October 3rd, 2008 maggie
Won't you join us?
Tickets on Sale!
October 10 and 11, 8:00 PM
Cambridge Family YMCA Theatre, 820 Mass Ave in Central Square
$11 in advance, $12 at the door.
After a summer of East Coast touring, the femmes et. al. of The Femme Show are back in the Boston area with an all new show. From Barbie dolls to garter belts, from 1950’s dyke bars to suburban back yards and late night taco joints, from hula hooping to clowning, this show takes audiences on a wild ride. The Femme Show offers a variety of diverse perspectives on femme identity with subject matter that is at times thoughtful, sad, sexy, funny, and fun, with film, dance, storytelling, burlesque, drag, and performance art.
Press Release
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May 22nd, 2008 Jenn
The Inside Out lesbian and gay film festival takes place every year starting in the second week in May in Toronto. I am always excited about the festival; it provides ample opportunity to see new work by queer filmmakers, to dress up and connect with other folks in the community.
So you can imagine the excitement to flip through the program when it comes out. I rip through the pages every year hoping for some new and exciting films that present fresh ideas and issues. This year I wasn’t let down.
This year an exciting edition I do not remember previously being part of the program is an entire program of shorts on femme identities. And there was also one solo short, “be safe and considerate†by Anna Peak as part of the “Let’s Get Physical†program. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 22nd, 2008 maggie
In this edition: The love child of James Dean and Bettie Page, describing and defining (or not). Â
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
I loved your comment, “femininity feels at some deep subconscious level dangerous, weak, and wrong.” And I think that is why I cannot escape an identity that somehow involves femme-ness. There is something about presenting in a femme way, which I call “girl drag” in my every day life, sometimes I also use the drag terms “en femme” and “en drab” to describe my presentation. I’m not sure that I want to say that that “wrong” is exciting, but I like that strange feeling, which I can only liken to walking down a dark alley. For me femme is never “safe” it involves skin and secrets and forethought and it is often about things that other people don’t see, like under garments or beauty rituals. Masculinity for me is more about the outside, I think because I feel more that I have to prove my masculinity than my femme-ness, because femme-ness on me would make sense to the world at large, far more sense than some cobbled together transmasculine identity. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 21st, 2008 maggie
Part 1, Part 2
In this installment: Why sometimes I want to cry, body image, being seen, the performativity question, “queering” femme as value judgment, stories from the gay marriage office. Â
Maggie to Mr. Kate
I totally agree that there is a lot of shared experience here. Gender became emotional to me when I figured out how performative my gender was, learning that getting up and getting dressed was always going to be some kind of drag. That is such a beautiful way to put it. Maybe the emotional connection to gender comes from making those choices, being connected to what you want or don’t want each day because each day you have to figure out what drag fits at that moment.
I explain away all these “feelings†by blaming them on what my mom would say is my over-sensitivity, or on the fact that I have to talk about my gender all the time because it’s my art and my (non-paying) job. But I think the real root of all this is that femininity feels at some deep subconscious level dangerous, weak, and wrong. And to answer your question, it is hard to talk about. When I started the show it wasn’t so hard, it was just a theme for a show – one that I cared a lot about and thought was important for our community, but it was still just a show. Now, it’s everything. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 17th, 2008 maggie
 (part 1 is here. 3 and 4 coming Monday and Tueday-ish)
Mr. Kate to Maggie
I agree with you that our identities are really different, but not in any black and white way, in every way that we could mark our genders as different I think we could find a shared similar experience. Gender became emotional to me when I figured out how performative my gender was, learning that getting up and getting dressed was always going to be some kind of drag. How I present and what I wear affects my moods and emotions.
I don’t think that everyone is as emotionally connected to their gender. People get up everyday and they get dressed and yes, maybe they try on three outfits but I think there are different thought patterns behind it. Read the rest of this entry »
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April 16th, 2008 maggie
A few weeks ago I got to see my friend Mr. Kate at the Women Action and the Media Conference and we got to talking about gender (surprise, surprise). Mr. Kate and I went to college together, where we first met because I was wearing a t-shirt that said “feminist” in glitter bubble letters. Since we are sadly 4 hours apart by Chinatown bus, we’re continuing the conversation over email and sharing it with you here.
Maggie to Mr. Kate
I think that while our identities are different in many ways it feels really great and important to talk about what we do have in common, which is really having a strong emotional relationship to gender and feeling that it’s really central.
Sometimes I wonder if everyone feels this way beneath the surface, but we’re not talking about this stuff enough, or if other people just aren’t as shar-y as I am. (being an artist means sharing the hard stuff, i guess). Read the rest of this entry »
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January 4th, 2008 Sassafras
On New Years Eve my partner and I spent the evening at a gathering hosted by an acquaintance of ours. The evening was lovely, although slightly humorous as a soft butch in attendance spent the majority of the time staring at me-and granted I did have a lovely amount of cleavage, however I am confidant my boobs were not what drew her attention. Alas it was my being there with my partner that threw the poor kid for a loop. My partner is a transgender butch, and although ze doesn’t identify as male ze passes as a man nearly all the time. Sitting in our friend’s living room the lesbian in question appeared obviously confused as she looked from me to my partner, pausing to stare at my black triangle tattoo, and other clues to my queerness in attempts to determine what was going on, and if I was nothing more than a “hasbian.†Things shifted when my partner spoke of hir solo shows’ NYC debut – the performance is about “testosterone†and butch and trans identities. Suddenly she got it, and appeared visibly relaxed having solved this great “mystery†about what I was.
Read the rest of this entry »
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