Tag Archives: queer

From the Archives: “My Hair Trauma” (1998)

We received a request for a piece I wrote over ten years ago, from my time in the “olden days” of what we oldsters once called “web journaling.” It’s hard to read some of my old writing without cringing (as … Continue reading

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Filed under (AD)DRESSING GENDER & SEXUALITY, FASHIONING RACE, ON BEAUTY

GENDER/QUEER: “Butch/Femme Crip”

Crip Wheels, a blog composed by a black queer “wheelchair dancer,” features thoughtful observations on disability and dance, among other things. This brilliant essay, “Butch/Femme Crip,” addresses the tangle of queer sexuality and gender presentation (including but not exclusive to … Continue reading

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Filed under (AD)DRESSING GENDER & SEXUALITY

GENDER/QUEER: “Dressed To Kill, Fight to Win”

Dean Spade is a genius activist lawyer and legal scholar. (For instance, he is the founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a non-profit law collective that provides free legal services to transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people who are … Continue reading

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GENDER/QUEER: “The oldest queer girl story in the book”

“Clothes are more than a little fraught for me,” writes Krista Benson in the preface to a post that addresses some provocative, pertinent absences in fashionable discourses in new media (or what might cringingly be called the blogosphere). Bringing up … Continue reading

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Filed under OUR JUNK DRAWER

RuPaul as Style Guru to Baby Drag Queens and Everyone Else

Tonight’s the Season 2 premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race (9pm on Logo TV or Logo Online)! Among reality contest shows about fashion, style, and beauty, this is my favorite. Hands down. Drag Race has the most diverse group of contestants … Continue reading

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Filed under FASHIONING RACE, LABOR AND THE CREATIVE ECONOMY, STYLE POLICE & STYLE GURUS

Queer Feelings, Gender Presentations

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting links and excerpts from other blogs on questions of queer and non-normative gender presentations. I’ve mentioned before some of my own concerns about the unreliable stories clothes tell, and in recent sweeps … Continue reading

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Filed under (AD)DRESSING GENDER & SEXUALITY, FASHION 2.0, FASHIONING RACE, FASHIONING THE HUMAN

“You Are Her”

Sometimes old punks with archival tendencies can be a force for good! Former Outpunk zinester and record mogul Matt Wobensmith now runs an amazing zine store called Goteblud in the Mission District of San Francisco. He recently curated an exhibit … Continue reading

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Filed under (AD)DRESSING GENDER & SEXUALITY, FASHIONING RACE

Handbagging (from lipstickeater)

The daily routines that are inhabited easily by some bodies (choosing clothes, shoes, lip color) are for others acts of political and ideological significance, an archive of complicated feelings. Pulling on a pair of jeans or seamed stockings meant for … Continue reading

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Filed under (AD)DRESSING GENDER & SEXUALITY, LINKAGE, THEORY TO THINK WITH

The Queer Unicorn

California-based Tom Banwell’s handcrafted leather masks have made the rounds lately (Kingdom of Style, Style Bubble, and Fashion Me Fabulous, for instance, but it’s certain that he’s a familiar figure amongst the steampunk set) and it’s easy to see why. … Continue reading

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Filed under (AD)DRESSING GENDER & SEXUALITY, LINKAGE, SARTORIAL INDULGENCES

Queer + Fashion

Some weeks ago, my brilliant sister-friend Iraya Robles (formerly of San Francisco’s queercore outfit Sta-Prest) told me about a performance she wanted to put together about Tina Chow, the iconic mixed-race model and socialite who died in 1992 from AIDS-related … Continue reading

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Filed under (AD)DRESSING GENDER & SEXUALITY, FASHIONING RACE