A Queer Disposition

PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.

The Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce

Posted at 11:51am #devil's dictionary #Ambrose Bierce #patience #philosophy #satire

Rotimi Fani-Kayode was born in Lagos, Nigeria in April 1955, the second child of Chief Babaremilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode and Chief Mrs Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode, their third child was Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a Nigerian politician and who was the former Minister of Aviation for Nigeria.

This prominent Yoruba family moved to Brighton, England, in 1966, after a military coup and the ensuing civil war. Rotimi pursued his secondary education in England where he went to a number of private schools including Brighton college, Seabright College and Millfield then moved to the USA in 1976 to complete his education. He read Fine Arts and Economics, gaining a BA, at Georgetown University, Washington DC and gained an MFA at the Pratt Institute, New York in Fine Arts & Photography. Whilst in New York he became friendly with Robert Mapplethorpe and later admitted to Mapplethorpe’s influence on his work.

He returned to the UK in 1983. He died in a London hospital of a heart attack whilst recovering from an AIDS related illness on the December 12, 1989. At the time of his death, he was living in Brixton, London with his partner and collaborator Alex Hirst.

Although admitting to some influence by Mapplethorpe’s earlier work, Rotimi Fani-Kayode pushed the bounds of his own art much further, exploring sexuality, racism, colonialism and the tensions and conflicts between his homosexuality and his Yoruba upbringing through a series of images in both colour and B/W.

His work is imbued with the subtelty, irony and political and social comment that one would expect from an intelligent and observant black photographer of the late twentieth century. He also contributed much to the artistic debate around HIV and AIDS.

He started to exhibit in 1984 and was involved with nine exhibitions between then and his death at the end of 1989. He has since had his work featured posthumously in many exhibitions and retrospectives. His work has been exhibited in the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Italy, Nigeria, Sweden, Germany, South Africa and US. In 1987 along with Mark Sealy he co-founded AUTOGRAPH ABP and became their first Chair. He was also an active member of The Black Audio Film Collective.

He was a major influence on young black photographers in the late 1980s and 1990s. Following Alex Hirst’s death in 1992 there was some controversy over attribution of his work, a discussion that still continues.

“My identity has been constructed from my own sense of otherness, whether cultural, racial or sexual. The three aspects are not separate within me. Photography is the tool by which I feel most confident in expressing myself. It is photography therefore — Black, African, homosexual photography — which I must use not just as an instrument, but as a weapon if I am to resist attacks on my integrity and, indeed, my existence on my own terms.”

(via dynamicafrica)

Posted at 8:58pm 233 notes

gender que?

My identity is a constantly shifting paradox. It is an identity fluctuating between reverse sides of an endless spectrum, in moments an infinite blackness, in the next blinding white, and occasionally, when I become exhausted by my relentless uncertainty, I settle in murky shades of grey. The paradox is intrinsic in each and every moment I breathe, speak, act. My body is female gendered, yet I continually feel at odds with this distinction. How can I be a woman, when I feel so undeniably male?

Questions buzz through my mind, repeating incessantly, “Is my gender fixed, inflexible? Is one’s gender solely determined by genitalia? Is it bound to society’s rigid conception? Does gender even exist at all? Should I force the distinction myself? Identify as one gender, and discard the other?”

It is a confusion born from a young awareness of my own peculiarity, my androgyny, which as a child was often dismissed by my father as “something she’ll grow out of.”

I never “grew out of it”. In fact, it grew inside of me.

My tomboy adolescence is like an endless summer, and my boyish behavior kept me warm while my female side struggled to conform. I tried, I really did. To be a “girl”, have crushes on stupid boys, wear dresses, wear makeup, enjoy the color pink even. Yes, all that stereotypical foolishness, which supposedly identifies an individual as a member of the female gender. I was disappointed, as was my father. It was simply the appearance that was altered. Internally, there was still a fundamental difference between myself and other girls.

While suffering through the hell that was my puberty, I wondered. Am I actually a boy in disguise?

Some may ask, “Well, what about you feels like a boy?” I could answer you with more stereotypical nonsense, for example: I get crushes on crazy women, instead of stupid boys, I rather wear a handsome suit than wear a frilly dress, and I could care less about being “pretty”. Another allegedly male trait of mine is that I am persistently and unbelievably angry or horny, every minute of every. fucking .day.

But, do any of the traits I possess signify anything meaningful? I still have a vagina, so I am still biologically female. I feel no shame about my physical gender, and if I could change the shape of my genitals through science or sorcery, I don’t know if I would.

Basically, I shouldn’t be expected to behave in a certain manner, simply because of my physical characteristics. Because someone, somewhere in a dim, distant past decided that WOMAN must be the nurturers and MAN must be the providers. MAN is dominant, WOMAN is submissive. MAN is to act like this, WOMAN to act like that. The flaw in this regimented thinking is the belief that the human animal is that simple. We are not that simple, nothing is ever that simple.

I will not deny the innate difference between men and woman, in the physical sense. Biologically, they are different. However, the way in which men and women express their own particular variety of sexual characteristics, is not easily reduced and categorized into neat little boxes. It is not black and white. We are all swimming in murky grey waters, drowning in a paradox of gender.

Posted at 1:59pm 12 notes #genderqueer #labels #gender identity #lgbt #gay #lesbian #transgender #queer

Excerpt taken from New Line Theatre:

“Part Ziggy Stardust, part Frank N. Furter, and part Marlene Dietrich, Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell) made her first appearance in January 1994 at a New York club called Squeeze Box, where (Stephen) Trask was the music director and his band, Cheater, was the house band. The club was unique because drag performers did not lip synch there; they actually sang. And Hedwig was unique because she was quickly becoming a fully formed, fully emotional, fully human character with backstory, not just a drag creation with a funny name.”

On “Origin of Love”:

“As the two writers began work, Mitchell bought Trask a copy of Plato’s Symposium, showed him the central story which explained the origins of gay, lesbian, and heterosexual love, and asked him to write a song based on that story. Trask came back with the moving, fiercely multi-cultural, fairy tale-like song-story “The Origin of Love.”“

Posted at 11:22am 1 notes #gay #genderqueer #hedwig #lesbian #lgbt #plato #transgender #musical

saschaeatsteeth:

Note: Tonight I’ll be making short posts/reblogs on creative trans/genderqueer/etc folks from recent history- artists, writers, musicians, etc. Feel free to drop suggestions in my ask box, and they’ll all be grouped here as I post them. Enjoy!

from transradical:

Jayne County is probably the most interesting musician you’ve never heard of. A regular at the Stonewall Inn, County was one of many trans women who participated at the Stonewall Riots.

She worked alongside the likes of Andy Warhol, David Bowie (having a great influence on his Diamond Dogs tour) and was direct influence on a young Patti Smith, who met County by being cast opposite her in the first of several plays they would do together. While Jayne was already an active musician in what would become the punk rock scene, it would still be several years before Patti Smith would begins putting her poems to music.

She was also the inspiration for the titular character in the cult classic Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

There’s really no other woman more deserving of the title “mother of punk rock.”

thanks to Ed Choy for the suggestion!

(via genderqueer)

Posted at 11:08am 531 notes

wickedclothes:

There’s already a Change.org petition against the passing of Amendment One, which banned same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships in North Carolina. These things actually tend to be pretty damn effective.

Let’s see what the power of Tumblr can do! I know there’s at least a million Tumblr users who are against this sort of harmful discrimination and bigotry.

Sign the petition and reblog to spread the word, please!

(via liquorinthefront)

Posted at 9:53pm 11797 notes

wickedclothes:

ATTENTION: TUMBLR USERS IN NORTH CAROLINA

The North Carolina General Assembly has introduced a constitutional amendment to the North Carolina State Constitution which would “provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.”

Voting on the amendment is TODAY.

Voting hours are 6:30am to 7:30pm.

Aside from the obvious discriminatory nature of the amendment, it is poorly worded and thought out and would harm the rights of ALL couples — no more civil unions and a loss of rights for any unwed couples.

Remember to vote ‘AGAINST’ this amendment.

Check if you are registered to vote and find your sample ballot, as well as your polling location, here.

Join the Facebook page and spread the word here.