Femme Friday – Femme Klatsch with, moi! The Total Femme

Femme Klatsch is where queer femmes chat with one another on all themes femme. Sweet femme sisters – chime in!

 What does femme mean to you?

Who are your femme role models?

How did you find your femme?

and today’s question:

What sustains your femme?

One of the things that sustains my femme and that opens up big queer space for me to be my most sincere and truthful femme self, is the inspiration of other queers who are really-oh, truly-oh themselves, in all their queer glory. It really, really helps if they have a good sense of humor, too. For example, Tex and I recently attended the yearly fundraiser, ClimACTS, for Theater Offensive. The memory of founder and executive artistic director Abe Rybeck in a truly tremendous neon outfit, waving and blowing kisses as he was carried onto stage by two scantily clad fellas while another hunky number in ass-less pants serenaded him with Italian opera will sustain me unto my dying day.

Queer story sustains my femme. Whether it’s in a book, like Juliet Takes a Breath by Gaby Rivera, or observed, like watching Michelle, the current owner of Womencrafts in Provincetown both honor the history of the store as well as honor the political complexity of today’s queer world, or told to me directly, like the stories I hear from the QSA members or from other femmes — I need queer story almost as much as I need to breathe.

Coalition building and intersectionalty sustain my femme. My straight colleagues and friends model how I can be a better ally, show me how to recognize my privilege and wear it with a sense of humor and responsibility. The National Day of Mourning is a holy day for me. My femme is sustained when I brainstorm and discuss with other queers about strengthening our organizing by asking hard questions about race or disability, for example. My femme is sustained when I hear from a straight colleague with new information about our ongoing struggle to get our town to deal with its Native American town symbol. Attending Creating Change sustained the fuck out of my femme.

My femme is sustained by the love of my butch.

My femme is sustained when my new femme friend and I machinate to take over the world.

My femme is sustained by this blog, and by hearing from you.

Deep gratitude to all of you in all of your queer and fabulous variety!

 Every Friday, The Total Femme showcases a queer femme goddess. Suggestions welcome!

 

 

 

 

Published in: on May 5, 2017 at 3:41 PM  Leave a Comment  
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Abe Rybeck Hugged Me!

I’ve been a Theater Offensive fan from way back, give them money when I can, and keep an eye on their doings, which is why I worked on getting True Colors to come to my town’s middle school as part of publicizing the new GSA as well as adding to the anti-bullying effort going on.

Theater Offensive is a queer theater organization, and True Colors is a youth troupe that builds a show from the ground up and takes it on the road, usually to high schools, but they’re going to come to our middle school in the spring. This evening, a group of us went to see a preview of their show, which is called “# Over the Rainbow”.  The whole show was interesting, funny, sad and moving, my favorites being one called “It’s Not Catching” in which the phrase, “No homo!” is used and abused, and another about an American Muslim lesbian. Because True Colors is coming to my son’s school, I finally had an excuse to introduce myself to Abe Rybeck, the founding artistic director of Theater Offensive, who I’ve seen around for the past 20 years but our paths never really crossed. I admit it, I gushed. I told him I love him, and he very graciously told me he loves me too. It was definitely a crowning moment in my career as a queer.

I just feel so grateful to him for making queer theater available and accessible. I feel connected to him on some kind of queer grid or web, where we’re all doing what we can where we can with what we have. It’s a very satisfying feeling, a loving feeling. So, thank you Abe, for all you do for us. I’m out here in the burbs doing what I can as well. Together we’re changing the world. MMMmmmmmmwhah!!!!

Published in: on December 16, 2011 at 10:47 PM  Comments (2)  
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