Transgender arts and culture, February 2024

 Some of the spectacles with a trans theme I have spotted from around the world this month.

 

Music

1) I wrote a lot about the huge Sanremo Music Festival earlier this month (Body, mind and Soul; and A carnival of camp; and For all the transphobia, there's understanding out there) and I'm pleased to see that the openly bi and trans-ally contestant, BigMama, who made the most impression on me, was invited to the United Nations in New York to speak at the Arts for Global Citizenship event for young people. She spoke about bullying, body shaming and discrimination of all kinds, which she herself has suffered from significantly. I think as trans people we can relate to all that.

2) Obviously, BigMama benefits from a half century when being openly LGBT+ is legal. I notice a book out (Non Tocchiamo Questo Tasto (i.e. Best not press that key) by Luca Ciammarughi) about classical composers of past centuries who could reasonably fall under the queer umbrella and how they surreptitiously defied censorship in their works. Could be interesting. There has, after all, been a recent biopic, Maestro, about conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein that was able to present his bisexuality to modern audiences.

Carnival

It's the carnival season, which is especially celebrated in Southern Europe and Latin America, although there's also a significant one in Basle/Bâle/Basel, Switzerland. I mention it as many of these are centuries old and have always provided an opportunity for people to go about in disguise. In places like Basle the costume traditionally covers all the body; in Venice, say, you may get away with just a mask, but wearing an all-over disguise is more in the spirit of the event; in Rio, the skimpy outfits are for the boldest only!

As, traditionally, you don't ask who's under the disguise, this annual opportunity to go about dressed differently has always been a godsend to trans people who need the chance to dress but without giving themselves away. In English-speaking countries, Hallowe'en has the same kind of usefulness.

It's also an opportunity to be very creative and wear something astonishing. These items from Venice:

Photo by Massimo Telò

Photo by Shesmax

Who can say who's underneath these extravagant female costumes and china masks?

The Venice Carnival is ongoing. The carnivals in the Canary Islands are famous for their more open opportunities for drag and crossdressing. Gran Canaria's drag queen parade is the largest but there are other such parades on other islands, and it's common for people to take the opportunity to present as another gender for whatever reason or none.

These events, where normal life is upended and ordinary people can let their hair down, are thousands of years old and have always been an outlet for trans people. Such cultural outlets will always exist. For a bit more discussion of these events, see the second part, the "Dip in the Archives" of my post here.

 

Photography

Queen Bees by Luigi Lista

Luigi Lista has been following the trans community of Naples for six years and his book of photographs, Queen Bees, was published last year. Sleek Magazine's short review, translated (poorly) into English from a longer interview, is here, with lots of his photos: 

Queen Bees

© Luigi Lista

 

I hope you've enjoyed the extra day this month!

Sue x

Weird health histories

 Despite being reassured by the London allergy clinics, with whom I spent a lot of time in the early 1990s and in 2014-16, that I have no known allergies, I have had some sort of streaming nose and sore eyes for nearly a fortnight. I am not sure why. Antihistamines are helping and the last couple of days have been better. But I suspect that, as with my killer eczema, it's probably due to my immune system being underemployed and attacking innocuous things or overreacting to something. This is one reason why there seems to be so much more hay fever, allergies, asthma and rashes these days than there used to be in the days when our bodies had to fight off plague, parasites and pox. As one consultant said, "There's no allergy that a good tapeworm wouldn't cure!"

Now, I'm sure a good tapeworm would also help me slim a lot faster, too! My old school science teacher, who was always one for telling weird stories, said that around the turn of the twentieth century, ladies who were struggling with their wasp-waist corsetry could swallow a 'slimming pill' that was, in fact, a tapeworm egg. Once their little guest had helped them reach their desired weight, they would swallow the magic 'stop' pill, which was some antidote or worming tablet, and end their decline. I can't be bothered to check how true this tale is but I can say that I don't propose to go to the dubious-looking late-night kebab van to get a free sample of tapeworm with my purchase to help me either slim faster or get over whatever this allergic reaction is.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that, although my weight loss has lessened a bit recently (since I did need a bit of a break from the full-on slimming programme), I have lost 10.5 kg or 23 pounds to date. Nearly half of what I wanted to lose on November 1st has gone, and my healthy weight range is in sight. Ideally I'll be at target by the end of April, although that's a challenge. But if you don't set a challenge then it's too easy to just amble along and not make enough effort. 

Anyway, the next post will be about the positive stuff I've seen and heard in this LGBT history month.

Optimum size

 

Have a good week.

Sue x

Cinderella time

 As a teenager, I was spellbound by a certain stage production of Cinderella: the ballgown to die for, the gorgeous wedding dress, the  wonderful set, the costumes, the delightful music ...

No, not a pantomime or a film, but the opera by Rossini performed at La Scala opera house no less, which some kind and generous soul had given us tickets for.

I wrote more about this here: Frocks to make your heart sing.

At the weekend, they showed the video of that very production on TV and I sat as delighted as I had been all those years ago. I laughed at the gags, cried at the mistreatment of the heroine, sang along to the music and rejoiced at the justice of the ending.

Ponnelle's production for La Scala of Rossini's La Cenerentola with Frederica von Stade in the title role. Uncredited photo from IMDb.

 

As I said last time I wrote about this: isn't every TGirl a little Cinderella, really? She has to fight for her right to take part in the social life of her country and be treated with respect. Frankly, I think we all merit a lovely dress for every big outing... And, frankly, whenever we feel like wearing a lovely dress just for the sake of it, too.

The weather has turned to spring and I've been able to eat my lunch outdoors again. Last night I heard the first frogs of the season. And the first mosquito of the year paid a visit to my bedroom. I heard it quite loudly by my ear. No wonder it was loud as I had rolled my head over onto it and it was trying to get out of the tight embrace it was in between my face and the pillow! I have also been doing a lot of spring cleaning, throwing out old stuff and generally tidying and rearranging. Except that dust and/or cleaning products have set off an allergy and I have been sneezing for a week. I even had to take an antihistamine today. But I've been enjoying my Cinderella time: an old comfy dress and house shoes, nothing attractive obviously or it might get spoilt. I have always delighted not just in the fancy TGirl parties but in the everyday humdrum life of a trans women getting on with her household chores or relaxing with a book. I don't have to be preening in front of a mirror or strutting on the dance floor to feel comfortable in myself.

 

I was hoping to take a photo of myself as it's been ages since I last did so, but this constant blowing of my nose has put paid to my makeup! Another day soon...

Sue x

For all the transphobia, there's understanding out there too

 Do you remember this cover of Time magazine, from ten years ago?

(c) Time, 29 May 2014

The article is here if you're interested: The Transgender Tipping Point

We really thought we were moving towards a rosier future for trans people. Clearly, in the USA, things went backwards under Trump and are difficult in certain states now. In the UK, even the deranged British Prime Minister Theresa May, for all her hatred of human rights, planned to extend trans rights, but her replacements, the crooked Boris Johnson, the mad Liz Truss and the cruel Richy Sunak have used trans people as a source of abuse. I feel only revulsion at Sunak making a transphobic joke specifically when the mother of a murdered trans teenager was attending parliament the other week. It shows new heights of nastiness.

My blog intends to be positive overall. I was amazingly happy when I first started writing my blog in 2011 as I made my way as a woman in the world. Now I am uncertain. But one thing I do know is that in the European Union I stand a better chance of long-term tolerance than in the English-speaking world. Although here in Italy there is still a way to go, which makes me cautious. 

Nevertheless, I open a recent copy of the Italian edition of Elle magazine and it has an article for parents on how to help your child if he or she is trans or struggling with gender issues, reviewing Emma Mirò's recent book on that very subject.

My December issue of Mind magazine (dedicated to neuroscience and psychology) discusses teenage image and, without judgment, simply talks of gender identity as part of the issues that teenagers face when engaging with the world and with their peers. Later in the same issue, there is a long and emotionally difficult article on electroshock, emetic and other aversion 'therapies' to 'cure' LGBT people, which were used in the 20th Century. None of these treatments worked, they conclude, they simply tortured people and are now rejected by civilized medicine because being LGBT is inherent and not a mental health disorder.

My daily regional paper, Il Secolo XIX, had a long positive obituary on 6 January about Ulla, the last of the grand old "princesas" of the trans ghetto of Genoa, who took so many TGirls under her wing. If you want to know more about the trans ghetto of Genoa, see my page on the photography of Lisetta Carmi: Identities. Ulla was subject to annoyance by the police throughout her life as she never transitioned despite living as a woman, and when an ordinance from the city authorities as recently as 2009 tried to close down certain venues for "immorality", the locals stood with the trans community as the girls actually kept crime out of their patch. 

The paper's monthly health supplement has five pages on the gradual weakening of the Y chromosome that has just been sequenced, on the implications of that for men in the long term, on non-binary people, on gender dysphoria and how begging governments for trans rights is unjust. 

I'm not looking out for articles on trans subjects specifically, these just crop up regularly in my normal reading of mainstream media articles here. And they are all trans supportive, just accepting being trans as a reality of life. For all the noisy hate that some politicians and TERFS spew as a distraction from the chaos and corruption they create, I think society as a whole is broadly trying to understand us and acknowledge our difficulties.

I'll be continuing to post the positive stuff.

Sanremo Festival aftermath

My last two posts on the annual Sanremo Song Festival seem to have generated a great deal of interest, to judge by the stats. The overall winner was Angelina Mango, who will present her song La Noia ("Boredom") at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, on 7-11 May. 

For me the champion was Big Mama with her song La rabbia non ti basta ("Anger just isn't enough for you"), a song condemning childhood bullying and abuse. Her support for LGBT people, and those suffering in one way or another, was pretty unequivocal during the show. It's not really my kind of music but I wish her well. Great outfits, too!

Anyway, some are saying it was the best festival ever. The outgoing mayor hopes the event can be extended to two weeks in future. That's all very well for the hospitality industry, but it's chaos for us ordinary mortals who need the bank or the department store or even want a coffee in town during that time as these businesses close so as to be given over to radio execs and TV engineers. "Good for the economy" is a phrase that never quite seems to include me!

Sue x

A carnival of camp!

 I’ve had a surprising amount of interest in comments on my last post, on Facebook and elsewhere, on the camp funfest that is the annual Sanremo Music Festival, so I thought I’d expand on that. 

Here Storm Pulcinella is bucketing down as I write but that doesn't stop the loony tunes festival. I'm not prepared to watch all 5-6 hours of TV every night just to report back, but it's proving quite fun, even if Sanremo town centre is virtually off limits to ordinary mortals. 

The main venue is the Ariston theatre, that for much of the year operates as a four-screen cinema:

(c) Fotogramma : adnkronos

2024 sees a fabulous stage, an outstanding presenter, varied music, lovely flowers (all grown locally through the mild winter), and lots of peripheral events... I'm not sure that John Travolta's rendition of the birdie song accompanied by fluffy dancing ducks was the high point of his career, but hey!

 

(c) Il Gezzettino.it

 

Big Mama, twerking in tomato-red tights with trans symbols on, dedicates her song to the queer community (thank you). Alessandro de Santis, one half of Santi Francesi, performs in a rather lovely glittery floor-length black evening dress. Ghali has sparkly bracelets and earrings that look very feminine. Marco Mengoni wears leather culottes by Fendi that look like a skirt. And is that a skirt that one of the boys of BNKR44 is wearing? Or some kind of Tarzanesque loincloth? Who cares, it’s not boring trousers, so that’s good.

Of course, being a giant national event, it attracts politics, such as Ercolina 2, a cow protesting against the EU Common Agricultural Policy (successor to the original Ercolina who was famously granted an audience with the Pope in 1997 whilst protesting about milk quotas). Ercolina 2 appreciated the Sanremo Green Carpet to the extent of eating some of it! Well, it is organic!  

The carpet tastes lousy, but the flowers are good! Ercolina 2 at Sanremo 2024. (c) Liguria Notizie

The event is heavily mediatized, though, and only about one third of seats in the Ariston theatre are available to music fans; the other two thirds are for radio and TV people, music industry execs and the like. Ditto the vast cruise ship with DJ and outsize LED screen flashing messages to shore all night.

The first festival was held in 1951 in the theatre at the casino, and the huge Ariston theatre was then built to house it from 1977. The event spawned the Eurovision song contest and if Sanremo council had remembered to renew an old contract with the government, Sanremo would have hosted Eurovision in 2022. The winner of the song contest gets a trophy, a guaranteed music career, and, better still, a municipal drain cover with their name and song on it!

(c) Tonino Bonomo: Sanremonews.it

No complaints so far from the local homophobic bishop this year that it's too camp. In fact, a very conservative Catholic organisation, Opus Dei, has just put out a list of pop songs that its faithful may enjoy without guilt. 

Besides, any more anti-queer abuse from the bishop and Big Mama might well crush his head like a walnut between her gigantic thighs! (Only kidding, bishop; though she might not be!)

It's a commercial pop show, so of course it's camp and a bit gender-bending. This is the creative world for you. And that's why everyone loves it.

The winner will be announced at the end of Saturday night's TV marathon.

 

Weight loss

Only half a pound off this week; I've lost focus a bit. And maybe that glass of wine to celebrate January is at fault! It'll be better next week.

Sue x

Body, mind and soul

 I've lost 20 pounds (or 9 kg) since November 1st, so I have 30 to go to target. I'm almost back where I was two years ago before the distress of the Ukraine war and its refugees took my mind off slimming. 

I hope to be at 28 pounds (2 stone, or 12.7 kg) loss by the end of this month, although I appreciate that that's quite a challenge. But I think I should set the bar quite high, otherwise it's easy to lose focus. I'm fed up with being overweight, literally!

Doing "Dry January" really helped. I think I might try to give up alcoholic drinks altogether except for big social occasions. On February 1st, as I'd been so good with my slimming in January, I thought I'd treat myself to lunch out in my favourite restaurant and I even ordered a glass of white wine as a reward for having had none the previous month. (It's very hard not to have wine here in Italy. They think you're weird if you don't.) The rest of the afternoon I felt sluggish even after just one glass so really it's better to do without it. Like so many 'bad' things, like coffee, sugar, tobacco, watching TV... it's just a habit as much as anything.

Anyway, I enjoyed my lunch out very much! You can get tired of your own cooking!

I took the train to Nice a couple of days later just to enjoy a change of scene. They were preparing for the two week long Carnival later this month. I enjoyed a bit of shopping, a museum (the Palais Lascaris with its beautiful interiors) and the book fair in one of the squares where they were virtually giving away antiquarian books. I selected one, an 1862 leatherbound volume in reasonable condition for just two euros!

 

This week we have the Sanremo Music Festival on, which is the biggest annual national event in Italy. Covid stopped the Olympics but it didn't stop this! Nevertheless, this is the first festival unaffected by Covid since 2019 and they are making a HUGE thing of what is already huge. Last night I watched the fabulous firework display over Sanremo harbour from my home up the hill. Did you know they now have fireworks that burst in the shape of hearts, smiley emojis and musical notation? I didn't, but they do. Offshore, a huge ship for celebs to party in was all illuminated and had a laser show to match that in main square.

Anyway, the festival, which is a national song contest now in its 74th iteration, provides five hours a night of top TV for the next week. You don't venture into the town centre without a ticket and the "City of Music" is full of TV presenters, fey popstrels, dazed rockers blinking in the daylight and drooling drummers in chains with their minders. Apparently, John Travolta will be co-hosting on Wednesday. Here are some pictures of the preparations and the Green Carpet (Sanremo is not just the City of Music but also the City of Flowers, so the red carpet is green!)

The Ariston Theatre, a huge building that takes up much of a city block, is the main venue.

The main square, normally an empty, open space

The Green Carpet

In 2021 the Festival played on despite the raging pandemic and Måneskin, a genderfluid group, won, which really boosted LGBT morale here. I wrote about that here. They then went on to win the Eurovision song contest. 

I'm not sufficiently keen on contemporary pop music to join the crush in Sanremo but I plan to walk the beautiful coast road this month. It'll get me fresh air and help me lose even more weight.

Later, as the spring emerges from winter we will have the Milan-Sanremo cycle race, local carnivals, the Flower Parade and other events. I feel glad I moved here from Britain. Between New Year and Easter, the UK has no festivities or public holidays at all in the darkest, coldest period of the year. Here they realise that people need fun and festivity precisely because the season brings little joy in itself. I'm looking forward to the forthcoming events, including Pride in April.

Brianna Ghey judgment

I will comment on this in a more serious post, but I tuned in live to the sentencing hearing and my feeling is that the sentence is correct. 

 

Sue x