I love this photo of @badbunnypr for @jacquemus . It’s so beautiful when people express themselves creatively and play with gender norms. It’s also so wonderful to see so many people celebrate this artistry. Let us use this moment to keep dreaming more expansively.
In the early 20th century heterosexual male “female impersonators” like Julian Eltinge were huge stars (in 1912 he had a theater named after him in NYC). At the same time droves flocked to watch his performances, so many queer/trans people were arrested by cross-dressing laws for doing the same thing outside the theater on the streets. Performers like Eltinge were featured in magazine editorials while queer/trans people were photographed in prison and medical clinics: our portraits published in newspapers to teach people how to spot “cross-dressing criminals.”
In present day we see the recreation of this dynamic with the rise of celebrity “gender fluid fashion” alongside the uptick of anti-trans legislation.
Why are people comfortable with gender transgression on stages, red carpets, runways, and photo shoots….but not the street? This story is not just about identity, but also geography and temporality.
This is how the gender binary works. It doesn’t seek to eliminate gender non-conformity, but rather only make it permissible in certain places and times that are cordoned off from respectable society.
Gender non-conformity is permissible insomuch as it’s positioned as a spectacle. Only acceptable when it’s temporary. It must happen on the periphery, never in the public. The idea is after this display the individual will return to “normal” (which is coded as hetero/cis/binary).
When we frame campaigns featuring cis men as the pinnacle of “gender fluid fashion” who and what do we lose? To truly #degenderfashion we must extend this same energy to trans/queer people who do this every day, everywhere amidst astronomical violence and with little to no acknowledgment. We must challenge what we regard as normal and ordinary and who we believe belongs there. We must create a society that embraces gender non-conformity anytime and anywhere from anyone.