Mr. & Mrs. YouthPride Pageant photos! / performing gender / genderqueer & genderfree
SO, Saturday Ash, Alivia, and I went to a drag show! (the Mr. & Mrs. YouthPride Pageant) :D It was a little more... objectifying than I was hoping for, but not so much that it kept me from enjoying it. People did come up to tip the performers but they didn't poke it into their clothes, and the tips went towards YouthPride (the organization that held the pageant). Apparently the performers had been told not to dress scantily (since it was a youth event) but some of them didn't listen :-p
The main reason I went was that Viv was participating :D I liked zir view of drag -- how it's a way of showing that gender is something one performs, not something one is. But if there isn't at least one genderqueer* or genderfree* person performing, I don't think I'd want to go to drag shows in general because if no one fucks with it and everyone does it the same way, I don't really see it as any more progressive than if the people on stage were born male wearing 'male' clothes or vice versa.
*For me, the term genderqueer does not work because I feel like it implies inherent gender rather than socialized gender (even though it actually doesn't), but I was delighted to realize that it can mean essentially the same thing as genderfree. Genderqueer means rejecting gender norms for oneself; genderfree means rejecting the whole structure of gender. I had thought that being genderqueer meant approving of stereotyped roles in general while rejecting them for oneself; actually, it simply makes no comment on the roles except in how the particular person expresses zirself. So genderfree is a subset of genderqueer :D
on the way to the show
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Alivia
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Ash's eye
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I can't remember anyone's names :-p
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I loved zir makeup
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Ze was AWESOME. Ze danced to Ne-Yo's "Closer" -- both emotive and whoa-sexy!
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Ze had the most adorable dimples!
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Viv's answers were inspiring ♥ Ze spoke of being genderqueer and I wish I could remember everything ze said! Very roughly paraphrased, ze said that a genderqueer example would inspire people to shake up their expectations.
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Ze reminded me so much of Sarah Chalke!
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ze had so much energy!
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for some reason ze reminded me of Jennifer Beals
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I loved the classic glamour of this dress
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and zir performance was very earnest
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Ze danced to "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" -- hilarious!
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Ze acted to a voiceover from what I'm guessing was an episode of I Love Lucy -- it was cute ;-)
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Viv performed one of zir own songs, about drug addiction -- amazing lyrics (it got stuck in my head)
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Ze was also the only one that actually SANG, heh -- everyone else lip-synched.
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Ze did this hilarious "I am Satan" dance with a slide-show illustration
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I loved it! except for when ze said that the devil would never go to Georgia, haha.
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And I didn't get any photos of this, but 2008's Mr. YouthPride did a dance to "Baby Got Back" and came over and put zir arm around me for part of it *giggles and blushes*
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Viv won!!! :D :D :D as is only right, of course :D
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we went to Taco Mac afterward
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♥
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