I have stopped dressing very genderqueer. I am doing the colorful skinny jeans. my colors can be interesting, but I dropped the tights, jewelery and eyeliner. Maybe I needed a break, a place to land. Presenting as boy is soooo easy compered to breaking gender expectations. Dressing genderqueer is a form of gender activism, and it is draining. In the end I failed to build a social network which gave me the support I needed to be ‘out’ as genderqueer. I will go gender-questing again, but next time I hope to have a supporting job/school situation in place. For four months I quested around the city and created small genderqueer spaces in cafes, bars, dance clubs, art openings, spoken word events and even a burlesque dancing course. Some days this worked fabulously, other days not so well. I am worn out and taking a breather. In the meantime here is some of what’s going on with me:
1) I made a submission to the queer arts festival in June. If I get to exhibit my work I will be thrilled.
2) I am looking into doing non-profit work with my internet programming skills. I am hoping to volunteer with a non-profit doing something with gender activism and social networking/blogging.
3) I am reading the work of male feminists and social studies of masculinity. I am playing with the idea of doing dissertation work in this area.
