Day: April 29, 2018

Big Freedia is a musician and rapper from New Orleans, closely associated with the #bouncemusic genre. Bounce music itself has roots in New Orleans, and Big Freedia is credited with helping spread it into mainstream culture, along with the associated #twerk dance (although twerking has largely been appropriated by white people and is now more thought of as being linked with Miley Cyrus, rather than with the communities that actually originated it). Big Freedia was born Freddie Ross, and although she prefers she/her #pronouns (but responds to either he/him or she/her), she is not #transgender and she considers herself a gay man. I think it is really significant to have mainstream icons who deconstruct gender in this way. The fact that she is a cisgender man who uses she pronouns and who wears her hair and clothing in whatever way she wants helps to question the notion that pronouns, hairstyles, clothes, and so on are necessarily connected with particular genders, and opens up more freedom for everyone—not just trans and non-binary people—to choose whatever pronouns and presentations of themselves they want. It is also important that she is fairly well-known—she even appeared in Beyoncé’s “Formation”—since that helps spread this message to a wider population than just queer communities.

#lgbtqexperiencesusa 

Hutt, John. “Big Freedia on Miley Cyrus and ‘Transforming One Twerker at a Time.’” Out Magazine, Here Publishing, 10 September 2013. https://www.out.com/entertainment/interviews/2013/09/10/big-freedia-queen-bounce-miley-cyrus-twerking-gender

Image Credits:

Big Freedia on “Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce.” Billboard, 7 May 2014. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6077622/big-freedia-queen-of-bounce-season-2-trailer-video-exclusive

Big Freedia. Out Magazine, Here Publishing, 10 September 2013. https://www.out.com/entertainment/interviews/2013/09/10/big-freedia-queen-bounce-miley-cyrus-twerking-gender

SB

In any grocery store, the strong prevalence of #gendered products is hard to miss. Most of the time, this gendering is completely unnecessary: soaps, deodorant, hair color, razors, clothing, and birthday cards (generally) all provide the same function regardless of who’s using them, and there is no reason why the smell, the images used, and so on should be cause for restricting items to only men or only women. This takes a particularly heavy toll on #trans and #nonbinary people, and I can speak from personal experience how difficult it is having to misgender myself, simply because I need to use a product where every option has some binary gender attached to it. Issues may arise for binary trans people as well, for example, if they have to buy something like vitamins which are specific to their sex coercively assigned at birth, but which instead make reference to gender in conflict with their actual gender identity. What is ultimatley at issue is that under the #consumerism and #capitalism -based culture that we live in, we are forced through our purchases to participate in, support, and perpetuate a system which forces everyone to be categorized by binary gender as early as birth (gendered birth cards, gender reveal parties, etc.), which reinforces #stereotypes of the images, colors, smells, and activities that people in those gender categories are required to conform to, and which lacks—or rather does not make the effort to offer—a trans-inclusive language of talking about the products that do have to be particular to different types of bodies and to different physiologies based on the sex assigned at birth, the current bodily sex, and so on.

#lgbtqexperiencesusa

SB

Elmo Avet as the Marquis de Vaudreuil and other Carnival celebrants on Royal Street. New Orleans Magazine, January 2015. Historic New Orleans Collection, Gift of Mr. Clay Watson. http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Magazine/January-2015/IN-THE-KINGDOM-OF-QUEENS/

Every year, parades, balls, and other festivities during the #mardigras /#carnival season in New Orleans are hosted by official, recognized organizations called Krewes. The Krewe of Yuga was the first Carnival #krewe formed by and for members of the #LGBT community, although it was never granted an official charter. The gay culture was vibrant in the 1950s, in spite of criminalization and the intolerance under McCarthyism, and it was out of this culture and community that the idea for an exclusively gay Carnival krewe developed. The first ball of the Krewe of Yuga was held in 1958, featuring extravagant costumes, plenty of glitter, sequins, and jewels, and a crowning of Yuga royalty. Unfortunately, there are no available images of the Yuga balls themselves, but the picture above gives an idea of what some of the costumes may have looked like (except they were probably much more fabulous). However, at the 1962 Yuga ball, as Elmo Avet was about to be crowned the fifth Yuga Regina, the police raided the event—calling it a “lewd stag party.” Almost 100 people were arrested and crowded into prison cells, and others were forced to flee into the nearby forest, chased by attack dogs. This #policebrutality meant the end of the Krewe of Yuga, but a strong legacy was left behind. The original founders persisted, and the Krewe of Petronius was formed, this time obtaining an official charter. Other members went on to found other LGBT-specific Krewes, including the Mystic Krewe of Celestial Knights, the Krewe of Amon-Ra, the Krewe of Armeinius, and the Lords of Leather. These krewes, along with newer krewes such as Satyricon, Queenateenas, Mwindo, and Narcissus, continue to hold balls and to form a strong gay Carnival tradition to this day.

#lgbtqexperiencesusa

Smith, Howard Philips. “The Royal Krewe of Yuga and the Birth of Gay Carnival in New Orleans.” Advocate.com, Here Publishing, 11 January 2018. https://www.advocate.com/books/2018/1/11/royal-krewe-yuga-and-birth-gay-carnival-new-orleans

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