GENDER BENDER

A function at which the gender roles are reversed, or manipulated in various ways. Also, a person who explores the boundaries of gender roles, or outright denies

their existance.

A person who disrupts, “bends”, or “fucks with”, expected gender roles. Gender bending is sometimes a form of social activism undertaken to destroy rigid gender roles and defy sex-role stereotypes.

It can be a reaction to, and protest of, homophobia, transphobia or misogyny. Some gender benders identify with the sex assigned them at birth, but challenge the societal norms that assign expectations of particular, gendered behavior to that sex.

This rebellion can involve androgynous dress, adornment, behavior, and atypical gender roles. Gender benders may self-identify as trans or genderqueer. However, many trans people do not consider themselves “gender benders”.

Singer-songwriter and political activist Annie Lennox began her career as lead singer with The Tourists in the late 1970s.

The Spin Alternative Record Guide described Annie in 1995 as: “Gender-fuck goddess Annie Lennox”.

The Cockettes were a psychedelic drag queen troupe, founded in San Francisco. In the late 1960s.

“Whatever you proclaim as your identity here in the material realm is also your drag. You are not your religion. You are not your skin color. You are not your gender, your politics, your career, or your marital status. You are none of the superficial things that this world “I want to criticize and poke fun at the roles of women and of men too. I want to try and show how not-normal I can be. I want to ridicule and destroy the whole cosmology of restrictive sex roles and sexual identification.” - Christopher Lonc deems important. The real you is the energy force that created the entire universe!” - RuPaul

To “fuck with” gender, one must have an expectation to be able to rebel against. These expectations are socially constructed and can vary widely between cultures.

In many cultures it is only acceptable for an individual to embody one of two polar gender roles; this is known as the gender binary. In these cultures, for a person to be seen as belonging in a particular gender category the individual must not only have a particular genital and chromosomal makeup, but must conform to that culture’s ideas of appropriate sex-role stereotypes, including sexual orientation. To this end, those who go against expected conduct, for example gays and lesbians, may be seen as “less than” or “other”.

In Western cultures, gender roles have changed somewhat over the years. However, mainstream western culture still tends to expect stereotypical “feminine” behaviors from females, and “masculine” sex-role stereotypes from males.

Dr. Frank-N-Furter from the movie, Rocky Horror Picture Show, is a male bodied person. Buthe wears lingerie, woman clothing, and accessories thought to be feminine. The character also wears make-up. “I’m just a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania.”

The New York Dolls are a rock band who formed in 1971 and had a protopunk sound. they broke up in 1977 but reformed in 2004. Their genderfuck is generally viewed to be quite subtle.

Gender bending in practice

Often, parody and exaggeration are used to transgress gender roles, usually to expose them as artificial. For example, a person who engages in genderfucking may purposefully exaggerate conventional notions of femininity, or masculinity.

Genderfucking can also be achieved through cross-dressing and androgyny, both of which challenge and contribute to dismantling the gender binary by separating expression or performance of gender from perceptions of biological or physiological sex.

Genderfucking is based in gender performativity: the concept of gender as a performance. It can be achieved through physical presentation e.g. clothing, hair, makeup, and secondary sex characteristics, as well as behavior. Because much of gender performance is expressed through clothing, in societies where a gender binary can be observed, there is an established, widespread notion that some clothes are “masculine” and should be worn only by male-bodied individuals, and others are “feminine” and should be worn only by female-bodied individuals.

Cross-dressing and androgyny

Cross-dressing would be a form of genderfucking because the purpose is to “fuck with gender” roles and presentation. Androgyny is not specifically genderfucking, but it can be considered genderfucking if someone is being androgynous on purpose.

The origin of the word “androgynous” is from the Greek androgynos: “male and female in one.

There have been many famous people who have been accused of cross-dressing and many famous people now who are androgynous. The Rock star, Prince was very well known for his cross dressing or androgynous look.

Shakespeare used cross dressing in his performances. Over the centuries some readers have posited that Shakespeare’s sonnets are autobiographical and point to them as evidence of his love for a young man. With this said, Shakespeare had characters in his writings that were considered cross-dressers.

Boy George a highly androgynous musician, and was part of the English New Romanticism movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He famously stated, “I can do anything. In GQ, I appeared as a man.”

David Bowie, wore a dress on the UK cover of his 1970 album: ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ and often wore dresses, makeup and leotards both onstage and while doing interviews. In a time when very few people were out, he announced that he and his wife were both bisexual.

Drag

Drag shows are stage performances where people perform in drag. Drag costuming and makeup may in some cases simply involve an actor portraying a character of a sex or gender different from their own. Or the performance itself may be a parody or critique of gender and gender roles. Often “feminine” or “masculine” gender stereoptypes of the persons’s culture are exaggerated for comic or satirical effect. Performers may call themselves drag kings or drag queens. Drag revues typically involve elaborate, glamorous costumes and musical performances. The entertainers may sing, dance, or lip sync.

A faux drag performer is a person who performs as the gender they identify as in day-today life, albeit in a usually exaggerated form. For instance a female-bodied person who performs as a drag queen is a faux queen or the other way around for a faux king.