.

She begins by telling the story of Maria Patiño, an Olympic runner, whose life was destroyed when mandatory sports sex testing proved she was not female. Because she was one of many people born with sex characteristics that do not fit neatly into the box male or female, she had to fight in court to prove her femaleness and womanhood. Eventually she triumphed but this is still an issue today. Last year, South African runner Caster Semenya was publicly labeled intersex after smashing a world record time in the women's 800 meters. She has been the subject of cruel jokes and commentary for over a year before she was also allowed to return to track officially as a woman.

These two examples are a small window into the negative affects of thinking about sex and gender along an "either/or" frame. When one is either male or female, straight or gay it limits people's understanding of what true diversity there is in the world. Part of queer theory, or thinking about things outside of the "norms" of society, is not limiting possibilities to two "either/or" options. It's not about making new "norms" either. It's about recognizing the many ways that human beings can come to be and interact with each other. "Dueling Dualisms" is asking readers to think beyond competing polar opposites and really deal with all the shades of gray in between.