Category: The Arts

In Defense Of Trans Actors

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One way we can all suck a little less at being trans allies: if a trans voice is speaking, listen to that voice. Just listen. Without arguing.

Today on Facebook, a trans female friend shared an article from Themtitled Why Scarlett Johansson — Or Any Cis Actor — Should Never Play Trans Roles. This is the debate du jour. Hollywood golden girl Scarlett Johansson has been cast to play a transgender man, Dante “Tex” Gill, in a new biopic film, Rub and Tug. Of course, it’s worth mentioning up front that the film’s PR team is justifying casting Johansson in this role by claiming that Tex Gill was “a lesbian that preferred to wear men’s clothing.” Continue reading →

To David Bowie, on the One-Year Anniversary of Your Death

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David Bowie in Labyrinth (photo: Getty)

Republished at The Huffington Post

One year ago yesterday the world lost David Bowie, in the beginning of what was to be the dumpster fire we called 2016.

As a child of the ‘70s, I listened to my older sister’s old school David Bowie records. I grew up in love with the movie Labyrinth, and helped instill a similar appreciation of the movie among all three of my kids when they were not yet four years old. Ok, maybe “appreciation” is a bit of a stretch. Maybe it was because

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Misunderstood

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There’s a reason why this Apple ad took home the 2014 Creative Arts Emmy for “Most Outstanding Commercial” for their holiday themed ad titled “Misunderstood.” Since Apple yanked the ad off YouTube a while back, it’s hard to find. But I found a less-than-good quality reproduction of it which I’m posting here. If you missed it in 2014, check it out. Though it was two years ago, the message is still just as relevant. Continue reading →

Drag Queens Taught Me How to Be a Woman

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Amid the early ’80s culture, laced with an atmosphere of burgundy bow blouses, the “Tylenol scare,” and harvest gold kitchens, I wandered around as a painfully shy, eager-to-please, socially awkward little girl. At eight years old, elementary school brought its share of fair-weather friends, but I didn’t ever really know where I fit in.

I didn’t look or dress like the preppy-to-the-max kids with their pink & green Izods and monogrammed sweater collections. I didn’t play soccer, or go to swim practice on Saturday mornings like most of the kids I knew.

Though I tried, I was never good at sports, and school P.E. was a torture zone. I was always the lone kid standing at the end of team-picking, the leftover that neither the green nor the gold team wished to inherit – and rightfully so. I had zero athletic coordination, didn’t understand the rules of the game, and flinched when an air-filled bouncy ball came within 6 feet of me. The reaction was like a reflex, and the more I tried to suppress it, the harder my mistrust of airborne objects burst forth in squeals of uneasiness. Continue reading →

Supermodel

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Last night I felt like I was watching a champion: my child. He is taking part in the beginning stages of a movement much bigger than him, a timely expression of art by the amazingly brilliant artist, Libby O’Daniel. It is set for release to the public in January of 2018. I believe it will be ground-breaking. Gender creative people are suddenly owning their wings and taking flight, and it’s time for the world to see.

O’Daniel’s artist statement is that her work is a visual journal of her experiences as one who exists somewhere between feminine and masculine. I just realized after having connected with her that she, like me, is a fellow Meredith College alumna. (From that alone, I knew her education was solid!) She finished up a studio residency at Golden Belt in Durham  last spring, and was subsequently awarded one of the two Regional Emerging Artist Residencies at Artspace in Raleigh. In May, she was named the “artist to watch” by ArtsNow, the digital home for the Triangle arts community. Continue reading →