01 octobre 2009
You are my sweet monster
Je viens de rentrer d'un super spectacle. Le Maxi Monster Music Show joue à L'Européen jusqu'au 9 octobre. Courez-y ! C'est un peu cher mais c'est classe, y a une femme tronc, une femme homme, une femme nordique, une femme à barbe, entre autres. Et toute la monde joue de plein d'instruments et a des super costumes.
Bon alors j'avais pas capté mais apparemment samedi c'est La Nuit Blanche de Paris. C'est pour ça que y avait plein de soirées branchouilles alors ? Le 3 octobre, en plus d'aller voter contre la privatisation de la Poste, et avant la soirée Cunt Punt au Glazart qui commence qu'à 23h, vous pouvez aussi aller à La Nuit Blanche Et Rose, avec concerts, performances (y aura les Kisses Cause Trouble), projections, etc., et ça se passe à Rosa Bonheur, dans le parc des Buttes Chaumont, de 20h à minuit (bon c'est une nuit blanche qui finit tôt alors). Moi perso jvais chez mon cousin, il a un terrarium avec un serpent qui s'appelle Gwendoline !
Le 7 octobre le groupe riotgrrrl français Pussy Patrol, qui vient de se reformer, joue au Chiquito !
Liiiiick my period blood ! (y aura d'autres groupes aussi)
Le 9 octobre vernissage de l'expo photo In Between, par Anakin Wyoming, à la librairie Violette & Co.
LE 10 OCTOBRE C'EST L'EXISTRANS, 14H AU METRO JOURDAIN. J'aimerais bien qu'il y ait plein de monde. Pis ensuite le soir y a une soirée au Yono.
Le 15 octobre, l'auteure américaine Eileen Myles lira à la galerie Castillo/Corrales, 65 rue Rébeval, à 20h.
From October 22nd to 25th, I'm going to be horribly amazingly busy : it's the 4th Berlin Porn Film Festival !
I'm in three of the movies that are screened :
one directed by a straight woman and a straight man (Ovidie & Jack Tyler's Histoires de Sexe(s)), screened Saturday 24th at 8:15pm, one directed by a lesbian (Emilie Jouvet's Judy's Panties), and one directed by a gay man (Todd Verow's Wendy and Judy), both screened in the dyke porn shorts programme, on Friday 23rd at 5:45, and on Saturday 24th at noon. The first one is a full-length feature with a script, the two others are shorts (9 and 30 minutes) without a story, just sex. I will be answering questions of the audience after the screenings.
I will also be performing for Erophil, a festival for erotic literature, on Sunday Oct. 25th at 1pm.
In addition to the screenings and the reading, I'm also doing a workshop on roleplay and sextoys with Wendy Delorme, Sunday Oct. 25th from 3pm to 5pm. Women, men, and everybody in between or beyond are welcome, but the number of participants is limited. 15€. Register here if you want to attend : office@pornfilmfestivalberlin.de
Du 22 au 25 octobre, pour ceux et celles qui seront pas à Berlin, y a le Paris Burlesque Festival à la Bellevilloise. Projections de films, performances et revues de cabaret, djs et musique live. Jvous laisse regarder le programme.
Et à la fin du mois, le festival Cineffable : Le 21e festival international lesbien et féministe de Paris se tiendra du 29 octobre au 2 novembre.
Bon je crois que j'ai tout dit.
Now, confession time : I've heard several times from people who'd been in relationships with people who were transitioning that they'd had to mourn the loss of someone, that differently gendered person that their partner had been, and was not anymore. My current partner is going through his own transition : when we got together he was my girlfriend and had a girl name and was referred to as "she", and then little by little he started binding his chest, he changed pronouns, then names, then started taking testosterone, and is considering surgery. I have never felt it was hard for me, on a deep level. Of course his transition brought about the usual questions of my visibility as a queer femme when I'm walking in the streets with someone who is presenting as male or recognized as male by strangers. Of course it brought about the usual questions of my sexual orientation : how can I be a lesbian if my partner is not a girl anymore ? But none of this is a major problem for me. I've never really cared about sexual orientation, and as a femme I'm already used to ranting about my invisibility - showing off my butch to prove I'm queer was never really a solution. These problems did occurr, but I never really felt his transition was hard for me. People said "it must be hard for you", he said "I understand this must be hard for you", but I didn't feel it was. I felt it was certainly very hard for him and I had to support him through it, and maybe supporting him would mean sometimes having to hear him bitch about his hair not growing fast enough, or having to be amazed at every new hair that grew on his chin. It also meant having to be very tactful and to deal with his body issues, to respect his stoneness and to help him melt it when he felt like it, and generally having to cheer him up when he went through hard times. All of this felt like normal things, things that should be expected from a loving partner. The extent of the support he needed from me sometimes meant I had to forget myself, to be selfless, to nurse and care and sometimes to feel reassigned to a traditionally disempowering female role. Sometimes it meant I went more often to the TDoR meetings and the Trans March meetings than to feminist movement events, or sexworkers movement events, and I was wearing a lot of purple, and I felt I had become a flag for a cause which isn't mine. That felt hard to me. But it was not inherent to his transition. It came from gender constructions I needed to work on, it came from my codependant behavior that I needed to work on, it came from the hardships that any relationship can go through. Nothing was hard for me in his transitioning. But these past months I've been realizing I actually have gone through a phase of mourning. It is probably not over yet. I have been mourning the death of my girlfriend, who's now and forever a boyfriend, the body he had, that is beginning to change irreversibly, the face and the voice and the skin that he had when we met, that I'm beginning to forget. It is a painful process. It is the grief of a loss. The loss of my lesbian love. It's nothing conscious. There's a few dreams I've had that gave me a clue that maybe something was going on there. There's a few times I've felt a pinch in my heart as I was watching not so old pictures of him. And why is it that the last crushes I've had were on persons who were on the verge of transitioning, pe-T, not even binding, but boyish, genderqueer, questioning, or about to take the first steps of their transitions ?
Courtney Trouble is working hard for you ! Her 1st film, Roulette, was released less than six months ago. Her 2nd one, Nostalgia, was released just over a month ago. The 3rd one, Speakeasy, was released less than a week ago. The 4th one, Seven Minutes in Heaven, that was shot at the end of August, is already finished editing and you can see its trailer here. And the 5th one, Roulette Dirty South, is done shooting ! Courtney works with the best everything. Want names ? Morty Diamond, Lorelei Lee, April Flores, Amos Mac, Syd Blakovich, Jiz Lee, Madison Young, Dallas Fivestar are photographers, directors and models she's worked with. Not only is she doing more and more DVDs, but NoFauxxx is being updated more frequently than it ever was, and guess who's in the photos they posted last ? it's me ! I'm in three other photoshoots on the website. AND I have a secret I can't tell you right now, which is making my heart pound like crazy...
Une dernière chose : il y a plein de trucs sexuels à faire avec ses pieds ou ceux de son/sa/ses partenaires ! Par exemple les enduire de lubrifiant et se les frotter là où j'pense.
Mes lubrifiants préférés sont Sliquid H2O Intimate Lubricant, Bodywise Liquid Silk, et Astroglide Glycerin & Paraben Free Liquid, tous les trois à base d'eau. Le mieux c'est de choisir des lubrifiants sans parfum, sans paraben (risques d'allergies ou d'hypersensibilités), et sans sucre (ni glycérine ni glycol, car si t'as les muqueuses sensibles, avec les frictions ça te file des mycoses). Liquid Silk a du paraben et du sucre, mais il est tellement bien... Le flacon de 250ml est pratique, il y a une pompe donc t'en fous pas partout, tu perds pas le bouchon, t'as pas à tatonner pendant longtemps. Il colle pas, il est pas visqueux. C'est celui que j'utilise le plus souvent, parce que je n'ai pas de problèmes de mycoses à répétition ou d'hypersensibilité au paraben.
Bon, d'autres gens aiment d'autres lubrifiants, comme par exemple Probe ; mais je connais aussi beaucoup de gens qui le détestent, car ça fait des fils comme la colle UHU. D'autres gens aiment les gels à base de silicone, comme Concept S. ; water-based vs silicone-based c'est presque une guerre. D'autres gens n'ont pas assez de thunes pour se payer des lubes de luxe ou carrément les commander depuis les Etats-Unis : auquel cas, n'utilisez surtout pas de lubrifiants à base d'huile (vaseline, etc, pas compatibles avec les préservatifs et très très très mauvais pour votre vagin), évitez si possible les petits sachets de lubrifiant qu'on vous refile avec les capotes gratuites, et n'achetez surtout pas les produits Durex Play (le pire apparemment c'est "frissons", au menthol, qui a l'air de grave brûler et irriter). Alors si vous pouvez pas vous permettre les dépenses excessives, les voyages ou les frais de port, mais que vous voulez quand même vous faire du bien sans vous faire du mal, vous pouvez trouver le lubrifiant KY en pharmacie, à mon avis c'est ce qu'il y a de mieux pour pas cher en France. Il est plutôt correct - il a de la glycérine et du paraben, et il colle un peu au bout d'un moment, mais il n'a pas de parfum et il tient longtemps.
Bonne nuit !
27 août 2009
Extreme Makeover
bon bin crise existentielle j'ai relooke mon blog. dites moi si ca vous plait mieux comme ca. je savais pas qu'on pouvait s'amuser a ce point avec canalblog ! depuis le temps que je tiens ce blog j'avais meme pas cherche a le rendre un peu joli et navigable.
existential crisis, i gave my blog an extreme makeover. tell me if you like it better now. i didn't know there were as many possibilities with canalblog ! i've been writing this blog for ages and i hadn't even tried to make it prettier or at least a bit more navigable.
22 août 2009
San Francisco
Saturday, August 22nd - ART OF RESTRAINT, erotic rope bondage event, at the Femina Potens Art Gallery. I will be performing there, as well as Madison Young, Midori, Fivestar... and also Margaret Cho !!!
2199 Market Street & Sanchez. Come ! My piece might get messy !
Tuesday, August 25th - RADAR, reading series, at the San Francisco Public Library.
It is hosted by Michelle Tea and I will be reading some of my writing. Rose Tully and Katie Crouch will also be reading. It is free ! Come ! I won't be naked, promise !
I just discovered PornSaints, and it's a very exciting project.
I want to be a pornsaint !
I am reading the book Intersex (for lack of a better word), by Thea Hillman, and you have to read it too.
The HomoAGoGo festival just ended and it was great. A fashion show (I walked the catwalk in a pink crochet jumpsuit), an art exhibit (I particularly loved a painting of two giraffes snuggling that was entitled Longingly), live music (I was amazed by Mirah, Tender Forever and Tim'm West)...
Being in SF has me wondering about something I'm feeling increasingly uncomfortable with.
Buying local, cruelty-free, fair trade, organic, recycled, non GMO, women-owned... Political choices seem to be a lot about consumption choices.
Are politics just marketing niches ? In French supermarkets, there is a tiny fair trade deparment, with very attractive packages that make you feel very cool, where the prices are much higher than the rest, and then there's the usual trash - made-in-China, underpaid cashiers, and battery chicken.
When you buy from a shop that sells many products that were made by 8-year-old kids, or tested on animals, AND a line of ethical products, who are you giving money to and what purposes does it serve ? As it seems to me, it's just a way for the shop to get money from more people : the ones who don't give a fuck about politics, AND the ones who do.
I remember going to this very green, ecological, organic, vegan restaurant in Paris, where they had no switch for the light in the bathroom. It never went off. When I enquired why, the woman said "when there is one, people forget to switch it off anyway", which is obviously a ridiculous justification.
This also makes me think of what this link shows : namely, that a few corporations own all the printed press, TV channels, and publishing companies of my country. The newspaper of the Communist Party is partially owned by a corporation that also owns a part of Cosmopolitan, and hundreds of other magazines, newspapers and tv channels (and also a weapon producing and arms trading company). I am not saying that the journalists who work for this newspaper are subservient to capitalism and not honest in the work they're doing. I'm saying the corporation that holds so many shares of their capital is convinced they're harmless and that reading this communist newspaper will not make any revolution or social change happen that would threaten its interests. It all confuses me a lot. To what extent can we trust a publisher who is selling a feminist book and a book
advocating for rape, a book defending the theory of intelligent design and a book
that is pro-darwinism, a book that says capitalism should end and
a book that says communism is the root of all evil ? Are the freedom of speech that we have and the independance of our journalists so harmless and ineffective to make a real change ?
It makes me think of "La dictature c'est ferme ta gueule, la democratie c'est cause toujours", it makes me think of "if voting could change anything it would be illegal".
What can we do ? If you know how not to get cynical about this, please comment. I'm in need of positive thoughts on the matter.
I got to see Speakeasy, Courtney Trouble's yet unreleased 3rd movie, and it is HOT. The most glamorous queer porn I've ever seen. The bondage scene with Jiz Lee and Dallas Fivestar made me cream in my jeans. Lorelei Lee is one gorgeous foxy lady. Beautiful B&W photography, a simple, classic, efficient storyline, and hot FtM-on-femme & transfag action make for a dirty, smutty, delicious film noir.
I got to attend the shooting of her 4th film, Seven minutes in Heaven, and it's gonna be HOT. Courtney is still in the process of editing it and since I'm staying at her place, I get to hear the soundtrack of moans and whines and groans everyday as I wake up.
Oh, and : my creativity and inspiration are developing ! It is very exciting and sleep-depriving ! I am now a 19 year old porn actress, performance artist, sex educator, translator, activist and writer !
21 août 2009
Stone
Stone is the transmen who won't get naked when they're fucking you, much less let you fuck them. Stone is the sexworkers who won't let their clients kiss them. Stone is how sometimes you get ticklish and it's just the way your body says "don't touch me there". Stone is the butches who don't want my lipstick to get smeared on their lips when we make out, and the reason why I wear kiss-proof rouge a levres. Stone is how so many women won't trust anyone but themselves with their bodies enough to let go and cum. Stone is how I'll get tense if you get too close to my clit, and keep my hand ready to stop yours, clutched firmly around your arm, trying to keep control. Stone is how I'll fidget and wiggle under you, feeling trapped, not telling you I'm scared, just trying to reduce the harm, moving away from you with my hips, escaping as much as I can. "You're not doing anything wrong, just going places where I've been hurt", I whisper when you ask what's going on. Thank you for asking. Maybe stone is also how upset you got, how I felt you cringe, when your friend called you a name he says is your real name, and how relieved you felt that I didn't hear it. Stone is these experiences that queers have in common, these hard boundaries that pain has carved in our bodies, making us harden. In some places, my stone can be melted, if you do it right, if you're patient and listen. In others, it will remain hard as a rock.
15 août 2009
overwhelming whirlwind
so, after reading my last post, someone told me the exhaustion i talk about at the end of the text is very typical of sexworkers, and such women as Annie Sprinkle and Virginie Despentes mention similar feelings.
here's what i wrote back :
my exhaustion has very little to do with sexwork though.
i started feeling this way long before i began sexworking.
it's just the way my life is meant to be.
a constant overwhelming whirlwind. hectic frantic and fantastic.
i can hardly keep up with it, but most of the time the breathlessness just makes me a little dizzy and light-headed with happiness and excitement.
except the times when i get burnt out and have a nervous breakdown.
maybe sometime i'll come to terms with the existential anxiety that leads me to run after time the way i do, keeping myself busy all the time, maybe trying to escape something, who knows. i'm sure i'll work that out.
until then, this neurosis makes my life pretty darn interesting.
voici un lien vers un site qui vient d'etre cree : Les mots de la chair.
ce soir j'ai performe pour SIZZLE, une soiree de lectures et de performances organisee a la galerie Femina Potens. c'etait interessant et agreable. les autres auteures invitees etaient Madison Young, Luna Maia, et Thea Hillman, et ce qu'elles ont fait etait chouette.
je suis pressee de voir ce que San Francisco aura a m'offrir dans les deux semaines a venir.
(j'ai largement augmente l'article precedent depuis que je lai mis en ligne, si vous l'avez lu juste apres sa publication, vous devriez y jeter un nouveau coup d'oeil. je vais probablement le retravailler encore dans les jours qui viennent.)
vous devriez aussi jeter regulierement un oeil sur ce que fait Courtney Trouble :
elle a realise trois longs-metrages dans les derniers mois : Roulette, Nostalgia et Speakeasy, qui m'ont bien l'air d'etre des oeuvres d'art en plus d'etre des pornos queer excitants.
elle vient de faire passer son site internet, NoFauxxx, a la vitesse superieure : il y aura des updates plus regulieres a partir de maintenant (et un troisieme photoshoot de moi vient d'y etre mis en ligne) !
lentement mais surement, son projet d'inventaire exhaustif, que dis-je, de pantheon du porno queer, avance petit a petit : RealQueerPorn. d'ailleurs si vous voulez offrir votre contribution benevole a ce projet, contactez-la, elle a besoin de petites mains !
Sinon, voila une serie de liens vers des trucs sympas :
Bitch Magazine, un magazine lesbien feministe assez cool
$pread Magazine, un magazine qui "illuminate the sex industry"
On Our Backs, un magazine porno lesbien qui n'existe plus...
Fetlife, un reseau social genre myspace ou facebook sauf que c'est pour les deviants sexuels et autres kinksters
The Inverted Eye, une boutique en ligne qui vend des accessoires vintage et des antiquites dont l'usage initial peut etre detourne et perverti au gre de vos kinky games (fragments d'uniformes, materiel de barbier, materiel medical, materiel d'equitation... y a des tresors)
11 août 2009
Tour
The Queer X Show tour just ended.
You can read extracts from our tour diaries and see pictures on this blog.
There are also articles here, here, here, here (en Français), and pictures here and here.
I haven't written on the blog, or anywhere else really, during this tour.
I started trying to write, but I was just reporting facts.
A detailed report of every single event, every single feeling and emotion and sensation...
Long long long texts, that no-one will ever have time to read.
RECORD ME ! Mad Kate screamed in her performance, and it echoed deep inside with this obsession I have.
The obsession to record my life, to make archives of my life, with words and sounds and images and bits of papers put together.
I was trying to write it all down, but I was constantly failing, never enough time, never enough paper, never enough ink, I kept failing and being late, losing my breath. Je faisais la course avec le temps, j'essayais de rattraper la réalité, je voulais écrire ce que je vivais quasi simultanément, mais j'étais toujours en retard sur les évènements, le temps que je finisse de raconter l'histoire de la veille la journée d'aujourd'hui était passée, pleine de nouvelles histoires à raconter...
Alors j'ai arrêté. I stopped trying after a few days, and I started living it to the fullest, taking as much as I could take from this experience.
I was discovering new cities, new people, all these landscapes unfolding outside the windows of the van, all these stories unfolding on the rows of seats inside the van...
Berlin Wendy Brussels Sadie Paris Madison Cologne Katie Copenhagen Emilie Stockholm Ena Malmo Judy.
The seven of us, coated with sweat and filth after hours and hours of road, dirty with our little secrets and fears and ego battles and love letters, dirty with our little voices and laughters and underwear and fantasies. So much time spent together in this van, learning who I was, learning who each of them was, telling them about me and hearing about them, while another one was trying to sleep and couldn't because we were too loud. So much time spent laughing, screaming with laughter, laughing until my muscles hurt with it, laughing until I couldn't breathe, because Sadie was just so funny. So much time spent talking, my little high-pitched voice going further and further as I was telling my story, trying to be as faithful as possible to the truth, over analyzing everything I was saying... Each conversation that started seemed to end up being an exhaustive exploration of everything that could be said on the matter, with all of us participating, and all of us learning so much in the process. It was incredible.
We talked about psychiatrization and how harmful it can be to people
in general and to women and queers in particular, we talked about how
problematic it is to label someone crazy and how helpful it can be to
be diagnosed sometimes, and how complicated all of this is.
We talked about art and money and how we manage to deal with the apparent contradiction and how we work out the issues that come up when your job is your passion, or when your passion doesn't pay the bills.
We talked about sexual orientation and the limits of defining oneself as homo/hetero/bi, or generally making the gender of your partners what determines your own identity.
We talked about sexwork and being out and being closeted and educating people and taking care of yourself and choosing your battles.
We talked about compulsive grooming like popping zits and plucking hair and how weird it is that it feels so good.
We talked about the porn industry and how it is in LA as opposed to in Europe, and how to prepare yourself for an anal scene.
We talked about race and class and gender, beauty standards,
sexual
freedom, objectification, transgression and taboo, shame and guilt.
We talked about our fetishes, our exes, our first times, our partners, our families, our body issues.
We talked about white people with dreadlocks and cultural appropriation.
We talked about alcoholism, codependance and relationships.
We talked about group dynamics.
We talked about linguistics.
We talked about so many other different things and in the end I'm so grateful that we were able to share so much, and I was confronted with so many worldviews that I'd never thought of before, and I was able to give a voice to so many ideas or stories that I'd had to hush or I hadn't been able to express before.
These girls are all such exceptional persons, performers, writers, thinkers, and besides super hot, and I felt so honored to be a part of this.
I grew and improved as a performer, too. When I accepted to take part in the tour, I really didn't think of myself as a good performer, and I certainly didn't think of my performances as art.
Whenever I performed, it was in front of an audience mostly filled with my friends, or if they were not my friends I felt I was lucky to be on this stage, it was almost undeserved, I thought of it as "I'm a beginner, they are offering me this stage for me to try out, experiment, learn, and if there weren't other more professional, more talented performers in this show, the audience wouldn't be as indulgent with me." I felt that I was Wendy's little sister, she had given me the chance to be there and I almost apologized for being there and never felt like what I did was really worth anything. Things changed slowly, I started developing my own solo performances myself, instead of always doing duos with Wendy, working on them alone instead of always asking her for coaching. Of course her help and her teaching was extremely valuable, and she was a great mentor to me, and she gave me so many opportunities. But at some point I had to try and fly with my own wings, and I did it little by little, and this tour definately created a new level of independance and self-confidence for me as a performer. I no longer think I'm bad. I'm definately inexperimented, and a beginner, but what I do is beginning to have its own little personal flavor, it is my work, it is my creation. I'm beginning to see performing as "hello, here I am, I'm Judy Minx, this is my art, I'm putting it out there for people to see and to criticize or praise".
Our show was a whole, it was a complete entity. The structure of it, the line-up (which number goes first, second, ..., last), we thought about all of this together and that way we integreated each little fragment, our solo numbers, into a bigger picture, an artpiece, a show. I was proud of all of us. When I felt I'd been bad, I was still able to see how great a show we'd done. When I felt I'd been great but the audience hadn't been very receptive to the show as a whole or the connection I'd had with the other performers hadn't been that good, I wasn't satisfied. It felt good to be working together like that. We all contributed to making the show good, we weren't just going on stage and doing our own piece and then letting the others do theirs. We gave suggestions, processed and brainstormed about each other's pieces, we asked for advice or opinions on our performance ideas, we made the others contribute to our solo numbers to make them duos, trios, quartets... Backstage we asked each other for bobbypins, hairspray, glitter, fake blood, fake eyelashes, lipstick, help with zipping the costume on or taking the shoes off...
Another very interesting thing was to perform to so many different
audiences, in so many different venues and contexts, and to adapt our
show according to the circumstances. A few hecklers from time to time. Some awkward shyness. Young drunk dykes at 1am the night
of the gay pride in a huge club in Stockholm. A very quiet, seated,
intellectual and artsy audience on a very interesting and newly built
stage in Malmo at 10pm. A very receptive, very interested audience at 8pm in a small gay bar in Paris, who instantly got carried away with us in a very intimate and ritual-like connection, although they were totally unused to seeing anything like us... I could obviously not do a
15 minutes spoken word act, that requires silence and attention from
the audience, at 1am in a club where people were standing and getting
drunk and wanted to party. We couldn't do a fisting performance in
Stockholm where the restrictions on nudity and explicitness and public
sex are tough. I couldn't do twice the same number in the same city.
etc. Working out all of this was a very interesting part of our work.
Sadie Lune wrote this rap for me (she made one for each of us) :
Tits for a minute, legs for days
Spreads em wide and invites your gaze
Drinks from a bottle fresh soy milk
And pisses all over your new silk
Judy Minx ! Judy Minx ! Baby pornstar really makes you think
Judy Minx ! Judy Minx ! You'll miss a mouthful if you stop to blink !
Tranny cock and kinky sex
Born in heels and raisin' heck
She'll never believe you might be right
Unless the rope's tight extra tight
Judy Minx ! Judy Minx ! Baby pornstar really makes you think
Judy Minx ! Judy Minx ! Brains and a pussy and a load of high jinx !
I got to see my cervix, meet incredibly talented people, chew on a red hot chili and find it sexually arousing, question my assumptions about who I'm attracted to or not, whip myself with branches in a sauna on wheels just a few meters from the Baltic sea, laugh at stupid private jokes shared by less than ten girls on this planet, have sex with hot queers after the shows in the backstage/in the ladiesroom/in the van, and get away with it without any polyamorous drama or yeast infection, do ageplay under the full moon, be attacked by an army of ladybugs and stung by a wasp, eat disgusting food in freeway rest-stops and delicious food in great restaurants, meet many people whose names end in -a, like Anna Erica Cecilia Christina and Alva, go to the Pere Lachaise and the Sacre Coeur, two touristy things I'd never taken time to do in my everyday life in Paris, decorate a van with garlands of tampons and hair-rollers and fake flowers and barbies in bondage and dick-shaped mint candy, hit on perfect strangers and not fear rejection, develop my creativity and feel validated as an artist, have crushes on people I probably wouldn't have thought were my type at first, see friends of mine who live far from Paris and that I don't see often enough, meet real straight feminist men, visit Christiania and be disappointed, buy a faux-vintage girdle, feel how much I miss you when I'm away and how thankful I am to have you, eat ice-cream, feel my belly aching with desire, not take enough showers, create more femme solidarity...
There's something else I want to talk about. While we were in Paris, a very close friend of mine who is trans', who had worked at helping us with the props and the stage, got assaulted. He was called a dyke by a men, then he was punched in the face and he fell to the floor and fainted, bleeding a lot. Noone came to help, although it was in the metro in the middle of the afternoon and people were passing by. He got two stitches and a lot of fear and shock.
On August 1st, while we were in Copenhagen, a masked man entered a LGBT Youth Center in Tel Aviv and started shooting, killing two persons and injuring 11 more.
You're always much more free on the stage than on the dancefloor. If
I'm topless on the stage I'm considered to be doing art with my body
and the distance with the audience prevents anyone from
non-consensually touching me. If I'm topless on the dancefloor I'm just
a drunk girl who's asking for it and they can all touch my tits without
asking for permission, and then the bouncers can kick me out because "this
ain't a strip club".
These things remind us that we can't be apolitical artists, we can't just do pretty and sexy things and not care about what is actually going on out there. Being an artist puts you in a very privileged space, and it makes you safer from these attacks. Performing feels very good to us, but we can't just do it because we enjoy it or just because it's empowering for us. We need to make something good for the world, good for our audiences. We can't stay in ivory towers, we can't disconnect our art from what is going on out there. Because when they attack one of us, they are attacking us all. Because it keeps happening, in Tel Aviv, in Paris and everywhere else, and it needs to stop. Because art can be and needs to be a force that impacts change, an element of the social and political context in which the world evolves. Because it all feels so close to us, because it has happened to us, and it could happen again, to be the victims of someone's hatred, to be the victims of the states's institutionalized discriminations, and we don't want to go through this in silence. Our art is political, and I have never been interested in creating anything that wasn't. (although there's an article in Swedish on the internet that misunderstandingly quotes me. it says I said that there's nothing more to our show than entertainment and fun. it is not true and i didn't say that.)
On a little square in Malmo, we went to a ceremony with candles and a march and a kiss-in on Aug 5th in remembrance of the victims of the Tel Aviv tragedy and to express solidarity with its survivors. Vendela, the organizer of this little demonstration, who is also one of the most wonderful persons I've met during this tour, read passages from the Queer Manifesto. Her voice was so strong and so broken and so beautiful I wanted to cry. AN ARMY OF LOVERS CANNOT LOSE, she chanted. I hope she's right. Until we're proven wrong we'll keep fighting.
After the last show in Berlin, everybody was sad that the tour was over. I loved it, it was definately a life-changing experience that helped me understand more about where I want to go with my life, what kind of person I want to be... But I was not sad that it was the end. I really needed it to stop. The sleep-deprivation needed to stop. I needed to be on my own again, release myself from the constant tension and self-consciousness and fears that group dynamics like this one raise in me, spend a few days with my partner, get things done in Paris...
I am now in San Francisco, where I got less than 24 hours ago. I really wish life was slower. It all happens all the time, I never get a rest from all the craziness, and it has just begun ! It drives me insane, and I mean it. I undergo a whole little personal revolution every three months. It's been like that for a while now, things get more and more hectic as it goes, I always think it can't get worse but it does, I have a serious problem with FOMO (fear of missing out) so I keep trying to do it all, I think "I'll sleep when I'm dead" but I actually need some sleep or I'll get burnt out. I keep having to choose between sleeping eating and taking showers and I end up not doing enough of either. One life-changing experience a day is too much. I can't process it all. The next one ends up erasing the previous one, because it was too quick, I couldn't get over the first one and there's already something new sweeping me off my feet. I need some rest, I need a slower pace in my life. It's just so hard to not do everything, to not make the most of every opportunity that I get. When you're 20 and you're offered to participate in projects with people who not so long ago were your idols and heroes, you can't say no. You can't tell yourself "I refuse this one and I'll get another chance later". So I'm living it up. I wanted my stay in San Francisco to be a vacation. Spa, manicure, shopping, sleeping, drinking fruit smoothies and having healthy food, writing and seeing friends... But then Madison offered me to perform for her art gallery, Femina Potens.
So tomorrow night, August 14th, I'll be performing for the first time in the US ! I'm excited, come see me if you get a chance. The event is called SIZZLE. The details are on www.feminapotens.org
09 juillet 2009
Queer X Show
in English below
----
Vendredi soir, je quitte Paris pour Berlin, où commence la tournée du Queer X Show, qui s'achèvera le 8 août.
Le Queer X Show c'est un show qui rassemble des performances de Wendy Delorme, Judy
Minx, Sadie Lune, Mad Kate, Madison Young, une soirée
après le spectacle avec aux platines la berlinoise DJ Metzgerei, et un
road-movie porno documentaire sur la tournée des 7 bad girls, réalisé
par Emilie Jouvet.
On part avec un van pour faire vibrer l'Europe
au rythme de nos orgasmes pendant un mois.
Berlin, Bruxelles, Paris, Cologne, Stockholm, Copenhague, Malmö, et Berlin !
watch out cause we're up to mischief !
Lorsqu'on sera pas sur scène en train de te faire mouiller ta culotte, ton boxer ou ton slip kangourou, on sera peut-être en train de tourner une scène de cul avec toi, alors si t'es queer, que t'as toujours secrètement rêvé de coucher avec moi (ou une autre des filles du gang) et que t'as pas peur des caméras, envoie un mail au Queer X Show sur myspace, facebook et/ou à emiliejouvet@gmail.com et on arrangera ça !
dans tous les cas, viens voir le show !
numéros de cabaret,
exhibition explicite extrême,
strip-tease burlesque et spoken word,
léger mignon sexy et/ou malsain tordu troublant,
de l'urine, du sang, de la glaire cervicale, de la salive,
de la sueur, de la cyprine, de l'éjaculat féminin - et des paillettes
des profs des flics des prêtres des petites filles des grenouilles des cyborgs et des drapeaux américains, des performances différentes à chaque représentation et même des invitées surprises dans chaque ville...
17/07 Berlin : L.U.X (Schlesische Str., Kreuzberg)
18/07 Brussels : Metro Anneessens (bvd Maurice Lemonnier, entrée Place Fontainas)
23/07 Paris : Le Tango (13 rue au Maire)
24/07 Paris : Chez Régine (49-51 rue de Ponthieu)
26/07 Cologne : Tsunami Club (Im Ferkulum 9)
29/07 Stockholm : Kolingsborg (Södermalmstorg 2, Gula Gangen)
29/07 Copenhagen : ArtRebels Gallery (Flæsketorvet 17-19)
31/07 Copenhagen : Salt Club (Vesterbrogade 2A)
04/08 Malmö : D'Nye (Nordenskiöldsgatan 19)
08/08 Berlin : BKA Theater (Mehringdamm 34)
----
Tomorrow night I'm leaving Paris for Berlin, where the QueerXShow tour begins. It will last until August 8th.
The Queer X Show is a show with performances by Wendy Delorme, Judy Minx, Sadie Lune, Mad Kate, Madison Young, a party after the show with wonderful DJ Metzgerei from Berlin, and a porn road-movie documentary about the 7 bad girls on tour, directed by Emilie Jouvet.
We are leaving on a van to make Europe throb
to the rhythm of our orgasms for a month.
Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Cologne, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Malmö, and Berlin !
watch out cause we're up to mischief !
When we're not on stage making you cream in your panties / boxers / briefs / jockstrap, we might be shooting a sex scene with you, who knows ?
so if you're queer, you've always had the secret dream of fucking me (or another girl from the gang) and you're not scared of cameras, email the Queer X Show on myspace, facebook and/or emiliejouvet@gmail.com and we could arrange something !
Anyway, come see the show !
cabaret numbers
extreme explicit exhibition,
burlesque strip-tease and spoken word,
cute sexy carefree and/or creepy twisted disturbing,
saliva, blood, urine, vaginal fluid, cervical mucus, female ejaculate - and glitter,
teachers cops priests lilgirls frogs cyborgs and American flags,
different performances every night, and even surprise guests in every city...
(see the dates of the tour in the French version above)
03 juillet 2009
Butch is a Noun
"I know what butch is. Butches are not beginner FTMs, except that sometimes they are, but it’s not a continuum except when it is. Butch is not a trans identity unless the butch in questions says it is, in which case it is, unless the tranny in question says it isn’t, in which case it’s not. There is no such thing as butch flight, no matter what the femmes or elders say, unless saying that invalidates the opinion of femmes in a sexist fashion or the opinions of elders in an ageist fashion. Or if they’re right. But they are not, because butch and transgender are the same thing with different names, except that butch is not a trans identity, unless it is; see above.
- S. Bear Bergman, from “I Know What Butch Is,” the first chapter from hir book Butch Is A Noun."
Après les débats houleux qui ont eu lieu ici, ici, ici, ici, ici, ici et ici au sujet de la liste Top Hot Butches dont je vous parlais dans un billet précédent, j'ai lu cet extrait de Butch is a Noun et il m'a touché et m'a fait rire.
JE VEUX LIRE CE LIVRE !
18 juin 2009
Self-centered narcissistic blahblah
Someone just rang the door bell, and it was a UPS delivery guy.
I knew what was in the box.
TWO NEW DICKS I BOUGHT FOR MY BOYFRIEND'S BIRTHDAY !
One pink (to replace the old one who was tired), one black.
They're so beautiful !
Mr Bendy, also known as Silky, is exactly the right size for me, and
incredibly soft. It's a pack&play, or hardpack, which means you can
both use it for penetrative sex and as a packer. It's also perfect for oral sex, and especially deep throat. I LOVE IT !
I've been wondering about my life, and I haven't been so well. I've
been taking anxiety medication and considering maybe going into
psychoanalysis.
But then that raises many questions, like will shrinks ever tell you
anything else than what they learnt in books written by a straight white
man strongly influenced by judeo-christian mentality and full of
heteronormative and misogynistic/homophobic prejudices (either Freud,
Jung or Lacan) ? how can I find a shrink who is BDSM-friendly,
queer-friendly, polyamory-friendly AND sexwork-friendly in this city ?
Anyway. I need to find a way out of my codependance issues, my
affective neediness and insecurity, and other problems. I have started
to take some steps towards taking better care of myself, and not
indulging too much in parts of me that hurt me and others. Strategies when I feel anxiety coming, to make it less hard on me and others. I'm quite
proud that I'm so strong and that I'm still able to be happy after all this time.
My relationship is getting better too, and that also makes me feel better. What
makes me feel really good is how much thought we give to it, how hard we
try to find better ways of communicating, etc - and how successful it's
been these days. I have a great partner. I love talking about a lot of things with him, politics and TV-series and our friends and sex and our relationship and parties and how my day went and how I love him and just anything. It feels good to be doing something else than fighting or having sex - not that I mind the sex. This morning's quickie before you went to work... Breathtaking.
The summer, and my therefore outrageously sexy outfits, seem to make
guys think they have a right to talk to me, comment on how I look, or
even grab me and grope me, when I'm walking in the streets.
Yesterday I was literally harassed by men in the streets - stared at,
"complimented", whistled at, approached, physically threatened, and,
yes, grabbed and groped.
On a night like that one, no matter how many times you assault me, I'll
fight back, I'll chase you on my high heels, screaming "what makes you
think you have a right to touch me ?", I'll stride the streets and feel
fierce and powerful, I won't lower my eyes when I pass you by, and I
won't stop wearing what I want to wear and going out late
at night on my own in so-called dangerous areas.
Maybe the fact that I was feeling better and more open to others, has
something to do with how many times they tried to make me feel that I was there for them to see and that they owned me. I had been such a socialite at the burlesque
party and I had felt so happy to be around people. And then maybe when I left the party I forgot to protect myself from the outside world, I was just euphoric and smily, and the guys thought it was sexual seduction aimed at them, which it was not. I am vulnerable, and I don't want to harden, I don't want to wear an armour. I want to let you reach me, I want to let your bullets pierce through my skin. That's the only way I can make your love pierce through it too. If my skin gets thick and tough, nothing will get in me anymore.
So I am like a Christian martyr, trusting them forever, giving them still another chance not to disappoint me. Always answering them when they ask for directions, a lighter, a cigarette, even if it might just be an excuse to talk to me and then become annoying. Always with a bright smile and as much charity as I can. Always offering help even when I'm not asked anything. Cheerful, warm, open. I know some of them are bad, and it will hurt all the more that I had decided to trust them and give them the opportunity of showing me they're good. If they abuse my trust, if they decide to hurt me although they knew I wasn't defiant - I was as trustful as a child - it will damage me. But if they prove me right, if they see me being so good and naive and open and don't take advantage of it, it will make me all the more thankful, it will give me more strength to keep believing in people and loving them and having this cheesy Christian humanism. [Where the fuck did I get that from ? please don't believe I'm writing all of this without distance and irony. I'm obviously aware that it is weird, fucked up, laughable, simplistic, childish, manichean. However it's also how I know myself to think sometimes]
This is also, I think, what is at stake in the emotions I feel in BDSM.
I give you all the power. To me it's not a scene, not a game, it's not play. I don't act. I get into a space, a space of weakness and
trust, which is a part of me, not a character. I put myself in a position where I'd let you rape or kill me - and you don't. I give you power to abuse me and you use it for my pleasure, not just yours - although you know I'm so submissive at that moment I might not even resent you abusing me. And that, giving up all the control, giving you so much of myself, giving you power to hurt me, and knowing you will only use it with love and respect : that is what makes me so incredibly thankful after a BDSM scene. That is what brings me so close to tears during aftercare. I love you for not hurting me, for how good you are to me. For how you let me be an open, trusting, innocent, vulnerable, welcoming person, without punishing me or abusing me.
It's always seemed such a horrible thing to me, how good people become hard and bad because there is this social pressure, this norm of defiance and distrust and selfishness. Kind people are always punished for being kind and they're either killed, or made to harden. Kindness is regarded as weakness, trust as naiveness.
I like to hitchhike, I like to ask strangers a favor, I like to give people the possibility to reject me, so that they also have a possibility to accept me. I like to give people an opportunity to show the best that they have.
Ok this was written all in one piece and I didn't re-read it or try to make it consistent and understandable and well-written - like almost everything I write here, by the way. I had an appointment with the shrink, I didn't go. I wrote this instead. It's some sort of a confession, not an argumentative well-thought-of, well-worked-on, logically-structured text - so don't read it or criticize it as such.
My wisdom teeth are growing and it HURTS !
In less than a month, I'm going on a European tour with several other girls. We'll perform in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm... I'm excited and scared at the same time.
And in August I'll be in San Francisco !
There are so many things I want to write about on this blog. Interesting, theoretical, political things.
And instead I find myself talking about my life. Oh well, it's fine too.
Alright. That's all for now.
17 juin 2009
The US porn industry, HIV, STDs and STIs, and condoms
Here are the articles that Jiz Lee, Courtney Trouble, Baby Sinead, Audacia Ray, wrote on the matter.
I might write one too, sometime, when I have time.
== Publicité ==
