Androgyny: A Cabaret of Genderfuck & Wordplay

In this I reference Miss Forward; I lived in Madison, WI when I wrote this poem in High School. Miss Forward is a statue that stands on top of the Wisconsin Capitol and points to the National Capitol.

 

Part I: Assumptions & Someones

Quietly, she sits, knowing nothing of him,

Except his sex and this is a significant fact.

The latest studies reveal his frontal lobe is well developed

And she can generalize that in a relationship sex interests him the most.

He sits, just as quietly and knowing nothing of her, besides her sex.

This tells him she is, most likely, great with kids and is more sensitive than he.

In this state, the two strangers wait to gain access into the main hall of enlightenment.

 

Someone invades the atrium;

A well-sealed smile and sparkle in the eyes,

Is the mien of revolution that adorns the face.

Stopping, only for a pause, to sigh,

The someone proceeds into the next room.

 

“Was that a man or a girl?” she asks her contemporary.

Anticipating the usual apathetic male response,

She is surprised at his tense and distraught reply:

“I have no idea. It’s- it’s driving me crazy.”

He expects a tirade regarding the beauty of those who dress as they please.

Instead, she asserts, “Those damn f**s"just trying to confuse us”

Assuming that he will agree, on account of a masculinity complex.

Frustrated and amazed, he abruptly stands up, knocking down his chair.

He pushes through another someone who is, quietly and assertively,

Passing through to the main hall. 

 

 

 

 

Part II: Embodiment & Pronouns

Bold with his black tie and her blouse with floral prints,

He stands with a wide-legged stance, her arms gesturing wildly.

Bright red lips seem to contrast a five o’clock shadow.

His arms are hairy; her fingernails painted.

Her long hair clings to his back.

Stressed and baggy jeans that sag below her waistline

Catch on the heels of his grey stilettos.

His exposed boxers, with masochistic prints,

Hug her hips to hide the secret that is hir sex.

Zie walks with a gait that flexes his midriff

And keeps her broad shoulders parallel to the ground.

Decked in a number of colorful bracelets and metallic chains,

Zie elegantly clanks down the street, free to hir own imagination

And, inadvertently, turning heads.

Part III: Destruction & Me

I have balls.

I have a beautiful male body,

Accompanied with this courageousness

That allows me to wear jewelry and tights as I please,

That allows me to crush the gender binary with every feminine step I take,

That preludes to an apocalypse of this nonsensical dichotomy.

Sending businessmen and housewives running, bawling;

Forcing men to scream “like girls” and women to grab weapons in defense.

 

I have the ovaries to say that I'm a feminist,

That I'm for gender equality,

That I am androgynous.

Androgynous like skirts and beards,

Like Barbies and basketball,

Like a cabaret of genderfuck and worldplay,

like natural magic.

 

Androgynous like always and never representing both ends of the gender spectrum;

An anarchy of expression uninhibited by society's fallacies of dualism and gender.

 

Now I'm "anti" a lot of things.

Anti-government, anti-society,

Anti-race and anti-time.

Gender is one of those things

And if you don't agree;

Here's a bit of history.

 

Back Before men and women took up the weapons of plows and spades against our planet,

Someone had the great idea of dividing labor along the dotted line of sex-

dot. dot. dot. there was still room for trans people in indigenous cultures.

Years later, empire that grew out of some agricultural traditions 

imposed strict MADE UP gender codes.

Religion, Governance and Commerce together enforced this code with death as

they attempted to ensnare every unruly vine of life within mass gardens of labels.

Over time this trench was expanded as assumptions were made,

Evolving into the rigid, state-of-the-art double standards that we have today.

Look carefully and you will find that, besides a few natural bodily functions

Our reproductive organs do not dictate any fact about us

society does that well enough.

 

So I will take the sledgehammer to the wall between the male and female bathrooms.

I will surpass both the male and female teams in my high school’s gym class.

I will scale to the utmost reaches of our capital, yelling this doctrine with Miss Forward;

And despite our apparent differences of flesh and bronze, in age and sex,

We will blur the lines of gender roles into annihilation and become one.

 

Gender does not exist.

People created it.

             I will destroy it.                      

Reviews

[Raef C. Boylan]

Hi. I just found this in my read requests. Sorry if you sent it years ago.
It's impressive the amount of information you've managed to communicate in this single piece. One reviewer remarks that it's more like an essay than a poem...but then I guess that's needless labelling again. So what? Just indicates that the piece is a well-crafted, detailed exploration of a complex topic.

As somebody who's had recent experience of walking along, just being myself "And, inadvertently, turning heads”, I’ve had cause to reflect on these issues a lot and I’ve come to the conclusion that some of it may be instinctive. I feel intense annoyance coming off people when they look at me and aren’t sure (“I have no idea. It’s- it’s driving me crazy.”), and I think it might not be their fault. Maybe dating back to a time when not knowing the sex – and, thereby, intentions – of those around you was a matter of survival. Thus when somebody’s ‘gender expression’, for want of a better phrase, doesn’t give an immediate clear signal, it throws people off and they feel physically uneasy. Just a theory I’m working on – but yeah, the words of the guy in Part I jumped out at me and I felt like I could relate, through the staring eyes of people in my own city centre...

I like how the piece is segmented; whether the number three is significant (male, female and androgynous) or not, I don’t know. I also liked the different styles of narration for each segment, from the distanced voice to the very direct and challenging. It’s cool how you (I think?) twisted 'I've got the balls' into "I have the ovaries to say..." The breaking down of societal expectations linked to gendered language has to start somewhere, and why not here. This shows that you’re not just pointing out a problem, you’re making an effort to construct a solution. Another aspect that I enjoyed was how you called humanity’s compulsion to label everything “inhibiting and suicidal OCD”; that’s a harsh but deserved accusation.

Basically, there isn’t anything to criticise. It’s an interesting, absorbing, well-written and ambitious poem. Thanks for sharing it with me. I’ll probably come back at some point.

[Trevor]

I know this is old, but ... gender most definitely exists. Gender roles don't, no. The gender binary doesn't, no, but saying 'gender doesn't exist' is pretty invalidating of trans people's experiences.

[Raef C. Boylan]

Trevor makes a good point here, Seb Harris. I’m curious to know how you feel about the transgender community. Do you prefer the (now outdated) term ‘transsexual’ maybe, i.e. do you consider only the physical elements of gender dysphoria to be valid and the rest to be 100% a social construct?

[VERONICA]

i luv the trans community. I don't have an issue with the term transexual, but as I understand it that word describes ppl who have surgically and hormonally transitioned. Gender exists because we have created it, that is my point here, if any trans person is slighted by that they might caught up in the gender binary themselves. && to that point I feel like western medicine has pressured a lot of people who could express their true 'gender' w/o feeling the need for expensive and dangerous medical procedures into accepting something that should be celebrated as a mental illness, 'gender dysphoria' etc.

[Raef C. Boylan]

So it's not that you "invalidate" transgender people's experiences - it's just that you feel a lot of people claiming to be transgender are actually people who don't conform to gender norms and then get caught up in/pressured into the idea of transitioning to the opposite sex in order to live their lives comfortably(?) Not a popular theory in the trans community, naturally, but you may well be right. There might be some people who definitely do have 'gender dysphoria' and then a lot of people who are confused.
Or do you feel that 'gender dysphoria' doesn't exist?
Because, like I said above, there are physical aspects as well as psychological ones, which can't really be dismissed as someone being too lazy/confused to "express their true 'gender' ".

[VERONICA]

I don't think transgendered people are just claiming to be trans nor do I think anyone is trans people are too lazy or confused to figure it out. There are a lot of people who feel much more comfortable with themselves being seen as the gender not associated with their sex. I feel like the issue lies in our culture. Our culture is pressuring people to say that they're ill or have gender dysphoria and put their own bodies through some tough s**t. While this isn't a popular theory in the trans community I find it more empowering. back in the good old days (ie hunter gatherer societies, societies living more in balance with nature) those who were gender variant were celebrated & considered to have a stronger spiritual connection, they were often made shamans and the like (ie two spirited people). So yeah I would say that I don't think gender dysphoria really exists. It's a label we've prescribed to explain away this gray area as a disease since it causes us discomfort to have the great opposites of masculine and feminine intertwined in one person. But the fact of the matter is that we all have masculinity and femininity within ourselves, some people are just more expressive about it. Right now the breaking down of this dichotomy could do us a lot of good and we should work to value trans people, genderqueers, androgynes, tomboys, etc.

[Raef C. Boylan]

I agree with what you're saying other than one very important point: I think gender dysphoria and being transgender DOES exist, and believe that the danger lies in mistakenly over-applying those labels to people who merely don't conform to the stereotypes of gender norms: people who, if society were more accepting and less pressured, could happily get on with their lives being themselves. That is very different to feeling trapped in the wrong body, with the wrong genitals, to the point of wanting to kill or maim yourself just to escape. Yes, if society was less focused on gender and gendered expectations, life would be a little easier for transgender people...but it wouldn’t solve their medical condition. To be honest, I don’t see how you can claim to “luv the trans community” when you’re technically saying a large element of it doesn’t exist. It seems like you might be confusing transgender and bi-gender; bi-gender (which I suspect falls under the umbrella of ‘genderqueer’ but I dunno) is, to my knowledge, “the great opposites of masculine and feminine intertwined in one person”. Genderqueer people, androgynous people, tomboys etc. do have a place within this community – and you’re right, they should be valued more. Maybe they need more media exposure, like trans people have had over the past few years (?) Some closed-minded people need the media to do their thinking for them; they won’t just respect an alternative lifestyle of their own accord.

[VERONICA]

being transgender def exists there is no question to that and that it doesn't was never my argument. I find the diagnosis of it as gender dysphoria to be destructive though. The tool our culture and medicine uses to pressure people out of contentment with femininity portrayed in a male body or vice versa. it isn't a medical condition but a social one.

[Raef C. Boylan]

But transgender people HAVE 'gender dysphoria' until they are physically 're-assigned' - isn't that the definition of being transgender? Maybe our definitions are completely different, let me know how you define the term 'transgender'; we could be talking about two different identities lol. I don't see how a 2-year old hating their penis and wanting it to drop off could be dismissed as a condition resulting from socially-constructed gender conditions. I don't see how somebody being unable to have sex their whole life because they can't escape a physical and mental disassociation from their vagina can be dismissed as not having a medical condition. These are transgender realities. It's not just boys wanting to wear dresses and girls who like to play with GI Joe instead of Barbie.
Do you see where I'm coming from?
I think your viewpoint is valid, just not the part where you say gender dysphoria doesn't exist at all. And I still like your poem :)

[VERONICA]

Transgender is an umbrella term covers anyone who's gender identity & expression does not match the gender our culture has assigned to their sex. I understand that we have been talking about MTF/FTM transpeople and in those cases people are generally concerned about identifying, expressing and being perceived as a man or a woman, but isn't indicative of a hatred of their sexual organs. I'm sure that our culture fosters that hatred as it hasn't learned to separate sex from gender and I think that the diagnosis gender dysphoria further encourages that. I know that transpeople who are in cultures that celebrate gender variation do not suffer from this same discomfort with their bodies.

[Raef C. Boylan]

Yeah, we have been talking about something different - sorry. If transgender covers everybody with a non-conforming identity, why are there also labels like 'genderqueer community', 'androgynous community' etc? In the UK, as far as I can tell, 'transgender' specifically refers to people with gender dysphoria. So yeah, I was talking FTM/MTF - and for some, it does involve a serious hatred/disassociation with the genitalia they were born with, as well as the other physical elements of being stuck in a body that conflicts with their 'gender'. The point I made about some of these people being very, very young when they first experience/communicate distress regarding their bodies indicates that it cannot always be socially imposed gender norms that cause this – it is innate. There are studies suggesting that gender dysphoria is caused by a natural mistake in the mother’s womb, when the foetus is exposed to only one burst of testosterone and develops characteristics in its brain that are out of sync with its developing body; I’m aware that these studies are not conclusive, but what is it that makes you so sure there exists no biological root to being transgender?

[Servant Ties]

I loved this writing, I haven't been on long and I'm so glad that I checked my groups. I loved your writing, it was one of the best ones, good job....*bows*

[East of Eden]

it's a piece with a dual personality! it's the subtext of everyday life. it's insightful, sexy and revolutionary

Our reproductive organs do not dictate any fact about us-- society does that well enough.

great write

[.]

cute |D I liked it.

Like what you say in our e-mails about anarchy and how corrupt society is, you make gender stereotypes and the common opinion of androgyny to see rather, uh retarded. Sorry that was a bad choice of words, but I cannot think of another way to describe it. You are a very good writer and I enjoy reading your work. However, I do not as advanced of a vocabulary as you do so I often do not understand the words you use, but it makes you seem more intellectual and teaches me some new words too :)

Great work!
I challenge you to write a dark poem ha ha ha ha!

[Hairy and Confused]

Very very good. But you asked for criticism, so here goes.

It's more like an essay than a poem. There's a lot of ideas that could be condensed and made all the more powerful for it. I can't really say how though. How about shorter words?

Sorry, not very useful. :P

I'll tell you what bits I really like:

*All of Part II

*Androgynous like skirts and beards,
Like Barbies and basketball
I'd like to see more of this.

Well, good luck. :P

[InkBlack]

The one thing I've noticed, as well as enjoyed the fact that much of your writing gets the reader to think about how corrupt society is, and wonder how you can change it.

For one thing, androgynous can mean more than just being a cross dresser. It can mean being a girl with masculine interests (a bit like myself) and vice versa (kind of like you ;)). It could also be combining men's and women's clothes in a single outfit, like wearing a man's cardigan with a skirt, or a halter top with baggy cargo pants.

Gender stereotypes are lame; however, they are not completely senseless. Many people of each gender have created those stereotypes like all girls like shopping, and all guys like sports by engaging in such activities with their own gender. Like (almost) every stereotype, none of them are always true, like some guys like shopping, and some girls like sports (I know, that's a lame and clich� example, but it's late at night and I'm not in the mood to think right now). All it takes to be a guy or a girl is whether you have a dick or vagina, whatever else is something all humans should have in common. Unfortunately, nobody can COMPLETELY "destroy" gender, but we can just be ourselves and whatever people want to label us is up to them.

One thing I've never understood is why girls can wear baggy pants, T-shirts and sneakers, but guys can't wear halter tops, skirts and high heels the same way. It's probably part of the double standard that makes each gender unequal to the other, which is stupid.

I have one question about Part II: I know "zie" is a no-gender pronoun, is "hir" another one?

To sum this review up: Great work! This piece of work is fine just the way it is :). Keep on being your androgynous self :) I couldn't imagine you any other way.