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.)
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.
Five Questions With… Ariadne Kane
Ariadne Kane has been doing transgender outreach longer than many of us have been walking – since 1972. She was on The Phil Donahue Show in 1980 and probably gave some of the people reading this a glimpse that they weren’t alone in being trans. Somewhere in there she came up with the idea of Fantasia Fair, as well.
< Ariadne Kane
1. Since you were the person who ‘invented’ Fantasia Fair, how did it come about? What did it take to put on the first couple of them? How has it changed in the ensuing years?
Fan/Fair (the abbreviated version) was conceived of in 1974. It struck me that we could create a dynamic program of activities that were educational, social and practical for all CDs & TSs who were willing to come out from the ‘closets’ of shame, guilt and shyness. I believed that, in a tolerant and open community, they could learn some things about being femme or masculine; get much needed help about comportment and presentation and, have truly educational experience out of the ‘closet’. It was with this guiding premise that Fan/Fair was created. It was with the help and financial backing of 3 members of the Boston Cherrystone ‘T’ Club and myself that Fan/Fair 1 became a reality in 1975.
Needless to say, we learned a lot about the needs and aspirations of the ‘T’ community, including what program elements worked in favor of our Goals for the program. Over the next 3 decades, the Fan/ Fair Steering Committee adopted a template for programming and administration, These included a balanced mix of educational, social and practical modules for the ‘T’ person who wanted to emerge from the ‘closet’ and learn the dynamics leading to personal growth and adaptability in either the feminine or the masculine gender role of choice. This template is still the guiding instrument in the design of every Fair, even today.
Continue reading “Five Questions With… Ariadne Kane”
Call for Submissions
It’s not often that I put a call for submissions up here, but this one is from Morty Diamond – and he wants to put together a book by trans folks, about dating, love, sex and relationships.
Great idea, so get to writing, and click here for all the details.
Stand & Deliver!
YouTube is evil, evil, evil.
But this time you can blame it on Diana Lynn, who posted a link to a Pink performance, and got me wondering if there was any cool Ants stuff online.
And – through the wonders of modern technology I found the video for the song “Stand & Deliver!” that way back when turned on my hormones. Really, I watched it again, & again, & again.
If only everyone dressed like this all the time. Really, do watch it, even if it’s just for a “how retro” kind of moment.
Heteronormativity
Much to my chagrin, Kiss of Athena discovered people were blogging against heteronormativity this past Saturday.
Better late than never, I guess.
You can read more about why at this blog, blac(k) academic.
Go Oprah
She’s doing a show about class tomorrow, Friday 4/21. I never thought I’d see a show about class on American television.
Someone Needs to Make Porn Like This
A beautiful Campari commercial.
Betty looks like the woman, but I’ve got a few more pounds to lose and a lot more hair to grow, and you know – I’m still not going to look like her. But I aspire to. (Okay, I just checked the model’s stats, and I’d have to grow a few inches, lose more chest, waist and hips, and probably 50 more pounds. But I can dream. Or alternately, I can just be a shorter, slightly curvier version.)
(Thanks Marlena for finding it, and VeronicaMoonlit for finding her name.)
Need a CD's Wife, asap!
I’ve been contacted by a national women’s magazine for a wife of a crossdresser. The hitch is that you can’t use a pseudonym & they do want a photo.
They also want it all by Wednesday at noon.
The article is going to focus on how women make decisions – in this case, how a woman might decide to stay with her crossdressing husband.
& Obviously I would do it but for another hitch: they want someone who hasn’t told their story before.
So if there’s someone out there who’s just dying to break out of the closet, do let me know asap & I’ll put you in touch.
Bill Hicks & Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct 2 came out this weekend, and the commercials remind me of what Bill Hicks said about the first one:
Horrible film. And then I come to find out after that film, that all the lesbian sex scenes, let me repeat that, all the lesbian sex scenes were cut out of that film, because the test audience was turned off by them.
Ha. Boy, is my thumb not on the pulse of America.
I don’t want to seem like Randy Pan, the Goat Boy, but er that was the only reason I went to that piece of shit. If I had been in that test audience, the only one out front protesting that film would have been Michael Douglas demanding his part be put back in, alright?
“I swear I was in that movie. I swear I was.”
“Gee Mike, the movie started. Sharon Stone was eating another woman for an hour and a half. Then the credits rolled. I err, I don’t remember seeing your scrawny ass, Mike.”