xdressed
08-03-2013, 10:06 AM
This the overview for the story to my art project so far. It's semi autobiographical (things have been edited a little bit so that all the events flow into one continuous story). Uni doesn't start again for another 7 weeks so I want to get as much of the planning out of the way as possible now.
Ryan sits on a sofa and gathers everyone into the room. He sits nervously while they look up, he then tells them he is bi-gendered. They smile and say its fine and they don’t mind. Laughing they realize that is the real reason why he wears black nail polish. One of them asks if he’s ever been out as a girl and he says he’s never really had the chance, so they play a night out together. The story then skips to scenes of Ryan shaving and changing into Ria (which is Ryan in girl mode). Where he shaves, puts on makeup, changes clothes etc the blue tones of the story start changing to pinks and reds. Over this the speech bubbles explain how she had started coming out to a few other close friends as it got near to her first night out. Ria and her house mates then leave the house head out for the Queen Anne. They party and have some drinks there causing Ria to need to go to the toilet. Ria walks towards the toilets and stops hesitantly outside them. To represent the paranoia that toilets can cause trans people, the two markers representing the Ladies and Gents start mocking her, with the Ladies saying things like ‘you can’t come in here with that thing between your legs’ and the Gents ‘well you can’t come in here looking like that’. Ria then humorously says ‘screw you door signs, I’m a woman’ and goes in to use the Ladies toilet. Ria then explains what being Bi-Gendered means, accompanied by various visual metaphors. She explains that gender is a matter of emotional identity and not directly related to physical sex. Bi-gender people have both gender identity’s and switch between them involuntarily and often randomly, with these switches sometimes being triggered by something. She says that her gender works much like a pendulum, swinging from one to the other with a lot of room in between, and then talks about the importance of pronouns while in these various states. She explains that there are certain triggers sometimes, citing music, alcohol, clothing, news articles etc as examples, but that generally it is fairly random and unpredictable. Ria then mentions the difference between this and Multiple Personality Disorder and the damage that can be done by confusing them. As they all start to leave Ria notices she is getting a few odd looks. She explains she doesn’t really mind this as it’s not that bad and normally she doesn’t get noticed, but mentions the problem of Transphobia and ‘monstering’ of trans people. She carries on to say ‘but it’s not all bad, because I have met so many wonderful and accepting people since that day’. She then mentions the time when she had Kim stay over and they went on their first ever shopping trip together, playing in a band with Luci, and (insert story about Stephy). She then says that she finds most people are kind of like her mum, and recounts the story of coming out to her parents saying that while she was accepting of Ria’s bi-gender identity, she simply didn’t understand it and kind of put it down as being weird. Ria then expresses hope that this book will help to change that. The story ends with Ria returning home and changing back to Ryan, the pinks slowly changing into blues as he removes his make-up and wig and changes back.
What do you think, does it feel like I've covered enough and will it be accessible enough for non-trans people? Should the explanation of what Bi-gender means be moved right to the beginning after Ryan comes out to his housemates or is it ok having it about halfway through? Also, should I expand the ending a little so that it flows into a full narrative a little bit more? I'm not sure if it's ok or if it's more of a rushed conclusion atm
Ryan sits on a sofa and gathers everyone into the room. He sits nervously while they look up, he then tells them he is bi-gendered. They smile and say its fine and they don’t mind. Laughing they realize that is the real reason why he wears black nail polish. One of them asks if he’s ever been out as a girl and he says he’s never really had the chance, so they play a night out together. The story then skips to scenes of Ryan shaving and changing into Ria (which is Ryan in girl mode). Where he shaves, puts on makeup, changes clothes etc the blue tones of the story start changing to pinks and reds. Over this the speech bubbles explain how she had started coming out to a few other close friends as it got near to her first night out. Ria and her house mates then leave the house head out for the Queen Anne. They party and have some drinks there causing Ria to need to go to the toilet. Ria walks towards the toilets and stops hesitantly outside them. To represent the paranoia that toilets can cause trans people, the two markers representing the Ladies and Gents start mocking her, with the Ladies saying things like ‘you can’t come in here with that thing between your legs’ and the Gents ‘well you can’t come in here looking like that’. Ria then humorously says ‘screw you door signs, I’m a woman’ and goes in to use the Ladies toilet. Ria then explains what being Bi-Gendered means, accompanied by various visual metaphors. She explains that gender is a matter of emotional identity and not directly related to physical sex. Bi-gender people have both gender identity’s and switch between them involuntarily and often randomly, with these switches sometimes being triggered by something. She says that her gender works much like a pendulum, swinging from one to the other with a lot of room in between, and then talks about the importance of pronouns while in these various states. She explains that there are certain triggers sometimes, citing music, alcohol, clothing, news articles etc as examples, but that generally it is fairly random and unpredictable. Ria then mentions the difference between this and Multiple Personality Disorder and the damage that can be done by confusing them. As they all start to leave Ria notices she is getting a few odd looks. She explains she doesn’t really mind this as it’s not that bad and normally she doesn’t get noticed, but mentions the problem of Transphobia and ‘monstering’ of trans people. She carries on to say ‘but it’s not all bad, because I have met so many wonderful and accepting people since that day’. She then mentions the time when she had Kim stay over and they went on their first ever shopping trip together, playing in a band with Luci, and (insert story about Stephy). She then says that she finds most people are kind of like her mum, and recounts the story of coming out to her parents saying that while she was accepting of Ria’s bi-gender identity, she simply didn’t understand it and kind of put it down as being weird. Ria then expresses hope that this book will help to change that. The story ends with Ria returning home and changing back to Ryan, the pinks slowly changing into blues as he removes his make-up and wig and changes back.
What do you think, does it feel like I've covered enough and will it be accessible enough for non-trans people? Should the explanation of what Bi-gender means be moved right to the beginning after Ryan comes out to his housemates or is it ok having it about halfway through? Also, should I expand the ending a little so that it flows into a full narrative a little bit more? I'm not sure if it's ok or if it's more of a rushed conclusion atm