Who here loves music?
I actually really didn’t when my parents made me take piano lessons in elementary school. But from that push in my younger years, I have learned to appreciate how music can be a comfort and a friend in times of struggle.
This is a short playlist I’ve put together to cultivate joyful mornings.
It’s a little folksy, a little optimistic, and hopefully a fresh listen for you to enjoy today.
Check out joyful mornings here.
Introduction
This photo essay delves into the complexity of drag culture and non-binary identity through an auto-ethnographic study. With the help of my girlfriend, I transform into several drag looks then reflect on the process in relation to gender identity. Each look has a drag name, pronouns, a unique persona, and a song that they would perform to. The project explores drag in relation to gender performativity and gender roles. In the process, I find that drag, for me, functions as an extension of my gender and allows me to perform and embody heightened gendered expressions.
Tuxedhoe Masc
Pronouns: He/him/his
Song: Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys) – Rina Sawayama
Tuxedhoe Masc is a femme boy. He is here and he is queer. He is gay and here to say, ‘down with toxic masculinity!’ A play on Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon, the ideal dream boy, Tuxedhoe Masc is indeed a dreamboat. He is tall, dark and handsome. He is mysterious like Tuxedo Mask, but still emotionally available. He is in touch with his feminine side, his masculinity, and the fluidity of his gender, while still being a confident ladies’ man. Tuxedhoe Masc performs feminist masculinities, disrupting traditional gendered expectations, rejecting male dominance and female degradation, and reinventing masculinity as queer (Basaliere, 2019). Feminist masculinities acknowledge the overarching social contexts in which gendered performances play out, and creates a space for new, healthy masculinities.
Ms Dyswhoria
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Song: Femmebot (feat. Dorian Electra and Mykki Blanco) – Charli XCX
Ms Dyswhoria is a bit of a slut. She uses her femininity to play the patriarchal system and get what she wants. She’s a queer queen who fakes straight when she wants something she couldn’t otherwise attain. This act of ‘realness’ (Bailey, 2011) is an act of resilience. The name of this drag look is a play on gender dysphoria. As an AFAB non-binary person, who hasn’t undergone any transition except for some chest binding, in a world where gender roles are rampant, I experience so much social dysphoria. By performing a heightened femininity, I feel as though I’m sticking it to those who dictate that non-binary has a certain look (androgynous, thin, white). I can be hyper-femme and non-binary. Further, I can use that hyper-femininity to exploit the binary gender system that enforces the roles that make me feel this dysphoria.
Stoned Priestx
Pronouns: Xe/xem/xyrs
Song: XS – Rina Sawayama
Stoned Priestx is so extra. Xe doesn’t conform to any rules. This look was the most fun and most difficult to create. Not wanting to conform to masculinity or femininity in anyway, Stoned Priestx beats xyr face to reject traditional gender roles and create endless queer gender possibilities. To xem, traditional gender roles mean nothing; xe envisions a future of queerness and fluidity when it comes to gender. Stoned Priestx breaks the binary and embraces a matrix of infinite gender possibilities. Xe performs to XS by Rina Sawayama as the song is about wanting “more, more, more, more, more,” and Stoned Priestx wants to be the most. Xe is inspired by club kid style and culture which centralizes gender fluidity, extravagance, and DIY aesthetics (Boulay, 2020).
Mixxxed Dynasty
Pronouns: Any
Song: Dynasty – Rina Sawayama
Mixxxed Dynasty is all mixxxed up. In terms of gender, they are queer and fluid. Racially, she is a mix of Chinese, Irish, English and Welsh heritage. This look is an act of reclamation of the appropriation of xyr Chinese culture that frequents the mainstream. White girls is cheongsams, white boys in changshans, popular brands using traditional oriental patterns and materials… The list goes on. Mixxxed Dynasty may be all mixxxed up, but he is sure of one thing: He is tired of the appropriation and bastardization of his culture and he wants to take it back. Mixxxed Dynasty performs to Dynasty by Rina Sawayama, who is also queer and of East Asian descent.
Dimsumdyke
Pronouns: They/them/theirs
Song: Immaterial – SOPHIE
Dimsumdyke is just as their name suggests: A big ol’ dyke. This final look portrays how, for me, everything is drag. Even my day to day looks feel like drag as non-binary, genderfluid individual. Dimsumdyke’s look is a casual look, nothing campy or extra about it at all, as Dimsumdyke is very shy by nature. They perform to Immaterial by SOPHIE as the lyrics reflect the binary that they feel simultaneously caught between and outside. Further, the more camp-like nature of the song contrasts their shy nature to reflect the internal conflict between being a raging genderqueer dyke and the constraints of conforming to society and appearing ‘acceptable’.
Conclusion
Drag is an art form that can be embodied infinitely. For some drag performers, a drag persona is separate from their day-to-day self (CBC Arts, 2020). Conversely, for other performers, including myself, it is nearly impossible to differentiate between drag and day-to-day gender. This project unveiled realms of gendered possibilities for me, all of which overlap in one way or another. The fluidity of gender is quite apparent in my transformations and queering and rejection of traditional gendered expectations. My drag functions to dismantle oppressive systems and create new, healthy, infinite gender possibilities.
References
Bailey, Marlon. “Gender/ Racial Realness: Theorizing the Gender System in Ballroom Culture.” Feminist Studies, 37.2 (2011): 365-386.
Basilere, Jae. “Staging Dissents: Drag kings, resistance, and feminist masculinities.” Signs, 44.4 (2019): pp. 979- 999.
Boulay, Nadine. “Week 5- June 12th.” Simon Fraser University, 12 June 2020.
CBC Arts. “We are not worthy of the talents of non-binary ‘drag thing’ Rose Butch.” 14 Feb 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJaOzlAyoLo.
This is a remix of a bottle being broken … i assumed an audio file would be acceptable for the mini assignment
Photos are literally made by light, so we should try to make sense of it.
Cameras capture light, not pictures. I like to consider several things about lighting when taking a photo. I’ll be referring to taking photos of a single subject, or object, as a focus.
Is there enough light?
The most important of these. You need light to capture light. Make sure there’s enough light. In most situations, there can’t be too much light.
Where the light is coming from
Lighting direction is very important. Think of it like when you hold a flashlight to someone’s face. Would you want to shine under their chin like a horror film, or from the side for some contrast.
Where it’s going
Where the light bounces off of should also be considered. When you have a main source of light, the extra light will always bounce off the background and back to the subject. You should think of how much of that light you need to fill in the shadows on your subject, and what the reflected light will look like on your subject (like not a neon yellow poster making them look weird)
The source
What time of day is it? Is it sunny? Cloudy? Are you in the shadows? Indoors? What type of light bulbs are being used? Pay attention to how the color of the light affects your subject and your image. Typically a cloudy but bright day is the best time for outdoor photos, and fluorescent lights don’t look great in photos (kinda green)
This peer review response had a lot to do with the layout and design of our sites. I really liked Angelika’s feedback, it gave me a nice little road to take in order to make my website look better!
She first talked about using a dropdown menu in order to better organize the layout of my website and take a minimalist look which I agree with and am still trying to sort out.
Second, she talked about the incorporation of media into my site and I actually had none. After sorting through the plugins I was able to find one that puts a social media menus bar on the right hand side. And then add some extra posts that are taken from social media like Instagram videos of different keeper workout drills.
Overall I am really glad that she liked my website and was able to navigate through it easily while giving me some really good constructive feedback that will help better my website.
In this week’s peer review, I received feedback on my website structure.
My peer mentioned that I had a lack of sub menus and my home page was lacking as a landing page. They stressed that my landing page allows users to see my posts right away, although the value of an introduction is high with an unknown blog. I addressed this my creating more selections within my menu for categories as well as updating my home page to be a static page with an intro.
A lot of times people get obsessed with equipment and getting the latest and greatest. Every artist knows this cycle of regret where they feel like getting an expensive kit would make them better. But it won’t. Here’s my experience with this.
I used to obsess over equipment. I would browse for new cameras constantly and droll over specs. I had a half-decent beginner DSLR ( that I barely knew how to use) and went crazy thinking that it was a bad camera (hint: it was me. I was bad). So I save all of my money in high school to splurge on a $700 kit for a new DSLR. What came from this was obsession. I thought I could take photos like a pro! Like those advertisements for new cameras: “Take photos like a pro with this new $2000 camera only pros can really use anyways”
I was initially so happy with my new camera and thought everything looked great, but once the honeymoon period ended, I started to search for more. I was hungry once again. I hunted and hunted and found a pro-ish (it was old) grade camera for cheap! NOW i can be a pro. Or so i thought.
I bought that camera and went crazy once again. But as expected, I still sucked, and now I was actually broke. So I couldn’t afford to buy a new camera.
I went on to explore the camera and found out that there were so many features that were useless to me. I honestly wish I stopped after the first big purchase because that semi-pro camera actually died after two years. I barely used it and it actually failed mechanically. So then I had to use my older kit once again. This is where I started to improve. Now with a camera that “wasn’t as good” I had restrictions and had to make the most of what I had. My photos became more focused and I started to pay so much more attention to what was in front of the lens and even around it.
Try using an old camera!
The use of sound in Call me by your name contribute in creating an immersive emotional and romantic world. Throughout the entire film, the director chooses ten piano pieces with different rhythms and inserted in every stages of their relationships, to tell and intersperse their love story. The melody of M.A.Y. in the Backyardis light but at times tense and clashing, creating a shy and nervous first meeting. If the melody of M.A.Y. in the Backyard is describing their first met, the tensed and fast tuned melody of Sonatine bureaucratique is telling the turbulent feelings of Elio’s young heart. The song takes this crush one step further. Elio couldn’t sleep most of the night, tossing and turning, not realizing that Oliver had already entered the bottom of his heart. The next wonderful piano piece is Elio’s improvisation. He kept changing the original tune that he deliberately played Bach’s music in Liszt’s improvisational style and adapted Liszt’s version in a way similar to Busoni’s. Elio is trying to flirt Oliver with his music. Even though for the audience who can’t understand the songs he played, his performance can still make the audience feel a strong sense of ambiguity between these two young men.Later on, there are several songs which represent Elio’s capricious mood in his relationship with Oliver. For example, the song Zion hört die Wächter singen displaying Elio’s struggling about whether he has brought out the best in front of Oliver; the low-key chord tone in song Germination is telling the complexed feeling inside of Elio that he desires to break the silence between Oliver and himself. And the other songs in this movie are secretly narrating the psychological changes of Elio and the changes of this relationship. While the director is utilizing music to tell the story, the alternative color tone also enhances visual effects. For example, the scene when Oliver was sitting with Elio’s whole family in the orchard garden and having breakfast, the entire scene is immersed in a warm orange tone which convey a sense of harmonious among the atmosphere within and family and also create a ambiguous but warm atmosphere to foreshadowing the happening of love. The scene in Elio’s dream, all his memories with Oliver were represented in red and yellow color tone which somehow creates contrast with the cold color tone of the morning light to emphasize Elio’s passionate love for Oliver, and somehow indicating their later separation. The use of cold and warm color tone in film are working as a stimulation of emotions, echoing with Biscotti’s work Yellow Movie, colors in both works play the role as sense and emotion stimulation.
