Author: chrisesposito1818

The Attendant and The Song of the Wind and Trees

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The Attendant, directed by Isaac Julien, and The Song of the Wind and Trees are different forms of media that portray queer sexuality. The Attendant is a short black and white film with no verbal communication between the actors. The film depicts a museum attendant who is caught up in sadomasochistic fantasies. The Song of the Wind and Trees is a comic that has two major themes, dealing with coming of age, and several sexual conflicts such as rape, homophobia and racism. They both portray queer sexuality in a way that challenges social norms

The Attendant relates to queer theory in several ways. It makes viewers look at things from different perspectives, and also makes them concentrate harder on the actions taking place, rather than what the actors are saying to each other. Several scenes are in black and white, while others were in color and some characters are shown in flashes. However, one scene that contained a form of S/M was in color. The Song of the Wind and trees portrays the story of a homosexual relationship between two boys, one of whom identifies as “beautiful.” One difference between the two pieces of work is that The Attendant is more unconventional than a simple homosexual relationship between two boys. Welker states, “the beautiful boy is ‘neither male nor female’ but a ‘third sex/gender’” This statement relates to both The Attendant, and The Song of the Wind and Trees, because when exploring sexual fantasies, it lets individuals forget about what gender that are experiencing with.

Performing Queerness

Posted on by chrisesposito1818

Before taking this class, my definition of queerness was so basic it is almost embarrassing thinking back about it now. I didn’t see it as a derogatory term, I saw it as a broad term discribing people that were gay. However, halfway through the semester, this class has taught me that it has many other meanings, and is also widely discussed in non-western parts of the world. In “Glocalqueering New Asia” Eng-Beng Lim discusses that queer experiences change depending on the individual’s surroundings. I think Cyril Wong’s guest Skype lecture was a great example proving how little I actually knew and understood about queerness and the non-western culture.

Cyrill has been recognized as Singapore’s first truly confessional poet. In Singapore, homosexuality is criminalized. Cyril is an openly gay poet, and often makes that very clear in his writings. In his poem The Neighbour, he describes a sexual encounter with his neighbor in very explicit detail. During Cyril’s lecture, he said he had stopped publishing his work for a while because he simply wasn’t allowed to. He could not receive grants for his work because if the significantly explicit nature of his poems. This relates back to Eng-Beng’s piece because his experiences living in Singapore are influencing Cyril and his writings. If Cyril lived in western countries, his work would be permitted. Luckily that didn’t stop him. He continued to write, and has become a very talented poet, and role model for many other individuals.

The Watermelon Woman

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Cheryl Dunye, a mid twenties black lesbian works as a clerk in a video store while struggling to make a documentary about Fae Richards, a black actress from the 1930’s. As Cheryl struggles to discover who “the Watermelon Woman” is, she falls in love with an attractive white customer that she meets at the video store, which later leads to a racy intimate scene between the two of them. Later on in the film, Cheryl finds out that Fae Richards also had a white lesbian lover. One main technique Cheryl Dunye used while filming was to show the struggles of Cheryl finding what was truly important to her in her life. Her friend, Tamara is consistently trying to set her up with different women, but Cherly always refuses, stating her film was more important than dating. She ends up being very similar to her own film character, which was engaging.

According to Micheal Warner, Counterpublics are, by definition, formed by their conflict with the norms and contexts of their cultural environment, and this context of domination inevitably entails distortion. “Queer counterpublics” constitutes itself in many ways other than through the official publics of opinion culture and the state, or through the privatized forms normally associated with sexuality. Once scene that particularly stood out as “counterpublic” was when Cheryl was filming or photographing a building in a rundown, dilapidated part of town. She was carrying all of her camera equipment and was eventually approached by 2 police officers. According to the police officers it wasn’t “normal” to see a young black woman with expensive film equipment, eventually approached her and didn’t believe her when she told them it belonged to her.

Basir: “Tranny Priest”

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After learning about the Bakla and the black drag queen prostitute as figures that confuse race, class, gender, and sexuality, you have to think that there are instances like these that take place all around the world. In the article “Soft minded Men, South-East Asian Gender Crossing, “ the author, Roberta Perkins describes what a “Basir” is. A “Basir” was essentially a “tranny priest” that were located in the tribal societies of Borneo. Perkins said, “Boys who received a holy calling through spirit visitations were considered sacred and as Basir were expected to live as women in honor of the tribe’s bisexual godhead.” Perkins also states “In Toraja society any warrior who had lost his taste for war and severing heads could abandon the warpath and become a woman and learn the religious arts. No one in Toraja society would condemn or ridicule him for his change in roles.” Referring back to Martin Manalansan’s article about the Bakla, which he defined as “harmless and funny creature, stereotypically someone who is lazy, bitchy, effeminate. A Tagalog term encompassing effeminacy, transvestism, and homosexuality.” If you compared the two, Bakla and Basir, you can say they essentially both are men who become women, but how they are viewed in each culture is completely different. They Basir were not questioned in their methods in undergoing a complete sex change, but the Bakla were ridiculed for simply dressing up as women. This is where Transnational Sexuality come in, showing you how different cultures around the world truly are.