Trans Artivism

As a group, we're interested in the creative shapes activism can take. Our archive is meant to celebrate the ways that trans activists have expressed their work through art and, conversely, the ways that art has had “activist” effects for trans movements and people. To encompass all activism or all art would be a near-impossible task. Instead, our archive is meant to invite you to a quick dip into the amazing work trans artists and activists have created. What you’ll find here is just a snapshot into the expansive worlds of trans art and activism, historical and contemporary. We hope this archive will inspire you to look deeper into them.

Enby Spoken Histories is a podcast that aims to create safer spaces for trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC) folks by strengthening these these communities from within. The podcasts are recorded in different locations around the US, sharing stories from TGNC perspectives.

"Enby Spoken Histories interrupts previous narratives of who we can become, and who will remember us"

Graphic by Zoe Axelrod; from left to right: Laura Les, SOPHIE, and Dorian Electra.

I was first introduced to the hyperpop genre through the music of Dorian Electra (they/them) during a minor kind of gender crisis in my life. I had grown up identifying with a particularly flamboyant kind of femininity. However, upon leaving my big-city hometown to live in a small university town, I found my feminine sartorial theatrics swiftly proved to draw an uncomfortable amount of attention to me, and, over the next few years, found myself dampening my self-presentation into a far more dressed-down and masculine style of dress.

Finding Dorian Electra's music video for their song "Man to Man" while scrolling through YouTube one day, I found myself presented with a model of masculinity that was, for once, not about being dressed down. It was a patently flamboyant masculinity, and one that simultaneously ironized and celebrated the positive qualities stereotypically associated with what it meant to be a man—chivalry, humour, sexual dominance—and which I had long figured as toxic or negative, for their attribution as masculine, in myself. Donning the outfits of all kinds of theatrically masculine fighter-figures—a Roman soldier, a matador, a wrestler, a fencer—while making goofy faces, Electra—who I learned was genderfluid—[1] soon grew to be the biggest breath of fresh air to me, making of masculinity something vibrant, theatrical, and always a little bit silly.

“I want you to know that it is not always easy to love me. That sometimes my chest is a field full of landmines, and where you went last night, you can’t go tomorrow. There is no manual, there is no road map, no help line you can call; my body does not come with instructions, and sometimes even I don’t know what to do with it. This cannot be easy. But still, you touch me anyway.”

- Ivan Coyote [1]

SOURCE

Music knows no boundaries. It moves and shapes us in different ways, allowing us to transport ourselves to different places, feelings, and moments in time. Music has no barriers or binaries, for it is fluid and ever-changing — some of the best music comes from those who aren’t afraid to break the rules of genre, speech, and sound.

"Warrior Heart" by Shawnee, a single which she used to raise funds for the We Matter Campaign in support of Indigenous mental health.[1]

"What does being nonbinary mean to you?

Being nonbinary means believing that gender is infinitely possible."— Devin-Norelle [1]

"What is something you would like people to know about nonbinary folks?

Many people believe that nonbinary is a new idea and that nonbinary folks are a fad. Nonbinary people are not a fad, a gimmick or a new concept. We have existed across various cultures for several centuries. Our identities were suppressed by imperialism and as a result, nonbinary people seem to be a recent phenomena to mainstream society, but we've existed almost as long as civilization. Furthermore, it is commonly assumed that nonbinary people don't desire to medically transition. While this is true for many people, many of us do take steps to medically transition, including myself. My transition does not make me feel any more of a man, or any less of a woman. I continue to feel strongly as both some days, and as neither on other days." —Winter Mendelson [1]

I stumbled upon this amazing culture blog — "Them." — during my research for this project. The attached post was what initially drew me into the blog; it features gorgeous headshots and captions from folks who participated in a campaign titled #BeyondtheBinary, created by Jacob Tobia to generate awareness around non-binary identities.

I highly encourage you to also check out the entire blog: "Them." [link]. It features culture, news, entertainment, health, and lifestyle categories, and has a ton of amazing, knowledgable and informative blog posts.

—Short on time? I've picked out a few links that may be of interest below! :) [click title to follow link]

How To Affirm the People in Your Life Who Use Multiple Sets of Pronouns

The Healing Power of Dogs for People Living With HIV

How Do I Know If I’m Nonbinary?

Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Bills Banning Trans People From Sports

How The AIDS Crisis Prepared Us For COVID — And Shaped Our Response

Puberty Blockers Help Trans Teens Feel Happier and Healthier, Says New Study

This 16-Year-Old Trans Student Just Made History by Testifying in Favor of the Equality Act

This Fashion Collection Turns Catholic Garb Into Queer Fantasy

SOURCE

Allucquére Rosanne "Sandy" Stone (she/her) is an audio engineer, performance artist, computer coder, academic, and writer—and a foundational figure in the worlds of both trans activism and theory. Stone is perhaps best-known for her 1987 essay "The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto," which is heavily credited with generating the modern field of transgender studies.[1] Stone wrote the essay in response to a bigoted and much-circulated attack on trans women's inclusion in lesbian and feminist political spaces in the '70s, which used Stone's employment at the lesbian recording studio Olivia Records as a centrepiece for its transphobic argument, and which continues to ground much transphobic ideology to this day. Though Olivia Records remained virtually totally steadfast in their defense of Stone, the pressure from anti-trans demonstrators eventually culminated in the threat of a boycott of the label and, ultimately, Stone's departure from the collective.[2]

Shawnee Kish (she/her), better known as just "Shawnee," is an up-and-coming two-spirit Mohawk artist descended from the Six Nations of the Grand River. Fairly new to the musical fame, Shawnee rose to prominence when selected as the winner of the CBC's 2020 Searchlight contest, which seeks to promote little-known musical talent.[1] Her music blends influences from soul and pop genres, as well as those from her own Mohawk heritage.[2]

Despite the newness of Shawnee's rise to fame, she has been incredibly outspoken in aligning herself with activist and political work, using both her music and her public persona to draw attention to issues such as mental health, the suicide crisis facing First Nations communities, and to promote rights and representation for two-spirit, trans, and queer youth.[2],[3] In 2019, she participated in an interview with Kids' Help Phone that centred strongly on her desire to support queer youth and her own two-spirit identity. She describes her identity as a mode of being that was "honoured as a gift in [her ancestors'] community" and, though she recognizes this is not the case for everyone who identifies this way, she describes her own understanding of being two-spirit as "[being] an Indigenous person who carries the gift of knowing, understanding and walking in both gender worlds."[4]

The term two-spirit for me is not as simple as some would like it to be. I find, as we grow in two-spirit acknowledgement and practice, there is a lot of misconception. For example, the idea of two-spirit being genderless or gender non-conforming may only speak to some two-spirit people. There are many amazing examples and identities under the term ‘two-spirit people.’ For me, being two-spirit is a beautiful, empowering term for an Indigenous person who carries the gift of knowing, understanding and walking in both gender worlds.

Wendy Carlos (she/her) is an establishing figure in electronic music and a trans woman. Carlos first came to prominence with the release of the album Switched-On Bach in 1968, in which she performed a series of pieces composed by Johann Sebastian Bach on a Moog synthesizer.[1] This project, which quickly swelled in popularity, caught the attention of the Grammys—she won three awards for the album in 1970[2]—and was subsequently noticed by director Stanley Kubrick, who hired her to compose the original score for A Clockwork Orange in 1971. She would go on to produce the soundtrack of both Kubrick’s 1980 horror, The Shining, followed by the original Walt Disney production of the sci-fi adventure Tron in 1982. Meanwhile, she continued to produce exciting, innovative music—largely played on the synthesizer, an instrument she is very heavily credited with pioneering[3]—which would provide some of the most obvious, substantial groundwork for the ongoing history of electronic music as a genre.[1]

Wendy Carlos did not come out publicly until 1979, in an interview with Playboy magazine, though she had been living as a woman for several years prior. Though Carlos did not explicitly identify with activism on behalf of herself or any other trans people, she was very outspoken about her transition in this and subsequent interviews, expressing with incredible candour the struggle she had with presenting herself as a public figure in a way that did not align with her gender, underlining her wish “to liberate [herself]” through public disclosure.[3] By virtue of this openness and the simple significance of her contributions to musical history, Carlos has no doubt laid significant groundwork for the acceptance, respect, and celebration of trans artists in the music industry.