struggle to fit in and live our truths because we do not accept,
understand and allow others (in our community and society) to
live their truths, whatever that may be.
We have made it very challenging for ourselves to live authentic
lives. As a person who does not want to conform I continuously
experience being placed in a check-mate position. I find it
extremely difficult to fathom that we are failing to adequately,
as ordinary people in the LGBTIAQ communities, reconstruct
various sexual and gender identities and relationships worthy of
respect and understanding. As queer people, in the past century
we have created the greatest opportunity ever to come our
way, an opportunity to reconstruct how the world and societies
understand human sexualities and gender identities. We have
and are continuously opting to uphold heteronormative values
such as male/female, feminine/masculine, man/woman, top/
bottom, butch/fem and their misguided and overemphasised
complementary relationship. I am not saying that such identities
and relationships cannot and do not legitimately exist. I am
saying we are too fixated on being boxed by them as the ultimate
and best model in which to live life. It feels as if we have regressed
to a space of having little tolerance, let alone understanding for
sexual and gender differences, outside our own construction of
what ‘normal’ is. If this is true, then we have become no better
than the straight, white, masculine, abled-bodied men that have
historically and still currently construct our oppression. We
ourselves, being products of this system, continuously seek to
find innovative ways to oppress those in less privileged positions
than ourselves.
Consequently, this article is my lament. This semi-naked,
borderline nude, sexual, provocative photo signifies my
reckoning with society and the power it thinks it has over my
existence. It forms part of the process of continuously reclaiming
My Body, My Pride and My Identity. My Body has experienced
many moments of death and rebirth. Death and rebirth of the
dominant Glenton and Liberty. A constant calling into existence
of both, yet neither. A portrayal of boxed identities that are at the
same time me but not me entirely. It is a manifestation of a soul
that is ever seeking, ever wanting, ever discovering and ever so
uncomfortably honest with itself on how it can fit in and revolt
through the currents of time. It is a journey gladly undertaken
in order to find moments, glimpses and spaces of happiness and
contentment to live an authentic life. It is the search of a Body to
exist unapologetically and live a life that many do not dare to live.
They say a picture says a thousand words. What you see is what
you get! Many people make assumptions about what My Body is.
A dress and performing femininity, as a person of Colour, does
not make me a woman nor does it mean that I want to be female.
A pants and needing to perform masculinity does not define my
manhood or supposedly lack thereof.
This article signifies my narrative, which I have for a long time
wanted to share. It is a narrative of internal struggle, pain and
discomfort that yearns for liberty. But it is also my narrative of
liberation in itself. Through it I wish to assert that I refuse to live
a life that is fearful of the world I cannot change. I choose to live a
life that seeks to change the world it refuses to live in.
us, all of us! Our oppressors, who happen to be us, are training
ourselves well to police each other and punish one another
every moment we step out of line in order to live our truths. We
Ru Paul said it best. Life is about using the whole box of crayons.
It is your choice if you want to colour with a few. But think about
this… How would you experience the world and how would you
see Others if you used all the crayons in your box? What if you
don’t aspi