The Rainbow Angst #1 The coming out issue by Miquel Pulido

#1 The coming out issue

LGTBQ+ creativity from, about and for us.

Creative director and editor Miquel Pulido García who.miki@gmail.com Starring Abraham del Río, Adrià Egea, Bluedonna, Cynthia Veneno, Daniel Lagos, Daniel Bentue, Daniel Cao, Edu Manzanillo, Elliot Zipper, Escándalo, Evan Poison, Fauces, Fernando Bautista, Jaime Vidal, Javi Sánchez, Marc Aleixandri, Marc Espinar, Marina Delgado, Miquel Pulido, Nacho López, Núria Martínez, Pol Anglada, Sandra Ballesteros, Santi Gálvez, Sofía García, Victor Bianchi, Wolframico, Zafo Thanks to Adrià, Ainara, Alberto, Carlo, Cristina, Feli, Iván, Marc, Jesús, Piedad, Manu, Miguel, Santi, Rosana, Seeway, Virginia @Yukapiruka, @alfonolm, @raquelbotellab, @pirumiau, @LezFunny, @SirShervi, @ESAdventureTime, @sowhat_h, @martacobo, @BestoKunHaro, @daesdici, @acuatice, @cervantinus, @ZekTheHunter, @chiscoyo, @al3x_hh, @virtualrulo, @iaumiau, @Withoutrushmeh, @mmarsuarez and everyone who helped somehow in making this possible. Back cover Lyrics from “1000” by N.E.R.D ft. Future. Written By Pharrell Williams & Future Typefaces Avenir Next, FF More Pro, Le Murmure, Sharp Grotesk Paper Freelife symbol satin 150gr, Orgànic crush 120 and 250gr Printed in New Print. C/ Diputació, 321, 08009 Barcelona Holographic logo made in stickerapp.com The Rainbow Angst Issue #1 , 2019 Seeway, C/ Pau Claris, 115, 08009 Barcelona The Rainbow Angst and its contributors cannot accept any liability for reader discontent arising from the editorial features. The opinions expressed in the magazine are the views of the individual author and do not necessarily represent the views of The Rainbow Angst magazine.

The Rainbow Angst Magazine LGTBQ+ creativity from, about and for us.

MAR-APR-MAY Issue #1 The coming out issue

THE RAINBOW ANGST MANIFESTO

Welcome. The magazine you have between your hands is an statement about self expression, diversity, authenticity and, last but certainly not least, representation. Because in today’s world maybe we’ve seen it all, in all colours, shapes and sizes. Everyone and everything is represented in some way in the media. But that doesn’t mean that there’s a good image of it being shown. And representation matters. Good representation matters. And from that idea, “The Rainbow Angst” was born. Growing up as a kid with interests outside the norm wasn’t always pleasant. You were looked down upon, made fun of or avoided to say the least. Growing up as a queer kid also wasn’t always pleasant neither. As years passed by, my artistic and creative interests broaden and I knew that that was what I wanted to do in the future. The same happened with the awakening of my identity and sexuality. Although it wasn’t very clear what was “that” exactly. Today, I look back and notice that what I really needed was representation. Someone like me to look up to and make me realize I can do it too. Because until you don’t see it, you can’t imagine it. But there has always been a voice in the back of my mind that sets me back with certain things. Fear. Angst. For centuries, our community has been repressed and punished just by the mere act of existing and standing out from the mould set by the cisheteropatriarchy. This publication wants to fight back. The “angst” in the name of this magazine is a clap back to the unease they make us feel, turning the situation upside-down and returning that angst in the form of creative expression. I think that it’s important to be part of communities where we see ourselves not only represented, but supported and cherished. As said before, this magazine was born with the intention of representing those who are not visible enough, or not in a good way, giving them a space to express themselves. The Rainbow Angst is a meeting point between creatives from the LGBTQ+ community, aiming to create a publication from, about and for us. It’s an opportunity to put amazing people and projects on the limelight, giving them a voice when they wouldn’t somewhere else because of being too young, too queer or not having enough resources to come through. It’s a space to express ourselves, experiment, pretend, care, love, hate, protest, scream. To make a statement. Once again, welcome. And thank you. Miquel Pulido, creative director and editor.

the coming out issue

RED p.7

is for Gilbert Baker and the rainbow flag

YELLOW p.25 is for particular visions on various topics

Girls and gays in Victorian novels - were they a thing? by Abraham del Río Gender and Camp by Daniel Lagos // Heterosexism by Fernando Bautista Anna Barkova: keys to the study of a poetess by Nacho López

BLUE p.81

is for different artists talking about the same issues

Escándalo is a drag queen Fauces is a singer & songwriter Marc Espinar is an artist

ORANGE p.11

is for remarkable works from remarkable people

Adrià Egea // Bluedonna // Cynthia Veneno // Elliot Zipper // Javi Sánchez Miquel Pulido // Núria Martínez // Pol Anglada // Sandra Ballesteros Santi Gálvez // Sofía García // Wolframico

GREEN p.37

is for projects shaping the present and the future

Pab by Daniel Bentue // In Due Order by Daniel Cao B·Pals App by Edu Manzanillo // Queer Saints by Evan Poison Wo/man/hood: Deconstructing gender by Jaime Vidal NOSOTRES by Marc Aleixandri // Skin Project by Marina Delgado True Self by Victor Bianchi // Gender by Zafo

VIOLET p.95

is for things we’re looking forward to

If You Think I'm a Bitch, You Should Meet Gfoty by GFOTY Cuz I love you by Lizzo // Love + Fear by MARINA Miseria Humana by PUTOCHINOMARICON // Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen Igor by Tyler, The Creator // Homo-? by Filip Custic The Met Gala // Eurovision // Primavera Sound

3 91 68 0

RED

is for Gilbert Baker and the rainbow flag

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Gilbert Baker and the rainbow flag Taken from “The history of the rainbow flag” By Kelly Grovier for BBC Culture on 15 June 2016

uddenly, they are everywhere: stretched across balconies, flapping from car antennas, and pinned to coat lapels. But as we watch its jubilant stripes bind together communities around the globe, it is worth pausing to reflect on the origin of a cultural symbol that was propelled into iconic status nearly 40 years ago by heartbreaking tragedy. According to the US gay activist Gilbert Baker, who is credited with creating the emblem in the late 1970s, the idea behind the flag’s bold design emerged in 1976. Still reeling from the twin traumas of withdrawal from the Vietnam War in 1973 and the first ever resignation of a US President in 1974, following the Watergate scandal, America strove to conjure from national malaise a feeling of patriotism. Key to the summoning of such spirit was the restorative display across the country of the Stars and Stripes, whose simple geometry masked the intensity of the psychological, political, and social turmoil seething underneath. It was against this turbulent backdrop that San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person ever to be elected to public office in California, encouraged Baker in 1977 to devise a unique symbol for the gay community – an insignia of pride capable of affirming social independence. As a drag queen whose appetite for flamboyant clothes in the glam-obsessed 1970s was bigger than his wallet, Baker became a dab hand with a sewing machine – a skill he would later put to use in producing political banners. Hypnotised by the talismanic intensity of the US flag and its ability to transmute itself in art and fashion – from pricey Pop Art paintings by Jasper Johns to grungy denim patches – Baker was drawn to the deceptive simplicity of a field of stacked stripes as a symbol for many stitched together as one.

Gilbert Baker and the rainbow flag

In contemplating how, precisely, he should reinvent that pattern, Baker was aware that any design he produced would compete in popular imagination with a painful, if resilient, logo by which the gay community had long been identified. In Nazi concentration camps, men imprisoned because of their homosexuality were marked out by a pink triangle affixed to their clothing. In the decades following the end of World War Two, gay communities around the world stripped the pink badge of its intended humiliation and defiantly re-inflected it with pride. But however heroic that reclamation of meaning may have been, in Baker’s mind the symbol was still haunted by the ghosts of Hitler and the Holocaust. The gay community, he believed, deserved a fabulous emblem entirely of its own fashioning. “We needed something beautiful,” Baker concluded, “something from us.”

Blue sky thinking

Journalists and historians have expended a great deal of energy speculating how the rainbow eventually suggested itself to Baker in 1978. A frequently cited hypothesis links

the rainbow to the resplendent aura of the actress Judy Garland, long considered a gay icon (her role in the film The Wizard of Oz has yielded the colloquial slang-phrase “friend of Dorothy” as a term for a gay man), and to her famous performance of the song Over the Rainbow. Other writers have noted that strong bright colours have for centuries served as shorthand for homosexuality. But in an interview that Baker gave last year to the Museum of Modern Art, after the flag’s prototype was acquired for its permanent collection, he suggested that the rationale for selecting the rainbow was more elementary than these theories assume: “It’s a natural flag”, he insists. “It’s from the sky.”

Colour therapy

In its initial incarnation, Baker’s rainbow flag consisted of eight colours – two more than the version now recognised internationally as an emblem for the LGBT community – and each colour was assigned a symbolic meaning. A band of hot pink (representing sexuality) ran across the top of the flag in the original scheme, followed by red (which stood for life), then by orange (for healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), turquoise (magic), indigo (serenity), and violet (spirit) at the bottom. Displayed for the first time in the United Nations Plaza in downtown San Francisco in June 1978, this eightstriped version was produced by a team of 30 volunteers commandeering the washing machines of a public laundromat in order to rinse the dye from the fabric and the wide attic space of a gay community centre, where the individual strips were ironed and sewn together. This is the version that Harvey Milk would have known, if all too briefly, in the few short months before he and the Mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone, were shot to death in City Hall on 27 November by a deranged former colleague of Milk’s. Demand for the rainbow flag accelerated in the aftermath of the murders for display at gay pride parades and at events organised in honour of the slain champion of LGBT rights. For a variety of practical reasons, Baker was forced to whittle the design down, first by dropping the top band of hot pink (a pigment that proved difficult to source) and then turquoise (inclusion of which, for reasons of symmetry, made displaying the flag as a vertically-hung banner from lampposts awkward). In the 38 years since Baker offered his invention as a universal symbol of gay pride, proliferation of its prismatic joy has been impressively steady. Although ostensibly ebullient in its design, Baker’s creation is nevertheless threaded by perseverance and tinged by pain. “Flags”, he is said to have exclaimed on the 20th anniversary of the symbol’s birth, “are torn from the soul of the people”

ORA 0 45 91 0

ANGE is for remarkable works from remarkable people

Adrià Egea // Bluedonna // Cynthia Veneno // Elliot Zipper // Javi Sánchez // Miquel Pulido Núria Martínez // Pol Anglada // Sandra Ballesteros // Santi Gálvez // Sofía García // Wolframico

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Adrià Egea Ave María Purísima

One of my biggest inspirations is the religious aesthetics. I love the drama depicted in their images and the bizarre symbolism that's behind it, and this project couldn’t be absent from it. I mix two themes with no correlation between them; recycling and religion. The main idea was to create a jewelry collection using reused elements. In this case, I used flexible tap tubes and wire to hold them together. Each piece has religious symbolism. For instance, the flower crown simulating the ones that the virgins wear. Another symbolism that maybe goes unnoticed are the earrings. Giving the tubes an “S” shape I express sin, the tube is the snake and the plaque the apple (Adam and Eve). About the color treatment, it could be expected to use golden to transmit lust and power, nevertheless, I used silver, the original colour of the material. The final result was my own version of an updated Virgin, if you may.

Photography: Carla Deltoro // Model: Alba Nicola

Instagram @byadriegea

remarkable works from remarkable people

Bluedonna

Hi, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m Bluedonna, your goth doll! Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been around less than a year in the drag biz. This is my latest look and it took me around 4 months to finish, from creating a concept to taking the pictures. As well as makeup, I also dance and with my dance crew we produce amazing shows!

Instagram @bluedonna E-mail itsbluemakeup@gmail.com

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Cynthia Veneno Girls just wanna have fun

The body is a political space to experiment and to exert power. That’s why personal is political. Underlying in every image of a body, there are ideas about gender, sex and sexuality. The aim of this series is to re-appropriate pictoric nude and its techniques of visual pleasure, representing diverse and real women, loving their bodies and other women’s. Claiming their position in a society that has put them aside doubly by being a woman and being a lesbian or bisexual. “Girls just wanna have fun” uses illustration as a mean of representation, based in feminist theories and the queer movement, rejecting the essentialist idea that uses visual pleasure and the representation of bodies as a vehicle for the patriarchy. It re-contextualizes

various musical fragments from today and yesterday, taking them to a sexual, visible and empowering level through traditional mediums like ink and watercolours. It’s a call to change pictoric nude tradition, an area exclusively for masculine, cis and heterosexual enjoyment. It's a fresh look, opposing the classic context of body representation while using its formal elements to create a positive representation where, until now, women had been relegated to mere consume objects by a system that perverts, hurts and denies our bodies. Instagram @missvenenno

remarkable works from remarkable people

Elliot Zipper March 31:Trans Day of Visibility

Remember: -Respect people’s pronouns. -We are not born in the wrong body. -Non-binary people exist. -Trans men can be femenine. -Trans women can be masculine. -There’s not a “non-binary body” -And support trans artists!

Instagram & Twitter @ElliotZipper elliotzipper.carbonmade.com

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Javi Sánchez En el fondo

I’ve drawn this situation where two boys are on vacation in an idyllic place, enjoying the swimming pool, like there’s nothing wrong. The boys come off as two friends, that are together but on their own. However, in the bottom of the pool, their feet brush against each other affectionately and show us that that “perfectly normal” outer world is nothing but an appearance… It’s obvious that for them that moment is perfect, but not because of the pool, the sunset or the trees. What makes it perfect are those few millimeters of skin that touch underwater.

Instagram @jamalamaja E-mail jamalamaja@gmail.com jamalamaja.com

remarkable works from remarkable people

Miquel Pulido

Isometrics pride

ISOMETRICS is the result of a whole month of a selfposed daily challenge. Starting from a fixed colour palette and other settings as lighting, background and, of course, the isometry, the challenge was to create a different composition with simple volumetric shapes every day. The influences for this project were 3D artists as Beeple and Steven Emerson. Daliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surrealism and his paranoiac-critical method also had huge influence in some of the pieces.

This piece specifically was the one made the 28th of june, pride day, to celebrate and give visibility from a fun and aesthetic point of view.

Instagram @miquelpdesign

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Núria Martínez Disfòria

Well, every time I have to go shopping for clothes it's an ordeal. There are clothes that I really like but they look horrible on me, because it shows that there’s something there that I don’t like (that’s why I always end up wearing super big clothes). So with this comic I wanted to show how’s my odyssey going shopping with dysphoria.

Instagram & Twitter @nuriamartgon Behance Núria Martínez

remarkable works from remarkable people

Pol Anglada It takes guts to be a fairy

This are three drawings I did for the Paris Ass Book Fair 2019 - a queer fair about self publishing and fanzines - influenced by gay punk bands like Limp Wrist, Team Drescht, Bikini Kill and all that queer rage against prejudices and role models established by an homogeneous society. “It takes guts to be a fairy” comes from the idea that courage is needed to be who you really are, and even more if you are considered “effeinate”, a “fairy” or any other offensive adjective against the LGBTQ+ community. “Come ASS you Are” comes from the same place but focusing against the preconception of the “less masculinity” of being

Come ASS you Are

a bottom, or what the community also considers very effeminate. Since I was a child and because of my father, avid comic collector and big fan of drawing, I grew up and started drawing with my father and grandfather. I’ve always liked building another world editing little fanzines, screen-printing…

Instagram @polanglada

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Sandra Ballesteros

Pictures taken in the LGTBI Pride Parade, a small project to give visibility to love equality. It's compiltion of pictures through the years, showing social progress.

Instagram @sandrabc13 @balleanimal

remarkable works from remarkable people

Santi GĂĄlvez Milimelis Beauty

Created in 3ds Max, modeled and rendered in Daz Studio

Inspired in Carolina Lemkeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest collection with Kim Kardashian.

Eyewear by Carolina Lemke x KKW, model Tempest

Milimelis Beauty is a creative project with makeup and beauty as the main point. It all takes place in a digital environment, created in 3d modeling softwares and postrender retouching; the purpose of the project is being a show of the latest trends and products on the beauty world, as well as telling a backstory related to beauty standards, superficiality and expectations.

The topics that inspire these creations are pop culture, trends, fashion, music, brands and a high technological components, giving digital clone-like models an android appearance, since they are clearly not human.

Instagram @milimelisbeauty @santi_gamu

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Sofía García Siénteme

Cerdibus was born from a necessity of artistic expression related with sex and erotism. An overriding necessity. Lesbian sex (and the lesbian experience in general) has always been seen throughout history from a masculine and objectified perspective, putting aside the subjects themselves. Lesbianism has always been defined by heterosexuality. As a creative lesbian woman I want to see lesbian content made by queer women. Pouring their vision, passion and experiences in it. Showing their reality, the most accurate representation of it.

Cerdibus is my approach to expressing one of my passions, sex, from a personal perspective. A way of freeing myself while contributing to the lesbian community.

Instagram @cerdibus @deusdeceptor_design E-mail deusdeceptordesign@gmail.com deusdeceptordesign.com

remarkable works from remarkable people

Wolframico La clave del silencio

Silence is the canvas where people capture their most visceral emotions. This piece reveals a moment of connection between two women, covered in a mild haze. The perception of each one makes the subjects unique. The red thread symbolizes the union, not with another person, but with oneself and the self-knowledge of our sexuality. A triangle frames the key of the illustration, and the inversi on of it represents the fight against discrimination, the clef of silence.

Instagram & Twitter @Wolframico

YEL 2 10 83 0

LLOW is for particular visions on various topics

Girls and gays in Victorian novels - were they a thing? by Abraham del RĂo // Gender and Camp by Daniel Lagos Heterosexism by Fernando Bautista // Anna Barkova: keys to the study of a poetess by Nacho LĂłpez

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GIRLS AND GAY IN VICTORIAN NOVELS Were they a thing? Words by Abraham del Río Instagram @parapaparaparara Illustration by Javi Sánchez Instagram @jamalamaja

hroughout history, there have been many attempts to fairly depict Victorian Britain, that is, an empire which encompassed four nations—England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland—from the mid-eighteenth century until somewhen in the nineteenth. This article will not only try to portray in a brief but concise manner how gender and sexuality were like to the various people living there, but also exemplify it with three novels of the time: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. (Spoilers ahead!) Firstly, Dickens’s work preserves the Victorian notion of two separate gendered spaces, for which men and women were conceived as two different, yet interdependent entities who merged together at home. As a result, the ideal of womanhood was the so-called Angel in the House; hence, all the female characters in the novel—except for Estella— are constrained by domestic demands. In contrast, men have a rather autonomous existence in society. For instance, Pip is free to attend night school, Mr. Joe often goes to the local tavern, and male residents in London are at total liberty to do what they please. However, despite this affinity with the Victorian gendered reality, Dickens portrays some of his characters as an antithesis to the stereotypes of womanhood, femininity and masculinity. In other words, even if women were expected to be submissive to their husband, he introduces calculating and manipulative female characters, such as Mrs. Joe, Miss Havisham and Estella, with no sign of the softness and sympathy that characterised the ideal Victorian woman. Similarly, many of the male individuals—Mr. Joe, Herbert Pocket or Pip himself, the main character—seem

particular visions on various topics

YS caught between “masculine strength” and “feminine vulnerability”. For Dickens, the only solution to this gender subversion is pain and violence. To illustrate, Pip falls for the insensitive Estella over the loving Biddy, and every defiant woman is eventually punished. Likewise, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë accurately mirrors the stereotypes of masculinity and femininity which Victorian society had built—strong, unsympathetic men who dominate delicate, kind women—, but was not truly accepted when it was published since it also challenges the gender roles existing in Victorian Britain. For instance, powerful characters such as Heathcliff

or Catherine Earnshaw are portrayed with compassion— even admiration—regardless of their genders, while weaker ones like Edgar Linton and Linton Heathcliff are depicted with contempt. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde is nowadays best remembered for his epigrams, plays and The Picture of Dorian Gray. However, he became one of London’s most popular public figures partly because of his scandalous imprisonment for homosexual behaviour. Actually, the stereotype of the modern homosexual was established by the end of the eighteenth century, when he died. In parallel, sexuality has the same role in his only novel, whose under-surface, controversial homoeroticism can be certainly noticed. None of the characters directly confess their homosexuality, but the contemporary reader can perceive that love between men is actually more present than the one in heterosexual relationships, even if the protagonist completely explores his sexuality with women as well—Sibyl Vane for instance. Therefore, the sensitive artist Basil Hallward seems to be obsessed with Dorian as his muse, so the latter’s beauty, charisma and grace are glorified by the painter. He is indeed extremely jealous of Dorian’s love interests when the protagonist interacts with Lord Henry Wotton. In fact, in the uncensored version of the text, Basil states his feelings to Dorian in a romantic way during the aforementioned meeting. Moreover, there is a scene where Dorian hides Basil’s painting, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for sexuality—he keeps his shame about his homosexual orientation deep “in the closet”. As a final note, while heterosexuality left historical evidence in form of social domination and children, and male homosexuality in form of trial verdicts and urban subcultures, female homosexuality left almost none. Thus, representation of homosexual Victorian women focuses on gender inversion—on their masculine appearances, intellects or temperaments—and the most common sexual model between them was the romantic friendship, seen as a good preparation for a later heterosexual marriage

“representation of homosexual Victorian women focuses on gender inversion”

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GENDER AND CAMP Words by Dani Lagos Twitter @penilicious84

ender and camp go hand in hand but their relationship has always been blurred in the past mainly because of the traditional conception of gender. In the second half of the twentieth century the new understanding of gender has also changed the conception of camp in a way never experienced before, especially in the decade of the 1990s accompanied by the queer theory.

Gender

Dealing with gender is to have in mind many characteristics and points of view since everyone experiences gender in a very different way. Broadly speaking, we can describe or define gender as the sexual characteristics that physically or mentally an individual owns. Those characteristics are usually related to two genders â&#x20AC;&#x201D;female and male. There is no way we can argue about gender without highlighting that it is by all means a social construct. The concept of gender does not describe gender itself but rather what is like to be a man or what is like to be a woman; it leaves behind everything that does not include being a woman or a man the way it has always been like. Gender, as we know it, has got more to do with roles and the expectations on femininity and masculinity, than it has with the sexual identity an individual might have. Gender, as opposed to what most people think, is not determined biologically, that is, based on reproductive organs; instead it is determined by the self realisation of an individual and his or her own gender identity. Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity can fall into four different categories which are known as gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, and sexual orientation. The first three are the ones giving form a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gender but unfortunately most people mistake the gender binary that excludes many other

particular visions on various topics

Protesters gathered in the streets outside the Stonewall Inn following the riots on June 28.

identities that do not just belong to female or male. An individual can express his or her identity in more ways than being only a man or a woman. Other categories may include intersex, genderless, genderqueer, etcetera. As stated before, gender in “civilised” cultures throughout history and all around the globe has traditionally consisted of male and female, to which certain traits and characteristics have been attached and most of the time are regarded as inherent when certainly they are not. Those characteristics have been known as gender roles. Gender roles assign behaviours, traits, and non-inherent characteristics to each gender category that makes it difficult for those that do not follow those gender roles. Colours, hairstyles, toys, pieces of clothing, and even words are biased regardless of the identity of the individual. The concepts of femininity and masculinity are respectively attached to female and male and are described as the quality of being a female or a male distinctly. Such acts, gestures, enactments, generally constructed, are performative in the sense that the essence or identity that they otherwise purport to express are fabrications manufactured and sustained through corporeal signs and other discursive means. In “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990)” Judith Butler uses as an example the moment in which a newborn is declared a boy or a girl. This is the moment gender becomes performative because from that very instant the paths the babies are going to follow are predefined. The newborns are then feminised or masculinised as individuals depending on their reproductive organs. Nevertheless, as opposed to what is predominantly believed, there can be certain natural

“Everyone experiences gender in a very different way” variations in the reproductive organs of an individual that may be very different from male or female organs that is usually in between them both, that is, the individual is an intersex. This is when it becomes clear that gender is performative for it is expected that it is the parents or even the doctor’s duty to determine the newborn’s sex and subsequently their gender. Non-binary or intersex representation in the media or in our social imagery is practically non-existent because it has been made invisible and taken for granted as unnatural even though biology and science say otherwise. The examples are many as the ones from cultures and regions that have third genders such as hijras in India, and the two-spirited in some Native American communities in the United States of America. A binary representation of gender leads to sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny. So it is fair to say that the preconceived conception of gender leads to discrimination. We live in a world where not being a heterosexual male is looked down upon and those who are different have to stand still and be ashamed.

the coming out issue

Divine in "Pink Flamingos"

Susan Sontag, author of Notes On "Camp"

Camp

Before explaining why the traditional conception of gender is so important to camp, we have to describe what camp is. The first ever definition for the term “camp” was coined in 1909 —“camp” was a synonym for “tasteless” and would remain that way for a long time. The term as we know it today was first popularised by Susan Sontag in her essay Notes On “Camp” which was published in 1964 and propelled her to notoriety. Nevertheless, her definition was argued and downplayed. Sontag was right when describing “camp” as a sensibility. The author was also right when saying that “camp” was never natural —it was and in fact is an artifice, an exaggeration. But on the other hand she silenced the fact that camp is a gay sensibility. Drag queen Nina West in a camp look

“a definition of camp that does not describe camp as a gay sensibility is incomplete”

As explained later by Moe Meyer in his “Reclaiming the Discourse of Camp”: “the homosexual connotations are downplayed, sanitised, and made for public consumption”. It was not until 1969 when the LGBTQI+ community began fighting publicly for their rights. Sontag, then, was not trying to erase the gayness trait in camp but was probably instead trying to give the recognition camp deserved without it being censored or judged because of it. Unfortunately, a definition of camp that does not describe camp as a gay sensibility is incomplete. Camp is sarcasm and irony but we cannot explain camp without its gayness because it loses its political sense. The gay sensibility we are discussing makes reference to the way the world is perceived by gay people. That is to say, a sensibility caused by homophobia and oppression by the fact of being gay or queer, that rewrites a new perception of the world by the fact of somebody’s homosexuality or queerness and their embrace of it. As stated previously, the binary system of gender leads to discrimination and oppression.

particular visions on various topics

This is why camp becomes the acceptance of one’s own homosexuality and the rejection of a straight male dominant and oppressive culture. Here it is when the dominant and traditional concept of gender comes into play. Even though we describe camp as a gay sensibility we can also describe it as a style included in almost any art form. As a style it has got characteristics of its own. Camp is humorous, it has a very distinct aestheticism, it has a parodic and ironic sense, and it is theatrical and has a political aim. As mentioned previously, gender roles are assigned to each traditional gender, that is, male and female. Men are expected to be rough and strong and on the other hand women are expected to be delicate and dependent and everything that is outside the box is condemned as bizarre or utterly wrong. That is the crux in camp’s approach: blurring the boundaries between what is expected and what is not and performing exactly the opposite. The irony of camp is giving a man the characteristics of a woman transforming the act into a subversive performance. The irony relies also in making us put into question the traditional definition of gender. Here is when the gay sensibility becomes the performer who rejects his or her own masculinity or femininity without necessarily stating that he or she is a woman or a man. This rejection has to do with camp’s political aim and its irony. In camp, we have drag which is an art form that does not only focus on men and women dressed in their opposite genders, but an exaggeration of the characteristics that heterogendering attaches to what is like to be a woman or a man. This aspect has to do with the theatricality of camp and also with its irony. Drag is the greatest exponent of camp for it is the personification of the exaggerated, idealized, stylized, and parodied femininity or masculinity.

Drag queens and drag kings play with the exaggeration of gender in a way that makes one think why we are expected to associate certain characteristics to gender. It makes us think why we associate the hourglass shape, a lot of makeup and long nails with womanhood or why we think it is masculine to have facial hair and big muscles. This aspect has to do with two characteristics of camp: its parody and its aestheticism. Drag is a parody because the relation between gender an individual is incongruent because of how exaggerated is presented. We have taken into account that camp is by all means a gay sensibility which rejects the traditional gender roles and that it is ironic because of it. Thanks to the rejection of masculinity and femininity and male and female gender roles, the visibility of the LGBTIQ+ community is exposed. If heteropatriarchy states that men are supposed to be masculine, that is strong, fierce, independent, camp allows men to be whatever they feel like being. Men then use the type of femininity they are not socially allowed to in order to focus on visibility. Camp becomes a very political statement as explained by Moe Meyer: “Camp is political; Camp is solely a gay discourse; and . . . Camp embodies a specifically gay cultural critique.” Meyer gives his own definition of camp that is one of the most factual definitions: “I define Camp as the total body of performative practices and strategies used to enact a gay identity, with enactment understood as the production of social visibility”. This is when the irony of it all becomes a parody. The parody of camp lies in the irony of a man presenting himself with the characteristics of women or the other way round. Camp is very important to the LGBTIQ+ community because it helps cope with a world that does not always understand our point of view and also makes visible all the aspects of our identity and that we are more than stereotypes

Bibliography Babuscio, Jack. “Camp and the Gay Sensibility”.

Dynes, Wayne R., (ed.). Encyclopedia of Homosexuality.

Ludlam, Charles. The Complete Plays of Charles Ludlam.

Newton, Esther. “Role Models”.

Barret, Rusty. From Drag Queens to Leathermen: Language, Gender, and Gay Male Subcultures.

Edgecomb, Sean F.. Charles Ludlam Lives! Charles Busch, Bradford Louryk, Taylor Mac, and the Queer Legacy of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company.

“Camille: A Travesty on La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas Fils”

Smith-Howard, Alycia, and Greta Heintzelman. Critical Companion to Tennessee Williams: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work.

Gussow, Mel. “Ludlam Star of “Camille” in Title Role”. The New York Times, May 4, 1973.

Mattel, Trixie. “Trixie Mattel: Expanding The Definition of Drag”, Interview by Jeffrey Masters.

Bergman, David. Camp Grounds: Style and Homosexuality. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Ceballos Muñoz, Alfonso. “Representación” de la identidad gay en la obra dramática de Terrence McNally. Davy, Kate. “Fe/Male Impersonation: The Discourse of Camp”.

“Stage: ‘The Mystery of Irma Vep’”. The New York Times, Oct. 4, 1984. Hwang, David Henry. M. Butterfly. Lester, Eleonore. “The Holy Foolery of Charles Ludlam”. The New York Times, Jul. 14, 1974.

“The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful”.

Meyer, Moe. The Politics and Poetics of Camp. Archeology of Posing. La Vergne Moschovakis, Nicholas, and David Roessel. Mister Paradise and Other One-Act Plays by Tennessee Williams.

O’Neill, Eugene. The Hairy Ape.

Sontag, Susan. Notes on “Camp”. Williams, Tennessee. “And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens… (A Play in Two Scenes)”.

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HETEROSEXISM

Words by Fernando Bautista Twitter @FD_bautista

hen Simone de Beauvoir tells us that the "non-subject" can only aspire to be "subject" she refers to the woman but this concept is also applicable to homosexual men.

A homosexual man is "man" insofar as he gradually approaches the hegemonic concept of "man" represented by heterosexual men. Homosexual subjects are exposed to renounce some supposed defining features in exchange for receiving the partial approval of the oppressor. As we observed, an illusion is created by which this aspiration to become "subjects" manages to establish a strong bond of domination. It is a paradox that not only is structured at the practical level, but emotionally consumes the subjects. When their aspirations are frustrated, they end up creating their own spaces of interaction where they can establish their own hierarchy and usually imitate the hegemonic model on a smaller scale. In this way it is easy to understand that the emotional exhaustion that supposes to aspire to a recognition as subjects that never arrives, ends in the apathy. In short, as noted by authors such as Paco Vidarte (Etica Marica, 2017), a clear involution of our interests is recognized due to the denial of "ourselves". In other words, to deny our reality and avoid building a class consciousness that from the community can show some kind of resistance to the oppressive dynamics. Heterosexism is the system of attitudes that systematically preserve the hegemonic values of heterosexuals. What is worrisome is the degree to which this phenomenon is energized by the homosexuals themselves. For example, social networks and dating apps form a communicative space in which a great expression

particular visions on various topics

of heterosexism is established. There is a clear fetishism of a heterosexual man that is exported in this meat market almost becoming a luxury item. "Out of the environment", "no fems", "hetero". These expressions are common for users, but they are not the only evaluation systems. Since the apps incorporated voice messages, this tool has become another element to evaluate the "fem" of the subjects. "Can you send audio?", they ask. Later they will refuse to continue speaking with you if you have not satisfied the desired degree of masculinity. In short, for many homosexuals there is an added value in manifesting a heterosexual aesthetic. This is produced by the renunciation of the "homosexual class", in favour of the unattainable sexual fetish of sexual relations with straight men. The homosexual subject has few possibilities of abstracting from the heterosexual oppression that shapes his life. Far from establishing chains of cooperation in favor of empowerment, homosexual subjects are immersed in an individuality favored by the system, which goes against their interests. The emotional exhaustion that the repression condition supposes hinders the articulation of networks that in some way delay the long-awaited final and individual well-being. We could take the idea of Judith Butler (The Gender in Dispute, 1990) that gender is produced from education. In this case, the lack of sexual education for LGBTQ+ people produces the no-gender, the frustration of not reaching the expectations set by the institution and many other problems that no one seems to pay attention to. Butler also considers that a woman is a woman insofar as she functions as such in the dominant heterosexual structure. In the case of the homosexual man, the same thing would happen. The homosexual subject not only does not function as a man in the heterosexual structure, but on many occasions it represents an entity completely opposed to it. In short, as Vidarte also says, when ethics and the state institution are designed by and for heterosexuals, these codes and patterns of behavior are a first stage of oppression that is often insurmountable. If there was a "we" this has been diluted by having reached a series of minimum freedoms. In relation to what we said about the emotional waste "the installed fag knows nobody". Once he reaches his individual happiness, the subject homosexuality abandons his class struggle. Possibly this is due to the traumatic process in which we have been insisting. Hence the need for a superior, common knowledge entity, a Marica Ethics

From a theoretical point of view, we observe that if we apply the components of the genre enunciated by Maquiera (Virginia Maquiera D'Angelo, 2001), the homosexual man presents problems similar to that of the woman. We present a list of the most conflicting inputs:

Gender identity: The social definition received from the gender man does not correspond to the manifestation of the homosexual man.

Attributions: The expectations generated by a man for society is not satisfactory with a homosexual subject.

Symbols and cultural metaphors: Non-existing in relation to homosexuals and existing ones are contaminated by the halo of the sordid.

4 5

Prestige: Built on the basis of abandoning your class consciousness. Institutions: Focus on sexual orientation from an inferiority position. The few times we talk about sexual orientation in the educational system is always given by the need to protect the weak.

Bibliography Vidarte, P. (2007). Ética marica. Proclamas libertarias para una militancia LGTBQ, Barcelona-Madrid: Egales. Butler, J. (2007). El género en disputa: el feminismo y la subversión de la identidad. Paidós. Beltrán, E. (2001). Feminismos: debates teóricos contemporáneos.

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ANNA BARKOVA

keys to the study of a poetess Words by Nacho LĂłpez E-mail misteermagic@gmail.com

nna Barkova (1901-1976) was a russian poetess, journalist and writer from the 20th century, whose work was silenced in the soviet era because of crosspurposes with the cultural and political canons of the soviet regimen. In her poems and essays, where we can see her peculiar rebel personality and openly shows her sexual orientation, she conveyed the tragic events that mark the period in time she had to live. Barkova survived various arrests and three long confinements in the gulag. She fought alone, pushing aside her femininity and living in truly horrific conditions. Nevertheless, she never gave up. Her immense capacity to extract and manage all of her ordeals, transforming them through literary creation, makes of Barkova an admirable example of survival and resilience. Except for a book of poems and a brief play published in the 20s, the remainder of her body of work started surfacing in Russia in 1989, after her death. As of today, there are no translations of Anna Barkovaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work in Spain

particular visions on various topics

Прости мою ночную душу

Perdona a mi alma nocturna

Помилуй, Боже, ночные души (не знаю — откуда)

Señor, apiádate de las almas nocturnas (No sé, de dónde viene)

Прости мою ночную душу И пожалей. Кругом все тише, и все глуше, И все темней.

Perdona a mi alma nocturna Y ten piedad de ella. Todo se vuelve más silencioso, Se atenúa y se vuelve más oscuro.

Я отойду в страну удушья, В хмарь ноября. Прости мою ночную душу, Любовь моя. Спи, Сон твой хочу подслушать, Тревог полна. Прости мою ночную душу В глубинах сна.

Me adentraré en el país de la asfixia, En la nubosa noviembre. Perdona a mi alma nocturna, Mi amor. Duerme, quiero escuchar tu sueño, Lleno de inquietud. Perdona a mi alma nocturna En la profundidad de tus sueños. 1976

GRE 72 0 82 0

EEN is for projects shaping the present and the future

Pab by Daniel Bentue // In Due Order by Daniel Cao // BÂ·Pals App by Edu Manzanillo Queer Saints by Evan Poison // Wo/man/hood: Deconstructing gender by Jaime Vidal NOSOTRES by Marc Aleixandri // Skin Project by Marina Delgado True Self by Victor Bianchi // Gender by Zafo

Pab

By Dani Bentue Instagram and Behance @flimdan

projects shaping the present and the future

Pab called me to take some photos a few months after she declared herself as trans. I think because of my DIY process and because she saw some pictures of mine and told me I saw something more that what I had before me. An expired 120mm film roll in a 1982 camera and a room temperature developing in my bathroom. I really liked joining her strength with the raw style of the expired analogue.

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projects shaping the present and the future

the coming out issue

In due order By Daniel Cao Instagram @xxdcaoxx dcao95.wixsite.com/danielcao

projects shaping the present and the future

This project started from a very interesting location in Barcelona, where the concept was to convey sensations of space and lonesomeness with some retro-timelessness to it. Giving space and emptiness a notable importance in the images, mixing the natural with the industrial because of factories and other facilities in the background. From styling, colours, vibes and the places in the images, it gives an exotic feeling, even a bit arab in the head pieces and other aesthetic details.

The name of the project came from the styling, matching the military tone and the modelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aesthetic, conveying a timeless flair with an exotic aesthetic with mainly earthy and grey tones. I always like to tell a story in fashion editorials helped by artistic photography, hence the landscape photography and details of the environment, to give some context even though the location is vaguely recognisable. The editorial was published in F Young! in collaboration with some showrooms and brands.

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projects shaping the present and the future

the coming out issue

projects shaping the present and the future

PHOTO & PROJECT: DANIEL CAO STYLING: FAUSTO LEONI

MODEL: ALVARO SILVEIRA

GROOMING: PAULA MEDINACELI AGENCY: ELITE SPAIN WEARING:

ANDRÉS ZURRÚ,CUSTO BARCELONA, JAVIER MORATO ES COLLECTION, MANS CONCEPT MEANSWEAR, PABLO ERROZ, AMERICAN VINCATGE, ZETA1, B’OBSCEN

BÂˇPals App By Edu Manzanillo Instagram @edumanzanillo_design E-mail edumanzanillo@gmail.com

projects shaping the present and the future

This app was born from a regular conversation with friends in a bar, talking about their ups and downs in online dating, and we wondered why finding a partner was so hard when these tools were made just for that. As a UX/UI student I had the opportunity to lay out and develop this premise as “an app created specifically to find a partner”. I have to admit that although being single and from the LGBTQ+ community, I’ve always been reluctant to fall under the cliché of online dating and hooking up apps, considering those type of applications promote segregation amongst the community and uplift the idea that homosexuals just think about sex. But this was an opportunity to look into this unknown world. One of the main rules of UX/UI is that the designer is not the final user, but in this case I decided to cross the border and experience myself what was it all about. I signed up to every popular dating app and started to talk with all kinds of people about the subject, gathering insights. As a result to all of that, I created B·Pals, an app where you choose what you’re looking for, meet the person and whatever goes next. A tool that more than finding you a partner, helps you in the process of finding it. One of the key problems in finding a partner in these apps is frivolization of sexual encounters and putting looks

over personality, creating some kind of “meat market”. B·Pals proposes a system of filtering and choices based on a compatibility degree making it clear from the beginning. Another notable point that came from the insights was how the selection and dismiss from Tinder was feeling already tired. In the app, this system is based on a social feed where the user can see the candidates with just swiping up and down or with the “shake to move” option, where the user can shake the device to refresh or randomize the candidates. Other functionalities worth mentioning are the possibility of accessing cultural events and inviting potential partners within the app, or an AI assistant that provides the user with suggestions and advices for those who go blank. B·Pals also has the option of filtering potential partners depending on what you’re looking for with a colour code for romance, friendship or sex. The conclusion I got to was that there is no exact formula to get a partner. A high percentage of the interviewees admitted that sex was a crucial part in the process, even something mandatory before testing compatibility, although most of the users agree that sex was trivialized in these apps. So, as a new take in this subject, sex shouldn’t be banned but considered as a filter or another element in the equation.

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projects shaping the present and the future

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Queer Saints By Evan Poison Instagram @evan_poison

projects shaping the present and the future

This project was born through my investigation of the representation of deities in different religions and faiths around the world, especially christianism. With this I created a sanctorale based on queer people, people who haven’t followed heteronormativity in their lives. Religion and performativity of sex and gender are key subjects that lay the foundations of my psyche, and you can clearly see that reflected in this project. In casual meetings with all kinds of people, from the LGBT+ community or not, more often than not I could tell that they didn’t know most of the history behind our community. Facts that, being essential or not, helped build what we know today as LGBT+ culture or queer culture. Faced with this situations I always reacted the same way: I took a teacher role and gave them an “LGBT+ Culture 101” masterclass. That’s why I considered a way of teaching people a little bit more about the subject. Nurturing and soaking them in knowledge that most of the times end up hidden in the annals of history because they are considered not worthy of being learned or irrelevant. Did you know that is said that Isaac Newton, renowned mathematician because of his law of universal gravitation, died a virgin because he never slept with a woman but it’s omitted that he slept with a man for years and their “friendship breakup” broke his heart so badly that he had rather die?

This is just a mere example of why this project needs to be done. People must know the truth, the truth that the heteropatriarchy tried to hide from us. I’ve looked for reference in various artistic fields where work has been done about queerness, religion and votive offering; finding very interesting artists as Miyuzuki Baker or Andrés Monteagudo, and of course, the very well-known Damien Hirst. Like this, taking ordinary people to the status of a deity, I expect for people interested in the project to discover them, or if they already knew them, let them know a bit more about their lives. I present you a new sanctorale, built from people of flesh and blood that belonged to the LGBT+ community and helped “throw the first stone”, like Marsha P. Johnson or Sylvia Rivera during the Stonewall riots; that were trailblazers, like Lili Elbe, having the first sex reassignment surgery; or those who are of uncertain nature, like James Dean or Marlon Brando, amongst many others. This sanctorale is brought to life by a series of saints cards, designed after various cultures’ deities imagery, like christianity, death worshipping in México or the spontaneous altars created when massive attacks happen in first world countries. I also created a modified jacket based in the bullfighting culture and its religiosity and constant, and almost sick, use of saints and virgins imagery.

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projects shaping the present and the future

the coming out issue

Wo/man/hood Deconstructing gender

By Jaime Vidal Instagram @jaime.vidall

projects shaping the present and the future

Wo/man/hood is born from the idea of disassociating gender from social norms around us. The main focus is deconstructing “the feminine” and “the masculine” concepts that create stereotypes and limit us according to our sex assigned at birth, and questioning instead: What is femininity or masculinity? They seem to be enormous social constructs imposed to determine what we should or shouldn’t do according to our genitalia. They still are the foundation of some old clichés such as men can’t wear a skirt or makeup and women should be sophisticated. That’s why we wanted to convey a simile, with a suburban aesthetic, between suburb buildings and social conglomerates that entangle us, against which we have to be critical and prevail our own freedom. The styling and makeup break social stigmas too, portrayed by the chromatic contrast between red and green, used as a visual signifier of right and wrong. Through the body of work, the central character and the environment experiment an evolution, starting with the “under construction” sign.

This beginning symbolizes an introspective, product of personal insecurities due to society’s beauty standards. Black clothes and restrained body language that in “breaking bricks” are gone. Shattering that state of mind, colours get brighter and composition gets bolder. We get to the culmination of the scene in “disconnection”. Moving freely, comfortable and defiant, challenging stares from those who question traditional beauty’s perfection. The act is closed with a final vibrant image, loaded with two last conclusions: “No gender, no problem” or “No gender problem”, where we state that gender prejudices should not determine our actions or our means. We always have to be ourselves and raise awareness for diversity, where true beauty lays. Breaking stereotypes with wo/man/hood, an editorial refusing the status quo.

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projects shaping the present and the future

the coming out issue

projects shaping the present and the future

the coming out issue

projects shaping the present and the future

Art direction, production and photography: Jaime Vidal @jaime.vidall Words: Marta Moneo @ma.moneo Model: Chema GarcĂa @chemagarcĂaf MUA: Ana Gonzalez @analaestascagando

the coming out issue

NOSOTRES

By Marc Aleixandri Instagram @_maaa

projects shaping the present and the future

Penis or vagina. Man or woman. From before birth, our lives, behaviors and future actions are divided into two different paths, depending only on our sex and reproductive system. A large number of roles are assigned to each person and are kept in the family and school environment, building a cisheteropatriarchal femininity and masculinity, based on the secular idea that gender are pink and blue closed boxes, which represent a binary and hierarchical system with two positions, masculinity above the femininity. This is a fashion project promoted by a personal disagreement with this traditional and cisheteropatriarchal society and that pretends (being based mainly on feminist ideologies, Judith Butlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and the Queer Theory) not to open but to break these imaginary boxes and to contribute a grain of sand more to the revolution by transforming its perception of gender as it is known by normative society. Starting from tailoring and corsetry as the extremes of what would be related such as men's fashion and women's fashion respectively, the project has been finally developed in a collection of 10 looks in which it is played with the union of these two extremes of typologies and its deconstruction, both at the level of nomenclatures as aesthetics, to create new shapes that escape from what has already been established but through a recognizable language that helps to communicate the message and the ideology behind the entire collection.

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projects shaping the present and the future

the coming out issue

Skin Project

By Marina Delgado Instagram @marinadelgadx

projects shaping the present and the future

It’s actually a very simple motto, just bodies and skins. I wanted to show something that you wouldn’t see in a conventional fashion editorial like Vogue. The focus was to show skin in the rawest way, including all types of bodies, marks and scars from anyone. As a main reference I took the film “Pieles” by Eduardo Casanova and its aesthetic, therefore the pink colour. Also pink is one of my favourite colours. The lighting is very dim to achieve a very diffuse and relaxed environment, contrasted by the shadows that outline elusively some body parts. ”Skin project” shows and empowers bodies outside the normative canons, even though those are still as valid as any other. All bodies are beautiful.

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Models

Tess @maduixarepipi_

Juanma @juanmagrams_

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True Self

By Victor Bianchi E-mail victorbianchi3@gmail.com

projects shaping the present and the future

5. Diseño de personajes

Lili / Lilian Lilian is not like the other boys. Lilian is a 20-year-old boy that lives

Nombre: Lilidad and has a group of very with his close friends.

Nombre de chico: Lilian

Right away we realize the situation he going through: Lilian is a transgender Edad:is 20 girl. He looks in the mirror and sees Lili, a happy confident girl. At school, Profesion: estudiante the situation is very different. Her friends know the truth Carácter: and support her. They gift her a skirt a top, leaving Lili speechless Lili esand segura, determinada y decidida. and very emotional as shepor changes Le gusta ir al cine, pasear la naturaher clothes.

leza y por supuesto pasar el tiempo con su grupo de noticed amigossome y amigas, lxs cuales Her dad old pictures siempre hanroom apoyado y que desde in thelaliving that brought back el many memories,labut heapoyado perceives that primer momento han en su his daughter is dull. There’s a knock situación. on the door and when he opens it he Lili es introvertida aunque segura, no doesn’t find Lilian, he finds Lili. They hablahave conanmuchas personas quiere argument and while ni at first ponerse en muestra, pero si alguien sight the father looks angry, he is only le really no afraid whatproblemas could happen dice algo se of hace en resto his daughter. ponderle. Su gran obstaculo de superar y gran obWith tears in her eyes, Lili takes jetivoher dedad conseguir, es where encontrar el valor to her room, she opens her closet showing everything that’s inside of it. Shirts, pants, skirts, dresses and a trans flag. Lili takes a box and gives it to her dad. Between some makeup, there’s a Polaroid. A picture showing Lili in makeup, happy and smiling with her friends. The father realizes that there’s nothing to worry about her daughter, while she’s happy being herself. They hug vigorously. The father looks to the mirror where Lilian used to see Lili. Now she’s not just a reflection. Lilian was not like the other boys. Lili is like the other girls.

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Gender

By Zafo Instagram @zafo.photo @zafo.unzorroazul zafostudio.com

projects shaping the present and the future

Being included in a socio-cultural system we take for granted some behaviours, activities, conditions, stances and values amongst which we find gender identity constructs. In our culture it’s implied that the masculine falls on individuals born as “men” and the feminine falls on individuals born as “women”. We can say that the “object” also makes up an important part in these identities. Before keep going, and to put some context to this body of work, I’ll briefly describe what I mean with “gender identity”. In the current outlook, gender identity (Expression coined by Robert Stoller and Evelyn Hooker almost simultaneously in 1960) is the own psychological construct of the individual influenced by their social, cultural and political environment; resulting in a binary conception: male and female, trans and other forms known as non binary, where we find queer theories that distinguish between gender constructs and biological sex. When thinking about how these constructs come about, I can’t help to ask myself: What is the role of the object in the development of gender identity? Why a dress is considered female? Why pants are considered male? Engaging with our own society and being raised in it, most of the time we don’t have a critical thought about what and how we do and see things. A clear example are corporate dressing codes, where we can find specific sections about skirt lengths and allowed nail polish colours for females, whereas the same points are omitted for males, where appropriate suits and shoes are talked about.

In this project I expect to create a conversation between the object and photography, where this objects -icons- are used to describe gender with an exaggerated look. Based on mid 19th century drag aesthetics, where artists like Leigh Bowery started to criticize through humour all these constructs and social paradigms, observing gender as a “norm”, exploring masculine and feminine from social normativities (What’s a woman? What makes her a woman? What’s a man? What makes him a man?) in order to initiate conversations around body and identity. Also, to explore works by contemporary photographers like Paz Errázuriz, Ruven Afanador and artists like Mykki Blanco, who through fashion and languages of their own undermine or add value (as you want to read it) to gender identity by switching standards and alienating the biological sex.

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B 71 7 17 0

BLUE is for different artists talking about the same issues

Queen Escรกndalo is a drag queen // Fauces is a singer & songwriter // Marc Espinar is an artist

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Escรกndalo Escรกndalo is a drag queen

different artists talking about the same issues

My name is Escándalo and I’m a drag queen who loves makeup, colours and music, who doesn’t know embarrassment and wants to show everyone that drag can be so much fun.

Who are your referents?

My drag style is not influenced by specific things but I really like the aesthetic of teen movies from the 2000’s. As for drag, I’d say I have a fixation with Ariel Versace.

What do you love about what you do? And what do you absolutely hate?

What I love the most without question is the power you feel when transforming: serving a fantasy and being someone completely different for a few hours is incredible, especially when you have people that likes what you do. The worst? Shaving and heels. Awful.

Instagram @queenescandalo E-mail guiespi.dash@gmail.com

How did your inner circle react the first time they saw what you do?

My family has always supported me with the makeup thing, in fact, my mom has pictures of my firsts looks in the living room. As for drag, they also support me but they worry I could get hurt on the streets or what they understand as the night life.

Do you think ten years ago you could do what you are doing now? The art of drag is very old, but it is true that it has evolved massively in the past few years. Before, it was something extravagant, rude and linked to bad things but now, for example, it has been introduced in the fashion world and with things like Drag Race it has become mainstream. Therefore, ten years ago you could have done drag, but not in the same way as today.

Does being in the LGBTQ+ community influence your art? In which ways?

As someone who belongs to the community I have the duty

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"serving a fantasy and being someone completely different for a few hours is incredible" of shaping the barriers of what society has imposed to each gender. I’m not even talking about drag, which is often associated to homosexual and transgender people, but about expressing my own femininity through every element this artform brings me. So yes, everything I can do is thanks to the LGTB community.

process where you’re gonna be embarrassing, either dancing or putting makeup on. Only if you work hard you will get what you aim for.

Do you think there is enough visibility of the community in your artistic field nowadays?

In my field, collaborations aren’t a big goal like it could be for a singer. But it’s true that us drag queens love fashion, so I would say that I’d really like to walk for a designer or getting in front of the lens of an acclaimed photographer. Who doesn’t like having great pictures taken of themselves?

My artistic field was in part created by the community. Obviously everyone can do drag, even cisheterosexual women (even tho I think there the fantasy fades a bit, but that’s another subject). Overall, yes, I think so.

What advice would you give to someone younger who is starting to know themselves and wants to express themselves in an artistic or creative way?

Just do it. Don’t listen to bad comments, nobody's born knowing everything and we all have to go through a learning

If you had the opportunity to collaborate in any way with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

And lastly, is there anyone worth following? Me, bitch! Jk. In Spain we have amazing drag, although people don’t see it. Some examples of it are @iamthekillerqueen or @iamalaskanebraska

different artists talking about the same issues

"we all have to go through a learning process where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re gonna be embarrassing"

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Fauces Fauces

is a singer & songwriter

different artists talking about the same issues

I’m Carlos Blanco, Fauces’ frontman. I’m 24, currently working in graphic design and communication in Málaga. I’m a creative, singer and songwriter. I’ve also been part of Feral (La Fiesta, 2016) for a short time before I started my own project (Fauces) which is now turning into a band. I don’t really know what to say about myself except I’m maybe too loud and eccentric for my own good.

Who are your referents?

I’ve always been drawn to the independent artists with a disruptive view on the pop music industry. I like to follow the creative process of people like Jon Bellion, Bonnie McKee, Marina Diamandis… They all create really interesting music working in a very personal and distinct way. In the spanish side, I look at many indie artists like Zahara, Miss Caffeína or La Bien Querida, mostly anyone that works on great lyrics while also trying not to give up the pop vibe in the process.

What do you love about what you do? And what do you absolutely hate? Instagram @xfauces Twitter @xfauces youtube.com/c/fauces xfauces.bancamp.com fauces.es

Creating is probably the part I like the most. I get really excited when I’m working on something I believe it’s going to turn out good. Building a song step by step is a complicated process and that’s why I need Gryves, my producer, for the production, but I still like to get involved on every step. We sometimes spend months sharing references, ideas and possible versions of the songs. I would like to find a way to make the fans participate in some way, getting to know the evolution for each single, but I understand it’s really difficult because that would be sharing raw material, and it’s very far from the quality of a final product.

How did your inner circle react the first time they saw what you do?

I’ve performed only a few times in my life so I’m not an established artist yet. But the first times people got to see my music live they were actually kind of surprised. I don’t show the same Fauces persona on a daily basis, I tend to be more shy or silent, and even my voice sounds different.

the coming out issue

Do you think ten years ago you could do what you are doing now? Well, what I’m doing now which is just creating music, yes. But I wouldn’t have the projection that we, LGTB artists, have today. There has been a breach in the music industry leading the way for a more open spectrum of artists, and what used to be a liability (in my case being gay), has become a marketable feature. As it always happens, that has its perks and disadvantages, but in general I think it’s a good thing. We need to use that space we’re given to send the right messages. Some interesting examples of openly LGTB singers that are paving that way, for me, are Troye Sivan, Olly Alexander, Kim Petras, Hayley Kyoko or MNEK.

Does being in the LGBTQ+ community influence your art? In which ways?

I don’t see myself as a gay songwriter, since my lyrics rarely revolve around LGTB culture itself. But I am a gay guy, so it obviously shows through my lyrics. At this point in my career I’m just trying to write whatever I feel without thinking too much about it, but I believe by doing that I’m somehow contributing to visibilize the collective. What I’m trying to say is being LGTB influences my music because I write about my own life and experience, and I also tend to have LGTB artists as part of my references. But in the future I would like it to be me who influences and participates in our movement, though I know I still need to educate myself a lot to be able to do that properly.

Do you think there is enough visibility of the community in your artistic field nowadays? No, there’s definitely not. In any artistic field actually. We never have the same space as normative people in the mass media, but it’s true that through social media we are starting to reclaim our space, and showing that there’s a lot of people who want to know what we do. I think we need to keep pushing, but the opportunity to do so is definitely there.

What advice would you give to someone younger who is starting to know themselves and wants to express themselves in an artistic or creative way? To never let anybody define what you should or shouldn’t do. You are entitled to your own feelings, opinions and perspective, so you’re the one that decides

how and what to express. It doesn’t matter if you draw, sing, write, or whatever the hell you want to do. What’s important is that its personal and it feels right. Find shelter in your art, make it your weapon, and grow through it.

If you had the opportunity to collaborate in any way with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

It’s difficult to name a single name because I’d like to collaborate with so many people. If I had to make a choice right now I’d say Bonnie McKee. It’s such a weird name to come up with I guess, cause she’s not that known for her music but she’s a brilliant songwriter and she always has so much fun working on each concept. I think it would teach me a lot, and it’d help me understand pop music way better. Also, she’s probably really fun to party with.

And lastly, is there anyone worth following?

If you don’t already, you should definitely follow my partner in crime @nadiuskapop. One of my best friends and the person I feel more comfortable working with. He has a really intimate way to create and tell stories in a non complex way, but still manages to incorporate well thought metaphors out of everyday situations. I feel like he speaks for a generation of songwriters that I feel very much part of

"I get really excited when I’m working on something I believe it’s going to turn out good"

different artists talking about the same issues

"Find shelter in your art, make it your weapon, and grow through it"

the coming out issue

Marc Espinar Marc Espinar is an artist

different artists talking about the same issues

My name is Marc Espinar, I’m 22 and I’m an artist. Indecisive. Intense. Sensitive. I like going to the mountains. And I’m a mess.

Who are your referents?

This is a tricky question because anything or anyone could be a referent for me. One day I’m so into an artist and the next one I’ve forgotten about it and I’m obsessed with another three artists completely different from each other. I don’t know, I’m not very good at choosing things. But right now I’m really obsessed with Yopoosh, a filmmaker who works a lot with dancers. I think everything he does is amazing and he really inspires me.

What do you love about what you do? And what do you absolutely hate? Instagram @marcespinarr Vimeo Marc Espinar

I really love everything I do and that’s why I do it. Dancing, photography, music, painting… Overall, I adore everything related with art and communication. I also love nature, going to the countryside, go for a walk and camp, swimming in the river or simply observe. Going to the mountain is always a great plan that excites me. As for what I hate, I basically hate everything imposed to me. A good example are studying, university and all of that. I’m really bad with focusing in things I’m not in the mood for, I really struggle to get those things done. I like doing things my way. I even end up hating things I do by choice that I love, like dancing, where some projects require a lot of commitment, and that’s something I clash with and end up upset and hating myself from making some kind of decisions.

How did your inner circle react the first time they saw what you do?

Generally I’ve always had a positive response from my environment since everything I do is attached one way

the coming out issue

"I hated being a feminine boy and wanted to get rid of that"

or the other to it. There has been times where I’ve had problems with this because I lived a life conditioned by others and the system, but today I feel that my life is very mine, that's why my environment responds very positively to everything I do and to what I am.

Do you think ten years ago you could do what you are doing now? Not at all. Ten years ago I had my life laid out very differently. Back then I was too young and I didn’t know myself enough, I wasn’t even aware of what I was capable to do, I just tried to meet the expectations my family and the society had of me.

Does being in the LGBTQ+ community influence your art? In which ways?

Totally. It influences me because being part of this community has conditioned all my life and what I am, and my art is what I am. It touches me in so many ways that I find it hard to enclose this question, but sensibility and freedom are two concepts that summarize it pretty well. How I see things and take them in say a lot about me and how being a feminine gay boy has influenced me. For example, as a dancer I’ve tried many different modalities, but a few years ago I discovered vogue, a style totally linked to the LGTB community which is about freedom. Thanks to voguing I started working a lot more femininity in movement and attitude, something I always ran away from, since there were times where I hated being a feminine boy and wanted to get rid of that. But as time passed, dancing and expressing myself through femininity, I discovered it actually was something I saw myself reflected in and boosted my as a dancer and person. Voguing has helped me to know myself better and accepting myself as I am, in every single way.

Do you think there is enough visibility of the community in your artistic field nowadays?

I think there’s a lot of visibility. Social media have given us the opportunity of expressing ourselves freely and show

our work, so we’ve slowly been creating our own empire, built based in our values and ideals, giving us even more voice and visibility to the world. Even so, I feel there’s still great ignorance because our society still doesn’t understand many things we speak out and fight against. Society is still not ready because it hasn’t been well educated, we’re still on the same clichés and taboos. Therefore, yes, there has been progress and much more visibility, but were still in an uninterrupted fight. We’ve gone from something bad to something not as bad.

What advice would you give to someone younger who is starting to know themselves and wants to express themselves in an artistic or creative way?

My advice is to run away from perfectionism and social approval. I’ve been so dependent of both those things, in fact I’m still are and try to fight against it. It’s really hard not to fall for it because our lives feel like a race where we can’t lower our guard and where there’s no place for error. But experience has taught me that only I am capable of creating and being authentic to both myself and what I do when I leave behind external demands. Being liberated from all of that I then have fun and experiment creating. And then magic happens and things start to flow from you naturally. And that feeling is breathtaking and comes with a lot of personal knowledge and self-esteem to keep creating.

If you had the opportunity to collaborate in any way with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

I guess to anyone this would be a very quick and easy question to answer to, but I’ve been several minutes trying to come up with something, and I’m incapable of deciding things. I’m a libra bitch.

And lastly, is there anyone worth following? @yopoosh @ericjean_ @josephhaxan @empty.pools and @feeglory

different artists talking about the same issues

"Voguing has helped me to know myself better and accepting myself as I am, in every single way"

VIO 84 98 18 7

OLET is for things weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking forward to

GFOTY - If You Think I'm a Bitch, You Should Meet Gfoty // Lizzo - Cuz I love you // MARINA - Love + Fear // PUTOCHINOMARICON - Miseria Humana // Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated // Tyler, The Creator - Igor Homo-? by Filip Custic // The Met Gala // Eurovision // Primavera Sound

the coming out issue

GFOTY - If You Think I'm a Bitch, You Should Meet GFOTY April 12

If You Think I’m A Bitch, You Should Meet GFOTY is GFOTY’s first EP after leaving London’s PC Music label. Though one of the label’s founding members, she voiced frustration with the label in late 2018. She later clarified that she would no longer be releasing through PC Music, but that she remained amiable with everyone else on the label.

Lizzo - Cuz I love you April 19

The shiny soul-pop of Lizzo’s major label debut is something of a thesis on internalized and externalized confidence—so much so that the music can feel like a means to a greater end. In fact, Lizzo does have a genre, something like empowerment-core, and she offers songs for an astonishing array of demographics: thick women, independent women, women in general, anyone struggling with body image, people who are single, people who wish to become single, etc. Lizzo’s music performs an important social function. The sound might disappoint, but there will be people moved to transformations of their own thanks to her songs. And that’s important, too.

MARINA - Love + Fear April 26

Marina Diamandis’ first album since shedding her “Marina and the Diamonds” identity slides from affecting poetry to cold calculation. LOVE + FEAR is the highly anticipated fourth studio album by MARINA. Comprised of two concept albums, tracks 1 to 8 make up LOVE and tracks 9 to 16 make up FEAR. she chose love and fear as the two main themes after listening to the album and realizing that consolidating it to just twelve tracks felt “wrong”. Quite simple, direct, spacious and fresh.” She said she feels “calm and confident” in this era, whereas she described Electra Heart as “a fun record to make” and FROOT as “brilliant” because she felt sure of herself.

things we’re looking forward to

PUTOCHINOMARICON Miseria Humana May 10

When you listen to something that sounds so incredible you don’t know if it’s terribly calculated or just a wonderful coincidence, congratulations: you’re before pure genius. Everything that Chenta Tsai does seems to do so. Once again, after “Corazón De Cerdo Con Ginseng Al Vapor”, his memoirs, his brilliant radio programme or his collaborations with El País newspaper. “Miseria Humana” is his latest mini-LP where he reflects the current ways of consuming. A critic to the way we consume music nowadays, consumer culture and the fleeting life of everything that surrounds us.

Carly Rae Jepsen Dedicated May 17

Almost four years after the watershed triumph of Emotion, Carly Rae Jepsen is set to release her fourth studio LP, Dedicated, on May 17, 2019. The record was announced on April 1, following months of speculation after the release of lead single “Party For One”. With the drop of additional promotional singles “Now That I Found You”, “No Drug Like Me”, “Julien”, and “Too Much”, Dedicated is shaping up to include both a continuation of Jepsen’s nowsignature 80s synth-pop sound and a movement toward the groovier world of disco and funk.

Tyler, The Creator Igor May 17

Tyler, the Creator’s sixth album is impressionistic and emotionally charged, the result of an auteur refining his style and baring more of his soul than ever before. IGOR sounds like the work of a perfectionist giving shape to his more radical ideas. Tyler, who proudly produced, wrote, and arranged the album, is singing more but he’s not worrying whether his tracks have a traditional pop arc. Songs don’t build to a crescendo, they often begin there.

the coming out issue

Homo-? by Filip Custic March 22 to May 15

The exhibition is conceived as a divulgative multisensorial installation. The main piece of the exhibition is an animated, large format, virtual triptych that displays the peculiar point of view of Custic of a “retro-prospective” of human evolution. The artists compares the anacronic present- highlighted by the temporal simultaneity that the Internet has brought usnot with the retro-futuristic past of the postmodernism (for example, the obsolete future from Blade Runner or Akira), but with the past of our species.

The Met Gala May 9

Colloquially and affectionately referred to as “fashion’s biggest night out,” the Met Gala 2019 is a pinnacle of iconic style. A fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the event welcomes celebrity stars, young creatives, and industry paragons alike. And the excitement doesn’t stop there—the gala also signifies the highly anticipated grand opening of the Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibition: “Camp: Notes on Fashion” opening on May 9, 2019.

things we’re looking forward to

Eurovision May 18

The day has come! After months of preparation and two Semi-Finals, acts from 26 countries will compete in the Grand Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. The result will be determined by a combination of expert juries and viewers from all 41 participating countries. The show will feature special guest performances from reigning Eurovision queen Netta, former winners Dana International, Conchita Wurst and Måns Zelmerlöw, as well as Eurovision icon Verka Serduchka. And... earlier this week we could also confirm that Madonna will perform as guest star during the show!

Primavera Sound May 30 to June 1

Equality, eclecticism and audacity in the revolutionary line up of Primavera Sound 2019. Solange, Tame Impala, Miley Cyrus, J Balvin, Erykah Badu, Future, Janelle Monáe, Nas and Rosalía are the headliners of a line up in which for the first time there are as many female as there are male artists. The festival consolidates its reinvention by committing to urban music without forgetting any essential references. Is the Primavera Sound 2019 line up normal? No, but we want it to be. The New Normal, is the idea on which the universe of the nineteenth edition of the Barcelona festival is based. From May 30th to June 1st 2019, the Parc del Fòrum of Barcelona will be witness to an exceptional edition. A turning point.

“Flags are about proclaiming power” Gilbert Baker

The Rainbow Angst Magazine LGTBQ+ creativity from, about and for us.

JUN-JUL-AUG Issue #2 The PRIDE issue

The Rainbow Angst #1 The coming out issue

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BLUE is for different artists talking about the same issues