Panti Bliss: On Oppression

DanaC • Feb 21, 2014 8:47 am

A wonderful speech about homophobia as oppression:

[YOUTUBE]WXayhUzWnl0[/YOUTUBE]

Sundae • Feb 21, 2014 10:45 am

Very, very good.

Clodfobble • Feb 21, 2014 12:24 pm

And yet, can I just say, I think transwomen and drag queens would get more respect if they didn't insist on those dopey double-entendre names. The whole image you're trying to convey is that this is who you really are, it's not a stage act you can drop at will. "Panti Bliss" indeed.

Sundae • Feb 21, 2014 1:07 pm

But he's not being judged in many of the scenarios he mentions as a drag queen.
They don't know his name.
He's being judged and subjected to disapproval and having things thrown at him as a gay man.

So maybe he did raise them within his drag queen persona, I don't know because I can't watch Irish television any more than you can. But to be told he doesn't know or recognise homophobia from situations when he's in mufti is surely a valid issue, regardless of what he does of an evening.

DanaC • Feb 21, 2014 1:16 pm

Clodfobble;893131 wrote:
And yet, can I just say, I think transwomen and drag queens would get more respect if they didn't insist on those dopey double-entendre names. The whole image you're trying to convey is that this is who you really are, it's not a stage act you can drop at will. "Panti Bliss" indeed.

Well, he isn't a transgender woman. He's a gay man who dresses as a woman for his stage act. Panti Bliss is indeed his stage name. He isn't trying to convey that this is who he is. It's an act. he puts on the outfit and does his show as Patti, then takes off the outfit for his normal life. And he appeared as his stage persona because he is very well known in Ireland, as a drag queen.

As far as I am aware, the majority of transwomen do not adopt 'dopey double entendre names'. That is generally something done by drag queen performers. They aren't the same thing. Not even remotely.

Clodfobble • Feb 21, 2014 3:10 pm

Sundae wrote:
So maybe he did raise them within his drag queen persona, I don't know because I can't watch Irish television any more than you can. But to be told he doesn't know or recognise homophobia from situations when he's in mufti is surely a valid issue, regardless of what he does of an evening.

Oh absolutely, I'm not suggesting that he somehow deserved the situations he described. I also don't believe that scantily-clad women deserve to be raped.

DanaC wrote:
Well, he isn't a transgender woman. He's a gay man who dresses as a woman for his stage act. Panti Bliss is indeed his stage name. He isn't trying to convey that this is who he is. It's an act. he puts on the outfit and does his show as Patti, then takes off the outfit for his normal life. And he appeared as his stage persona because he is very well known in Ireland, as a drag queen.

Ah, sorry for the cultural disconnect. I didn't recognize him or his stage persona, so I assumed it was a full-time gig. I agree that average on-the-street transwomen don't adopt silly names, but often the high-profile ones do. Our most well-known transactress right now is named Laverne Cox. (Yes, it is technically also a legitimate last name, but her original last name was Lamar. I believe Cox was chosen deliberately.) There's a politician/television host who named herself Vladimir Luxuria. Of course some transwomen also go into the porn business, where they are expected to have silly names just as drag queens are, so those don't count in my opinion.

Like I said, I know that regular transpeople are regular, and star transpeople are weird just like star hetero people. Really, I was just giving a kneejerk reaction based on the fact that I hate the name "Panti Bliss."

DanaC • Feb 21, 2014 3:30 pm

Oh that's fair enough.

I think you just walked into my shitty mood today :p

sexobon • Feb 22, 2014 3:57 am

Aw, were you being oppressed?

Gravdigr • Feb 24, 2014 7:22 pm

Help! Help! I'm being [o]pressed!

monster • Feb 25, 2014 11:48 pm

DanaC;893145 wrote:

I think you just walked into my shitty mood today :p

herbad! :neutral: