Sunday, May 22, 2016

(43) Genderfuck

Genderfuck? Does anybody use that term anymore?  Maybe I better clean translate.  Genderfuck used to refer to the shock value of appearing in public dressed as the opposite sex. Transgender?  Never heard of it!  A good example of Genderfuck was gay men who paraded around San Francisco on roller skates dressed as nuns.  They wore beards, and made no real attempt to pass themselves off as female – but they were nevertheless in drag.

In 1982 I was graduating from being a gay Newbie. I'd found certain groups of guys at PRO regarded themselves as butch or fem - and the fem guys were called girls. Oh, it was mostly a joke, intended as genderfuck. So mostly I went along with it, but I still thought it was rather artificial. I don't know anybody today who takes on gender roles like that. Despite the continuing popularity of drag shows.


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