NEW EPISODE: Jimmy’s adventures in casual dating – today’s episode: when clothing comes off the trans man, cis panic ensues.
CONTENT WARNING: sexually explicit.
Please share widely.
NEW EPISODE: Jimmy’s adventures in casual dating – today’s episode: when clothing comes off the trans man, cis panic ensues.
CONTENT WARNING: sexually explicit.
Please share widely.
Think you’re awkward on Valentine’s Day? Well Jimmy botched it way worse than you, while trying to be a “good radical queer” – check out episode 1 of 3 of Jimmy does dating, in the lead up to a theatre show “No Strings (Attached)” by Sunny Drake. Please share widely.
I will never forget the year I spent being unable to use my hands for the most basic tasks. The challenges in my day were going to the toilet, turning the pages of a book and opening a door. I remember the shock when overnight I went from able-bodied ignorance to struggling to work, cook, clean and participate in social and other activities I’d taken for granted. I remember the painful moments of being left behind and left out. Yet I also remember the profoundly inspiring ways that my community rallied around me, fed me and supported me to return to creating theatre. My experience also shifted who I’m in community with and laid the groundwork for the immense gift of having deeper connections with people with a wide array of disabilities. This has made my world much richer – by getting to have the smarts, perspectives, love, friendship and community of many fabulous people. Whilst I have had ongoing challenges with my arms in the eight years since the original injury, I don’t claim to know what it’d be like to have a longer term or wider-reaching disability – my experiences give me only a small window into the world of disableism.
In the lead-up to a run of my theatre show No Strings (Attached) at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, I’m thinking a bunch about what it means to make my work “accessible” (oh and raising money too – click here!). There are so many layers to access. In reality, every single one of us has access needs – it’s just some of our access needs are prioritized over others. I’ve been deeply inspired by reading and conversations with disability justice activists – particularly those who are Black, Indigenous, persons of colour, queer and/or trans.
A central part of access is about being connected with community and listening deeply to what it means for people to be able to engage with a performance work. How do we promote a culture of what Mia Mingus calls “access intimacy“: where the access needs of our friends, loves, and communities are met, felt, and deeply understood?
Given that this is a big shift in where many of us put our time and resources, I’ve also been reflecting on why it is important to make my work more accessible. For me, it’s not just about simplistic notions of equality and wanting to offer my work to others. It’s about creating vibrant dialogue and action alongside others to propel us towards living in the world I want to live. It’s about the ways that having a wide array of people in my audiences creates juicy connections and conversation. I see my work as one thread in a larger conversation – it’s meant to spark reflection and discussion, healing, questioning and change. It’s both a response to other threads of the conversation and meant to be responded to. So if I’m not engaging the right people, that conversation becomes less vital, and the work loses its potential and potency. This is why I feel strongly about spending time and generating money and other resources to make sure Deaf community, sober folks, low income peoples, parents, people with disabilities and others are a part of the conversation that bounces inside and outside the theatre walls.
So, I’ve started to list some access considerations in relation to performances and events to guide my own performance planning and act as a resource for others. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
Some access considerations for performances and events
Show content & artists:
Triggering topics:
First Nations/ Indigenous groups:
Sober access:
Visually Impaired & Blind access:
Deaf access:
Other languages:
Trans and gender non-conforming folks:
Low-income folks:
Parents:
Fat folks & larger folks:
Scent-sensitivity:
Strobe lighting:
Physical access:
Listing access details in promo:
These actions are not something I can or should be able to do on my own. One of the many things I’ve learned from disabled activists is the power and importance of inter-dependence, as reflected in one of the 10 principles of Disability Justice framework by the groundbreaking performance project, Sins Invalid.
So, I’m asking for your support to donate money towards the access costs of No Strings (Attached). Here’s the link to the Fund What You Can campaign – please donate and help spread the word!
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Big thanks to Arti Mehta and Chanelle Gallant for their valuable feedback and input into this article!
Photo by Hillary Green
We wanna get some cash together to make my theatre show with queer and trans content accessible to Deaf community, low income people, sober folks, and parents.
No Strings (Attached) has toured to audience and critical acclaim in 40 cities around the world and been translated into 3 languages – we’re soooo delighted to premier it in Toronto! We wanna make sure we remove as many access barriers as we can – which costs money.
We want our friends, loves and communities to be able to come. Our access goals are inspired by conversations, connections, relationships, and collaborations with queer and trans activists organizing around ableism and access critically and broadly. While this campaign focuses on funding for a specific production, we also hope to contribute to larger dialogue about how we come together, build connections, and promote a culture of what Mia Mingus calls “access intimacy”: where the access needs of our friends, loves, and communities are met, felt, and deeply understood.
There’s great perks too…
Please donate what you can and share widely!
It took me a long time to understand myself as femme because I’m a man, and to understand myself as a man, because of my femininity. Misogyny, being the fear or hatred of women or femininity, can manifest in many different ways. I can perpetuate sexism myself, and also I am the recipient of misogyny because I’m effeminate. I’m so grateful for fabulous femmes and women and their powerful resistance to misogyny and sexism. I hope to keep learning how to unpack sexism in my own behaviour and learning how to be ally to women and other femme folks, as well as increasingly unleash my effeminate fabulousness. Here are some great reads as well as some useful ally stuff.
I’ll add new things as I come across them – my website (Sunny Drake www.sunnydrake.com ) will the most up-to-date place.
ONLINE ARTICLES & VIDEOS
– Femme Invisibility: On Passing Right by Your People and Not Being Recognized
It’s so important to unlearn misogyny/ sexism in queer communities.
– 4 ways to support queer femmes
Good article on how to be an ally and challenge misogyny/ sexism, or at least how not to be an asshole.
– Powerful Photos Fearlessly Redefine What It Means to Be LGBTQIA+
I love these images showing how wide ranging queer identities are.
– Femme Lesbian invisibility Video
BLOGS & BOOKS
– Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity, edited by Chloe (with 2 dots above the e) Brushwood Rose and Anna Camilleri
– Piece of my Heart, anthologized by Makeda Silvera
– Dirty River by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
– Femmes of Power: Exploding Queer Femininities by Ulrika Dahl
– Femme: feminist lesbians & bad girls by Laura Harris & Elizabeth Crocker
– The Persistence of Desire by Joan Nestle
– Persistence edited by Zena Sharman & Ivan E. Coyote
– Heels on Wheels Roadshow http://www.heelsonwheelsroadshow.com/
MY BLOG ARTICLES:
I’ve also authored some relevant blog articles:
– Femme Ally Conversation Starter
This is a conversation starter (continuer?) on how to be ally and challenge misogyny/ sexism, aimed primarily at trans-masculine, trans-male and masculine of centre peoples. It is equally application to other cis men unpacking misogyny/ sexism and working on ally skills.
– And So Shall Our Heels Till the Earth
About my experiences a queer effeminate man who is partnered to a woman and how people are constantly confused about my sexuality because of my effeminacy
– the Boy T*t Finale Summer Collection
A series of photos celebrating my beautiful chest before I had top surgery through adorning it with fabulous outfits.
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Photo by Tania Anderson