Through portrayals of the transgender body, this paper examines the way that the lived experiences of transgender people have been effected by the American Government Legislation.
Introduction
The word 'transgender' is an umbrella term that encompasses an extensive range of self-identifications beyond the binary of male and female, including but not limited to: non-binary, agender, genderqueer, genderfluid, bigender, multigender, as well as trans men and trans women. It is not only about transitioning physically or medically between genders but is representative of an assertiveness about being who you are, making transgender lived experiences both complex and multifaceted. Personal narratives extend beyond society’s concept of journeys of self-affirmation, where the term transgender is not limited to the states of pre-operative, post-operative, or in-transition. There are many people who cannot afford or do not desire medical intervention, and no amount of hormones or surgery would align their body to their gender identity.
Through the art of three transgender artists, this paper aims to highlight the struggles that gender non-conforming people have been facing in America, doing so via the medium of the binary breaking bodies of:
Ebenezer Galluzo, who identifies as both transgender (female to male) and non-binary, as well as a husband and mother. Galluzo uses photography to redefine how the world views them, in addition to how they view the world, and captures the paradox that is trans visibility.
Evan Schwartz, a photographer who identifies as a transgender man. Best Man studies the bonds he has with the men in his life – whose behaviours have informed his own, allowing him to navigate the world indistinguishable as a man. In Lies I Tell Myself, Schwartz depicts the raw, unfiltered emotions that cross faces when he reveals his trans identity.
Cassils, a trans masculine and non-binary performance artist, who uses themselves as a social sculpture to convey the struggle for survival the LGBTQ+ community face in day-to-day life, highlighting the negation of the transgender community.
To Rationalise
Ebenezer Galluzo identifies as both transgender and non-binary, depending on how he feels, he will use different methods to bind (or not), as to what feels most comfortable to appease his dysphoria that day. Therefore, irreversible medical interventions would not be best suited to Galluzo, when his dysphoria can present in different ways, and to different extents, from one day to the next. Galluzo came out as transgender only a few months before the Trump administration came into power, which meant that the process of transitioning came at a rather frightening time.
“…it was terrifying, on a large scale. It was difficult and challenging” said Galluzo, when reflecting on “the horrors” that occurred with the change of administration in 2017. There was a visible and proud transgender community to seek support from, even more so in Portland, which has a high population of trans masculine according to Galluzo. Yet being in a safer area, and not having his day-to-day life impacted, did not mean that he felt any more able to reach out and find solace in them. Galluzo felt “scared”, that he needed to adhere to the binary rules and restrictions of the new legislation and “toe the line” for his own safety.
Fig. 1, Ebenezer Galluzo, Hair, 2017, photograph.
Attempting to rationalise his internal struggles with his gender identity and embrace his body for what it was and all that came with it – breasts, lack of facial hair, periods etc – As I Am evaluated the “self-hatred and fear” Galluzo felt within himself. Wrestling with these feelings, in a society where gender exploration was being met with a new level of scrutiny, meant that the work Galluzo was creating “lacked any form of celebration … any form of rejoicing”. Considering the audience of this art would be surrounded by a narrative of transphobia, where gender-exploration was being rewritten as gender-erroneous, the outcome was not surprising.
The intention of As I Am was to show the viewer how ashamed Galluzo already was of himself. By not allowing a stranger to impart a new, derogatory comment onto his trans body, he aimed to make a negative commentary feel redundant: “if I show you all the levels of projected disgust that I have interpreted on my being, that I'm wading through in a horrible trauma - then you won't come after me.” On reflection, he realised the photography was a coping mechanism, capturing his experience of transitioning in the only way that felt safe.
On the contrary, Evan Schwartz discusses the “privilege” he experiences, of being able to “walk down the street and not fear for my life”, which has been the case from two years into his transition.
Best Man portrays the gaps he feels with cisgender males, which change, expand and contract. That the differences he feels from them is not always what is assumed, because politicians fashion their debates of transgender people around the body, and the body is only one piece of it.
Schwartz felt pushed into the spotlight by the change in administration in 2017 as he “could not stand by and be trans and do nothing”, because Trump took the debate far beyond politics. “This isn't about taxes, this is about dignity and respect and existence, and when a person in power tries to eliminate the existence of a group of people” says Schwartz, because that is what Trump has tried to do in a very blatant way, taking the transgender ‘issue’ to a new extreme, stripping away the bare minimum human rights people deserve.
Speaking on the male experience, he describes a constant fight for power and attention, in a laughable attempt at finding a purpose, which he does not relate to. Schwartz uses “them” as opposed to “us”, because he has made peace with the fact he does not relate to the cis-male experience, and he does not want to put himself in that same category because he “wasn’t raised that way, and that really affects how you grow up and who you are as an adult”. That being said, after experiencing the first Trump Administration, the impact is clear, considering prior to his discriminatory amendments, Schwartz was capturing the intimate moments of connection between himself and the cis men in his life.
Cassils on the Trump legislation
To Compress
Over the four years that followed Galluzo ‘coming out’, he became increasingly comfortable correcting people on his pronouns and not letting slights on his gender presentation adversely affect him. As Galluzo identifies as non-binary, as well as a transgender male, how Galluzo binds his chest depends on his gender dysphoria in that moment. Contrary to what people may choose to believe, it is not about trying to “conceal” or “fool” others, it is about how comfortable this act allows him to feel in his body at that time – it is for his benefit only.
Fig. 2, Ebenezer Galluzo, Wear Bravery, 2018, photograph.
Wear Bravery captures the tranquillity that compression allows Galluzo, while also providing the viewer a window to his nude body: to see his breasts compressed, because he has nothing to hide. Appearing to show an attempt to masculinize his body, Galluzo physically entwines himself with a hop plant. Humulus Iupulus, the flowers framing Galluzo’s body, have provided the ‘bitter’ flavouring of beer for over a thousand years and keep it from spoiling. Less widely known, is that it has also been proven to have a powerful estrogenic activity, since it contains one of the most potent phytoestrogens known to science (cite). Ironic, that a drink so ingrained in masculinity, contains the ‘ingredient’ used to transition from male to female: the hormone of feminization with the potential to rid oneself of masculinity. To view the image with this information, is to see Galluzo lying on a bed of breast-enlargement, with a blanket of chest-compression, his body caught between the two, as is the state of his mind wrestling with his non-binary gender identity.
Sentence to lead into Athey as context for Pissed
… trans artist Ron Athey was another victim of Jesse Helms’ mission to abolish controversial art, having been “denounced from the floor of the U.S. Senate” and “blacklisted from the art world” (cite). The Human Printing Press was part of the group of performance pieces at the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis titled Four Scenes in a Harsh Life, and partly consisted of Athey making light cuts into the back of fellow artist Darryl Carlton’s (Divinity Fudge) back and using a pully-system to hoist paper towels, soaked with Carlton’s blood, over the audience. The controversy being that Athey is HIV-positive and, despite the fact that it was not Athey’s blood and Carlton is HIV free, word spread via fake reports that the audience were exposed to HIV-positive blood, although the performance and follow-up discussions were well received.
Fig. 3, Ron Athey, Four Scenes in a Harsh Life Performance Still (Walker Art Gallery, MN), 1994.
For the first time since 1994, Athey recreated The Human Printing Press as part of collaboration Cyclic with artists Fanaa and Cassils, as part of World AIDS day in 2018, where they explored their death rites. Performing this culture-war-provoking piece highlighted the full circle of oppression it had undergone, from the Reagan administration and Helms, who declared in the supreme court “there has been a cultural breakdown” (cite) on the subject of queer art that confronted society with the question: who is worth saving and who can we overlook? ...to Trump, who sought to undo the progress Obama made.
Fig. 4, Cassils, Pressed Performance Still (Cyclic, Biosphere 2, AZ), 2018.
Cassils, as part of Cyclic, presented his bare body on the floor of the Biosphere 2, where two men proceeded to place one hundred pounds of thick, rectangular glass across him. The performance consisted of Cassils carefully manoeuvring the glass in precise, choreographed movements so as not to shatter it, the only sound being his laboured breaths from the strain it put his lungs under and the scraping of the glass on the floor. Pressed depicts the paradox that is trans visibility in contemporary society, where with more acceptance and celebration also comes more hate and violence; for every political step forward the constitution takes, there is usually a step backwards around the corner – for instance, Trump undoing the changes Obama put in place.
To Be Vulnerable
Appeasing the gender dysphoria of his genitalia, Ebenezer Galluzo sometimes chooses to use a packer to allude to the presence of male genitalia in his underwear. However, the enjoyment of this cis-male anatomy is not to deny the difficulties in keeping the packer clean, especially when menstruating. Pride opened a conversation of the taboo and awkward experiences that occur during puberty:
“I just wanted to mash up two things that are seen as very awkward and taboo (no matter what gender you are) when you’re coming of age. I don’t know what it’s like to get a random boner at thirteen when you’re at school… but I definitely know the awkward moment of what it is like to have that gush feeling and be like ‘I have a stain, can I sit down?’ and both these things I feel like don’t ever get talked about” (Galluzo, 2021).
Fig. 5, Ebenezer Galluzo, Pride, 2018, photograph.
Despite both situations having their levels of ‘threat’ to people, Galluzo feels that the act of a person bleeding during their menstrual cycle shoulders more stigmatism. The nonchalance with which Galluzo lies there, underwear staining, because his body bleeds “and you all have to deal!” is freeing to see depicted. A subtle bulging, that invites the audience to stare with inquiry, is created by a semi-hard packer. As it draws attention to the fact that the subject is in fact wearing traditionally male underwear, it begs the question “Why are they bleeding?” The reception of this image is mixed. Whilst there are those that connect with it immediately and are appreciative of seeing that someone else understands them, there are also those that will ask him what he is talking about, finding themselves unable to form a connection with the subject despite bleeding themselves.
Both the aforementioned photographs speak to Galluzo’s feelings of dysphoria, through the portrayal of moments he only experiences due to his biological sex. Laid bare, what notions of deception can the viewer ascertain from his body?
Galluzo isn’t the only one to put themselves in such a state of vulnerability, with their body being … up for scrutiny?? Something Evan Schwartz, as part of his series Best Man, captured the experience of skinny dipping with his best friends.
Fig. 6, Evan Schwartz, Skinny Dipping, 2016, photograph.
Despite Schwartz’ phobia of nudity, this was the image he had in his head from the conception of the series because of the clear, apparent “body divide” and “freedom” that comes from liberating the body from clothing. Skinny dipping was something new to Schwartz, having previously envied the ability to be with friends without care for nudity: to have a body where you wouldn’t receive questioning looks and gave you the confidence to be in a vulnerable state of undress in front of peers. The result of this illustrious event was the capturing of the platonic, physical intimacy of his male friendships, with no speech involved and no shame. Schwartz purposely always displays the work large so as for it “to be big enough to where you noticed the differences in anatomy”, realising this isn’t your typical group of cisgender males doing something risky together, but a group of male-identifying individuals relieving themselves of the constricting societal norms imposed on them, embracing themselves for who they are.
Sentence leading into Cassils more so… In artistic protest to the Trump administration changes, Cassils collected all the liquid he excreted for the 200 days following the retraction and stored it in medical bottles. This was then transported to be displayed in a 200-gallon glass cube as a 4,800-hour performance piece entitled Pissed. Fountain, the accompanying performance, marks the final two hours of collecting the liquid, and was accompanied by an audio track featuring the arguments from the case of Gavin Grimm a female-to-male transgender teenager, in the Supreme Court in his fight for the right to use the boys’ bathroom at school, which he lost.
Fig. 7, Cassils, Pissed: Fountain Performance Still No. 3 (Monumental, Ronald Feldman Gallery, NYC), 2017.
Fig. 8, Cassils, Pissed Installation Image No.9 (Monumental, Ronald Feldman Gallery, NYC), 2017, urine in a 200-gallon glass cube.
More on Pissed, quotes from cassils
To Protect
As Galluzo’s assertion in his gender identity attempted to grow, so did the discrimination against the transgender community. Protection offers insight into the fear felt by gender non-conforming individuals when attempting to complete the basic human act of going to the toilet in a public place, thus elegantly capturing the paradox of trans visibility.
Fig. 3, Ebenezer Galluzo, Protection, 2019, photograph.
In contemporary society there is so much awareness around transgender people and their rights, that many gender non-conforming people feel confident enough in society’s level of acceptance to use bathrooms that coincide with their gender identity. However, as statistics of hate crime in America show, this is not done without apprehension. Galluzo is photographed sitting on a toilet in a public bathroom stall wearing boxing gloves.
With themes such as the trepidation in using toilets being shown to an audience, the use of a real person would resonate most powerfully. Galluzo’s use of their own body, in a vulnerable moment that takes place in their day-to-day lives, gives insight into the realities of being transgender and gender non-conforming in modern society. Greater global knowledge and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community does not necessarily mean any less fear in situations of potential confrontation. The boxing gloves convey the feelings of fear felt in the moment, while the pearls adorning them contribute to a binary gender construct of femininity. The jewellery counters the colloquially known “wife-beater” vest traditionally associated with masculinity and affirms Galluzo’s non-binary gender identity.
To React
Cassils and Becoming an Image audience photographs
Evan Schwartz on Lies I Tell Myself information below grabbed from website to help:
“This is a selection of images from a larger collection of facial expressions I've experienced when someone finds out that I'm trans. It’s a study of how my own identity has been developed by lies I believe. This isn't about documenting the receiving of these expressions but of the relationship between offender and the threatened; these are expressions I've learned to turn back on myself as a collection of internalized transphobia. The looks are unintentionally archived in my brain and serve as a reminder of how I may be viewed as my identity evolves. Sometimes the looks are subtle, sometimes they're not. They represent skepticism, confusion and disgust. There's also the notion that if I’d just let someone look through me, they could see what or rather, who, was once there. Every look, a subtle shift, a lasting impression. These faces aren’t exact replicas. They’re based on memory which can also be skewed by emotion and imagination. The experiences of these expressions were real, but it’s the retelling of the stories over and over again that has shaped my belief system. A belief system that is fabricated by memory, sometimes specific and sometimes generalized. This exploration has brought to light the idea that I’ve been mimicking the behavior I’ve experienced from others by turning these looks back on myself. This forms a mirrored false narrative about my place in the world.”
Conclusion
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