#when does it go from butch to being a man? since you clearly like defining rules

[rei-does-stuff]

“If you are male aligned in ANY way including if you’re multigender you cannot be a lesbian” So then why are you saying nonbinary people can be lesbians? Because a lot of nonbinary genders are masc and ‘male aligned”

By your definition the only ones who can be lesbian are fem presenting people, so what I’m seeing is that you only see nonbinary people as women-lite. And yet you say you aren’t transphobic in the slightest? Okay.

[brick-van-dyke]

Okay not to be political on main but I have to laugh at something, okay.

Half vent and ramble, half shitpost, whole messy social commentary I guess.

Like, y'all are so fucking stupid like how tf you gonna argue "well people should be treated differently on the basis of if they have a dick or pussy" and pretend that's feminism?? Woman's rights?? To what, segregation and being treated different? We had that in the 18th century and I don't wanna go back to that. There's no way to justify this shit, there just isn't. "Treating people different on the basis of sex" is literally what sexism is, by definition. How tf you gonna justify sexism as a good thing and keep the feminist label??

And all the while crying that "men can't wear dresses", like damn that'd be like women wearing pants! Can't have that! This is the 1920s and it's gotta stay that way through the 2020s onwards because what's woman's rights and being treated as equals or changing from what men said women should be when you can just push to have sex treated as a personality trait? And then call that biology, as if women grow flesh frills and pink dresses from their bodies and makeup is a natural thing that appears from nowhere. "Ummm that's womamface!!" No if it's anything it's whale-blubber-and-wool-face because dresses and makeup aren't made of women's flesh. It's made from other stuff you dipshits. I can't believe a male whale is now a woman according to you because it was used in a cosmetic lipstick, wow that's so biologically accurate! Like, do you hear yourselves?

Y'all so silly, how does anyone give TERFs any genuine interest or credibility when they say this obviously illogical horseshit with their whole chest? How are they all not embarassed?? I'd be so mortified if I ever said any of this with any sincerity and would look back with so much embarassment that I'd hide in a hole for all eternity out of shame.

Y'all be like: "Boo hoo! The men and women are being treated the same and that's bad! Women shouldn't be playing sports and using bad language because they'll hurt their little womanly bodies and not be able to be baby machines! Or wearing pants, that's so not cool because pants are for Men and dresses are for Women! That's why if men wear pants they're taking womanhood away from women! Also they can't use makeup! That's only for women because all women wear makeup and it defines who we are!! Go back to the kitchen!! I'm a feminist clearly though so if you say I'm sexist you're a misogynist!!"

Goofiest stupid ass logic ever actually. A villain from a tv show can come up with more believable reasoning and morals than this.

I also laugh when they're like "but but! The trans rights activists are enforcing gener roles" by what? Deciding that sex doesn't fucking matter! Oh my god, that's so sexist! Clearly! Or what, because men wearing a dress is conforming to the gener roles of the 1500s when men used to wear tights? Or because of the butch women going by he/him while also saying they're women still?? But also say they're men? Is that so confusing that it somehow loops back into "that's the gener binary" because damn, what one? I'd like to know what world you're living in where men wearing dresses and women wearing suits is seen as the binary norm. Last I checked, it was YOU chucklefucks who have been having giant tantrums over a man wearing a dress because "a gay man can't wear a dress, that's for women!!" Like come tf on, who are you fooling?

I'm pretty sure the only people stupid enough to fall for this are politicians, which I guess is all sexist people with an agenda need since politicians are idiots. But damn, most people, boo fucking hoo, aren't gonna fall for the "yeah but dresses are biologically a woman thing" no tf it isn't you turds. No one's gonna believe that unless it's for some other agenda. Guess that's why all the men who are women are also TERFs, it's almost like there's something sexist underneath the movement about sexism.

But what do I know? I'm just a bearded trans man (female to male) who wears dresses and likes pink and calls himself a pretty handsome girlboy. I know, its not a good look as someone clearly conforming to gender roles and betraying womanhood by having a beard and deep voice and calling myself a boy. As someone with a vagina, I shouldn't have a beard while I wear a dress, that's too sexist for the poor poor TERF women. Just so very misogynistic of me to not use the nouns I'm told I should "biologically use", because the English language is a living organism, and even, shockingly, the wrong adjectives.

[limeade-l3sbian]

this might get kinda long but hear me out. when I was a teenager I only ever had crushes on boys, and never fantasized about girls. except when I was 21 I met a butch bi woman who was into me and I was completely infatuated. I thought I was in love with her until she started pushing me to have sex which I wasn't ready for. she was really charismatic at first and I got swept away. we made out and slept in the same bed and I liked it, but I balked at having sex. she was really shitty in the end, she tried to force me into sex when I was drunk, and we stopped being friends. to this day I wonder if I'm really bi because of that experience. since then I've never had a crush on a woman, and when I see a hot woman I never think about eating her out, I just wish I looked like her. the thought of interacting sexually with a woman again scares me. I really don't know if I can call myself bi, since I'll probably never be with a woman and I was never into them when I was a kid. I feel ashamed admitting all of this and sorry for clogging your inbox, I just don't know who else to ask. do you think I'm bi because I had a crush when I was already an adult, or am I straight because I've never had sex with a woman and don't plan to?

You can't let (very real) trauma dictate how you define yourself, anon. And I mean that in the nicest and most commiserative way. It seems to be that you might be bi, but your trauma with that woman has disallowed you to branch out and attempt further exploration. The attraction was there, you just seem to have misplaced your trust. Not your fault by the way, we all do it at some point or another.

And I am sorry that that happened to you, for all that's worth. Even if we're able to stop something from happening, sometimes just knowing how close we came can rattle us enough to make us evasive of situations that even suggest a repeat. If I'm able to ask and you're comfortable, was your reluctance to sex with this woman because you were not ready for sex in general (man or woman) or you were not totally ready or interested in having sex with this woman because she was a woman?

Your sexual orientation is defined by who you are romantically and sexually attracted to. You don't balk at the idea of certain levels of intimacy with either or both. but that reluctance does not stem from trauma, which yours seems to since you say the prospect of sex with a woman scares you. there are SOME women, febfems (female exclusive bisexual females) who have it the opposite way. Not all, but some, who exclusively give their attention and intimacy (romantic and otherwise) solely to women, but have the capacity to be with a man if that trauma was not present in them. Ask yourself that if you did not have the trauma of that situation, could you see yourself even going on a date with a woman, let alone being romantically or sexually intimate with one?

I can't really tell you what you are, anon. I wouldn't know how and to be honest, it's not really my place. I appreciate that you have such an opinion of me that you felt comfortable to ask for confirmation from me lol but you should trust yourself above all else in finding out what this means for you. If you let yourself be vulnerable with yourself, you'll be able to really talk to yourself with transparency and see things so clearly for yourself that hearing my opinion will only be an unneeded second opinion. (a lot of "yourself" but it's true! lol)

But if you come to the conclusion that this was, for lack of a better word, a fluke and that you know you're straight, I would implore you not to use SSA women to constantly try to "figure it out". Figuring it out can happen without potentially leading on a woman who knows what she wants. I'm not accusing you of that, I'm just saying to always be conscious of what you're doing and why.

[popculturebuffet]

Reviewcaps: X-Men Evolution: Strategy X

I take my first look at X-Men Evolution the second and less famous, but no less loved, cartoon about everyones faviorite mutant outcasts. In our first episode Scott blows up a gas station, Nightcrawler finds what it feels like to have a home, Toad tries to join the x-men and both of the latter two end up nearly dying because Chuck forgot to teleport proof the one room in the house with deadly lasers. All this and football under the cut. 

A few days ago I realized something weird: I hadn’t reviewed any superhero cartoons on here. What makes that weird to me, is that I realized when writing this that Superhero cartoons are what MADE me a superhero fan in the first place. I grew up as a little kid watching the spider-man and x-men animated series, and watched most marvel shows that came about as I grew, and became a lifelong fan of Green Lantern and the Flash thanks to Justice League , the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles thanks to the 2003 cartoon (another franchise I absolutley adore I haven’t covered on here for some reason) and the Teen Titans thanks to well.. Teen Titans, not to mention all the great original superhero shows at the time like the legendary Danny Phantom (even if butch heartman can take a short walk into a cave full of bears lately), My Life as a Teenage Robot, El Tigre.. the list of good shit goes on. So being on an X-Men kick again lately, I decided to revisit what turned out to be one of the first of this wave, and a show I’d had the opporoutnity to binge for a while , first on hulu and then on D+, and wanted to revisit to see how it holds up, while, if not as fast as I watch them, reviewing them here to combine my two intrests. And it probably wont’ be the last marvel animated series I binge or cover here, nor the last superhero show I cover so if you have any, Marvel, DC, from other companies or completely original, shoot me an ask or reply to this and i’ll see if I can get to it. For now we’re starting the evolution.  Evolution was the first X-Men cartoon, and somehow one of 5 overall not counting the hulk vs wolverine movie, pryde of the x-men pilot and various crossover apperances in other cartoons, to follow the 90′s one, which as you probably know was a huge hit that defined the x-men for a generation of young fans, was a huge sucess and launched the mostly great sorta shared cartoon universe with classics like Spider-Man the Animated Series (Which not concidentally is what made me a lifelong fan of the webslinger), The Incredible Hulk, and the second season of Iron Man and Fantastic Four.. and yes only the second as the first seasons were both by entirely diffrent creative teams and gave us things like this. 

Yes that is Johnny Storm doing an objetivley terrible hip hop song, no it dind’t cause that building to sink into the earth, and yes it is so bad it’s delcioius. Sadly the rest of hte series is more flat and boring than “bwahahahaha” but my point is made. The point is Evolution had a steep hill to climb, and with the previous cartoon compressing most of the decades long Chris Claremont era and some of what came after into 5 seasons of good if cheesy stuff, the creators clearly, if only because Ic an’t find a making of, decided to go in a diffrent route, making their own unique take on the characters and world of the x-men instead.  For starters rather than being vetrans with years of experince, either from being an x-man or just from general life experince like the comics were since the 70′s aside from the ocasinal exception like Kitty Pryde and Jubilee, they’d be teens, grappling with hormones alongside blue fur, head lasers and not being able to touch anyone. This wasn’t something x-men had shied away from, New Mutants and Generation X existed, but it was the first time in decades the X-Men themselves were kids. Sure Storm and Wolverine weren’t aged down, but there were just as many missions that were just these teenagers hoping to surivive the experince and keep mutants a secret till the world was ready.. and then dealing with the fallout when an unready and hateful world found out anyway. And I honeslty like the direction: The previous series had done the mostly straight adaptation bit, there wasn’t anywhere to go and aging scott and jean back to teens, and having nightcrawler and rouge get to be ones for the first time though, was an intresting idea, as was having Kitty Pryde be a teen alongside them instead of their plucky teenage member  Another intresting direction was, while Xavier’s still existed and was where the cast lived and learned to use their powers, the X-Men also went to regular high school. While it’d take till season 3 for them to actually have to deal with being out mutants in the setting, it was still an intresting tactic: The X-school in the comics, while no less studious is still an isoalted boarding school and when the New Mutants met some friends in town, most had only heard whispers about the old Xavier Mansion and were delighted to visit for a slumber party.. granted this being an x-men schindig our heroes ended up having to deal with an alien who eventually became one of their closest friends that night but still, for the x-men having the robot, or technoorganic in this case, NOT try to murder them on purpose and be a loveable 80′s sidekick instead is an easy night. While i’ts not done perfectly here from what I can remember, the main human characters we see are nightcrawlers love intrest amanda (who is thankfully NOT his adopted sister this time around thank christ), local stock blond football bully and flash thompson impersonator Duncan, and Scott’s nondiscript friend paul, who I can’t think of without thinking two things; one , what do you WANT paul: 

I mean a man so vauge just can’t be trusted. The second is that paul looks a lot like Doug Ramsey and i’m suprised they didn’t just.. make him Doug and have him go through a similar arc from the comics:A crush on kitty and the rest of the team finding out he’s a mutant and eventually bringing him into their world. For those unaware Doug Ramsey is a mutant with the ablility to translate any languge, including computer code from the get go and body laungage when he came back, an easy fix to him being the non-combatant of the group no one thought of, who died tragically in story sacrifcing himself to save his girlfriend’s life and out of story because the artist tricked the writer into killing him off. Thankfully he did come back about two decades later, took a level in badass thanks to a combination of the body language thing above meaning he could anticipate moves and dodge and computers having advanced to the point that part of his powers was now 80 times more useful, and has recently become a key part of the dawn of x relaunch. He’s also a faviorite of mine as you can probably tell and given how much the early 2000′s loved their computers, it’s weird to me they didn’t think of this and it’s even weirder he didn’t show up with the lions share of the other new mutants next season, along with Karma and Warlock which somehow has become a recurring theme thanks to the movie saving them for sequels that ended up not happening because fox stupidly put the movie in Limbo where it remains until maybe next month.  But yeah even if muted a bit the idea of the x-men going to a public school alongside their training is a decent one.. sure a hero going through high school is again a cliche, but it’s a thing the x-men hadn’t done in this way before or sense, and was intresting to see in action. Most high school scnees in x-comics are usually some poor mutant having their powers manifest and either hurting someone by accident, being treated like crap for it by their class or hunted down for accidently hurting someone before the x-men show up to kick their asses and welcome this youngster. Or getting rejected by family and friends then coming to the x-men.. there’s a lot of angst directions to go in. My point is we’d never seen the x-men try to blend in and have a more standard school experince, and combining that with them hiding their powers instead of being out in the open at first made for a unique dynamic for the x-men that makes well tread ground nice nad fresh even 20 years later. 

So that’s our basic setup going in: The X-men wake up, go to school, then save the world or train to save the world while harnesing wonderful and dangerous powers and protecting the helpless agaist less charitable mutants. The basic x-setup with a 2000′s era superhero high school show flavor. Good stuff. But we’ll see what it does with this premise, how good it holds up and what’s still delightfuly cheesy about it as I take a nice look at the first episode Strategy X

We open at night and

Yup Scott and Jean are at the football team where the aforementioned Duncan, guy voted most likely to peak in high school in last year’s yearbook poll, is playing some foot ball and trying to flit with Jean Grey whose the first X-Man we meet and is somehow receptive to this despite his radaiating douche and is lucky this Jean’ , unlike say the time transfered one from the comics who thought the best approach to helping Bobby Drake come out of the closet so he could help his older self do the same and be his best self, was to just blunty say he’s gay and refuse to let him explore thtt for himself or get someone more quliafied to help her. And yes that did indeed happen and yes the original x-men were brought into the present for a while and yes it was weird Moving on. Still i’m pretty sure duncan’s thoughts would read like  “Man she looks good.. I want to bang her so hard she uh.. wakes up sideways.. yeah that’s it. Your a legend duncan, a total legend. “.  As you can probably tell I don’t have fond memories of this character or this sorta but not really love triangle, and question why they couldn’t of just had spyke be the other man in the triangle if they wanted to do this. Granted Spyke himself is kinda annoying, but it still makes more sense to have him fill in for angel or wolverine in a jean-scott love triangle than this walking burnt end. The warren, scott one worked, as much as a 60′s love triangle could because warren was conventionally handsome and had angel wings while scott has to keep glasses on just to not murder anyone he looks at, so there’s a bit of contrast there, while with WOlverine it’s straight laced dependeble scott versus unhinged manly man Logan. You know before recently where they just decided to all bone in a pile and wolverine even goes on vacation with them. And that’s not a joke I made up, that’s actual canon. Both make logical sense while Jean would be intrested in both in the former case, as Scott was still a kind and dependable leader, and tempted in the latter case if never acting on it before recently and with her husband’s full consent and either watching from the closet or taking one up the ass for jean to watch. Duncan in contrast is just wholly unlikeable and it makes me question why use him as the third in this love triangle, ESPECIALLY since the show would later introduce another scott and jean based love triangle with Rogue wanting scott that’s way more intresting, and even people wanting those two to hook up don’t want Jean with Duncan! Instead of creating a vitable alternative to make a later love triangle more intresting or create some shipping wars or anything of value any hint jean may be intrested just wastes screentime and tests my patience and is thankfully breif here.  As for why Jean’s here sh’es taking pictures for the school paper since the Daily Bugle wasn’t intrested in photos that weren’t of spider-man and they already had a teen photographer for that. Porker or something. Anyways this episode ofa low rent friday night lights knockoff is interuptted when one of duncan’s buddies on the team spots local trouble maker and ,judging by context, bully punching bag Todd Tolansky, aka Toad which is a cruel nickname turned slightly lesss cruel code name here, pick pocketing the people in the stands, and sensing a flimsy context to punch a nerd, Duncan goes to tell the coah he’ll be busy for a moment totally not carving someone’s face in again. Coach says as long as he leaves him breathing, and through a straw still counts and since their so far ahead as long as he’s back for the celebratory rampage anything goes.  Also spotting Toad’s stan pines approved sticky fingers is Scott Summers, leader of x-men and all around cool guy. Scott here is a bit more emotive than he was int he comics at a time, a trait he’d have later on in the late 2000′s and even currently and a version I prefer to the “has something shoved so far up his ass you can see it when he opens his mouth” boring straightman of the 90′s cartoon. He’s a bit more impulsive, a bit more emotivie but still a good and well thought out leader and the tactical genius, at least as far as I can remember, that he’s known for being. IT’s a good portayal so far, it reminds me of 2k12 leonardo: he’s still growing into being a leader in some way but clearly has the talent and drive for it and a deep sense of heroism> That deep sense is shown here as Scott leaves to go confront toad.. and then confronts Duncan and buds when he finds them about to squish Toad. Unlike Duncan, whose “heroism” consits of a filmy excuse to beat a third hole into todd’s head, Scott wanted to stop Toad because it’s the right thing to do, and wants to stop Duncan because his actions are just as wrong: Sure Toad is stealing stuff, but it’s clear from the way he and his buddies grin widlly at seieng toad pick pocket that they just want an excuse to pummel the kid and not get in trouble for it. It’s confirmed when Scott makes a resonable offer: Since Toad still has the money and most of the lifted wallets, he can return what he stole, which Toad not wanting to die today agrees to, but Duncan refuses. Scott however gets the three thrown to the ground and while Toad escapes, with the two other idiots in persuit, an enraged duncan attacks. But since Scott Summers, even teen scott summers has batman level judo, it’s an even fight despite Duncan being bigger and more muscular.. until Jean runs in shouts scott no.. despite you know Duncan starting this and Scott merley defending himself, distracts Scott long enough for him to get shoved to the ground.. and loose his googles, sending an optic blast out before he can clamp his eyes shut, knocking duncan over and igniting a nearbye propane tank. Toasty! Also yikes.  Cue the opening theme and credits. While the opening Creidts are very 2000′s, they aren’t half bad but the main draw is the theme song which.. honestly I feel is great and very close to the 90′s x-men theme in quality, only not being AS good because that one’s one of the best theme songs period. but this one’s no slouch as it’s fun, energetic and will get stuck in your head. Good stuff.  After the theme we cut back to the credits where Scott is closing his eyes despeartly holding his powers in. It was a good opening and a great way to show off the premise of the show and just how dangerous mutant powers can be even accidnetally, with this followup showing it’s not inetentional. it was even shown before as while scott’s eyes flash, he notably never uses his powers in the fight and they only came about accidnetally. We also get some JeanScott ship tease as she finds his glasses ,and with Duncan having a concusion and not remembering anything, a bit that hasn’t aged well, things seem well.. except the cop seems to notice something supscious.. before help arrives in a rolls royce. Charles Xavier, voiced by the icomprable David Kaye who I feel is one of the best daviers and does a great job here and quickly makes the guy see nothing supscious, a classic use of his powers and an understdanable one: while yea going into someone’s mind isn’t a great tihng to do.. scott being possibly outed as a mutant this way would only land the poor boy in a jail cell, as it did for Bobby Drake in the comics when his own powers activated and hurt someone. We also meet storm who unlike the others isn’ aged downa nd is one of two senior staffers for the school, a touch I like as she was a great mentor figure to kitty pryde and the comics and the roll suits her, while evolution also tones down the ham 80 degrees so she’s even more like the comics; reserved but utterly confident and badass and a good #2 to xavier. Xavier also likely wiped Duncan’s memory of scott’s power triggering I figure.. I mean he could’ve got concussed but I wouldn’t be suprised if chuck manipualted that too. Jean comforts Duncan for.. again some reason. Like he was just in a fight with her best friend and she’s a telepath.. I get she’s being respectful but time and place. Scott is naturally Jelly, but Toad.. genuinely thanks Scott for the help while Scott brushes it off. It was the right thing to do and Toad is still a creep, but it’s still a nice gesture. Also toad eats a fly to show that yep he too is  a mutant.  Xavier and Storm go to the train station and pick up a mysterious teen clad all in robes. Ohohoo hominus.  Meanwhile somewhere in the westchester area, Wolverine comes in! Snkity sknikty snoik. He’s voiced by, and dresses exactly like, Scott McNeil, a vetran and awesome voice actor who I honestly think does a better job than his prdecessor. Not that 90′s wolverine is bad, it’s just McNeil has more of a range even while keeping the gutteral growl of hte former and can tur it off at times while his previous acto rwas pretty much on snarl mode constantly. He wasn’t bad, all the 90′s voice actors were at 100 most of the time and undersndably given the hamm nature of that cartoon, but its’ still a ncie change of pace and one we’d see again with steve blum in the next cartoon. More on that obviously when i inevitably cover Wolverine and the X-Men He picks up a paper about the explosion, and sensing he must go his people need him, cuts the top off the water he ordered, because you can’t get beer on a childrens cartoon, and thanks the clerk who wonders what the fuck just happened. And it’s a weird ass scene especially because in this series the x-men are trying to keep a lid on mutants and Logan’s just .. causally cutting off a water bottle because fuck it. It fits the character a LITTLE but it’s still just weird and out of place. Speaking of weird and out of place sabertooth is stalking logan on a mountaintop because.. 

Thank you wrestlecrap. He dosen’t show up again and is apparently introduced several episodes from now, and sports a design similar to the 2000 movie which isn’t a terrible look apart from the long lead singer from Creed haircut. The next morning at Xavier’s scott’s annoyed at jean taking her time in the bathroom because “women amirite?”.. yeah... 

On that gag. Before the two dart off for school Xavier calls them in to meet the new kid: Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler, whose blue and fuzzy as ever, though without the fully yellow eyes he usually sports, though I figure it’s less because they wanted to make him more humanoid, though his Kelso from that 70′s show hair certainly helps with that too, and more because that way his human disguise he’ll get in a bit can just be an easily just recolor and redres his civlilan design. Though why he couldn’t just have the yellow eyes in elf form and give him regular ones in transducer form, epsecially since they had to make a whole new outfit and ears for his non elf form anyway is beyond me, but whatever. At least he’s a full part of the team here and oh so adorkable.  As you can probably wager by the fact there’s only 3 x-men and one asshole here, Evolution takes it’s time introducing everybody, the first few episodes using the debut queue style of storytelling and introducing the main cast about one or two per episode.. which I like a lot as it gives each of the x-men room to breathe and get a proper introduction, while usually doing the same for the latest addition to the brotherhood. IT’s a godo way to ease us into a decently sized main cast and let each get their own origin story of sorts. Good stuff. 

Jean and Scott are shocked by the poor boys three fingers, but Charles helps asuage kurt.. by pointing out scott’s fuckup then berating him. Both don’t come off great: Scot whines about having two cannonballs under his eyes, which while fair is something he knew going into a situation where they might get knocked off and didn’t prepare for, while Charles lambasts him for “not having more control”.. and his tone implies it’s more about his POWERS. If it was about self control fine, that’d be godo character stuff but if it’s of his powers..  Scott didn’t use his powers at all during the breif scuffle and was only let loose by pure shock, and something you easily covered for minus the explosion part. It could just be both having a point but I dunno. But with that Xavier does show kurt that even human passing mutants like Scott have huge struggles and he no longer is alone. Jean is curious what his power is and Kurt demonstrates his teleporting, impressing both and bonding the three a bit. Xavier sends them off to school, and they’ll talk more about kurt tonight.  At school Toad is getting dressed down by principle darkholme, aka mistque whose apparently also his boss.. yes while the founding x-men are two upstanding well trained, if one a bit hot headed youths, Mystque got.. a guy who pick pockets because as we later see the house she got for them looks like the ghosts of the frat who used to live there did a number on the place. Yeah easy to see why your guys later become the comic relief villians Raven. Anyways she plans to have Toad use his newfound leverage with scott to try and sneak in with the x-men before shapeshifting into a knockoff brood to scare him because she’s a dick. Also how the hell would she explain that if someone walked in and DIDN’T comically walk right back out and just explose her posing as a monster for the student body to see. Not a bad show of her powers but a really goofy and nonsenical one. Also yeah unlike the comics raven can change her shape further than just humanoid.

Back at the school Kurt is excited to see his spacious and luxrious room, his parents, whoever they were, having sent him here, and is even more excited when Xavier gives him a gift; an image inducer. This is something that actually comes from the comic: it’s a device disgused as a watch that holographically makes Kurt look like your standard human. Kurt in the comics of course used it to look like errol flynn.  Naturally Chris Claremont eventually realized the implications of a person of a minority who looks diffrent masquerading as someone else to blend in and Kurt later decided to go without it, as he shoudln’t have to hide himself. Evolution does use it better though: For starters when Kurt says he’s finally normal, Ororo assures him he always was, this is just to help a bit and the idea of him needing to blend in makes sense since the x-kids are going to public high school and mutantkind is more hidden to avoid prosecution. It’s sitll a BIT shaky, but it’s at least trying to avoid a lot of the pitfalls of the concept and modernizie it a bit and I can give them credit for that. 

Back at School scott’s preparing to lunch, telling paul to save him a seat. Good old Paul, when Toad comes up to him thanking him again and revealing his own mutant powers and stealing Scott’s glasses because that’s how you charm someone. Toad offers to hang but Scott wisely refuses and moves on though he does use the cafeteria pay phone to call Charles, who already found out about todd via Cerebro and despite Scott’s understandable reservations about letting a literally slimy pick pocket who talks like goddamn j-roc , know what i’m sayin, into the team, Charles in a very charles xavier move says they can’t turn their back on ANY mutant, even the assholes. Now read that in a patrick stewart voice. Your welcome. Scott wonders if he should ask Todd over to play fooseball and ask about joining his teen militia but Chalres said no need, he’ll take care of the audition himself. He then explains Cerebro to a curious kurt, global telepathic mutant tracker basically, and prepares for the audition. 

That night Toad goes to the mansion.. with a costume already. And rather than evaluate all the costumes up front i’m going to do so as they show up in series. As such.. toad’s is REALLY good, a nice armor look with a small part peaking up resembling a collar of some sort , a nice update of his silver age costume’s collar. It really feels frog like and really is neat. Storm, who is watering her garden a detail I like, heads out and rains on his parade. Her costume is fine, a standard storm outfit, nothing really outstanding but still not bad. Storm then sends lighting at him to see what happens when a Toad is struck by lighting.. probably the same as everything else before he runs inside and runs into kurt. 

Kurt then shows up, and while I’d forgottten this, he was already in costume from earlier having gotten his at the same time as the inducer. His costume.. is about the same as the comics except hte gloves and boots are yellow, i’m somehwat eh on it but I get doing so to have him fit with the black and yellow color scheme of most of the other x-men in some way. Though i’d love to see a black and yellow redesign of his classic oufit someday that’d look spiffy. But yeah it’s pretty good and one of the standouts of the evolution costumes. The two trade barbs thanks to toad being kind of a dick about nightcrawler and end up having a petty squabble and tussle for a bit around the mansion. Xavier still considers Toad x-men material while Storm considers not missing with lightning this time. In all seriousnes this is more good character stuff for Charles, as it shows that no matter how troublesome, he’ll welcome any mutant child in with open arms. Though I question why neither questions the fact that a mutant they just met somehow brought his own top of the line uniform, but I chalk it up to that probably not having been written into the episode and either being an error or execs wnating to show off his battle suit to have a proper superhero tussle to close out the episode.  However said tussle, which is really more a hilarious fight between an asshole and a dork, is interupted when Kurt accidnetly ports them into the danger room, an x-men staple.. no really “new mutant accidently enters or finds the danger room” is old hat at this point, most iconically with Kitty in the comics shortly after she joined. 

Naturally not wanting to have to clean up another set of teen corpses, he just got the Vulcan smell out of there, Xavier dispatches Cyclops and Jean to go deal with it.. since Jean dosen’t have a code name here since marvel forgets to try and get her a non phonenix one better than marvel girl and it annoys me. Anyways fashion show time again, and yes i’m aware these aren’t from strategy x, but I didn’t want to just use hte model sheet shots from the wiki so I combed for decent action shots. Scotty’s costume is decent, a bit bulky with the very 90′s shoulder pads and boots, but otherwise looks pretty good, a nice combination of his 90′s uniform and his second x-factor uniform. Even with the bulk it looks really good. On the oppsite end.. we have Jean, who easily has the worst outfit of the main x-men by a mile, with a weird lime green stripe for some reason. Maybe they were going for phonenix colors I dunno, but it just looks half assed in comparison to the rest of the gangs outfit. The gold rings and fingerless gloves are a nice touch, but this one’s still just bland in comparison. Like they couldn’t figure out how to update jeans 90′s outfit so they put her in a jassercise outfit instead. 

Scott and Jean arrive with Jean saving nightcrawler, Kurt asking if sh’es an angel, she asking if he’s a demon and me asking if I can get a trashcan to vomit in. It didn’t work for George Lucas a year before this why did you think it’d work here? Anyways Kurt realizes their not in xavier’s snuff dungeon, as far as he knows and it’s simply a trianing room and tries to disarm it, but it instead nearly blasts toad who nopes outta htere, scott too injured to follow. And while when watching the episode yesterday It hought it was a bit abrubt.. it really fits. Toad is a bit of a coward from memory, bosatful and cocky.. till reality reminds him he’s freaking toad as seen with the bullies earlier and mystique after that. So of course he’d run the minute things looked dicey and it looked like xavier reguarlly put his students through the hunger games to thint he herd. Xavier bemoans that Toad simply isn’t ready.. sure he’s a mutant and xavier likely senses mistque’s involement.. but he genuilly WANTED to help todd and give him a real home and support.. its just Toad/Todd dosen’t WANT it or to put in any real work to be better, and you have to WANT help to get it.  Kurt blames himself and ports out feeling he dosen’t deserve to be there and Scott goes after him while out front Toad runs into a returning Logan, whose ready to add another dead teen to the pile out back when Xavier insists he let him go... he’s not an actual threat, and as we find out later Xavier removed the schools location from his mind and probably gave it to toad in the first place, so while Logan says he’ll be back.. he has no way of coming back and there’s no sense roughing up a teenager, when that’d just draw more attention to them and give Toad an angle to work. That being said Charlie still gladly welcomes Logan back though both smell trouble on the horizon.. and also toad. He tends to leave a scent that one. 

We then get what I feel is the best scene in the episode: Cyclops finds Kurt in the room with the blackbird, which this show remembers is an actual type of plane and that the x-mens is simply a souped up version of , though I can’t tell you what version he’s saying it’s superior to because I don’t know planes THAT well. But Scott comforts Kurt, saying it’s OKAY to fuck up: the entire point of this place is so they can afford to make the mistakes they can’t make out there and learn and grow as people. Everyone screws up, as Scott himself did rushing in without a plan at the start, but the point is you learn from it and do better next time and Kurt decides to stay. Welcome to the X-Men Kurt, hope you surivive the experince. Also Scott decides to show him where they hide the sodas.. which either Chuck is a dick about their pop or that’s code for booze.. or possibly both. I could see Logan really liking root beer alongisde his nightly 6 pack. 

We close out with Mystque berating toad for running the hell away and for you know, getting mindwiped.. the latter is far from his fault, but the first part.. yeah Toad kinda sucks at this and Raven screams for him to get out, with her turning back into her natural form for the first time.. and then being confronted with HER boss with Magneto, from.. somewhere.. he appearas as a spooky projection but I don’t know if he’s using a device to amplfy himself or he just hides in the closet of her office all day for when he needs to consult her on their evil schemes. Probably the latter. Anyways Erik wisely consults her to be a bit easier..while toad is a bit of a dipweasel.. they can’t afford their ranks being thinned.. and really he’s not wrong. The x-men currently have them 6 to 3. Even if he’s the weakest of the three of them, they can’t afford to spare him. He then ominously says htis is only... THE BEGINING.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Strategy X is a decent start for the series but not without it’s problems, with one or two questionsable moments like the whole angel and devil exhcange or the entire “Storm stalks toad as he goes to the mansion” scene as a way of testing him, which makes both her and charles come off bad and makes me wonder how the hell that was an actual test of anything. But it’s held up by good character: While Jeans kind of a bit of wallpaper here, the rest of the x-men and our three villians are all given great character moments that show them off to the audience well and really show the writers get the characters while taking their own spins on the younger ones: Nightcrawler, who could be a bit of a dork in the comics, see here his seduction tequnique. 

I mean damn if that shit isn’t still Sexy but still. They just ramped it up a bit since this version is younger and more naive, while Scott is likewise a bit more rambunctious and likely to question Xavier, while still being a good hearted guy who knows how to lead. It’s good stuff. While the quality isn’t PERFECT, it’s a good start and I look forward to watching more and EVENTUALLY reviewing more on here. If you liked this be sure to let me know and like I said above if there’s any other marvel show or any dc ones you want me to cover, and any specific episodes at that, lemme know. Comics too. And until we meet again, courage.  PS.. what the hell is up with the title of this episode? No really it has nothing to do with anything. Is it Mystuues’ inflitration plan? 

[discyours]

I finished watching the latest season of Shameless and it’s reaffirmed to me how terrible this show is at LGBT representation so I’m gonna complain about it. Spoiler warning, obviously. 

Okay so first of all, Ian and Mickey were one of the best parts of this show. I’m not a gay man so my opinion on this is not that valuable, but as far as I know it was very well received by the gay community. Their relationship was as raw and as realistic as everything else that’s good about this show. How uncommon is it, even now, for media to show that guys like Mickey can be gay? How uncommon is it for them to show a genuine connection between growing up being shaped by an environment like Mickey’s and the way he deals with his sexuality, rather than just creating a character that never took on any part of their upbringing because they were simply too camp to fit in. The way Mickey and Ian both felt about their sexuality very much shaped their relationship at the start of it, but it grew from there. The writers didn’t make the mistake of making the relationship about the fact that it was gay. Neither character was killed off, the relationship was very on-and-off but wasn’t intentionally cut short, and they didn’t shy away from showing on-screen affection while also (in my opinion) not coming off as fetishistic either. Mickey and Ian was everything that is usually done wrong done right, and unfortunately the only real example of that on this show. 

The Kash storyline actually came before Mickey, but I wanted to start this post off with a positive example so I didn’t sound too salty. I have mixed feelings about how realistic this one was, and since I’m not a gay man I really don’t think it’s my place to state whether it was or not. But one thing is for sure; it wasn’t positive. I mean, it’s an affair between a seriously underage Ian (I think he was around 15 in the first season?) and his significantly older, married with children employer. Kash is also middle-eastern so this story fed into both homophobic and racist stereotypes. 

In season 2 Ian sleeps with yet another married man: Ned/Lloyd (Jimmysteve’s father). Lloyd is even older than Kash (likely 50s/60s) while Ian is still underage. Lloyd describes his sexuality as “anything that walks” meaning this isn’t actually bad gay representation, but terrible bi representation. 

Jumping ahead to season 6 (after Ian has been working in a gay club and had many hookups, but no real relationships aside from Mickey so nothing worth mentioning), Ian started dating Caleb, a black firefighter. Caleb turns out to be HIV positive but the show (in my opinion) handles it extremely well, making it a point that it’s possible to manage it with medication to the point where you can’t transmit it to anyone. It was a genuinely great, healthy relationship, until they decided to make Caleb cheat with a woman. Again, terrible bi representation, and once they’ve broken up the experience leads to Ian attempting to have straight sex too. It’s something a lot of gay men go through so I don’t think it was necessarily bad to add it to the show, but I do take issue with that even being needed as a plot device to show that Ian is truly gay, as that’s the way a lot of society views homosexuality too. 

Shortly after this, Trevor is introduced. Like I said, I’m not a gay man so my opinion on all of the former was of limited value, but I am a trans man and dear fucking god I hated Trevor’s story. Trevor is the embodiment of a character whose only defining trait is that they are LGBT. He’s overly sensitive to anyone not being immediately understanding about trans issues, and his relationship with Ian infuriated me. Trevor was offended that Ian lost interest upon finding out that he was trans, and the show made it seem like he was in the right for it. Ian apologised and they end up dating. They end up fucking. All this right after having shown that Ian tried to sleep with the opposite sex and absolutely hated it. Pure virtue signaling and my personal annoyance that every trans person in Trevor’s friend group was shown to be an “SJW snowflake” who had to introduce themselves with their pronouns is worthless next to the genuine harm that was done by showing that gay men can and totally should sleep with the opposite sex as long as they’re trans. 

I don’t even want to move on from that because of how genuinely terrible it is, but let’s do so anyway because there’s more. Further building on the pattern of terrible bi representation, there was the minor season 1/2 character Jasmine. She’s married but unfaithful, and her showing interest in women is seen as a part of her being so “free spirited”, if you can call it that. 

The “throuple” between Kev, Vee and Svetlana is another example. This post is getting long but I mean, for god’s sake can this show have a single bi character that isn’t super promiscuous if not a fucking unicorn? Every bi woman who’s ever used dating apps deserves to be mad at this storyline. 

Now for the thing that actually got me to write this post; the lesbian representation in this show. The first lesbian we see is Bob/Roberta, in season 1 and 2. She’s a literal stereotype as an extremely butch truck driver, dating a woman who is generally presumed to be straight. She and Monica try to take Liam away on the basis that he’s black and needs a black parent. Just like with Kash, this is doubly negative representation. She’s a minor character and all she does is “turn” a character by being so butch, and try to steal a fucking baby. 

In early season 9 this stereotyping stunt is repeated. Debbie meets Alex, another black woman so butch that she’s introduced as someone who’s passing as a man. Alex makes Debbie question her sexuality (though Debbie is later revealed to be bi, she wasn’t at this point so this was still falling into the “straight woman is ‘turned’ by an ultra-butch lesbian” trope) and they move in together right away. When they have lunch together after an argument, Alex spends hours talking about all of her exes, eventually reaching a point where Debbie can’t take it anymore and leaves. 

Also introduced in season 9 is Carl’s girlfriend, Kelly. When this character was introduced it was immediately obvious to me that she was coded to seem like a lesbian. She's the daughter of an army officer and plays softball, and just about everything about the way she looks and acts seemed gay. I initially thought that they made this character date Carl to kill any suspicions of her being a lesbian before they could begin, but then they actually turned “queer baiting” (not my term) into a plotline. They made her character flirt with Debbie, made Debbie try to “steal” her from Carl (again, a bi character not respecting established relationships), and very much hinted at a relationship happening. The preview for season 9 episode 13 showed them kissing, and they still ended that story with her being straight and apologising for accidentally leading Debbie on. 

I’ll throw in an honorable mention to Lea Delaria’s very brief appearance as a character so minor I can’t even remember what it was called; Lip’s potential AA sponsor; another ultra-butch stereotype, and an asshole. Oh and there was the whole gentrification plotline, where a bunch of rich lesbian couples (you guessed it, stereotypes!) moved into the southside. And Ford’s exes that Fiona met when she went bowling, which were barely actual characters and more of a joke about how gay they looked and how Ford clearly had a type. With Kelly being revealed as straight, the closest this show has ever gotten to a lesbian character that took actual part in the plot beyond being a stereotype was the lesbian couple in Fiona’s apartment building, and they still had one of them sleep with a man (off-screen, luckily) as a Totally Necessary Measure to get pregnant. 

Shameless was genuinely one of my favourite shows and it wasn’t too hard to look past most of this at first, considering so many characters are terrible people anyway. But I can’t ignore the flaws at this point. This goes beyond comedy and I’m almost angry that Shameless has ruined itself for me just by being homophobic.

[38-planes]

The Wild Child Of “Come From Away”

Logo: New Now Next [April 3, 2017]

Jenn Colella, one of Broadway’s few out leading ladies, talks playing a real-life hero, making out with Idina Menzel, and lesbians in open relationships.

On September 11, 2001, after terrorists flew jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, authorities closed United States airspace to all air traffic. In the remote Canadian town of Gander, Newfoundland, 38 passenger jets suddenly landed on the airstrip, and were grounded until further notice.

Instead of treating them as intruders, the town opened its homes and hearts to 7,000 strangers from all over the world. By the time the visitors departed, cultures had come together and lifelong friendships had formed.

The hit musical Come From Away tells this sprawling story with a foot-stomping Celtic band and a dozen versatile actors portraying some 50 real-life characters, many of whom flew in from Newfoundland to dance onstage with the actors on opening night.

The show packs a political punch at this ungenerous moment in America—a point that hung in the air when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited Donald Trump to attend a recent performance. (The President declined but sent Ivanka.) Critics took the musical’s subtext to heart. The Washington Post called it “an exuberant antidote for what ails the American soul.”

For extra exuberance, there’s star Jenn Colella, one of Broadway’s few out lesbian leading ladies. In Come From Away, Colella sings her heart out as real-life pilot Beverley Bass, one of the pilots who landed at Gander on 9/11. But Colella, 43, been attracting fangirls ever since she rode a mechanical bull in Urban Cowboy, rocked the butch title role in The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, and played one-half of a lesbian couple in If/Then.

On the phone in her dressing room before a recent performance, with her girlfriend chiming in, Colella told us about her life as an irresistible wild child, from her current relationship à trois to the occasional makeout session with Idina Menzel.

How would you describe the story of Come From Away?

Jen Colella: For me, it’s about welcoming people because they need help. I don’t know where we got away from the habit of being kind, but kindness and compassion is where we live. We all have access to it, and it requires practice.

How was it for the cast when Justin Trudeau and Ivanka Trump came to the show? How was it for you?

It was extraordinary to have them here, and have them together. People are drawn to this show who know that everyone is good at heart, people who are drawn to a sort of kindness movement that’s in the air right now. Justin knows that’s the best possible way to lead people, and I believe Ivanka does as well, or else she wouldn’t have joined.

Did you speak with Ivanka?

We didn’t. It was Justin’s night. He made a speech before, and I believe Ivanka ducked out a little early out of respect, so as not to take anything away from him. But the show is direct address–we can see the audience very clearly. She was truly enjoying herself and smiling and laughing and crying and was really in it, so I know she had a good time.

You play Captain Beverley Bass, who blazed her own trails as the first female captain for American Airlines. She seems like the most clearly defined hero in Come From Away. How did you two meet?

After our final preview [at La Jolla Playhouse], Beverley and her husband Tom arrived at a restaurant across the street. We spotted one another from across the room. She came over and said, “I think you’re playing me,” and I said, “I think you’re right!” I’m so grateful that they’ve chosen me to play this badass pioneer for women. I feel the privilege and responsibility of it.

Like all the actors, you play several characters in Come From Away. Aside from Captain Beverley, you play this enchantingly gay-looking woman in a T-shirt and vest. Was my gaydar going off correctly with that character, or is she just Canadian?

She’s just Canadian! Actually that character, Annette, is quite male-crazy. She likes the men that come off these planes. But I have faith that Annette would be open to women as well. I’m going to throw that into the show tonight and see how it plays.

I was googling you, and the first thing I saw was this hashtag: #jennfuckingcolella. Do you have lesbian fangirls?

I do, and it feels so good! Everybody’s respectful, but, yes, to receive that kind of energy from women fuels me. It feels, again, like a privilege and a responsibility. And I’m so thrilled that I’m out and the age that I am, and I feel confident and capable to be a good role model for gay women.

How do women reach out to you?

Some fans will see shows many, many times. I have one awesome fan—I don’t know if these people are even gay, to tell you the truth—but one girl has my signature tattooed over her heart.

I’d say that’s a clue.

She hasn’t come out to me, you know? So I don’t want to assume. But I get a lot of baked goods, sweet cards, flowers. Chicks are so good at gifts, right? I ride a scooter around town, because I’m like a 12-year-old, and one of my fans actually presented me with a new scooter. Yeah, they mean it. It’s awesome.

Let’s go back to the tattoo: Did you autograph her chest and then she went and got the autograph tattooed?

She’d seen If/Then many, many times. She said, “Hey, will you sign this piece of paper for me?” I did, and then later she came back and showed me her tattoo. Isn’t that awesome?

You sometimes subbed in for Idina Menzel as the lead in If/Then. What was that like?

Idina is an amazing person, and super sweet and fun. She and I like to flirt a lot. We made out a couple of times, which was super, super hot and fun. I like to tell as many people that as possible. Great kisser.

How exactly did that come to pass?

The best part is, my girlfriend is in the dressing room with me right now, and she keeps looking up and giving me these like sexy little smiles. Anyway, Idina’s straight—mostly—in the way that I’m mostly gay. And I would just wear her down at parties, just walk by and say, “We should make out.” Just trying to constantly put little seeds into her beautiful brain. She took me up on it once or twice.

Aside from making out, did you and Idina ever sing together?

Onstage, we had many opportunities to sing together, and that voice is just inimitable.

As is yours. In fact, speaking of Idina’s great roles, did you ever do Elphaba the witch, in Wicked?

People are always asking me that! I finally had to tell them to stop asking me to come in, because I am terrified that I would lose my mind and my voice. I’m going to leave that to those professional belters and try to save this loud-ass belt that I’ve got for as long as possible.

Although it would be really cool to do a gay Elphaba.

I hear you. I hadn’t thought about that. You know what, though, I want to play Bobby in Company. [A 2016 London production reversed genders to feature a woman in the famous leading role of a commitment-phobic bachelor and the loves of his New York circle of friends.]

Your girlfriend’s listening in, so she’ll appreciate this. What kind of woman is attractive to you? Do you have a type?

I like people who are balanced in their masculine and feminine energies. I like girly girls who aren’t afraid to wear ripped jeans and play in the mud. I joked when my girlfriend got here, “You dressed like a little dyke for me today!” She’s wearing ripped jeans and her big belt and a cut Women’s March t-shirt. Yeah! Then as I’m getting older, I realize that what I find sexy is someone who’s smart and kind and funny. I’m attracted to the whole world, is the truth.

Any quality in a woman that’s a deal breaker for you?

Yeah. An unawareness, right? If someone treats a server unkindly—snaps at a server, or anyone in the service industry—that is such a deal breaker for me. I can’t.

Does your girlfriend like seeing you in uniform as Captain Beverley onstage?

[She repeats the question to her girlfriend.] She likes seeing me in everything.

I was going to ask you about starring in The Beebo Brinker Chronicles [the 2008 Off-Broadway adaptation of Ann Bannon’s iconic novels of lesbians before Stonewall]. Has anyone ever talked about filming it?

Lily Tomlin was one of our producers on that play, and she and Jane Wagner talked about possibly filming it during that time, but I haven’t heard any more about it. So, yeah, we can put that back out in the universe as well.

Definitely. Those lesbian pulp paperback days were very sexy.

True. That was one of the sexiest shows I’ve ever worked on. It was fun to be the butch lesbian that all the girls were swooning over.

Not that different from your real life, is it?

[Laughing] It was fun to have that as my job.

I know I’m asking in front of your girlfriend, but do you see yourself in the future marrying and quote unquote settling down? Are you interested in kids?

I’ve been married a couple of times.

To women?

Yeah. My joke is, chicks love it when you propose. I had two wonderful marriages, and I’m a big fan of the institution of marriage if it is truly an equal partnership. But my girlfriend and I are in an open relationship, and that feels really lovely and right for me right now.

So you’re both seeing other people?

She’s actually married to a man. I’m kind of dating them both. They have a little kid whom I adore. And I’m also dating someone else, and, you know, my girlfriend just got on OKCupid, and it’s all very open. There’s a lot of respect and a lot of communication and a lot of trust. It’s quite lovely.

Usually lesbians can’t do that, at least the lesbians I know. Gay men can stay together 50 years, and they manage to keep their exterior lives very hot and vital and yet preserve these lasting relationships. What’s different about you that you can do that?

What I’ve found is that if women are intimate with one another, there’s such an emotional connection that happens. That’s what can be scary for the primary partner: If you have an emotional connection with someone else, how is there going to be any room left for me? But our hearts are much more open and capacious than we give them credit for. There’s no better or best in my world of love. I have boundless love. So the more I can trust myself and love myself, and trust and love my partners, then I’m finding there’s an infinite amount to explore.

Come From Away is now on Broadway at the Schoenfeld Theatre

[hallamkelly]

To what extent do Eilidh MacAskill and Rosana Cade reinforce gender norms in their portrayal of men in Moot Moot? An Essay

Rosana Cade and Eilidh MacAskill’s production Moot Moot is a lighthearted performance involving the two women taking on the personae of two male radio show hosts, both called Barry. The show involves the two endlessly asking a non-existent listening audience to phone in and talk to them, otherwise it’s “just Barry and Barry”, until they end with the realisation that all they have is each other. The two Barrys are portrayed as typical masculine men, and Cade and MacAskill employ a number of semiotic devices to show this to the audience. Both performers identify as feminists, and it is fair to assume that their use of male stereotypes is intended to act as a deconstruction or destabilisation of patriarchal gender norms. However, in emphasising a gender binary in this way, are they simply perpetuating these norms?

In contemporary Western society, gender is a much debated concept. Many theorists, such as Judith Butler, argue that gender is distinct from sex, and is in fact “culturally constructed” (Butler, 1990, 6). In fact, this is the dominant view in sociology and medicine, and even the World Health Organisation defines gender as “the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women” (World Health Organisation 2017). 

However, many people in our society still see gender as fixed, dependant on the sex of the person, and therefore a binary of man and woman, with nothing in between or besides. From a feminist perspective this is troubling and dangerous. Political philosopher Rebecca Reilly-Cooper describes gender as “the externally imposed set of norms that prescribe and proscribe desirable behaviour to individuals in accordance with morally arbitrary characteristics” and goes on to assert that they “represent a binary caste system or hierarchy, a value system with two positions: maleness above femaleness, manhood above womanhood, masculinity above femininity” (Reilly-Cooper, 2016).

She goes on to argue that in order to produce a truly equal society “the solution is to abolish gender altogether” (Reilly-Cooper, 2016). No course of action for how to achieve this is suggested, other than for everyone to live how they want to, without reference to ones perceived “gender”. However, I would add that a more active approach to this deconstruction of gender in society would be to challenge a binary concept of gender wherever we can, and thus not to enforce or display traditional gender norms and stereotypes.

In Moot Moot, Cade and MacAskill draw on the relatively young tradition of drag kings that came into popularity in the 1990s. In fact, Barry and Barry are textbook kings, as described in The Drag King Book by Jack Halberstam, with photography by Del LaGrace Volcano - “They sport vintage suits and fancy ties, slicked-back hair and neat moustaches”. According to Halberstam, “a Drag King is a performer who makes masculinity into his or her act”, as opposed to a butch lesbian, who is “not necessarily dressing up like a man” (Volcano and Halberstam, 1999, 32). In this way, Cade and MacAskill are explicitly performing masculine traits, and therefore the accompanying gender norms.

For example, they wear formal, grey suits, connoting wealth, conservatism and a very traditional brand of masculinity, which immediately positions them in a patriarchal, dominant role. This harks back to a time when men “wore the trousers” and would work for a living while their wives would cook, clean and look after the children. There is a certain power that comes with donning a suit, historically the outfit of a wealthy or important man.

The shape of their glasses and headphones suggest 60s-70s era male radio hosts, and yet there is never a specific time period given to the performance. Therefore, the personae rely on a particular stereotype of a man that comes from this era: one who is self-assured, jovial and confident. It is the man who can be trusted as an expert at what he does. The glasses are particularly reminiscent of Robert W. Morgan, a Los Angeles radio host from the late 60s who was famous for his wit and charm. Perhaps the performers were intentionally referencing him for this comedic aspect - another common (and false) stereotype being that men are funnier than women.

Certain masculine gestures are used, such as the mimed firing of a shotgun, indicative of male violence and aggression. Their empty banter is also stereotypical of men - lines such as “I’m good thanks Barry, how are you?” are repeated over and over again, perhaps a suggestion of men’s incapability to form a real connection with each other. They talk about having a “deep debate”, spoken in as deep a voice as possible, suggesting these “men” are interested in matters of great importance, and yet the debate is never had - just more empty posturing.

These traits are all socio-cultural masculine ones, as opposed to biological male ones. However, they do give themselves specifically male traits too. They wear fake moustaches, and their voices are pitched down to create an auditory illusion of maleness. Interestingly, the performers did not seem to try to lower their own voices, instead relying on digital sound production to do it, perhaps an acknowledgement that the only difference between a man and a woman is often nothing more than the pitch of their voice. It sets them apart from simply being “women dressed as men”, for everything else - the clothes, the language, the mannerisms - can be seen as elements of female masculinity. As Jack Halberstam says in his book Female Masculinity, “masculinity must not and cannot and should not reduce down to the male body and its effects” (Halberstam, 1998, 1), but Cade and MacAskill not only make themselves over-masculine, but more male too. 

All these elements can be seen as mere devices used to convey a “male” persona to the audience, but they mostly rely on underlying gender norms, and thus on the dominant conception of a patriarchal gender binary. Drag queens have often been criticised for “the reproduction of a specifically sexualized rendering of feminine identity, which reflects persistent hierarchies of desire and desirability: of men dressing as the male-oriented version of women” (Coles, 2007). I am not going to argue that drag kings have an analogous problem, since women are historically oppressed by men, and not the other way around. However, sexual hierarchies can still be represented, and therefore perpetuated, by women posing as men.

Of course, the gender of the performers is vitally important in considering whether or not patriarchal structures are being perpetuated. Rosana Cade identifies as a cis-gender woman, and Eilidh MacAskill was assigned female at birth, although goes by ‘they/them’ pronouns. Both artists will have suffered sexism and misogyny under the patriarchy, and have a deep understanding of gender politics. Their appropriation of male identities is intrinsically subversive, and clearly intended to dismantle these oppressive structures, as drag kings always have. Jack Halberstam describes how certain drag kings “turn dominant masculinity around by parodying male superstardom and working conventional modes of performed sexism and misogyny into successful comedy routines” (Halberstam, 1998, 30), and although he is talking about performance that critiques blatant misogyny, whereas the characters in Moot Moot never use overtly sexist language, the point still stands. Drag king performance is a way for artists to hold a mirror up to men, and ask them to question their own masculinity.

In this way, Moot Moot and the work of other drag kings is certainly a force for change in our society, by reversing traditional gender norms and thus disrupting and deconstructing them. However, in an ideal world in which gender were meaningless, the sort of world Rebecca Reilly-Cooper envisions, this type of performance would be seen as sexist, offensive and dangerous, given its overt portrayals of masculine men. For a radical feminist for whom “the aim is to abolish gender altogether” (Reilly-Cooper, 2016), a boundary pushing performance should be purely genderless.

We do not live in that world, however. The patriarchy is going strong, cis-het men cling to power and stay wilfully ignorant of the great inequality between them and the rest of the population. Cade and MacAskill’s work is justified by the great strides that still must be taken before we can wave goodbye to gender altogether.

Word count: 1,376

Bibliography:

Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, p. 6.

Reilly-Cooper, R. (2016). Gender is not a spectrum. Aeon

Volcano, D. and Halberstam, J. (1999). The drag king book. London: Serpent's Tail, p.32.

Halberstam, J. (1998). Female Masculinity. [S.l.]: Duke University Press, p.1, p.30.

Coles, C. (2007). The Question of Power and Authority in Gender Performance: Judith Butler's Drag Strategy. Glasgow: eSharp, p.1.

Websites:

http://www.who.int/gender-equity-rights/understanding/gender-definition/en/

[melon-kid]

Since it’s been on my mind lately, I figured I might as well jot down some thoughts I’ve been exploring about transgenderism, particularly transwomen. So, it seems to me that some major contentions that TERFs seem to have about people who identify as transgender follow as such:-

1. Perpetuating Gender Stereotypes: Now, let me start off by saying that trans people are an incredibly tiny minority - when you talk about perpetuating stereotypes, this is literally the last group you should worried about but the critiques come in droves like it’s the flagship of the patriarchy or something.

The first thing to note is that people are forced into positions where they feel like it’s necessary to adhere to more feminine or masculine traits (it can go either way for the gender of their choice, but if they bend back around no one’s going to take them seriously - it’s pretty much a lose-lose situation) BECAUSE of the gender expectations that exist in the first place. Listen, countering gender roles is mutually beneficial - this whole thing really wouldn’t be an issue if they didn’t have to worry about labeling themselves or pushing for certain traits just to have a social lifeline: If you’re a feminine transwoman, you’re perpetuating stereotypes. If you’re a butch transwoman, you’re not even trying (also you’re still trans so fuck you anyway).

Either way, even if it's unintentional, it discourages femininity in women as something to be looked down upon - it’s not a fair or accurate statement to say that transwomen honestly equate being a woman with being feminine - not only because of the reasons listed above, but because when you do this, you’re minimizing their character to their appearance. Being transgender is not just about appearance, even if it may play a part for one reason or another - it’s about a sense of identity and self-expression.

2. Benefits from Male Privilege: This one’s a hard bullet to dodge, so I’ll just straight up and say that yes, this does happen to transwomen… if they’re closeted. Which, you know, a lot of people HAVE to be in order to keep themselves safe. Otherwise, you’re suddenly open to a boatload of harassment and discrimination just for being different. To say that people aren’t allowed to identify as transgender because they benefit from privilege is actually astoundingly stupid. The moment you publicly identify as trans, you paint yourself as a walking, glowing target for people to shit all over. A lot of these people can’t even state their identity in public without being attacked from all sides.

3. Militant Trans Supporters: I think the average person will agree that these people need to pack their things and go home. This may be the vocal minority, but boy do they tackle everything kicking and screaming. However, to act like this is a trans specific issue is a ridiculous double standard: Nobody wants to be represented by their most radical supporters (unless you happen to be one of them), this is something that applies to all groups.

4. Transgenderism is just an Illness: There are a lot of associated illness that might come with being transgender, but they don’t always apply. Classic example is gender dysphoria - in the same way someone might say ‘why don’t you seek psychological help instead of trying to emulate womanhood,’ a common rhetoric that people used against other gay people in the past was ‘why don’t you seek psychological help instead of trying to be with someone of the same sex?’ AKA conversion therapy. For the most part, it seems to me that it’s only as much of an illness or health detriment as the social pressures that exist around them.

5. Cannot Socially / Biologically Relate: To define a woman solely through specific personal experiences (namely forms of oppression) seems rather strange. In a closed community where a woman faces no less sexism than those around her, is she less of a woman because a man has not leered at her? Because the benefits she reaps from her work is equal to her peers?

Or how about someone who is intersex - she has breasts, the outward appearance of a woman, and identifies as a woman, but has male genitalia - is she then, by your standards, forced to identify as a man (or perhaps as ‘intersex,’ a term that they might not be too happy with) because she will never experience a period? Because she is relieved of the expectation to bear children? How many boxes of social oppression or biological experiences do you have to tick in order to be considered a ‘real’ woman? All of them?

Because it should be a no-brainer that different women have different life experiences - both socially and biologically. If you are willing to make exceptions in these cases, then clearly your contention with this lies elsewhere, not just your personal experiences as a woman.

6. Invasion of Queer Spaces: Not even sure what the argument is here. Trans people are going to be more predatory because they don’t have to be strictly gay? Couldn’t you say the same thing about bisexual people? The progressive movement is fighting to support LGBT+ rights, not LG rights.