Andy Marra: Why she kicks ass
- Andy Marra is the Co-Director for 노둣돌 | Nodutdol for Korean Community Development where she is responsible for strengthening the organization’s capacity in programs, development, communications, operations and administration.
- Previously, she was the Senior Media Strategist for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) where she led GLAAD’s media advocacy work impacting transgender people, communities of color and international affairs.
- A majority her work focused on the intersections of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, establishing three programs focused on the Asian Pacific Islander community, Chinese language media and young adults. She was responsible for daytime television’s first-ever transgender character on All My Children.
- She has held leadership positions on boards and advisory councils for the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Funding Exchange, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Pacific Islander Equality, New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
- She is a past recipient of the GLSEN Pathfinder Award, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Award and the Colin Higgins Foundation Courage Award and has been honored by the City of New York for her work in the community.
- The Advocate described her as “one of the youngest leaders to know within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement.”
Feminist Resources
- Audre Lorde’s The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House
- Audre Lorde’s Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
- Aurora Levins Morales’s Radical Pleasure: Sex and the End of Victimhood
- bell hooks’ Cultural Criticism & Transformation
- Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses
- Combahee River Collective Statement
- Dorothy Allison’s A Question of Class
- Judith Butler documentary
- Leslie Feinberg’s We Are All Works in Progress
- Paula Gunn Allen’s Who is Your Mother?: Red Roots of White Feminism
- R.W. Connell’s The Social Organization of Masculinity
- Sandra Lee Bartky’s Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power
- Sandra Cisneros’s Guadalupe the Sex Goddess
- Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman?
- Susan Bordo’s The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity
Portrait of an Asian American Femme-inist
Celeste Chan
Femmepire Records is a series of interviews on femme identity. Click here for the elevator pitch and first interview.
Celeste Chan is co-founder of Queer Rebels, a local production company focused on queer of color artistic histories. For those of you who’ll be in New York on Nov. 14, Queer Rebels is presenting “Exploding Lineage,” a program of queer of color experimental films at the 25th MIX NYC Fest.
In a few words, define femme.
Femme is reclaiming femininity in a misogynist culture. It is wrestling away from compulsory femininity, and moving toward a way of being that feels good and is far more fabulous!
Do you identify as femme? Why?
I do, but it took me a while to embrace it. Coming out as a teen in Seattle, the first queers that I saw were white. They sported crew cuts, Dr. Martens, and flannels. I didn’t see anyone who looked like me and I assumed I had to butch it up to be gay. So yeah, I did the requisite short spiky haircut. Riot Grrrl transformed me during college. It showed me that I could be feminine and tough and make people take me seriously. Today, I draw inspiration from the Bay Area’s strong butch-femme community, and the rich history of butch-femme culture rooted in working class/communities of color that came before (1920s-50s).
Regardless of your previous answer, do other people identify you as femme? How do you feel about that?
Yes and no. Sometimes I’m read right away as femme and queer. Usually that happens when I’m with my partner, TuffNStuff: Drag King of the Blues. It’s really validating to be seen. More frequently, both straight and queer people misread me. I had a conversation with someone who said, “Straight people are welcome too,” and then leaned forward to touch my hand. I’ve also been approached with: “Do you know what the Dyke March is?” and “Are you in the right bar?” I’ve been out since I was 16. While there’s privilege in passing, it is a double-edged sword.
Do you feel like you have to try harder to be read or seen as queer? If so, how do you deal with that?
Oh yes! I do fly under the gaydar. I do end up coming out over and over again. My partner doesn’t have to, but faces homophobic freakiness for being butch. Really, I want something better for all of us. I want us all to be respected and recognized. I throw my support toward queer art and activism — and try to lead a life that is unapologetically, riotously gay. We need to do this all together — to push for a broader, more diverse understanding of the queer community.
How does your gender affect your sexuality, if at all?
I love the butch-femme dynamic. Or perhaps I should say femme-butch/masculine queer. It’s about playing with power and desire. I feel safer, able to relax into my femininity when I’m with my partner. It’s a very queer desire to be told I must be straight, but choose butch women (and other genderbenders) instead.
What prompts you to present the way you do? Is it something you consciously think about?
Most days you can find me rocking a dress, long hair, glasses, and engineer boots. It’s kind of a tough femme look. I get a lot of harassment, so have to be ready to kick ass in the streets. In a perfect world, I’d be as femme as I wanna be — high heels, makeup, the whole nine yards. I adore vintage glamour, ultra brights, and mod or other quirky pieces. It’s dressing up for me, and it feels fabulous!
Lesbian representations on TV/movies are almost always femme. Do you feel like this contributes negatively (or at all) to your life/gender presentation/identity?
I don’t own a TV and I don’t trust Hollywood. Their representation consists of The L word and Katy Perry. “I kissed a girl” feeds into sexist titillation. It’s not a true representation of our community. Mainstream media erases butch/trans/gender variant folks. This is why cultural production stemming from queer, women, and people of color is just so vital. We have a history of being rendered invisible. This cuts so deeply.
I want more for our entire queer and trans and feminist communities. To paraphrase Jack Halberstam, the wound of being excluded from structures can be a gift. It pushes us to create. Cultural activism changes what we think is possible. This is why I co-founded Queer Rebels with KB Boyce — to create community art and representation. We’re preparing for Queer Rebels CD release/benefit party on December 9 at El Rio. Please seequeerrebels.com for more info about this and other events.
What are some resources/websites/books/movies you look to for inspiration about femmeness/queerness?
I’m glad you asked! There are so many great resources! I’ve organized with Femme Collective for the biennial Femme conference. There’s Queer Women of Color Media Arts Program — they provide free training and a fabulous, free festival. I do adore local artists such as Jewelle Gomez, Tina D’Elia, La Chica Boom, Mangos with Chili, Nomy Lamm, The Visibility Project, and many more whose names escape me at the moment. And naturally, I heart all of the Queer Rebels artists.
I also highly recommend books by Dorothy Allison, Chrystos, Joan Nestle, and some of the classics: The Persistent Desire; Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold; Femme: Feminists, Lesbians and Bad Girls; and The Femme’s Guide to the Universe.
My other femme inspirations include Tura Satana, Poly Styrene, Eartha Kitt, and Kathleen Hanna. And of course, there’s Anna May Wong. She became the first Asian-American star, despite the Chinese Exclusion Act and a system that favored actors in yellowface for lead roles. She never married, and was rumored to have had an affair with Marlene Dietrich.
For events in San Francisco this week and beyond, check out ourcalendar section. Follow us on Twitter at @ExhibitionistSF and like us on Facebook. Follow Anna Pulley at @annapulley.
Source: fuckyeahlgbtqasians
Possibly one of the more unexpected products at Maker Faire Africa this year in Lagos is a urine powered generator, created by four girls.
The girls are Duro-Aina Adebola (14), Akindele Abiola (14), Faleke Oluwatoyin (14) and Bello Eniola (15). 1 Liter of urine gives you 6 hours of electricity.
This is brilliant! These girls are incredible!
WHAT IN THE WHAT
Source: makerfaireafrica.com
OMG Jabbawockeez x Far East Movement!!!!!!
Jean-Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2013
Thank you Jean Paul Gaultier for keeping your runway diverse.
Source: black-model-famous
Artist pays homage to L.A.’s unseen workers: Ramiro Gomez’s cardboard cutouts of nannies, gardeners, valets and housekeepers have appeared, in silent tribute, around the wealthy districts of the city.
Most pieces last a day or two if Gomez is lucky. Once, a valet parker he planted outside a lot near the Sunset Strip made it four days.
Gomez writes his contact information on the back of each piece so people can tell him where the art ended up. So far, no one has reached out.
At first it was tough to let go. He’d stand by for a while to see people’s reactions, then take the cutout down and lug it back home.
But then Gomez realized it was not his place to keep public art out of view.
So he learned to walk away.
Photo: Ramiro Gomez attaches his painting of a nanny against a cyclone fence in West Hollywood Park. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times
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