Neighborhood Ethnography
So today I had my first one-on-one meeting with Rachel today concerning my project for my ethnography class this semester. The ethnography is on the genderbent community of New Orleans, and how performance space and styles are affected by race and gender identity
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Entry 3:
The gender binary is a system in place to limit the achievement of women by falsely stating that they are not ABLE to do something, or must do a specific task, based solely on their sex.
Does this not apply to men as well? Remember when Eve Ensler said that the oppressive patriarchal system also hurt men? I agree, I think the system is equally, or at least similarly, burdensome to boys and men, straight, gay, trans, etc.
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Entry 4:
It is almost as if the troupe was not cognizant of race at all. - this is a good point, and supports the idea in race studies that whiteness is considered some sort of default state, and that many/most white people are not as conscious of their race/skin color as other people of color or people of mixed backgrounds. This could be elaborated, too, indefinitely.
No matter how badly I want to go, I need to have an in to make my presence acceptable. there is a very rigid line that is not to be crossed between these two worlds. - It might be useful to expand on this & talk about your hispanic roots, "passing for white," and how your skin color may/may not preclude any alternate ethnic background that others attribute to you.
It’s sickening to know that most people define drag by what they see a whole bunch of white kids doing on stage. - one of the first mental images I get when I think of drag queens is wesley snipes in "too wongfu" and a pair of black queens dressed in chiquita-esque outfits on bourbon. this is just as bad as the all-white alternative and probably worse in many ways. my first introduction to the drag community wasn't middle class or white.
That last paragraph in entry 4 is excellent.
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entry 5: it might be useful to include some things that you have to define/explain to someone outside the queer community that anyone within the community would know. not define them, but just list them. also, remember that meeting you had about unity with the person from...boston, i think? they mentioned something about how they've heard certain terms used very differently within the queer community - that might be worth exploring, the fact that there may/may not be some sort of consensus on term/words/ideas even within the community.
that part where you talk about trading your bra for the vest is really,really, Really good. the sentence "shedding the confines of my bra and trading it out for the comfort of my binding vest" might be the most poignant segment of that part. I mean, "binding" sounds like it'd be inherently confining, but the freedom you feel while wearing it is particularly illustrative of the larger point you're trying to make.
This is all really good. Some of the shorter entries could be lengthened. Talking about your identity and how it is/isn't constructed by others might be a good thing to elaborate on. I mean, we all construct our own identities for ourselves, but others also control our (public) identities to a certain extent.
This is going to be really awesome. Rach will love it, and I think the rest of the class is going to get a lot out of it. The things you bring up are insightful, provocative and profound.
Also, the fact that you -do- spend time intensely thinking about your gender and gender in general, while others (ie: people adhering to the mainstream binary) may never is interesting & worth bringing up. It's like that whole coming out thing we talked about, how straight people don't have to go thru that ritual and aren't expected to do so ever.
But I'm going to stop now, because I could comment all day on this.
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