Pride Month - positive press pages

 Certain parts of the world have noisy, aggressive politicians and opinionated media who are transphobic. Other places are improving and supporting trans rights. A few positive examples culled from my reading just this week:-

 

Daily press: transition assistance triples 

In Italy's north-west coastal province of Savona, inquiries to Arcigay (the national LGBT support society) about social and medical transition have tripled in the last four years. In response to this, dedicated medical services are becoming available in local hospitals. Up to now people have had to go to the main hospital in the regional capital, Genoa. There has also been an increase in requests for information from teachers and schools on how best to assist trans students. 

Trans rights are strongly protected by law in Italy, provided you are transitioning. So work still needs to be done to improve trans rights outside the officially recognised transition route. Whilst transitioning in a big city is less socially fraught, Arcigay are seeing how trans people in isolated mountain communities can be better assisted.

(Interestingly, the Arcigay enquiry centre in Savona is financially supported by the Waldensian Church through monies derived from charitable tax relief. The main protestant movements like Lutheranism, Calvinism and Anglicanism arose in the 16th century but the Waldensians are a much older, deriving from Waldo of Lyons in the 12th Century. Despite many attempts to suppress them through violence, as happened to other proto-protestant movements like the Albigensians in France and the Hussites in Bohemia, the Waldensians have kept going, mainly here in the Alps. English poet John Milton's famous sonnet, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont ("Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints ...") is about one such Waldensian genocide in 1655. Maybe it's this history of persecution that makes them support other oppressed groups like trans people. Anyway, it makes a nice contrast to the frothing transphobia of our local Roman Catholic bishop.)

 

Fashion press: Elle magazine

I have praised this mainstream women's magazine many times on my blog. It is regularly, consistently and unequivocally pro-trans, with frequent articles dedicated to trans matters. 

This week, Elle Italia has an interview with US-Chilean trans actress, Lux Pascal, especially on her last film role in Queen of Coal, a biopic about Carlita Rodriguez, the first trans woman to be a coal miner in Patagonia in a totally male dominated industry.

 

Science press

This month's Le Scienze, which is the Italian edition of Scientific American, and its sister publication Mind on neuroscience and psychology, have three relevant articles. 

One is a long piece on vocal cord defects of all kinds. There is a very nicely written page on the different vocal cord modification procedures for trans men and trans women. The tone is as matter-of-fact yet compassionate, as it is when describing other forms of dysphonia (i.e. when your voice goes wrong) and the treatments available. Trans is a thing and science treats it as such.

Another article is short but interesting summary of a study concluding that in queer relationships, communication is key. Nothing new there as far as cis and straight people are concerned, but trans and gay people often assume that if they are with someone like them then the communication battle is half won by their both having a similar queer experience. This is a bad assumption as, in fact, queer relationships have fewer standard scripts to rely on than cis/straight ones as each queer couple is, in many respects, breaking new ground.

Finally, there is a drama initiative in the mountain province of Biella in Northern Italy to help address young people's issues. The young actors are invited to ad lib and act spontaneously rather then follow a set script and directions. This has created much more real and immediate drama. Some of the issues include gender non-conformity. Actors and audience have described a visceral reaction against misgendering, even though here it's fictional. There's nothing like showing bare abuse for what it really is.

 

So there you have some pro-trans stories from my press cuttings this week. It's all steady, solid, accepting, even practical support in the print press, which is a shot in the arm, at least for this trans woman. I have some positive items from the world of arts and music to come in due course.

 

Preparing for summer

I continue to lose weight, I am getting tanned and I am looking forward to the outdoor swimming pool opening in a few days. To avoid any dysphoria like I suffered last year, I have made sure I am fully epilated (but I will take off this nail varnish). I'm still experimenting with new looks, nails and makeup - more on that soon.

I have also been doing a lot of gardening. My olive tree - now five years old - looks like it will have quite a crop of olives this year. And I've been admiring the lanes with their prickly pears in flower:

 

Pretty but dangerous. Maybe that's how we need to be! Happy Pride Month. 

Sue x

Big new boosts for trans youngsters (and older ones!)

 It's not all bad news for trans rights. Here are three very positive news items from the last few days, ending this month on a real high.

 

Scouts and guides

Italy has a large but very fragmented scouting culture and there has always been a number of competing scouting associations. Some are lay or non-religious or non-denominational and others are Catholic and have a religious component to their activities. The largest Catholic association, AGESCI, has around 185,000 members from the age of 8 upwards, and after many years of discussion in committee, it has come all out in favour of LGBT scouts and guides. So if you are a trans girl you can be a girl guide in their association. And trans boys can be scouts. Although I think girls have been accepted as scouts for some time now anyway. 

"We are not afraid of losing members," says the document issued by the AGESCI management committee this week. "For us the acceptance of anyone and everyone comes first and foremost. We make no distinction between boys and girls." They go on to state that homophobia and transphobia have been an obstacle to bringing their scout and guide packs closer together and that they feel that recognition of LGBT rights within their organisation is non-negotiable.

This is a very big step, and obviously a carefully considered one for an organisation that is affiliated to the Roman Catholic church which is one of the fiercest critics of LGBT rights. This move does follow evidence that people in Catholic dominated countries are not prepared simply to take orders from the clergy any more but to act according to their social conscience, as we have witnessed in, for example, recent referendums in the Republic of Ireland and the Catholic cantons of Switzerland where gay marriage has been clearly endorsed by the public.

 

Young people nowadays

It's always been said throughout history that "today's" younger generation is rude, wild and out of control, in contrast to the past. If you read back through opinion pieces, literature, laws and other texts throughout history, this is a repeating meme. It's something the media have always loved to harp on. Logically, this notion can only mean that Ug and Ogga from the Caveman Days had children who were little saints and it's all been downhill ever since. Really?

I read in the science press this month about several peer-reviewed studies of young people's behaviour and outlook, with reference in some cases to crime statistics, historic school records and the like. A very brief summary of the evidence, mainly from the USA, concludes that young people nowadays, far from being on the road to delinquency, are more tolerant, more empathetic, less neurotic and antisocial, more accepting of others (notably in LGBT matters), are less likely to become involved in crime, take drugs or get drunk than in the past; that IQ is rising and that most want to make something of themselves. This is super positive and it may well be that in a post-Trump, post-Putin world, where our young get to thrive, society could be really good.

Just as a footnote on this theme, my grandfather wrote some memoirs of childhood (which he didn't publish, sadly), about growing up in the Nineteen-Teens around the time of the First World War when he and his many siblings used to be pretty wild, playing all sorts of irresponsible pranks and doing dangerous stunts, like picking the lock of the firearms cupboard where rifles for the local Volunteer Training Corps were kept and shooting the fire station bell to make a satisfying clang all over the neighbourhood, or devising a flame-thrower from a garden sprayer that burnt the rose bushes to ash, or riding round on a motorbike wearing monkey masks and doffing their hats to the startled city traffic. Despite this career of violent youthful pastimes, neither he nor his brothers and sisters grew into irresponsible adults. As he said in his defence, given that at the time the grown-ups of Europe were busy gassing and shelling and bombing each other, his generation could hardly be blamed for being a bit wild.

 

Cannes Film Festival

Finally, last week I mentioned a couple of lesbian themed films that opened the nearby Cannes Film Festival. There have been other LGBT films showing there, and very pro-LGBT directors and stars like Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz. 

The one film that seems exclusively dedicated to a trans theme is Cœur secret (A Secret Heart) by Tom Fontenille. The blurb:

Over the last 4 years, Lilou left her secret life behind, becoming a 64-year-old woman who enjoys DIY, gardening, cycling and looking after her grandchildren. As I accompanied her through her transformation [sic], I filmed a family healing its wounds and reinventing a place for everyone. This is my family, Lilou is my father. 

It's not so common to find a view of transition from a child's point of view rather than from that of the transitioner, their partner, friends or support team. It should be coming out in selected cinemas shortly.

 

Long weekend

Tuesday, June 2nd, is a public holiday here so the intervening Monday tends to get filled in with a day of annual leave to create what's called a "bridge". So it's basically a four-day weekend here when life won't be as normal. 

So what's a TGirl to do? Why, get dolled up, of course! I'm just trying out my new black nail varnish and have gone for a vampish look to start with...

 

More photos after the weekend.

I'm also inventing new slimming but filling and nutritious recipes, like this concoction of spinach, chard, escarole lettuce and turnip greens with an egg and some mozzarella cheese, and a chilli pepper thrown in to liven it up. All local ingredients, very tasty and ideal for the season. Here's my dish part-way through cooking.

 

 

Comments

Thank you for all your interesting, encouraging, funny and otherwise worthwhile comments this year. I do appreciate feedback and interaction. The only requirement is to sign up to Blogger, which I've found a very effective way of reducing spam almost to nothing. 

Have a good weekend. 

Sue x  

Gods and movie aliens

 Did you see the lunar eclipse a few nights ago? It's always an amazing sight. Here the sky was hazy at first and I couldn't see anything until a brick-red ball emerged eerily from the murk. Later, when the eclipse was over, the sky was totally clear and the full moon was very bright, illuminating everything in its characteristic milky light. 

For thousands of years the moon was associated with femininity in most cultures. Then Galileo had the idea of pointing a new-fangled device called a telescope at the moon 400+ years ago and realised that the features were mountains and craters, not some arcane pattern of patches with divine significance, and so we entered the age of science, which was great for reducing superstition. Yet I couldn't help recalling the association between the moon and femininity, and as it was a warm night and I was dressed just in a T-shirt and light skirt, I imagined how a MtF trans person in an age before Galileo might have appreciated the moonlight shining on them. Maybe as a divine endorsement or spiritual uplift or blessing for their femininity. Ah well, science has many benefits, but maybe we have lost a little mystique in the process. 

Not to mention some amazing dress sense!

 

This lady, painted in in the same decade Galileo first looked at the sky, may be trying to emulate the full moon! And that's one statement frock she's got. Do you think we've also lost something in the intervening eras now that we're into sweatshop-made tee-shirts, cheap leggings and imitation leather accessories? Possibly.

 

Rocky horror

A news feature this week reminded me that the Rocky Horror Picture Show was first released fifty years ago, in the UK in August and in the US in September 1975. 

It flopped. 

But like a lot of initial flops, it gradually became a cult. Midnight screenings, attracting a more alternative audience, became a phenomenon, with audiences turning up dressed as the characters, bearing props and with their own well-rehearsed heckles. 

Yes, the musical was a tribute to horror and sci-fi B-movies and the glam rock of the early '70s, and the crossdressing/trans element was not initially supposed to be that prominent, but the message of tolerance and freedom to be who you are was always clear. A weird way to celebrate personal authenticity and autonomy, but hey, there's hardly been a more popular stage show or film. The film is the longest continuously running film in history, and arguably the biggest cult movie.

I have the DVD and it's one of my favourites. I've never seen the film at the cinema, but I did go to the stage show with a girlfriend. I wanted to dress as Magenta the maid but this was frowned upon as my girlfriend at the time had her own intentions that way ... and very sexy she looked, too. But no, I had to go as a male - but I thought it was a suitable twist that my role in a crossdressing audience, when I dress as a woman every day, should be to dress male (a sort of vampiric one - she chose my outfit).

Anyway, thanks to fifty years of musical whackiness for helping to get the message across to so many.

 

Another old crossdressing comedy 

In the unique repository of crossdressing history and culture that is Stana's inimitable blog, Femulate, she posted a still the other day from the 1909 short film, How Percy Won the Beauty Competition, a seven-minute music-hall style romp typical of the era, directed by and starring Alf Collins as Percy, which you can watch here:

 

There are innumerable films, plays and stage entertainments from the first half of the twentieth century that include crossdressing and female impersonation, and I have often wondered if the phenomenon was as much connected with trans people finding an outlet for their needs through stagecraft as audiences merely wanting entertainment. 

Anyway, this short movie caught my eye more than most because the second and third scenes show Percy outside the Charles Fox wig and makeup theatrical store in central London, where many of us TGirls have got our supplies such as foundation, beard reducer, makeup brushes, etc. I knew them when they were in Tavistock Street but since first being established in 1878 they have had many other addresses in London's theatre district. I think in this film that this is the shop as it was in nearby Wellington Street. And what a bold frontage and display it had at the time! 

 

There's a characteristic Renault taxi of the era in this still, too. 

Percy doesn't seem to be the only CD in the beauty contest, which has none of the swimsuit and talent rounds that bedevil such competitions nowadays! Percy therefore wins through elegance, femininity and charming the judges, a lesson for every aspiring CD! But then ... The Benny Hill style chase scenes - which the actors and actresses are obviously enjoying a bit too much for realism - are shot in Dulwich, rather a new suburb at the time. 

If you like period costumes and huge bonnets, this is the movie for you. Bring back big hats, I say! For a history of Charles Fox, there's this item online, with photos: Layers of London.

(Ah well, I guess you can take the girl out of London, but you can't take London out of the girl! The theatre district of London was very much my old stamping ground.)

 

Riviera life

Back to nowadays and the riviera where I now live, where we've had a near perfect summer. It's been a wet and horrible summer elsewhere in the Alps but Sanremo Bay is very sheltered and the cool air from the rain-sodden mountains has tempered the heat of summer blowing up from Africa to make the last couple of months a real treat. The official "summer seaside season" traditionally ends on September 15th when the last holidaymakers have returned to work and school, so I'm making the most of the last few days of the outdoor swimming pool. 

I'm glad I rid myself of body hair to be more feminine this year. Despite the maintenance, I've felt a lot happier for it. Tomorrow evening there should be a little party at the pool, although the weather gods feel like spoiling it by scheduling a thunderstorm at the same time. I shall have to get some more bubbly wine and some nibbles for it. I don't keep wine in the house these days because it makes me fat! And after that, when baring my feet in public is no longer a thing, I shall repaint my toenails. I love having painted nails.

The other week's Creature Feature mentioned a gecko who'd moved to my ceiling for some days. I met him, or an identical friend, scuttling under the front door on my return from Milan, and several more outside the back door since. It's either the same one getting about a lot, or there's a whole bunch of them. They're welcome, though. Bugs don't stand a chance!

Have a good weekend.

Sue x 

Queer movie, soggy bunny, and liberation

 I haven't been to the cinema since 2018. Moving to another country and Covid restrictions are the main reason for that. Also the cinemas here have an infuriating habit of changing their movies and show times daily so you never really know what's on. But I was shopping the other day, saw that Daniel Craig's Queer was on just as I was passing a cinema and dived in out of the rain. I was interested to see how Craig is moving away from his Bond role. 

I hate James Bond. To me he epitomises all that is wrong both with masculinity and with the world order. But here's an actor associated with all that now playing a gay man in 1950s Mexico cruising the bars looking for some action but usually going home empty-handed and drunk and consoling himself with cocaine or heroin. In the end he gets off with a young bi man who flits between him and a girl but whom he persuades to join him in South America where he plans to experiment with ayahuasca, an experience that does not, in the end, go well. 

A slow-burn motion picture lasting over two hours with more emotion than motion. It's sexually explicit - a middle-class porn film almost. The queerness of the title refers as much to the frequent dream sequences where we either gain a vision of the character's desires or accompany him on his drug-fuelled trips. Even Mexico City by night is a somewhat misty dreamscape. Based on a novella by William S Burroughs, this was interesting though not outstanding, the emotional story being told as much through facial expression as action. I think Craig was not bad - he plays quite a good drunk, although the gurning at young men is less convincing. Not bad either is his attractive co-star, Drew Starkey. And Lesley Manville was interesting as a mad anthropologist. I admire her for being a mature actress who isn't scared of close-ups of her facial imperfections. The anachronistic soundtrack jarred, though. 

Sue's Reviews gives three and a bit stars. Wishing Danial Craig well in getting other roles that display more versatility than thuggish Bond. And I'm all for in-your-face LGBT themes in this day and age.

A pansy star photographed in San Marino last week. Queer gets three and a bit pansy stars.

 

Rain

It never stops raining. For a location that boasts 300 days of sunshine a year, I think we've had enough wet, grey days since autumn to last the rest of the decade. Torrential rain yesterday brought quite a bit of damage. I'm thankful to the kind motorist who slowed down as he drove through our flooded road so he didn't splash me. Pedestrians appreciate thoughtful motorists. 

Monday is a public holiday and traditionally it's barbecue day in Italy. I have some bunny burgers (a local speciality) and I have my fingers crossed for a dry day. I pity the hotels and beach bars that have seen low bookings for this weekend that opens the summer season.

 

Liberation

Next Friday, April 25th, is also a public holiday in Italy. It's Liberation Day that commemorates the surrender of axis forces in the Italian theatre of World War II. This year is the 80th anniversary and I plan to join the parades and report back. Given that this week transphobia was enshrined in the Hungarian constitution and a court ruling in the UK creates similar difficulties, the fight against fascism and hate never ends. I was raised by a fascist and I'd hope to offer some thoughts on combating that political attitude based on my personal experience and on advice from my grandfathers who fought the fascists last time round.

Sue x

Trans creativity, January '25

 I'm always delving into the creative world of LGBT artists, writers, actors and musicians. Here are a few things I've come across this month that may be of interest to others.

 

Books

It took me a while to find but I had been looking for this novel since last summer. L'isola dei femminielli by Aldo Simeone, which I'd translate as Pansy Island, is based on real people and the policies of Mussolini's fascist government in the late 1930s and early 1940s, which was to send politically undesirable and LGBT people into exile in remote villages or islands. 

 

Seen from the point of view of Aldo, a gay man who is convicted to join a colony of such exiles on the windswept, sunblasted Tremiti Islands some 20 km off the coast of South-East Italy where, on a clear day, you can see all the way to Yugoslavia. Being condemned as gay is a bit random; it's often actually a way to remove hoodlums from society when criminal investigations haven't proved fruitful. Implication in a mafia murder that's not yet solved is the reason why several Sicilians are there. And, of course, favouritism is a thing, especially from one of the policeman who's one of their jailers and who is himself gay. Being a lawman means that eyes that see ideals in uniformed state service are eyes that don't see the reality of his life. 

The chapter headings are quotes from the rulebook, and each chapter illustrates how each rule is broken. The life is one of boredom, jealousy and fights, and confinement to draughty barracks at night yet with quite a lot of freedom to roam, swim, hold parties and make love by day, and even to work under licence for those locals who aren't prejudiced, or to fight those who are. One character points out that, although notionally unfree, they actually have the freedom to be their true selves here. The police aren't bothered: gays are going to gay, as long as they don't "corrupt" civil society on the mainland and don't riot here. These days, of course, these islands are a holiday destination.

The Tremiti Islands today

Most of the exiles are indeed gay and have feminine nicknames and pronouns but there are a couple of characters who are almost certainly trans: Peppinella, a tailor and dressmaker who liked to try on her various feminine creations, but made the mistake of having a friend take photographs of her dressed; and Picciridda, who's bought a grey dress that she likes to wear often. Peppinella loves helping Picciridda dye and transform that grey dress into a white wedding gown with ribbons, embroidery and other fripperies for a new year's eve party where there will be plenty of homespun crossdressing. Both characters are generally more feminine in mannerisms, outlook and behaviour than the others and I see them as trans more than gay.

Did I enjoy the book? Would I recommend it? 

So far it's available only in Italian. It was interesting to read of the contradictions both of life as an LGBT exile and of the attitude of the authorities who are not so much harsh as indifferent, but the author tied his hands too much by keeping to actual history and the real lives of real people which, when you're put away, is not so exciting. The message that ran through my head, though, was very much that previously beautifully expressed by Colonel Richard Lovelace, imprisoned during the English Civil War in 1642:

                   Stone Walls do not a Prison make

                    Nor Iron bars a Cage

                    Minds innocent and quiet take

                    That for an Hermitage.

                    If I have freedom in my Love

                    And in my Soul am free,

                    Angels alone that soar above

                    Enjoy such Liberty.

Useful to consider the colonel's words when the same phobias and aggressions against the queer community are expressed by contemporary politicians.

Films

1) I still haven't managed to see trans musical comedy Emilia Pérez - my local cinema can't seem to co-ordinate its website, its billboard and its projection schedule so I turn up when advertised only to find it's actually on another day or time. Besides, I have a lousy cold and the weather's bad so I'm staying in at the moment. But clearly the film with its trans protagonist and trans actress, Karla Sofia Gascon - the first to win the Cannes best actress award - is doing well. 

2) April and Amanda (previously Enigma), a documentary about April Ashley and Amanda Lear is at this week's Sundance Film Festival.

3) Jimpa, a drama starring Olivia Coleman and John Lithgow, also premieres at the Sundance Film festival. Coleman plays Hannah, mother of non-binary teen Frances, both visiting gay grandpa Jim, know as Jimpa. Given the profile of the leads and the infectious queer pride in interviews at Sundance of non-binary actor Aud Mason-Hyde, this could be very worthwhile. I found this interesting article from 2018 on Aud from Australian Vogue here.

 

Visual arts

1) New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has an exhibition till February 22nd entitled Vital Signs - Artists and the Body. This, of course, includes works based around "gender expansiveness". MoMA's exhibition page is here.

Interestingly, the Financial Times, not a usual organ for arts news, has a review that is somewhat critical of the concept behind this exhibition here.

2) In complete contrast, Colonel Lovelace's contemporary, Spanish artist Jusepe De Ribera, is the subject of a large exhibition in Paris (Petit Palais, till February 23rd). As much a painter of the poor as of his aristocratic patrons or religious themes, one of Ribera's masterpieces is the Bearded Lady (officially Magdalena Ventura with her Husband and her Son), painted in 1631, which is in the exhibition. In it we see Magdalena Ventura who suffered a significant hormonal imbalance that caused her to develop male pattern hair growth, including an immense beard, yet here she is feeding her baby at her breast. The painting is well known and over the last 400 years has given rise to a wide range of reactions: from incomprehension to fascination, from pity to empathy. What is clear, though, is Ribera's compassion for his subjects, a humble family trying to live normal lives with an unusual condition to deal with in addition to their poverty, yet painted with the same care, realism and striking use of lights and darks as he would equally use for scenes with saints or portraits of nobility.

The painted Latin inscription on the stone blocks reads:

A great miracle of nature.

Magdalena Ventura from the town of Accumoli in Samnite country in Abbruzzo in the Kingdom of Naples, aged 52; what is unusual about her is that when she was 37 years old she began to be covered in hair and to develop a very thick, long beard such as you might see on a bearded man rather than a woman who had previously borne three children to her husband Felice de Amici whom you see standing near her.

Jusepe de Ribera, Spaniard, Knight of the Cross, the new Apelles of his era, commissioned by Frederick II, Third Duke of Alcalà, Viceroy of Naples, painted this unusual subject from life on February 16th in the year 1631.

Not trans and arguably not intersex, Magdalena still falls under our umbrella of persons who have lived with non-standard gendered lives. 

This is, in my opinion, fine art at its finest.

Sue x

Marisa Paredes tribute

 A short tribute from a grateful trans person to Spanish actress Marisa Paredes who died yesterday.

You've heard of Bond girls; she was an Almodovar girl, appearing in six of the films directed by Pedro Almodovar, which really made her an international star, and it's that relationship that I inevitably focus on, and you'll see why. Bond girls are all much alike but Almodovar girls are stressed housewives, repressed Catholics or actresses/writers/socialites whose surface sparkle hides squalor and secrets. Paredes played all of these types equally well.

You may not have heard of either actress or director. But to myself as a trans woman - and to may other in the LGBTQ community - I don't think any other film director has spoken to me more forcefully than Almodovar. 

Trans characters appear alongside her in two films, All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre), "a magnificent tapestry of femininity" (Rotten Tomatoes), which stars Paredes as a stage actress and which has two trans characters, one we warm to (Lola) and one we don't (Agrado). There's the very different, almost Frankensteinian The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito) where, let's just say (the motives are complex), a modern-day mad scientist (played by Antonio Banderas), for whom Paredes is housekeeper, conducts forced feminisation (and then some) on a young man (with the sort of perfect results, albeit on an unwilling subject, that most of us would, ahem, kill for). In a third film, High Heels (Tacos lejanos), Paredes plays a singer who sees the act of a drag artist who impersonates her.

I think the main appeal for me is that in an Almodovar film, although being trans, queer or an outsider is accepted even if acknowledged as odd, the whole setup is odd, so it all evens out! Take Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas), for example, set in a convent where the nuns look after 'fallen women' but are all oddballs, including one who plays the bongos to entertain her pet tiger. Paredes is an LSD-addled ascetic who once murdered someone and cooks to assuage her guilt. Hollywood this isn't.

As a leading exponent, and in some ways the very voice and face of Spain's modern civic consciousness that moved remarkably in the late '70s and '80s from the repression of Francoist fascism to a country with a democratic constitution where people can now freely explore and express their outlook, their reality and their sexuality, Paredes has to be thanked. She and her sidekick Almodovar have certainly spoken powerfully to me. And not just through her work with him but, for instance, by appearing in Italian actor and director Roberto Benigni's film Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella) in which a man protects his son from the realities of life in a concentration camp.

Rest in peace.

English Wiki article on the actress including filmography here.

English Wiki article on Pedro Almodovar here.

(I've mentioned two Almodovar films with trans characters. There are more but the main other one is Bad Education (La mala educacion).)

Sue x

Transgender arts and culture, January 2024

 Last year I wrote a number of items about art and photography shows, plays, films, etc. with a trans theme or slant. To judge by the number of views, they were popular so I plan to do more of these every month or so. 

Here I aim to show that in the world of creativity, being trans can be a status worth celebrating. This month I have spotted various items in France and Italy, with contributions from further afield.

 

Art

Paraventi: folding screens from the 17th to the 21st centuries at the Prada Foundation in Milan (to 26 Feb) may seem an odd exhibition to include here, but it is receiving much praise. It includes a section on how the queer community has turned a screen for dressing behind into something transgressive. 

From the Mousse Magazine review:

“Painting or sculpture? Art or furniture? Utilitarian or ornamental? Decorative, functional, architectural, or theatrical? This innovative exhibition examines the many questions and paradoxes surrounding the unfolding history of the paravent." (Curator Nicholas Cullinan)

Queer aesthetics are at the center of another series of works that transform this everyday object into an overtly subversive decoration element. From an Omega workshop screen by Duncan Grant from the Bloomsbury haven of Charleston to a rare 1929 screen made by Francis Bacon and World of Cats (1966) by British actor, writer, and collagist Kenneth Halliwell through to works by contemporary artists such as Kai Althoff, Marc-Camille Chaimowicz and Francesco Vezzoli, a culturally disruptive narrative is told. 

There are many online reviews of this exhibition but the most entertaining is this one from Designboom. 

 

Theatre

(1) In the port of Savona, NW Italy, the show Finora [Up till now] performed Anna Giusto and Giancarlo Mariottini, covers the personal search by actor and actress into male and female identities through the exaggerated femininity of drag queens and faux queens, so as to challenge the irrational threat that some people experience if they believe in rigid gender norms. 

Officine Solimano promotional material for Finora in Savona, Jan 2024

(2) Vladimir Luxuria, former member of the Italian parliament and trans actress, continues to tour with Princesa, a show about the difficult life and tragic death of Brazilian trans woman Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque, based on her autobiography. There was also a 2001 film about Princesa.

 

Promotional material for the Princesa tour

Film

Arche de Noé (Noah's Ark), starring Valérie Lemercier, is a French comedy drama about a centre for young LGBT people who have felt it necessary to leave home. They have six months to find their feet. 

There doesn't seem to be an English version yet, though, but the French trailer is here:

 

It has mixed reviews.

I discussed such a centre last year: Like a Box of Chocolates (second item: La Bulle).

 

Obituaries

Vincent Honoré, exhibitions curator at MO.CO. (the unique Modern Arts 'ecosystem' in Montpellier, France) died on November 29th last. His exhibitions included the highly acclaimed 2020-21 Possédé·e·s (Possessed) on the theme of "deviance, performance, resistance", exploring

the relationship between resistant or excluded bodies and esoterisms: a means to reappropriate and perform feminist, queer or decolonial identities.

The centre's pages, including videos and photos of the exhibition and a 32-page illustrated booklet you can download, are on there site here: Possessed.

Especially relevant were: M. Mahdi Hamad Hassanzada from Afghanistan's pictures of Divs, supernatural hermaphroditic creatures from Persian mythology; Pierre Molinier, a surrealist French artist (died 1976) who explored drag and fetish culture in his photography; Antonio Obà from Brazil who explores Afro-Brazilian animist religions, especially the Pomba-gira deity who represents beauty and desire and is seen as protective of the LGBT community; and Apolinia Sokol's fabulous transgender upgrade of Botticelli's Primavera that is the second image in the rolling photos on MO.CO.'s exhibition page (link above).

Incidentally, Montpellier is a pleasant and interesting historic city, worth visiting anyway. I was there a year ago: French holiday

 

Wishing you a good transition to February, with its lengthening days, Valentine's Day, Carnival and leap day.

Sue x

So cool!

I've been making fruit ices to round off my midday meal. This one's a melon water ice, with lots of pulp in it as well as juice so it's more fruity and filling. 

 

One annoying seed got away from the sieve, though! If I say so myself, I have always made nice fruit sorbets and ices in summer and I have oranges ready for the next batch. 

I've had a lot of people wish me well in the current heatwave but unlike other places we've actually had a drop in temperatures over the last few days. It's partly why I moved to this part of the world - mild winters and sunny but not broiling summers. It's 33C here in the shade this afternoon (91F), which is hot but nothing like the Rome area where it's 10C higher right now. Yesterday evening there was a nice breeze and I went to my next door neighbour for a cold prosecco, which was actually the first booze I've had for a couple of weeks. I don't think alcohol and hot weather go well together at all but it was OK yesterday.

 

Indisputably Isobel

Isobel has a fully charged outdoor trans life and her adventures can be read on her blog, Indisputably Isobel, which I have added to my blogroll on the right. Her blog reminds me of the first few years of this blog, before I got sick, when I packed in a lot of events and meet-ups with other girls, with lots of photos. Worth keeping up with her.

Keep having fun, honey.

Recognition of non-op transwomen in Italy

Good news from Italy where transitioners already have good protections but where help for and recognition of other trans people is patchy. After a long legal dispute, a transwoman in Sicily has been recognised as female despite not going down the official medical transition route which up to now has been the only way to change sex markers on official documents. It's another step forward. I admire her tenacity with the Italian courts that are not renowned for their speediness.

Catherine et Liliane

Many thanks (or curses) to Stana over at the Femulate blog, for introducing me some months ago to the long-running TV show in France, Les RTT de Catherine et Liliane (Catherine and Liliane's time off in lieu), in which actors Alex Lutz and Bruno Sanches took on the roles of gossipy secretaries in a French media office. I have been watching the episodes on YouTube endlessly. The show has now ended but was fine topical satire and neither I nor any other commentator can get over just how brilliantly they performed the roles, from gestures to voices to clothing and accessories. I'm not sure I've ever seen crossdressed roles done so well. The trick is to play it absolutely straight.

There are no versions in English or subtitled in English that I can find but if you want a taste without needing to know much French this episode is as good as any to illustrate the sort of scrapes they get into. Catherine and Liliane are all dolled up in Cannes and come across the Louis Vuitton shop where Catherine soon realises she can just about afford a bar of Vuitton soap. But they bump into Nicolas Ghesquière, Vuitton's creative director, who offers to take them to the fashion show later if they will parade Vuitton dresses there. Having been fitted, they are then stood up for Susan Sarandon and Nicole Kidman. They have no choice but to pay for the new dresses that have been altered just for them. Catherine offers post-dated cheques. Brilliantly played - and what great outfits (although Liliane's is, as ever, slightly comedic). 

All very cool.

Sue x

The ultimate bikini babe

 I can't not record, with sadness, the passing of actress Raquel Welch, whose portrayal of sexy yet strong women was a big influence on my trans childhood. Being feminine yet respected is the transwoman ideal, I'd say.

Let's face it, nobody, not even Ursula Andress, could sport a bikini quite like Ms Welch, who accepted many opportunities to do so. I will never look as good as her in a bikini and I think so many other woman might say the same. Yet, it's not a question of jealousy (though I admit some regret) as she and the characters she portrayed were so often the sort of women that other women admire. She never did nude scenes and was, she says, not at all her screen persona in real life. Sounds good.

 

Thus passes another of my influential screen goddesses, like Gina Lolobrigida and Nichelle Nichols.

The swinging Sixties that made her can be chuckled at in lots of ways but the general opening-up of society to greater personal freedom was very beneficial to trans people. There's much work to be done still, but I think the genie isn't going back in the bottle again, at least not in the West. 

Rest in peace.

Sue x

Queers in space

 If you remember the Muppet Show you may also recall a regular feature boomingly announced as PI-I-I-GS IN SPA-A-A-CE!!! In which various muppet pigs have adventures in space. This post, Queers in Space, is more sane (!) as I'm revisiting last weeks' post about pizza, apes and aliens since Susie very helpfully pointed out a blog that lists many science fiction (and fantasy) books that involve gender flexibility and other LGBT scenarios. Thanks to Mary Anne Mohanraj for compiling this list: 

Alternative Sexualities and Identities in Fantasy and SF Booklist

The reason for my recently getting back into sci-fi was mainly that the dystopian present is bugging me a lot. The twisted realities of Philip K Dick's novels seem especially apt!

As a kid there was a lot of sci-fi on TV and in libraries, especially for kids: Star Trek, Star Wars, Space 1999, Battlestar Galactica, Thunderbirds, Logan's Run, UFO, Doctor Who, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space... even James Bond went into space (1979's Moonraker - the most far-fetched Bond film of all time). But with the Cold War and its Space Race in full swing - Apollo, Salyut, Skylab, Space Shuttles ... - space stuff was everywhere, in reality and in the mind. But I notice from the above list that LGBT themes in science fiction seem to be an innovation that really got going from the '80s. Princess Leia kissing her brother is about as weird as it got before then. (Actually, that was very weird, Mr Lucas!) The Rocky Horror Picture Show was not for kids so I missed out on that blend of campy horror and sci-fi - I think it would have made a difference to my life if I had seen it then). And it was only years later that we were told that Lambert from Alien was transgender or intersex (there seems to be some confusion as to which). A 21st-century afterthought, maybe? 

 

I then got a bit bored with the sci-fi genre - maybe there was too much of it - so I'm catching up now. Arrested development or something.

Incidentally, Philip K Dick isn't mentioned in Mohanraj's list, but in his well-known novel Ubik, the men wear clothes that would be deemed women's clothes now. Dick doesn't seem to go anywhere with this concept, it's just one in the mix of themes he happens to have chucked into this book, as he did with most of his books.

So thank you to Susie Jay for alerting me to this trend in recent SF. 

And if you've never seen Pigs in Space, here's an episode (not really for kids!) containing the following classic exchange:

    Miss Piggy: Are you a boy or a girl?

    Alien Baby: Er, I'm flexible

Blogger and Wordpress comments: the solution?

Many thanks also to Lynn, who migrated to Planet Wordpress a few years ago, for her helpful comment on my last post where I pointed out that many readers still find it hard to comment on either platform. I think it's easiest if I quote her reply in full:

As to comments on Blogger and WordPress, I think it may be linked to a web browser's security settings. In the summer, Google released a change to their Chrome browser that blocked something called third party cookies. The aim was to improve privacy (although Google are also working on a different ad system).

Chrome is also available as something called 'Chromium': a browser that didn't have full Google integration and it's for computers and smartphones. Chromium is used by a number of web browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Dolphin, etc. Firefox is not part of this, BTW.

With the default settings blocking third party cookies, this seems to break the AntiSpam systems in Blogger and WordPress.

Readers may need to rummage in their web browser settings and enable third party cookies again. Yes, this'll reduce your privacy, but it should fix the comment issue.

For privacy minded folk, Firefox, the ublock plug-in (Chrome, Edge, and Firefox), and PrivacyBadger may help.

I think Firefox note has 'containers' that you can use to limit certain websites from accessing other web browsing history. Particularly useful for limiting Google, Facebook, and Amazon from collecting data about you.

Many thanks, Lynn. I do seem to recall fiddling with the cookies setting, though this may need to be done for every site. I hope this may help folks who are struggling to comment.

Sue x

Respect for old queens

 I've not been all that well these last few days. Nothing serious but I have caught some sort of chill or virus or something that's left me preferring to stay at home and rest. So I've been following the news a bit more than usual. Bulletins from the battlefields of Ukraine are positive, inasmuch as organised violence is ever positive (see also the mafia musical below), and a very old queen has died, which makes a direct difference to many countries that have or have had her as head of state.

Queen Elizabeth was around longer than I have lived and therefore seemed almost eternal. Not quite, though, and that makes for an odd feeling. I've always felt her successor Charles was a sensitive, humane man. Often ridiculed in the past as an eccentric for his concerns, yet his feelings on matters such as the natural and built environments have now become mainstream thinking. His own successors look to be supportive of the LGBT community.

A few allies are beginning to point out how many people have swiftly got used to new names, titles and pronouns: Queen Elizabeth, now King Charles; His Majesty; send him victorious, etc. Yet how often  enthusiasts for correct form refuse to acknowledge new names and pronouns for trans people who beg that their gender and names be acknowledged. 

It takes a while to get used to changes. If you know someone, whether monarch or trans person, as one thing all your life and then you need to adjust to the change in their position, it can take a while to get used to it. I have problems adjusting to my trans friends changes, either of name or even pronouns. If I use your previous name or forget your new preferred way of being addressed, then it's not me being disrespectful but just that I am getting old and forgetful and have to replace habits in my head. Do make allowances for that, as you would for everyone who still talks of Prince Charles even though his title has changed. 

But if you are determined deliberately to disrespect reasonable choices, then you're a jerk. The new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, insists trans women are not women. The subject could be discussed reasonably, but rarely is. But since Liz Truss hates her given first name, Mary, would it be appropriate to call her Mary Truss to ensure she remains consistent in her approach? Joanne Rowling, that well-known transphobe, has no middle name and is J K Rowling for commercial purposes only. She also has another pen name, Robert Galbraith, which is hardly consistent with her feminism. Using a different name for writing, acting, soldiering, or whatever has an ancient pedigree and is, in some ways, justified by that long usage and tradition. I don't have a problem using these people's preferred names. Yet many balk at a trans person using a new name that fits their presentation or referring to them with pronouns that fit their gender and appearance. Double standards are very prevalent in the so-called great and good.

The old monarch is gone and there is a new one instead. The continuity, though, is clear. It's the same for us trans folk. I continue to have confidence that most people accept us and that newer generations will help build a society that acknowledges us more. 

 

More movie news

My post last week about the forthcoming film Monica seems to have been popular. The film didn't win any prizes at the Venice Film Festival but I would expect it to be on general release fairly soon.

There was another transgender film at the festival, Le Favolose ("Fabulous Girls"), more of a documentary about how trans women can, in some respects, die twice by being denied burial in the gender they lived in. I wrote on this important and often overlooked subject here a couple of years ago (Right in the End).

The director is Roberta Torre whose 1997 film Tano da morire (released in English as "To Die for Tano") was a sardonic mafia musical that I found compelling. (Yes, mafia musical, you read that right!) The director's contention in her latest film, based on the writings of trans activist Porpora Marcasciano, is that many trans people's history is still being eradicated in Italy. 

It might be released in English translation and the working title seems to be "The Fabulous Ones". Trailer and clip with English synopsis on this site: http://storytellertrailers.blogspot.com/2022/07/le-favolose-fabulous-ones.html

Sue x

Transgender film "Monica"

 The Venice Film Festival is on and for the first time a transgender story with a leading actress who is also transgender is being shown. Monica, directed by Andrea Pallaoro, stars Trace Lysette in the title role.

The plot is about a woman who felt she had to leave the family home but who then returns after twenty years to look after her dying mother. We gradually learn the reasons for the split and see the rebuilding of a relationship. 

My super trans intuition tells me that maybe, just maybe, the daughter is transgender. But, hey, that's only a guess. Based on the blurb!

Reviews so far have been quite mixed, ranging from "boring and dull" from audience members, to three stars, to high praise by more thoughtful film critics. It does seem quite a slow-burn, understated film and, truth be told, the trailer doesn't exactly catch fire, but you may disagree:

Could do with more zombies or aliens, I reckon. They always pull a crowd! I will likely go to see it when it is on general release, being a bit of a fan of transgender movies.

It's competing for the Golden Lion for best film, and has some stiff competition. But I mention it as it is a first. And every trans story raises awareness of trans life just a bit more with the public.

This is Trace Lysette's most significant role to date. She has played both trans and cis charcters before and said in a recent interview that she was interested in being offered a variety of roles in future and not being typecast in trans roles.

Trace Lysette at the Toronto Film Festival 2019 for the premiere of Hustlers, in which she played Tracey

Let's see how the film does, if it wins a prize or commendation.

 

Kiwi Farms closed

This uniquely nasty anti-trans site has been closed by its provider and this is to be welcomed: Kiwi Farms shut down. I try to post a greater number of positive trans stories, like the film release above, than negative ones as I do think the public is broadly pro-existence in most things and haters are a minority. But something needed to be done about this site.

Stay safe.

Sue x

"Birthday"

November 18th is my birthday.

Actually, it’s not officially my birthday, but it’s the day I choose to celebrate my T birth. Not that it marks an anniversary, it’s just the day that it is. Anyway, Queen Elizabeth II has two birthdays and I’m something of an old queen, too, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t do the same.

Well, that’s enough justification!

Unfortunately, things did clash a bit this year with Nottingham Invasion and family stuff so I plan to have a bit of a party next weekend. But on Sunday I met up for lunch with a friend at the very good Rocca di Papa Italian restaurant in the Old Brompton Road. This place is good: excellent food at very good prices. The pizzas are superb. On this occasion I had calamari – whole chopped calamari, not those rubber rings you often get served –, lasagne with lots of meat and delicious, creamy mango sorbet. The staff are nice. Recommended.

This was followed by a trip to Kensington Odeon to see The Master, a film with outstanding reviews that, actually, wasn’t all that great, I felt. Oh well, it made for a relaxing day.

Next Sunday it’ll be a big TGirl lunch at the Cambridge in the West End, which I haven’t done for a while.

Anyway, here’s a picture of Katy Perry’s mermaid dress in the window of Christie’s in the Old Brompton Road (estimated value £2,000-£3,000). I want, especially as I have had no cards or presents so far. And it’s better value than Madonna’s Jean-Paul Gaultier conical bustier at £15,000 also on view there.

Sue x

PS  There's now a photo of me and my friends at Nolia's on the "On Public View" post, and links to Verge bar and Carole's Flickr pages have been added to other recent posts.

The ends of Africa

Sadly, I wasn't able to join many of my girlfriends at Leeds First Friday this weekend. A pity as it was exactly a year ago that I was there. However, we London girls know how to keep ourselves entertained. It was quite cold so I was glad of my favourite Nina Varese wool dress. After a short fact-finding mission to the cosmetics emporia of Neal Street, I met up with Joanne at Souk Medina, a Moroccan restaurant in Short's Gardens just off Seven Dials. [Updated site: https://www.soukrestaurant.co.uk/]

I've never eaten there before but we were delighted with it. We sat in the part with low tables and benches bestrewn with cushions, overhung by maroon ceiling drapes giving the sensation of sitting in a tent. They serve beautiful cocktails - as well as the usual kirs and bellinis they have others I have never encountered before. We chose the mai camel (rum, fruit juice and almonds) and the wonderful Sahara (rum, dates, ginger, lime juice, brown sugar).

We chose the Marakkech menu which was wonderful: mixed meze of beautifully smooth hummus, grilled halloumi cheese, prawns, chicken, lamb and zaalouk (aubergines) with pitta bread, followed by tagines of tender chicken, delicious lamb with prunes and almonds, chickpeas and couscous, with delicate baklava and mint tea to finish. The staff were very welcoming and they jingle as they walk because of the belts festooned with metal that they wear. Truthfully, the low tables and benches are not so comfortable to sit and eat at but that is a minor quibble. The ladies loos are beautiful with their traditional tiles and basins in beaten brass. Not the cheapest dinner I've had, but reasonable.

We decided to go to the cinema and see a random film. Just as we left the bellydancer came in. Oh well, it means we'll just have to go back another time to be entertained. I'm not sure I'll ever get my belly as slim as hers, especially after all that food!

The random film, selected at random (well, OK, it was just about to start), was "Beauty", mainly in Afrikaans with some English. A slow-burning tale of a married man coming to terms with being gay. Not always easy to follow, sexually explicit, and disturbing in a brutal rape scene, without full resolution, it nevertheless did hold the attention. Still, after all that sitting in the medina and in the cinema we agreed our bottoms were rather sore (never mind fears of gay rape) so we were happy to stand outside the Porcupine pub in the night air with a quick drink before plunging into the tube to go home.

A good way to spend a Friday night when you can't make it to the T scene in other cities.

Sue x

Ooh, you are awful!

I’m trying to win a work contract. But sometimes you just have to let work worries drop and do what you really need to do, so on Friday at midday I decided enough was enough and got smartened up to go out.

I went to Oxford Street armed with a load of vouchers from various stores and although tempted by a few items I decided not to buy anything on this occasion. I do make mental notes about stuff that I’d like to check out again in future, though.

In the evening I joined Joanne at the Melanie Italian restaurant we discovered a month ago and we had an enormous, long, slow, tasty dinner (the best kind). They bake their own bread and make their own pasta, and you could tell. Their bruschetta is the best ever. I am definitely taking the girls there in two weeks’ time for one of my Sunday lunches. There’s a particularly sweet young Italian waitress there that we really like (but we like all the staff). And Joanne likes the food so much she burst into the kitchen after and kissed all the chefs. “È terribile!” exclaimed our open-mouthed waitress in Italian, which means, “She’s awful!”. We giggled about this after as it was very much the tone of Mandy, a loved comic creation of Dick Emery’s (“ooh, you are awful!”, which became very much his catchphrase, see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkLRZzukcJc). Tsk! I’m showing my age!

Then we went round the corner to the Curzon Soho to see A Dangerous Method about Jung, Freud and Spielrein, which I thought much better than reviews had led me to expect. Keira Knightley was a more than competent performer and the two male leads were good despite less than favourable reviews and, indeed, negative comments from other audience members. I found the whole thing fascinating and rather atmospheric.

So, coming up, I will go to Nottingham again next weekend for the increasingly popular Invasion. The following weekend two lovely friends happen both to be visiting London so Saturday night out will be followed by Sunday lunch. Things to look forward to amid the serious stuff.

Sue x

Cinema and dinner

It was cold and grey in London yesterday so something needed to be done to dispel the winter gloom.

So I met up with my pal Joanne at the Curzon cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue. We enjoyed a pre-cinema drink in the fabulous downstairs bar before seeing Martha Marcy May Marlene, a gripping psychological drama about a girl who has fled to her sister's after two years in a cult. Excellent understated acting, judicious editing and an important point to be made.

Well, after the tension we decided to relax over dinner and agreed to try an eatery more or less at random so we went to Melanie, an Italian restaurant in nearby Old Compton Street http://www.melanieitalianrestaurant.co.uk/ [Update 26/3/25: Link no longer functioning; I believe the restaurant has gone, too]. It turned out to be a very good choice. My whitebait was fresh and crispy and Joanne's prawns were succulent and easily peeled. The saltimbocca alla Romana, my very favourite dish, was not bad given the difficulty of sourcing good meat in Britain, and Joanne's veal and aubergine was declared very tasty. The tiramisu was disappointing as there was too much sponge (although it had plenty of booze in it). I don't care for strawberry cheesecake but I think Joanne's choice there was a good one. The Frascati was gently fruity and very agreeable. We liked the attentive staff, and chatting to them later when things were quieter was pleasant, though I'm not so sure about the cheeky serenade I got when my main was brought! The waitress, a slip of a girl of 21, was very complimentary about my hair (pity it's not my own!) and the Portuguese waiter was chatty. Luigi the owner is someone we decided it was worth getting to know better as we will definitely be back.

A great way to spend the later half of a gloomy Wednesday. Soho is just so fabulously accepting of the T community that you can let your guard right down and really enjoy yourself.

Sue x