Transgender Creativity

[WendyH]

For all the artists, writers, musicians, actors, comedians, dancers, and other creative folk out there: how (if at all) does your gender-differentness intersect with your creative expression?

I’m a songwriter and musician, and most of the time, there is no explicit transgender content in the songs I write or the songs I perform. Every once in a while I might slip in a cryptic line that refers to it in such a way that no one else but me would see the connection.

The one large exception to this is that a few years ago I wrote and recorded a rock opera in which the main character is transgender and the story very much hinges on his/her gender expression. Unfortunately, having neither marketing skills nor theater experience, I’ve not been able to do much with it so far, but that’s neither here nor there (anyone interested can visit http://www.chameleonred.com to listen to some of the songs and read the libretto).

I’ve also been intrigued by the idea of performing en femme, or even developing a feminine alter ego who might perform totally different types of material than I would in my male persona.

I’ve love to hear about the ways in which your cross-dressing, transitioning, or whatever it is that brings you to this forum, influences your creative output—or doesn’t!

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1390/541030699_a564fafc22_m.jpg

[Ruth]

Eek! I was posting in Freddy's thread about this very topic while you were posting this. I've wondered about this and the short answer is that I don't know.
I have a feeling though that if you are by nature a CDing or transgender person and you try to repress it, there will be some kind of interference caused in most of your activities.

[GMCD]

I've often thought that it was the other way around. I am a very creative person by nature. I am a video producer by trade and a photographer to boot. I love to draw and write and build different things with my hands. In short, I love to express things from within me in various ways, and crossdressing is one of them.

Crossdressing gives me a different medium with different palettes to work from to put forward something from within me. When I shoot a photograph of myself in women's attire, I am creating an image of myself as I feel and as I want others to view me. And it's not just about being masculine or feminine, but about being whatever outwardly reflects my attitudes and tastes inside.

The human heart is too vast to limit it to a tapestry of only one color, it demands a broader canvas with greater depths, higher heights, and brighter colors!

Much love!

[WendyH]

Ruth, I agree--I have found that the more I express my feminine side, in art and/or in life, the less it weighs upon me. Kind of like suppressing any kind of emotion, if you keep it bottled up, it will find an outlet somewhere, and meanwhile you end up spending an enormous amount of energy trying to keep the lid on the bottle.

GMCD, I see your point--crossdressing as an art form in itself. I know that I tend to be just as meticulous in my feminine presentation as in my music-making; maybe even more so.