Gender-crossing in the SCA
It'll probably come as no surprise to any of you that I'm thinking seriously about taking on an alternate male persona in the SCA. Not in the Hi-I'm-A-Woman-Wearing-Pants level so commonly seen, but the level of quality and depth done by Jehan du Lac (jdulac) and Luke Knowlton, for example. There are too many people using flimsy excuses such as "I stole my brother's pants and ran away to be a PYRATE/SOLDIER/CRUSADER, which is totally okay and believable even though I wear low-cut shirts with cleavage and giggle in a soprano register!" as backpedaling reasons why they don't "bother" with women's clothing or even with accuracy. For my maritime research, a male persona is the only correct way to teach what I know as firsthand information, rather than out-of-persona or as information "picked up while being a passenger." (I've got other reasons, too, but you all have heard most of what I have to say both against inaccuracy regarding period and within-the-realm-of-SCA-fantasy gender roles and about my own wranglings with gender.)
From what I've seen in the SCA, female to male (FTM) portrayals are much more common than male to female (MTF), though I still remember the person who was male in non-SCA life but won the Birka fashion contest for hir amazing Elizabethan dress and ruffs a few years ago. That was really something to see on a 6-foot-tall scale! I wonder if this is due to the pervasive societal (and Societal) belief that men in dresses is still a viable topic for denigrating humor. I've never known any "serious" MTF-portrayals in the SCA beyond the same level of "Guy wearing skirts to enter the fashion show or as a joke." Do any exist in the Society?
I'm trying to think, here - can anyone point me towards SCA people who portray a different gender from their mundane personae? (Full-time transfolk in the SCA are a different kettle of fish, but I'd be interested to pick their brains, too.) I'm also thinking about this in the context of my non-SCA reenacting. I want to be able to pass. I'm familiar with most of the drag king techniques, et cetera; I'm more curious about this as a social phenomenon. Which pronoun do you use for someone you know as Lord So-and-So at events and as Mary in the grocery store? Where is that line drawn? Do you kiss their hand or dance with them if their outward gender presentation at events is different from your preference, even if their mundane gender is totally your cup of tea? (Or vice versa?)
My only concern is how much I might like it. I've deliberately chosen to display ambiguous gender characteristics before, and it was a heady experience to get called "sir" on the streets.
From what I've seen in the SCA, female to male (FTM) portrayals are much more common than male to female (MTF), though I still remember the person who was male in non-SCA life but won the Birka fashion contest for hir amazing Elizabethan dress and ruffs a few years ago. That was really something to see on a 6-foot-tall scale! I wonder if this is due to the pervasive societal (and Societal) belief that men in dresses is still a viable topic for denigrating humor. I've never known any "serious" MTF-portrayals in the SCA beyond the same level of "Guy wearing skirts to enter the fashion show or as a joke." Do any exist in the Society?
I'm trying to think, here - can anyone point me towards SCA people who portray a different gender from their mundane personae? (Full-time transfolk in the SCA are a different kettle of fish, but I'd be interested to pick their brains, too.) I'm also thinking about this in the context of my non-SCA reenacting. I want to be able to pass. I'm familiar with most of the drag king techniques, et cetera; I'm more curious about this as a social phenomenon. Which pronoun do you use for someone you know as Lord So-and-So at events and as Mary in the grocery store? Where is that line drawn? Do you kiss their hand or dance with them if their outward gender presentation at events is different from your preference, even if their mundane gender is totally your cup of tea? (Or vice versa?)
My only concern is how much I might like it. I've deliberately chosen to display ambiguous gender characteristics before, and it was a heady experience to get called "sir" on the streets.