Author: Kara McVey and Martha Carol
Occidental’s Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) held a voguing demonstration, a talk by Dr. Karen Tongson and the annual Genderf#@% dance last week as part of “Gaypril.” Gaypril is a month-long series of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and intersex (LGBTQI) related programs put on by the QSA that is intended to engage Occidental’s queer community. A lip-syncing competition and a talk by José Esteban Muñoz will conclude Gaypril later this month.
“The driving goal behind Gaypril is to unite Oxy’s LBGTQI community and increase its presence on campus,” QSA President Jacob Goldstein (senior) said. “The LGBT community here is a small community, but it’s a vocal one and we’re trying to build more of that sense of the community . . . these events are a really good way to do it. To let people meet other LGBT students and grow the campus community.”
The QSA planned Gaypril with co-sponsors Programming Board, the Center for Gender Equity, the critical theory and social justice department, the Office of Student Life, KOXY, the Pilipino United Student Organization (PUSO) and the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o De Aztlan/Associated Latin American Students (MEChA*ALAS).
They planned three academic lectures as a part of the Occidental Queer Symposium (OQS) – a program to facilitate academic discussion of LGBTQI issues – and worked with OQS founder, CTSJ Professor Heather Lukes, Celestina Castillo of the Center for Community Based Learning and Naddia Palacios of the Intercultural Community Center.
Professor Lukes said that the events are intended to “jump start queer programming on campus and raise the profile of the college among the rich network of feminist and queer academics in Southern California . . . [The collaboration between QSA and OQS] creates a fruitful interface between what students want [and] a certain academic aspect.”
One of the most widely attended events of Gaypril was the Genderf#@% Dance on April 17. Several hundred students gathered at the dance, which was advertised as a place for people to “come cross-dressed, multi-gendered, genderless, or just generally over-the-top.”
The Genderf#@% Dance was the QSA’s largest social event of the year, but also incorporated an educational component.
“The name is not just obscene. It [Genderfuck] has a history in the gay liberation movements of the 1970s and it’s been adopted by queer theory as well,” Goldstein said. “A dance is normally where the women will get dressed up in their dresses and heels and the guys will get dressed up in their shirt or tie or whatever and this is saying you know you don’t have to do that – you don’t have to prescribe to these gender norms.”
Some students were enthusiastic about the dance.
“I wish we had Genderf#@% every weekend so I could dress up as a guy and have fun,” said Madhvi Ventakatraman (first-year). “It was so fun. . . everyone already looked ridiculous so they didn’t care how they were dancing.”
However, there was some uncertainty as to whether the dance would be too controversial.
“Masquerade is always a socially and politically tricky thing,” Lukes said. ” . . . There’s always room for people to get offended . . . Questioning gender norms is always a good idea, but this is a trickier issue when gay politics is starting to turn to trans politics. If men dressing in women’s clothes and women dressing in men’s clothes makes people uncomfortable then I’m all for it.”
Other students were not impressed by the dance.
“That little area wasn’t a good venue . . . it was so-so,” Aila Ferguson (first-year) said.
Earlier in the week, QSA brought “The Barber of East L.A.” to Thorne Hall. On the evening of April 2, several hundred students attended the performance, which was co-sponsored by the OQS. The play focused on the interrelated lives of several gay Latino men living in Reagan-era Los Angeles. The play was directed by playwright Luis Alfaro and was written and performed by local performance troupe “Butchlalis de Panochtitlan.” The group describes itself on its Myspace page as “three butches doing smart hot performance art theater.”Some audience members were deeply moved by the performance.
“It was really inspiring just to hear [these characters’] stories,” Jessica Welty (sophomore) said.
The QSA held two events in the quad for general awareness of LGBTQI issues and community on campus: the Quad Kickoff on April 2 and a “voguing” demonstration on April 16. For the voguing demonstration, the QSA hosted Jamari Gar’con, a member of Vogue Evolution, a group made famous by several members’ appearance on “America’s Best Dance Crew.” Gar’con demonstrated “voguing,” a dance that consists mainly of poses, intricate hand movements, spins and stylized dips.
Voguing developed in the underground LGBTQI “ball culture,” which involves competitions of catwalking, beauty contests, cross-dressing “realness” and voguing.
The demonstration concluded with a competition between students and Jamari and a discussion of outward appearance and sexuality.
On April 4, the club hosted its bi-annual LGBTQI Community Dinner in the Greek Bowl. According to Goldstein, the Community Dinner had a great turnout contributing to a more cohesive queer community.
“Gaypril is a unique programming opportunity because, as a month long series of events, we have the time to explore the many communities within the larger LBGTQ community,” Goldstein said.
The Occidental Queer Symposium also co-hosted Dr. Karen Tongson’s talk “Sound Migrations: Suburban Soundscapes and the Queer Fil-Am Imagery” on April 13. Tongson examined the connection between suburban life and minority cultures through short audio and visual samplings ranging from the Pet Shop Boys’ “Suburbia” to the Cebu prison remake of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
The QSA’s two remaining events, the lip-sync competition and a talk by José Esteban Muñoz called “Richie Daggers/Queer Crimes: Notes from the LA Punk Scene,” will happen this Friday at 8 p.m. in the Cooler and on April 26 at 7 p.m. in Mosher 1, respectively.
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