Against Me! and Laura Jane Grace

Against Me! is my best friend's favorite band, and I had heard of them before, but had never given the band much thought until the aforementioned friend starred in a short film, the background music being Against Me!'s "Teenage Anarchist". Immediately I was interested in what else the band had to offer, so I asked my friend if he recommended for me to listen to them, and he said "absolutely"!

Against Me!

Against Me! is a punk band formed in 1997. Much of the band's songs are about social justice, equality, and destroying the status quo, which are all things that I am very interested in.

In 2012, the band's singer and guitarist, Laura Jane Grace, publicly came out as transgender. Laura destroys the idea that trans women have to be soft, petite, and delicate to pass as women. Laura is a trans lesbian in a punk scene that is currently dominated by aggressive cis, straight white men- and she's rocking it. Grace has written songs about her gender and how it's affecter her life, including "True Trans Soul Rebel", "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" (also the name of Against Me!'s 2012 album), and more.

Laura Jane Grace

In 2016, Grace burned her birth certificate onstage in North Carolina- the home state of HB2 (aka the Anti-transgender bathroom law)- saying "Goodbye, gender!"
I think that Grace embodies everything the punk scene is supposed to - defying the status quo, not being afraid of what others think, being your true self, and fighting for what you believe in. Laura Jane Grace is, honestly, a true trans soul rebel.

Creep it real!

Vocabulary: Drag Queen Fashion

The term "drag" has been thought to mean "dressed resembling a girl". 

RuPaul; famous drag queen and host of RuPaul's Drag Race

Drag is any clothing that has a strong association with one gender, usually worn by the opposite gender.

 Drag has been a very important mode of self expression for those in the LGBT community throughout history.

Drag queens are usually gay men - but people of all genders and sexualities can and have dressed in drag - dressing in exaggerated feminine clothing, makeup, and oftentimes wigs.
Drag can be performative or casual, from people who star in films, to people who wear drag as self-expression, to people who have tried it once. Many well known drag queens perform at gay bars, theaters, or on television for drag shows.

Kim Chi, a contestant on season eight of RuPaul's drag race

Drag has historically had close ties to the transgender community, the two women most credited with sparking the Stonewall Riots were Marsha P. Johsnon and Silvia Rivera, who were both drag queens as well as trans women.



Marsha P. Johnson

Silvia Rivera



Drag has many historical roots, men and transgender women have been dressing in feminine clothing since before the 1800's. Those who dressed in drag were often arrested for "buggery" (lying) or prostitution.

 

"Fanny and Stella" Frederick Park and Ernest Boulton, who shocked London and
 sparked a huge criminal investigation by walking the streets in feminine clothing.

 

Drag is thought to be inspired by Shakespearian English plays, wherein women were not allowed to perform onstage, so all the actors were male; some dressed in drag to play female characters.

Many films and television shows dress men in feminine clothes for comedic effect but this is considered transphobic, particularly transmisogynistic by today's standards.

The video below shows the evolution of drag queen fashion throughout history.

 

More photos of historical drag queens

 

 

Creep it real!

 



PWR BTTM concert in Portsmouth!

PWR BTTM

This is a more personal post than my other ones have been, about my concert experience this past weekend.

So, this past weekend I went to a concert for one of my favorite bands, PWR BTTM!
PWR BTTM's members are Liv Bruce and Ben Hopkins, and they identify the band as "queer punk", which is exactly what I need in my life. Both Hopkins and Bruce are nonbinary and use they/them pronouns, and write about gender identity and being gay.
I went with my friend Katie and my date-people to Portsmouth, NH; decked out in glitter, emulating Hopkins' signature look.


I still can't get the glitter out of my hair.

My friends and I somehow found our way to the front of the crowd, big X's marking our hands.
Then, Q turned to me and said "Oh, my god, Liv is running the merch table!"
I immediately started hyperventilating, because I may or may not have the biggest celebrity crush on Liv Bruce that the world has ever known.

who wouldn't have a crush on Liv, honestly. Just look at them.

After I stopped hyperventilating (actually, that's a lie, I just was hyperventilating less) we went in groups of two (to keep our spot in the front claimed) to buy things... And to see the ethereal being that is Liv Bruce, in the flesh.
After fumbling to buy things and just generally making a fool of myself in front of Liv - who somehow looks better in real life- they asked us if we wanted to take a selfie.


You can tell Katie was REALLY excited to see Ben.

They took the picture, and Ben jumped in last second, wearing no makeup (a shock), and told us we all looked cute and gave us hugs. Which was amazing. I'm still excited about it.
I then applied glitter to complete strangers, which was fun.

Then, the actual concert happened. There were 4 bands playing, PWR BTTM was on last, preceded by Tancred, Lisa Prank, and Bellows, who were all really great musicians (as well as sweet people- we got to meet them as well). Ben came onstage to play with Lisa Prank, and she gave Ben their very own rainbow tiara. It was adorable.

The image says it all.

Then, it was the moment of truth. PWR BTTM was onstage.
"As you can see," Ben said, decked out in blue glitter and greasepaint "I'm not wearing any makeup to the show".
Both members were such good performers, as well as musicians, with their back and forth banter and stories.
My friends and I were super pumped, yelling quips back to their comments. Basically, we were obnoxious and loud. It was great.
"Serenade me!" I yelled at one point.
"I am!!!" Ben shouted back at me.
The bassist, Nicholas (who was not part of the band, but played with them for the show) said, "That's like, the whole thing. You paid us money for us to serenade you."

About halfway through their section of the show, Ben stopped to appreciate a girl's light-up flower crown. I felt a sigh of relief that Ben didn't talk about how obnoxious my group was being. Except that they totally did.
"And to this group in the front, who has been tweeting about the show nonstop."
Called out. Oops.
After the show, Ben and Nicholas came up to our group and thanked us for being so into the show. It was the most amazing thing. ever.

 

And Ben took another selfie with us. With no makeup, clearly.

Ben parted and left us with this final nugget of knowledge:
"You can never tweet too much, and if you ever run out of things to say, jut tweet 'egg'."
Truly iconic.

We got home at 2:30 AM, completely exhausted, and collapsed, still covered in glitter, into bed.
(My pillow looked like a unicorn was massacred in the morning...)

So that was that! I had a really great time with my friends, the music was amazing, and the band members were super nice!

Creep it real y'all!