Editrix Abby |
|
Kate BornsteinGender OutlawKate Bornstein is America’s most storied gender outlaw, an outsider’s outsider. She has been a genderqueer activist for many years, exploring gender identity in literally, figuratively and theatrically. In this Eros interview, she touches on a wide variety of topics, from trans sexual orientation to transgender porn of the past, from baring her soul onstage to her latest book. There’s no way to talk with Ms. Bornstein without getting in deep, as you’ll see here.ErosZine: You've been involved in the genderqueer subculture for quite some time. Give us a quick synopsis of your history so my all-over-the-map questions that follow have some context for our readers. Kate Bornstein: Quick synopsis? Yikes. Okay, born boy in 1948, lived boy and man but never felt either was right for me; it always felt like acting. The only alternative seemed to be girl/woman. So... 1986, went through a "sex change operation" and "became a woman." A couple of years of trying to be a woman convinced me that both men and women are whatever the culture wants them to be, and no one's got a rule book that matches anyone else's rule book for what's a real man and what's a real woman, so we beat ourselves up over gender when we don't quite match up; gender gets used to bully people with when they don't shape up. And now I write about all that stuff. EZ: Your newest book, Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws, sounds like it will really save some lives. It's hard to believe a book like this didn't already exist. Tell us a little bit about it and how YOU wound up writing it. KB: That book is my response to the horrors of 9/11, and to the horrifying government that grew up in this country in response to its own manufactured need for national security. Look, I've been picked on, mugged, laughed at, harassed and raped by bullies. And I still live a fun, freaky life and I've been living it for a long time. So, I wrote down all the successful things I've done to make life more worth living for me in the areas of identity, desire and power. A lot of what I'd done was considered immoral, dangerous or illegal. But I did it anyway and I stayed alive to lead a relatively kind and productive life. So, that's what I suggest in the book: Do whatever you need or want to do in order to make life worth living for yourself. Be whatever you need to be, love whoever and however you want to love. Only one rule makes that all work: Don't be mean. If you're not mean, you can do anything you want and have a pretty terrific life. EZ: It seems that transsexuals have come a bit further out of the closet recently, with the movie Transamerica and all the reality TV surgery shows. Do you think America is becoming more comfortable with gender outlaws? KB: America is most definitely NOT becoming more comfortable with gender outlaws. Some Americans are becoming more familiar with people who change their gender from one norm to another norm. The gender outlaws who question the binary of it all are still target practice for most Americans. As for Transamerica, I haven't seen it yet and I have no plans to see it. Prior to shooting, I met with the director several times and he seemed to me to be a really sweet and clearly well-intentioned talented man. He gave me and a couple of other trannies an early version of the shooting script to vet for any inconsistencies and, from what he sent back to me, he seemed to pay a lot of attention to what we all said. I'm glad the film has done so well and I understand that Felicity Huffman does a bang-up job. My problem with the film is two-fold: 1) no tranny woman was even auditioned for the role that ultimately went to Ms. Huffman and 2) there was no outcry in the press about that (like there was with – gasp -- a Chinese woman playing a Japanese geisha). So, while I understand that the film is a big step forward in the representation of transfolks in film, and I understand that the film probably couldn't have received the distribution it received without Ms. Huffman's credibility as an actor or her husband's money as producer, it still burns me that there was no attempt to audition a transwoman. I do understand that David Harrison did a way good job in the film as the transman in the party scene, and I want to see him in that role, but right now I'm just too angry about the other stuff. The best reality TV show about a tranny surgery was the one used by South Park in their tranny episode. I howled all the way through it. EZ: There's also just slightly more porn with transsexuals and more importantly with them no longer being billed in a freak show sort of way but as stars in their own right and celebrating their difference(s) as opposed to being ridiculed. Have you watched any of this porn? And if so what did you think? KB: There was a HELL of a lot of great tranny porn back in the 50s, 60s and 70s. That's what I watched. Kim Christy, International Crysis, to mention a few. Now that I've gone through my transition, I don't watch tranny porn as much as I live it. But tranny porn is ALWAYS gonna be a real tickler for a lot of people: it's the erotic side of the dissolution of the gender binary and ANY melting of that wall between men and women is always a real tickler. EZ: Okay, I'm gonna ask the most lunkheaded of questions: Why transition from being a man to being a woman and then be with a woman? KB: Being woman was my gender identity. Being with a woman sexually was my sexual orientation. Two different things, neither dependent on the other. Now, I get to simply be what I'm attracted to. That's a hoot. EZ: You mention in your interview with Helen Boyd [www.myhusbandbetty.com] that you "still work hard to pass in public." I can appreciate the desire to in order "to avoid the shame and the danger," as you said, but are there other, deeper reasons? Because not being of any specific gender -- or having it matter -- might sound utopian, but doesn't it ground our identities? KB: GREAT question... First off, I think I'm reaching the limits of my generational preference. I'm nearly 60 years old, and when I was growing up, there was a way I learned that I wanted to be. It wasn't so much I wanted to be "a woman" as I wanted to be my own dream-come-true woman, a me who would be based in all the sexy girls I'd ever known, all the amazing movie stars I grew up worshipping: Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Liza Minnelli in Cabaret... later there was Linda Hamilton in Terminator II. I dunno what other people think when they're looking at sexy movie stars, but I'm thinking: What do I want more, to be her or to fuck her? God, I wanna be Geena Davis getting fucked by Samuel L. Jackson in "Long Kiss Goodnight." I went blonde on account of her, and on account of Lisa Kudrow in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion. I've been Buffy for about a decade now, but last week I unleashed my inner Willow, and I'm a redhead. I'm in search of becoming the sexiest, funnest, wisest and most of all kindest me that I can possibly be. I'd LOVE to be grounded in THAT. Utopia to me would be a world where anyone could do stuff like that without being afraid someone's going to beat them up or send them to hell for it. EZ: I often don't "pass" as a woman, which is irritating and discombobulating to me because I was born a woman and, well, still am. Having to defend my gender identity is a very odd and uncomfortable thing. Do you think it's possible for gender to NOT matter? KB: Nope. Not in this culture. Not in yours or my or any reader's lifetime. Nope. Gender's a biggie. But the trick to remember is this: Gender isn't THE biggie. There are other binaries people operate on in the world. Young or Old. Rich or Poor. Beautiful or Ugly. Black or White? And even THOSE aren't the biggie. The great big binary biggie we all need to at least look at before we die, I think is Them or Us, Past and Future, Here and There, and Order and Chaos. Those are binaries worth a look-see. We're a small-minded culture that makes your concern about gender presentation such a big deal. So no, gender is gonna matter for a long time. But the deal is to get past it, like it's a level in a video game. EZ: And do you think being of an unidentifiable gender is viable? Now or in the near future? KB: Viable? Like can I make a living being unidentifiable? And what if I'm unidentifiable in theory only? What if I pass, and I'm identifiable as female but I claim not to be one? Being unidentifiable is really scary to our culture. I think it's why most of the monsters in great Sci Fi are either shape-shifters or mutants -- people who shift and change and you never can really be sure what or who they are. People have been scared of shape-shifters in the movies and bed-time stories for a long time. And now there's a group of people in the world – trannies -- who want to be embraced for being the monsters of our cultural childhoods? Nah, unidentifiable gender won't be viable for a long time to come. EZ: You've also been involved in the BDSM community. How does your play in that realm relate to or incorporate your gender outlaw-ness? Or does it? KB: BDSM space, especially public BDSM space, is one of the places where gender doesn't hafta matter to ME. It may matter to people watching, whose fetish I am. But that's cool. I'm glad to be pleasing. That's what I like most about living life: being pleasing to others. Wow, can you just imagine a world where everyone was able to simply give and accept that? Well, that's the journey most gender outlaws are on. They wanna first become pleasing in their own eyes, I think, and then they wanna change the culture so that they're pleasing to the culture's eye as well. Fun stuff. I'm down with that. EZ: You and your partner, Barbara Carellas, are both writers. How do you encourage and inspire each other? Help each other through writer's block and stuff? KB: She's my muse and she lets me be hers as well. It's pretty damned heavenly is what it is, especially when we're home writing together. Barbara's a BIG mystery to me, and I am to her. We keep each other interested, scared and inspired a lot of the time. EZ: You've not only written about your experiences with wit and humor, you've also performed them onstage. What inspired you to bare your soul before a live audience? Writing is so much safer. KB: Omigosh, I was an actor before I was a tranny. I LOVE THE STAGE!!! Some of my fondest memories of my nearly 60 years are centered around shows I've worked on. Some of the most traumatic events of my life took place during some show. Theater, even solo performance, takes a bonding on an arts level, it takes trust. Writer, director, designers, producers and actor trust each other. And they all trust the audience. And the audience trusts the actor to give them an evening to remember. When you've got that, it's a high that's irreplaceable. And writing ain't so safe. Look at Salmon Rushdie. EZ: You’re often referred to as controversial. Why do you suppose people to react that way? KB: I try to find the positive in things. I look for the good motive in whatever it is that people are doing. I learned that from the Dali Lama. Everyone's trying to be free of suffering. We all try to do that in different ways. So, I'm liable to come down on the side of things like doing drugs, cutting on yourself, and/or becoming the you of your dreams no matter what your parents say. Doing any of that is better than killing yourself. And that can be controversial. My identity as a sadomasochistic femme tranny dyke can be controversial. My history with the Church of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard can be controversial. My woefully unsuccessful few weeks trying to be a pro domme in New York City can be controversial. I'm such a bottom. Gee, what else? I'm a radical left wing sex positive artist, scholar, and pornographer. That could make me controversial. I'm actively recruiting the youth of our nation to embrace the fun parts of themselves no matter what God says, and I hand out Get Out of Hell Free cards to people so that if they end up in Hell for doing anything that wasn't mean to anyone, I'll do their time for them. It's a deal I've got with Satan. That could get me referred to as controversial. I hang out with people like you. That could make me controversial. But I dunno, I’m just trying to be cute. EZ: Geez, I was already at my word limit just writing these questions! We'd better stop here. I feel like I've delved pretty deeply here. Thanks for your time, Kate! KB: Phew! You sure do know how to give a girl a ride. [Written Feb. 2007] |
|
|
|
|