Wednesday, October 27, 1999
7:30pm    Little Theatre

Girls Will Be Boys: Questioning Traditional Models of Masculinity

Onion Skin
Jen Brautman, director; 1999; USA; 12 minutes; 16mm

Straightboy Lessons
Ray Rea, director; 1999; USA; 8 minutes; 16mm

ASL INTERPRETING PROVIDED

Setting the stage for our panel discussion, Onion Skin is a surreal story of one woman's struggle with gender confusion. Straightboy Lessons offers a tongue-in-cheek look at how to become a man.

By considering various gender presentations by those who were born female, we will examine how misogyny and sexism play a role in some of these constructions. With audience participation, we want to consider the following questions: How is the concept of "femme" identity constructed as a stable category in opposition to butch/FTM identities? What is the role of "femininity" in these discussions? In what contexts do FTMs gain male privilege in light of transitioning? What models of masculinity are at stake in butch/FTM debates? How are these models implicitly "white"? What alternative models of masculinity might exist?

Our panel will be moderated by University of Washington Cinema Studies Professor Jennifer Bean, and will feature local FTM Cuban-Venezuelan activist and writer Kory Damon-Martin, Kristin Pula, local queer activist and organizer, and Tara Hardy, femme dyke writer and activist.

$5 SHOW