http://iheartthreadbared.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/genderqueer-butchfemme-crip/
The Threadbared post which I wish to discuss is entitled GENDER/QUEER: “Butch/Femme Crip.” When I read this piece, I was reminded heavily of the piece from the special issue of GLQ entitled data “Desiring Disability.” “Butch/Femme Crip” was written by a black queer wheelchair dancer who, in this essay, exposes how the Butch/Femme dichotomy does not (cannot) apply to her. Through living her life in a wheelchair and through her wheelchair dancing, she has created an extremely athletic build. While it could be argues that muscle is not inherently butch or femme, she is incredibly proud of her muscles, patting them in public, flexing them, stroking them. Due to her pride surrounding the body which she created for herself, most queer women read her as butch. But can one read pride of the sculpted body as butch if the sculpting was not out of personal enjoyment, but as a necessary and natural process in going through one’s life? Through her blog, cripwheels.blogspot.com, she hopes to expose how disability complicates all parts of life including sexual identity and gender presentation. I found this section particularly interesting:
“My decision to wear impractical shoes is as much a consequence of me not having to walk in them as it is a decision to participate in a particular understanding of femininity. But what do you see? A sad attempt to look normal? A pair of high heels on a woman? Or something so over the top that it slides into the devotee/fetish view of disabled female sexuality? Note that this is a risk that is only present for disabled women. It’s a long way for nondisableds to go through femme to fetish. Merely presenting certain aspects of traditional femme for a queer disabled woman puts her at risk of becoming a usually straight object of the devotee community.”
She will frequently wear impractical shoes (a sign of femininity?), but as she doesn’t have to walk in them, they do not produce the same connection to femme identity that they would on an able-bodied person. In fact, she points out that they push her almost automatically in being disabled to the tokenized disabled person’s pathetically attempting to look like a normal able-bodied person in her dress, or to a fetish object. These are two aspects of desiring disability which were found to be unacceptable in “Desiring Disability.”
All of the clothing (if clothing can be gendered) which she discusses wearing (a low cut tank top, a mesh dress, pointy heeled boots) are feminine outfits. According to her gender presentation in clothing choice, she should be seen as femme, but it is specifically due to her disability and occupation (and the muscle-pride that comes along with it) that she is “read” as butch. Through her complicating the Butch/Femme dichotomy, we can see that it is just as socially constructed as man and woman—this time instead of heteronormative culture being to blame, it is the able-bodied GLBTQQIA…etc.
The piece of visual culture which I chose was the youtube video “Maria Full of Sin.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iul_MwHrt8A&feature=related
In “Desiring Disability” and “Butch/Femme Crip” it becomes clear that the public, able-bodied world has a tendency to not want to view disabled persons as having any kind of sexuality—it even freaks them out to a certain extent when they are faced with the possibility. On youtube, under the username “GoddessinBloom” Maria R. Palacios posts her poetry—often sensual and dealing with her disability. She exudes sexuality—it is impossible to look upon her and deny her that aspect of herself. Her poetry exposes to the public eye just how sensual and sexual that disabled people can be. She also speaks of her femininity coinciding with her ability to beat anyone at arm-wrestling which I thought connected very strongly to “Butch/Femme Crip.”
Works Cited:
http://iheartthreadbared.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/genderqueer-butchfemme-crip/ 10/22/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iul_MwHrt8A&feature=related 10/22/10
McRuer, Robert. Wilkerson, Abby L. “Introduction.” QLQ. 9.1 (2003): 1-23
I’m intrigued by the way in which you relate “Desiring Disability” to “Butch/Femme Crip,” because I too can see the weariness in an able-bodied world resisting to acknowledge the sexuality of the disabled. I wonder also, on the same note, why there is such a need to conform to the heteronormative way of masculine/feminine in any relationship. Why is the norm in relationships (whether female and female, OR female and male) to be molded into that of butch (strong and muscular) and femme (not athletic, weak). I challenge that this “norm” effects hetero relationships as well, forcing the man to feel an urgency to be strong, and the woman to feel as the partner who should be protected. With that said, what happens when a hetero relationship challenges this ideal with the man portraying femme qualities and the woman butch? Very interesting post!
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