I Am Just So Glad You Are Alive New Perspectives on No.docx

"I Am Just So Glad You Are Alive": New Perspectives on Non-
Traditional, Non-
Conforming, and Transgressive Expressions of Gender,
Sexuality, and Race Among
African Americans
Author(s): Layli Phillips and Marla R. Stewart
Source: Journal of African American Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4
(December 2008), pp. 378-400
Published by: Springer
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41819183
Accessed: 10-08-2018 03:58 UTC
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J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400
DOI 10.1007/s 12111 -008-9053-6
ARTICLES
"I Am Just So Glad You Are Alive": New Perspectives
on Non-Traditional, Non-Conforming,
and Transgressive Expressions of Gender, Sexuality,
and Race Among African Americans
Layli Phillips • Maria R. Stewart
Published online: 7 June 2008
© Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract In this paper, we argue that both traditional
psychology-based group
identity theories related to race and sexuality and perspectives
on the politics of
difference obtained from poststructuralist queer theory

underdetermine identity as it
is experienced by a distinct subset of individuals,
emblematized by non-traditional,
non-conforming, and transgressive Black queers. We offer a
new explanatory model
for these emerging identities that is rooted in metaphysical
explanations of human
experience. To support our model, we draw historical and
contemporary illustrations
from African American popular culture.
Keywords African American • Black • Gender • Sexuality •
Race • Identity •
Identity politics • Queer theory • Spirituality • Metaphysics •
Gender identity •
Sexual identity • Sexual orientation • Queer • Racial identity •
Popular culture
In mid-autumn 2007, the November issue of French Vogue
appeared on newsstands
featuring a statuesque bearded black man sporting a feminine
mushroom bobbed
hairstyle, a fitted turquoise Burberry mini-length trench coat,
high-heel ankle boots, a
giant cocktail ring, and lip gloss. This 28-year-old New Yorker
known as Andre J.,
captured in a giddy pose with skinny blonde supermodel
Carolyn Murphy, presented
not only a stark contrast to his more conventional cover mate
and the norms of
hegemonic Western beauty culture, but also a visual challenge
to established scripts
related to black masculinity, black gay manhood, and even
black transgenderism.
Who - or what - was this person? And where did he come from,

literally as well as
figuratively?? Numerous interviews with Andre J reveal an
intriguing and complex set
of self-characterizations: "Most people are conditioned to think
of a black man looking
L. Phillips (iSl) • M. R. Stewart
Women's Studies Institute, Georgia State University, P.O. Box
3969, Atlanta, GA 30303-3969, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
M. R. Stewart
e-mail: [email protected]
Springer
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J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400 379
a certain way. They only think of the ethnic man in XXX jeans
and Timberlands, and
here Andre J. comes along with a pair of hot shorts and a caftan
or maybe flip-flops or
cowboy boots or a high, high heel." (Trebay 2007 November
25). "I'm just expressing
myself and not hurting anyone and taking myself to a place
where I want to be, where
the world is beautiful" (Trebay 2007). "I was put on this earth
to be a bodhisattva, to
just glow, emanate love, respect, peace, pizzazz" (Larocca 2007
March 4). Clearly,

while the world may view Andre J. through the lenses of his
unambiguous race and
his ambiguous gender and sexuality, he views himself through
other lenses. In Andre
J.'s world, race, gender, and sexuality are close to irrelevant,
and self-expression and
spirituality reign supreme. And, as a marker of how social
reactions to such radical
difference may be shifting, Andre J. recounts that the best
unsolicited comment he
ever received from the proverbial person on the street was, "I
am just so glad that you
are alive" (Larocca 2007 March 4).
How should cultural critics and social theorists cognize such
phenomena? What
do people like Andre J. (and his admiring onlookers) tell us
about emerging and
perhaps under-theorized trends in identity and identity politics?
In this paper, we
argue that both traditional psychology-based group identity
theories related to race
and sexuality and perspectives on the politics of difference
obtained from
poststructuralist queer theory underdetermine identity as it is
experienced by a
distinct subset of individuals, emblematized by non-traditional,
non-conforming, and
trasgressive Black queers. We offer a new explanatory model
for these emerging
identities that is rooted in metaphysical explanations of human
experience. To
support our model, we draw historical and contemporary
illustrations from African
American popular culture.

Explaining Identity: Queer and Black Perspectives
Diverse sexual and gender identities have received increasing
attention in both
mainstream and academic discourses over the last two-and-a-
half decades with the
growth and visibility of both the lesbian and gay rights
movement and queer theory.
The lesbian and gay rights movement, on the one hand, has
fought for the legal and
civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer,
questioning, and intersex
(LGBTQQI) people in everyday life, while queer theory
discourse, on the other
hand, has established within the academy a theoretical
framework for thinking about
heteronormativity as an oppressive and dehumanizing social
force. Neither discourse
has sufficiently incorporated issues, concerns, and perspectives
related to race,
ethnicity, or culture, particularly in the US.
Psychological models of queer identity (e.g., Cass 1979;
Weinberg and Bell 1978)
have taken their form from established and widely accepted
stage models of racial and
ethnic identity (e.g., Cross 1971, 1991). These models begin on
the presumption that
individuals define themselves in terms of socially ascribed
classifications, also known
as social address categories, such as Black or gay, and that they
progressively
disidentify with stigma and move towards pride. One problem
with these models that
still has not been resolved in the social science literature is the

fact that many people
maintain some psychological affiliation with multiple social
groups simultaneously,
for example Black and gay (and male and Christian and middle-
class and Democratic,
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380 J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400
for example). Thus, these models are not sufficiently complex.
An additional flaw is
that they are inescapably additive (see Spelman 1988, for a
debunking of the additive
model of identity). A final challenge relates to the fact that,
increasingly, people are
self-identifying in ways that defy social address, and, indeed,
social classifications
themselves are, in some instances, beginning to blur (La Ferla
2003 December 28).
While social constructionist theories from the humanities have
ostensibly presented a
more sophisticated approach to explaining identity, there has
been very little
integration of perspectives across disciplinary boundaries.
In the social sciences as well as the humanities, the notion of
"identity" has bounded
the discussion of sexuality, gender, and race, opening up
certain avenues of discussion

while foreclosing others. By focusing on queer identities, such
discussions have
allowed individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer,
questioning, or intersex to attain voice and visibility against a
context of social
repression, as did discussions concerning the identities of
people of color in decades
past. Yet, these same discussions have reified notions of social
address and reinforced
processes of social ascription and categorization. LGBTQQI
people have been tacitly
encouraged to self-categorize, often in ways that split them
from other valued
identities and affiliations - be they racial, ethnic, cultural,
religious, or something
else - rather than resist categorization and labeling. This
system has allowed society to
maintain people in "boxes" that defy the lived experience of
full humanity as a
potentially unbounded and multifarious phenomenon, thus
maintaining the very social
hierarchies that predispose prejudice, discrimination, and
violence.
In this paper, our intention is to open up the discussion of
gender, sexuality, and
race by highlighting modes of self-expression and behavior that
fall outside
traditional "boxes." In so doing, we purposefully distance
ourselves from and step
outside already well-established discourses pertaining to
identity, particularly gender
identity and sexual (orientation) identity, but also racial
identity. While we find the
concept of identity useful and the literature on identity to be

rich and informative, we
wish to create another avenue for thinking about what people
do when they "do"
gender, sexuality, or race. In particular, we focus on people of
African descent in the
US who do gender, sexuality, and sometimes race in ways that
are considered by
themselves or others to be unconventional or boundary defying,
and we examine
their larger significance to ongoing theorizations about social
and personal identity.
In this paper, we also utilize three interrelated terms to
organize our domain of
interest: non-traditional, non-conforming, and trasgressive.
Non-traditional refers
to expressions of gender, sexuality, or race that would be rated
as "outside the
mainstream" as it is defined by both insiders and outsiders.
Non-conforming refers to
expressions of gender, sexuality, or race in which people
consciously go against the
grain of the mainstream in the pursuit of personal authenticity.
Trasgressive refers
to expressions of gender, sexuality, or race in which people
purposefully confront
and contest mainstream conventions as part of a larger political
agenda for social
change. Non-traditional, non-conforming, and trasgressive
expressions of gender,
sexuality, or race may - and often do - overlap; they are, by
design and in keeping
with the messiness of everyday life, not mutually exclusive.
Indeed, what
distinguishes them is the standpoint and intent of the person

making the distinction.
While traditional discourses surrounding queer sexualities,
gender variance, and
even intraracial diversity have tended historically to rely on
dichotomous splits such
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as normal/deviant and normative/transgressive, we wish to
highlight greater
variegation within the sphere customarily relegated to "outside
the mainstream."
Indeed, we reject a binaristic approach to thinking about
gender, sexuality, and race
in a socially defined context and seek a language that moves
beyond such linguistic
conventions, such that researchers and laypersons alike may
approach gender,
sexuality, race, and other dimensions of human experience with
greater verisimili-
tude to and sensitivity for subjective experience.
A Critical Examination of Queer Theory and Lesbian and Gay
Rights Discourses
The queer experience has often been conflated with the
experience of white queers

due to the cultural visibility and academic productivity of
white gay men and
lesbians. A cursory review of notable queer anthologies
appearing within the last
two-and-a-half decades reveals a paucity of scholarship
reflecting race-d
perspectives on queer sexuality or queer theory generally.
Early anthologies often
contained articles about queer people of color or about
queerness among people of
color by authors who were not themselves queer or even, at
times, of color.
Among more recent anthologies, there remains a segregation of
writing about race-
d queer experiences and perspectives by queer writers of color.
While these
writings originate among queer members of a variety of racial,
ethnic, and cultural
communities, often these writers are not engaged in cross-
cultural communication.
The argument that queer theory must incorporate both an
integral consideration of
race/ethnicity and considerations of queerness generally by
people of color has
been vigorously advanced by of-color and white writers alike;
in addition, a
number of authors (e.g., Battle et al. 2002; Faderman 1991;
Kennedy 1993;
Maskovsky 2002) have emphasized the need to examine class
in conjunction with
race/ethnicity and sexuality. Yet, the separatism of everyday
life has continued to
pervade queer discourse inside and outside the academy,
constraining its liberatory
potential.

Queer theory can trace its origins to the gay liberation and
lesbian feminist
movements of the mid-twentieth century (Goss 1993). Both gay
liberation and
lesbian feminism valorized naturalized notions of homosexual
persons and
developed languages and cultures of gay and lesbian identity.
Such notions of
identity, while liberating for some with respect to the political
backdrop of the times,
proved to be homogenizing and constrictive for others, and
were limited in their
ability to facilitate a critique of certain structures of social
domination, such as
heteronormativity. Queer theory, then, was born out of the
struggle between the
discourse of the essentialized lesbian or gay person, often
combined with a Marxist-
materialist understanding of social-political relations, and the
discourse of
poststructuralism, which gave voice to those sexually
multifarious or gender variant
people whose experiences of self were painfully
underdetermined by prevailing
notions of lesbian or gay identity. From these mutinies at the
margins of the margins
emerged queer theory, with its "radical politics of difference"
(Seidman 1996) and its
radical critique of identity. With queer theory, the goal was no
longer to explain and
normalize "the homosexual," but rather to explain and
denormalize heterosexuality
and rethink social theory from there (Butler 1990, 1991; de
Lauretis 1991; Fuss
1991; Sedgwick 1990; Seidman 1996; Warner 1993).

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Queer theory has had a lot to say about identity. Butler (1990,
1991) has argued
that identity is politically constructed, stating that "power
produces what it claims to
represent" (1990, p. 2) and that "juridical structures engender,
naturalize, and
immobilize [identities]" (1990, p. 5). Thus, identity for her is a
vehicle of social
control and regulation, a policing mechanism, and a pawn to
the "normalizing
categories of oppressive structures" (1991, p. 13, but see also
Foucault 1978a, b).
Fuss (1991) endorses Foucaulťs characterization of identity as
"perpetual reinven-
tion" rather than "final discovery," thus locating identity in the
arena of performance
rather than knowledge. Seidman (1996) describes identities as
composites -
infinitely variable combinations of social locations, labels, or
practices - which can
shift as a function of context. Thus, any specific identity
construction is "arbitrary,
unstable, and exclusionary" (1996, p. 12). In addition,
identities are tense and
unstable (Butler 1990). For these reasons, identity, it is argued,

does not work as a
basis for politics (Butler 1991) - an assertion that might be
contested by some queers
of color (for example, see Anzaldua 1981/1983; Cohen 1997;
Ferguson 2004;
Johnson and Henderson 2005; Muñoz 1999).
Warner (1993) has characterized queer theory as an anti-normal
epistemic position
rooted in the experience of same-sex desire and taking into
account the way this desire
reconfigures social and political life. While queer theory
cannot, by definition, posit a
unified Utopian vision, it is expressly liberationist in that it
seeks to bring down those
oppressions that marginalize people through the imposition and
enforcement of
standards of "normalcy." Normalcy is understood to originate
in the hierarchical
binaries that define Western cosmology, in particular, the
dominant pole of such axes.
This binaristic worldview parses all experience into discrete
and non-overlapping
oppositions such as masculine/feminine, hetero/homo,
black/white, subject/object, self7
other, public/private, and in/out (Fuss 1991; Sedgwick 1990).
According to the theory,
these incommensurable oppositions generate such
discomforting psychological
consequences as alienation, splitting, and identification ("I am
this, but I am not
that"), which in turn constitute the basis of all social
oppressions at the collective level.
One goal of queer theory is to instigate the collapse of all such

binaries (Fuss
1991) and, as such, dismantle the oppressions they engender.
This, presumably, is
achieved by "troubling," interrogating, and destabilizing the
binaries and their
attendant normalcies, and by embracing indeterminacy,
provisionally, and disen-
chantment to prevent their reinstatement. Identities, as the in
situ representatives of
these binaries, become targets of "troubling" and
destabilization. The boundaries
between all binaries, all identities, are to be transgressed,
transcended, or
problematized (de Lauretis 1991). From the rubble of complete
destabilization,
disintegration, and dismantling, it is hoped, new forms of self,
community, and
social relations will emerge - forms that encourage social
differences to surface
(Seidman 1996) and which render identity obsolete (Wieseltier
1994). Queerness, in
theory or in act, is thus viewed as a form of or a vehicle for
social change (de
Lauretis 1991), first by its influence in the thought sphere and
later in the arena of
material conditions. When normative homophobic and
heterosexist thought is
dislodged and decentered, the reasoning goes, avenues of
psychological wellness
and self-valuation open up for queer people and, in parallel,
antipathy, discrimina-
tion, and violence among straight people towards queer people
decline. Barriers to
economic and political equality based on homophobia and
heterosexism then

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J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400 383
diminish or, in a best case scenario, disappear. Ideally, this
effect carries over into
other marginalities not based on sexuality, such as race, class,
gender, nationality,
and so on, leading to a society in which binaries based on
socially ascribed vectors
of difference no longer define social relations.
As Seidman (1996) observed, all dichotomies produce
oppressions and all
oppressions produce queers. Thus, queer theory becomes bigger
than putative sexual
(or gender) dichotomies and ultimately encompasses all
oppressive binaries. This
observation is particularly germane for queer people of color,
whose polyvalent
difference, despite being lived and experienced as integrated
wholeness, challenges
the dominant social structure and mainstream understandings
about human beings on
numerous levels. Using the definition established by queer
theorists, it can be argued
that queer people of color are radical by definition, as the
living antithesis of straight,
white, capitalist, male norms (Anzaldua 1981/1983; Combahee
River Collective

1983; Lorde 1984; but see also Cohen 1997; and Phillips 1998).
Indeed, the
philosophical worldviews, value systems, and social
institutions of such individuals
often defy existing notions of reality, at the same time as they
fly under the radar of
dominant discourses (Phillips 2005, 2006).
As such, race-d queer discourses often queer queerness itself in
ways that are, as
yet, un- or underarticulated. Rejecting alienation, fractionation,
deconstruction, and
disintegration in favor of integration, reconstruction,
transcendental holism, and
revolutionary love (Alexander 2005; Anzaldua 1981, 2002;
Keating 2000, 2005,
2007; Phillips 1999, 2006; Sandoval 2000), these "other"
queers reconfigure the
vision of post-binary queer utopias. As we will argue later,
much of the impetus for
this differently flavored queerness relates to metaphysical
belief systems transmitted
through indigenous cultural connections and ancestries.
Beyond Queer Theory: Emerging New Forms
As indicated above, queer theorists have predicted the
emergence of new forms of
self, community, and social relations once sufficient
"troubling" of "the binaries" has
taken place. Without being able to know definitively when
"sufficient" troubling has
actually eventuated, social observers, scholarly and otherwise,
can nevertheless be
on the lookout for the emergence of these putatively new
forms. Cases like Andre J.,

who is simply a single, highly-visible individual trumpeting
boundary-free self-
expression in ways that skeptics could write off as self-
promotional and self-
commodifying, might nevertheless cause observers to take note
and imagine an
emerging trend. Significant aspects of Andre J.'s self-
presentation include his
emphasis on spirituality and what metaphysically inclined
scholars (e.g., Emoto
2005; Hawkins 2002) would refer to as "vibration," as well as
his skillful, ebullient,
and apparently effortless ability to synthesize diverse
identitarian referents in a
holistic and novel fashion. In a case where it is unclear (and
perhaps irrelevant)
whether art imitates life or life imitates art, we observe in
Andre J. what can only be
described as a new spirit or attitude, or, as the metaphysically
inclined scholars
might label it (in a nod to quantum physics), a new
morphogenetic (M-) field or
attractor site. This M-field quite possibly relates to - or "hails,"
to use the language
of Althusser (1971) - a remarkably different kind of identity
constellation that is
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384 J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400

explainable neither through sociological stage models of
ascribed identity develop-
ment nor through purely social constructionist poststructuralist
formulations.
As a general rule, social scientific perspectives on identity,
particularly in
psychology, have lagged behind insights developed in the
humanities and the more
humanistically oriented social sciences like anthropology,
history, and sociology. In
turn, humanistically oriented disciplines have typically lagged
behind the most
theoretically adventurous and often compelling perspectives
provided by inter-
conversant fields such as theoretical physics, metaphysics, and
the highly
systematized yet technically non-academic ancient wisdom
traditions. Scholarship
on identity by LGBTQQI thinkers of color has often been
uniquely innovative (for
example, see Phillips, L. (2004). Pride and prejudice:
Homophobic victimization
across lines of race and gender. Unpublished manuscript; Battle
and Bennett 2000;
Battle et al. 2002; Greene 1994, 1997; Monteiro and Fuqua
1994; and Parker et al.
2007), primarily because both intersectionality (Collins 2000) -
the interaction and
interpénétration of multiple identities, affiliations, and
oppressions (including, but
not limited to, race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, and
class) - has been a
central feature of the lived experience of people of color inside
and outside the

academy. Thus, it is inevitable that intersectional perspectives
would inform this
research. Beyond this, however, numerous theorists of color
tacitly draw from bodies
of spiritual or metaphysical insight tied to indigenous
traditions related to their
heritage (for overt examples, see Anzaldua in Keating 2000;
and Alexander 2005).
Reconciling Queer Theory with Metaphysical Approaches to
Identity, Selfhood,
and Social Liberation
How do queer theory and metaphysical approaches inform each
other with regard to
considerations of identity, selfhood, and social liberation?
First, both queer theory and
metaphysical approaches support framing the discussion of
gender, sexuality, and race
in ways that go beyond the language of identity, which is
category-based. Queer theory
also supports the link between non-mainstream expressions of
gender, sexuality, and
race and comprehensive, across-the-board social liberation,
based on the argument that
non-traditional, non-conforming, and trasgressive modes of
self-expression are
reciprocally liberatory for individuals and society. While queer
theory emphasizes the
reconstitution of societal structures as a vehicle to liberation,
metaphysical approaches
to identity and liberation, which more properly might be called
approaches to "Self'
(Self-realization, Self-actualization, Enlightenment, Nirvana,
and so on), rooted in the

principle that internal structures or states are externally
mirrored in the material world,
emphasize the reconstitution of internal structures of thought
as a means to both
individual and societal liberation. Queer theory acknowledges
the risk to individuals
who are marginalized by existing, dominant social institutions
and regulatory structures
(material or symbolic), thus warranting sensitivity to potential
assaults on psycho-
logical or social well-being without resorting to a
psychopathology or criminalization
based approaches as the social sciences have historically.
Metaphysical approaches
offer energy-based (a/k/a vibrational) approaches to addressing
such assaults to
individual and group well-being (e.g., Byrne 2006; Emoto
2005; Hagelin 1998;
Hawkins 2002; Patanjali [Shearer trans. 2002]; Vicente and
Chasse 2005). Thus,
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metaphysical approaches provide significant new insights to
the consideration of
phenomena related to identity as well as non-traditional, non-
conforming, and

trasgressive expressions of gender, sexuality, and race.
In the sections that follow, we examine the lived experience of
African-American
public figures known for their non-traditional, non-conforming,
or transgressive
expressions of gender, sexuality, and, to some extent, race.
Using biographical data
from a number of sources, we will highlight a multitude of
ways that gender, sexual, and
racial identities have found expression. We have intentionally
employed an interdisci-
plinary approach that focuses on narrative data and various
forms of qualitative analysis
to preserve both complexity and meaning in the lives of the
individuals examined.
Non-Traditional, Non-Conforming, and Transgressive
Expressions of Identity
among African Americans in Popular Culture
What does it mean to defy tradition, resist conformity, or
transgress with regard to one's
identity, particularly when one displays markers of particular
ascribed social
classifications? Where is the line separating normative from
non-normative expressions
of gender, sexuality, and race, and once one crosses the line(s),
what distinguishes
acceptable (or tolerated) variations from those deemed
unacceptable (or punishable)?
One approach to these questions involves surveying existing
representations of non-
conformity in popular culture, including literature, film, and

journalism. In this section,
we will discuss public figures of African descent known for
their diverse forms of
gender, sexual, and, by extension, racial expression. Rather
than attempting to
categorize such individuals to create a typology with presumed
applicability to the
general population, we will use these examples to demonstrate
the unique array of
variations constituting a spectrum of self-conception and self-
expression.
Traditional notions of gender and sexuality in the mainstream
African American
community rely on a putatively natural, essential, or God-given
male-female dichotomy.
Heterosexuality is the presumed norm, with homosexual sexual
expression and identity
acknowledged and tolerated, particularly when expressed
asexually, secretly, or in terms
of monogamous, intraethnic relationships. Less accepted are
transgenderism and
transsexuality, interracial same-sex relationships, and non-
monogamous relationship
forms, although informal polygamy is quietly condoned in
some corners through a
justification based on its presumed African origins (see Dixon
2002, for example).
Women are expected to be feminine and men are expected to be
masculine;
androgyny, female masculinity, male femininity, and other
forms of gender-bending
trouble Black community norms (Collins 2004; Lemelle and
Battle 2004; Stephens
and Phillips 2003). While women are expected to be strong and

men are expected to
be expressive, men are considered sexually dominant and
women are considered the
nurturers of men and children. There exists a formal hierarchy
of men over women,
particularly within traditional family structures, although this
formal hierarchy
often defies the informal reality of male-female equality or
female authority,
particularly when it is based on age, within African American
couples, families,
or communities (Ogunyemi 1996). While changes in the larger
culture favoring
increased acceptance of lesbian and gay people as well as
variations in gender
expression are impacting African Americans, particularly
among the younger
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386 J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400
generations, mainstream community norms have been slow to
change and virulent
homophobia still circulates, often taking the form of verbal or
physical violence
against gay men, lesbians, bisexual or transgender people
(Phillips, L. (2004). Pride
and prejudice: Homophobic victimization across lines of race
and gender. Unpublished

manuscript; Monteiro and Fuqua 1994; Pilkington and
D'Augelli 1995). Coming out
of the closet is generally considered taboo and silence is
rewarded with tacit
acceptance (Beam 1986; Constantine-Simms 2000; Hemphill
1991; Moore 1998).
Virtually no discourse exists around intersex people; they are
invisible in the
mainstream African America. Ironically, there is ample
evidence that notions of
gender and sexuality in continental African cultures were quite
diverse and variable
(Murray and Roscoe 1998; Wekker 1993). A discussion of the
ways in which
continental African practices, social institutions, and belief
systems were transformed
as a result of their transatlantic translocation is beyond the
scope of this paper, even as
residual and contemporary Africanisms are worth noting when
they are visible.
Given that community norms exist and are enforced, why do
people "do gender"
(West and Zimmerman 1987), sexuality, or even race
differently? When individuals
discover (or decide) that they are different from the norm, what
do they do with that
information? Alternately, when individuals choose to defy
norms, what happens after
that? A review of the ethnically diverse literature on non-
traditional, non-
conforming, and trasgressive gender expression and sexuality
reveals a host of
reasons and purposes, including but not limited to: self-

expression and the pursuit of
self-actualization; personal rebellion; identity exploration;
survival management;
status negotiation; strategic collective action and political
activism; performance and
entertainment; money-making and fund-raising; and, simply,
play. Ostensibly, these
same categories could be applied to racial self-expression,
particularly in a social
context of shifting racial demographics that increasingly
valorizes multiethnicity (La
Ferla 2003). Looking at gender, sexual, and racial variation in
terms of reasons rather
than types casts varieties of identity and self-expression in a
different light. Types
classify, categorize, and separate individuals, placing people in
"boxes" and lending
themselves to hierarchization, while reasons - which may
overlap or change over
time - reflect the cognitively complex, ecologically embedded,
and socially
constructed nature of human experience around gender,
sexuality, race, and all
other aspects of social identity.
In this section on representations, we will use examples from
popular culture to
exemplify these reasons in vivo. Some of these individuals are
well known, while
others are less well known - but all have had their lives
publicly documented. While
such a list could proliferate exponentially, we offer only a few
of the possible figures
who could illustrate not only variation in gender expression
and relationship
modalities themselves, but also the interplay of possible

reasons for expressing one's
identity in ways that are non-traditional, non-conforming, or
transgressive.
Black Bisexual Blues Women: Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith,
and Big Mama Thornton
Blues music is a known precursor to many musical and cultural
forms associated
with African American life and a symbol of Black folk culture
and its associated
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struggles (Davis 1998). One well-known feature of "the blues"
is its blatant
sexuality. In one sense, blues music has stood as the accepted
historical repository
for discourses of sexual diversity within the Black community.
Prominent among
these discourses has been Black female bisexuality and, to a
lesser extent, gender-
bending or female masculinity. Three figures who are
prominently associated with
this tradition include Getrude "Ma" Rainey (1886-1939), Bessie
Smith (1894-
1937), and Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (1926-1984). Ma
Rainey's famous

song, "Prove It on Me," recorded in 1928, proclaimed her
unapologetic attraction to
women, despite her marriage to Will "Pa" Rainey. A
biographical account states:
"The newspaper ad that promoted the release of 'Prove It On
Me' featured Ma
Rainey dressed in a man's suit flirting with two other women.
Rainey was also
outspoken on women's issues and was seen as a role model for
future women
entertainers who took control of their own careers. Ma Rainey
was arrested in
Chicago in 1925 when police responded to a noise complaint
and found a room full
of naked women in 'intimate' situations. Rainey spent the night
in jail for hosting an
'indecent party' and was bailed out the following morning by
her friend and fellow
blues singer Bessie Smith. Some accounts link Smith and
Rainey romantically, but
no one is sure. But it is clear that Ma Rainey made no secret of
her bisexuality"
(Tom and T.J. 1991).
Based on these descriptions, Ma Rainey's lifestyle
demonstrated elements of
female masculinity as well as a probable open marriage and
perhaps polyamory, and
also conformed to a relational style described as "mati-ism" by
Gloria Wekker
(1993). Mati-ism, as distinct from Black lesbianism, is
characterized as sociocentric
(group-oriented) rather than dyadic (partner-oriented). Among
mati women, neither
sexual orientation identity as such nor "outness" (sexual
orientation disclosure) is an

issue. Mati women are typically working class, and their same-
sex relationships are
often characterized by an age differential (rather than a gender-
role differential). Mati
women's primary emotional involvement is with other women,
although domestic
relationships with men are common, as are financial
relationships with both sexes.
After locating mati-ism in a postcolonial Surinamese context,
Wekker traces Mati-
ism to Ashanti and Dahomey social traditions, wherein certain
allowances for
homosexuality were made prior to the cultural clash associated
with the transatlantic
slave trade. Together, Wekker's research and Ma Rainey's
biography suggest a
thread of non-conforming gender practice among women of
African descent.
As Ma Rainey's mentee and perhaps lover, Bessie Smith also
embodied Black
female bisexuality in an era when "respectable" (middle-class)
Black women
actively deflected discussions and characterizations of their
own sexuality
(Hammonds 1994). Known for traveling with a coterie of
women-loving women,
including a male impersonator, she indulged her diverse sexual
palate at "buffet
flats." Buffet flats, "sometimes referred to as good-time flats,
were small, privately
owned establishments featuring all sorts of illegal activities:
gambling and erotic
shows, as well as sex acts of every conceivable kind. These
buffet flats were usually
owned by women, who ran them with admirable efficiency,

catering to the
occasional thrill-seeker as well as to regular clients whose
personal tastes they
knew intimately...." (Albertson 1997). Unlike Ma Rainey,
however, Bessie Smith
was, to some extent, "on the down low" (Phillips 2005). While
her song lyrics
plainly and famously reflected openness to diverse forms of
gender and sexual
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expression, her private life evidenced ambivalence around
these issues, perhaps due
to the constraints of sexism infusing her marriage. Her husband
Jack, a heterosexual
philanderer, was known for his violent temper, gun toting, and
futile attempts to
keep tabs on Bessie. Nevertheless, Bessie could match her
husband's temper and
proclivity for firearms head for head; the two would frequently
argue and tussle in
public. As such, Bessie portrayed what might be considered
"lower class" behavior
by some and masculine behavior by others. Either way, she
departed from normative
femininity and dominant relational scripts and left an indelible
impression on the

African American imaginary.
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, best known as the original
singer-songwriter
of hit songs such as "Hound Dog" and "Ball and Chain" - made
famous by Elvis
and Janis Joplin, respectively - was a reputed lesbian, also
known to have
relationships with men, who frequently dressed in men's
clothes (Halberstam
2007). At 6 ft tall and over 300 lbs, with an imposing voice and
"growl," Big Mama
Thornton had a physical stature that invited comparisons to
masculinity. Whether she
played up her stature, adorning herself in masculine attire for
theatrical purposes or
simply comfort, or used others' reactions to her supposed
masculinity to achieve
justification for something she wanted to do anyway, is
impossible to determine, but
what is clear is that she openly defied norms with regard to
both gender and
sexuality in Black community contexts at various points in her
life. Numerous
photos, now part of the archive of collective African American
history, depict her
wearing men's clothing. Big Mama Thornton extends the
tradition established by Ma
Rainey and Bessie Smith, confirming that female masculinity,
bisexuality, and non-
monogamous relationship modalities are distinct and enduring,
if not controversial,
threads within African American culture.
Contemporary Male-Identified Black Lesbians in Everyday Life

Documentary films are used to show the facts about everyday
life with everyday
people. The documentary frequently cited as making way for
Black queer people is
Jennie Livingston's Paris is Burning (1990), which showed the
life of New York
City's drag balls and the various "families" or "houses" that
participated in these
balls. Since that time, particularly during the mid-1990s, there
was a short boom of
films portraying the Black queer experience (see, for example,
films by Cheryl
Dunye, Isaac Julien, and Marlon Riggs). Currently, there is a
resurgence of Black
American queer documentaries detailing the lives of a
population that has existed
amidst, but has been largely misunderstood by, the larger
African American
community, particularly among those with little personal
connection to Black queer
life. Both Butch Mystique (Wilson 2003) and The Aggressives
(Peddle 2006), for
instance, showcase male-identified Black lesbians and
transgender people, providing
insight into their own subjective understandings of gender and
sexuality.
Butch Mystique , which aired on both the Showtime and Logo
television networks,
is a short documentary about nine characters of various ages
who talk about their
lives vis-à-vis their "butchness." Topics range from their
performance of gender,
particularly their female masculinity, to how they relate to
femmes (queer feminine
women). In this documentary, director Debra Wilson interviews

several women and
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one transman (i.e., a person born with a female body who
identifies as a man; see
Cline 2004; Halberstam 1998) and shows footage of their
everyday lives as
masculine, female-bodied people. Most have experienced
themselves as "the pink
elephant in the room" that no one wants to talk about because
their gender
expression is male-identified and thus anomalous. This film
shows each individual's
pride in their gender expression, notably in the way they dress.
All of them dress in
male clothing because "it's comfortable," even though they
understand that they are
women in the physical sense. Johnnie Pratt, the one transman,
has perhaps made the
most exceptional interpretation of his "butchness," identifying
as both "man" and
"butch" despite the fact that "butch" is associated with both
femaleness and lesbian
subculture. The language that he uses to understand his
progression towards
transgender identity shows not only the queerness of his Black
experience with

gender and sexuality, but also how his self-expression exceeds
normative gender
scripts in Black communities, moving past non-traditional and
non-conforming
expressions into the zone of the transgressive.
A second recent film, The Aggressives , has aired at various
film festivals and was
recently released on DVD. Because it has been released on
DVD, more people now
have direct access to information about this particular
population. Like Butch
Mystique , The Aggressives is about male-identified lesbians in
New York City.
Because some of the women portrayed in this film also
participate in balls,
comparisons can be drawn to Paris Is Burning. Director Daniel
Peddle followed six
women for a period of 5 years and documented various aspects
of their everyday
lives, from hanging out with friends, to dropping out of school
(and later finishing
it), spending time in prison, job-hunting, shopping, dating, and
child-rearing. One
particular male-identified lesbian, Marquise, also identified as
transgender. In terms
of gender, Marquise understood her/himself as a female who is
masculine; at the
same time, s/he desired to grow facial hair. As s/he stated, "I
have thought about
taking hormones. I look like a 1 6-year-old boy. Guys grow up
and guys get facial
hair. Puberty has got to hit sometime." After an exchange of
dialogue with her/his
girlfriend, s/he stated, "It's not like I'm going to cut my breasts
off. I'll just get some

facial hair." In order for her/him to achieve "maleness," s/he
stated that s/he "bites
[her] jaw line" to achieve a more angular face and "work[s] out
constantly" to make
sure her/his arms stay well-defined. At the balls, one is
rewarded for proving one's
"maleness," and such cultivated masculine physical
characteristics make it possible
for the judges to decide who is the "most male." Often, in this
setting, the line
between realness and costumery is intentionally blurred, with
the highest award
going to the best performance, regardless of how one achieved
it (Schleifer 2006;
Troka et al. 2002).
Marquise shows that her/his thinking transgresses normative
views of gender and
even sexuality as they circulate in the larger Black community.
Those who see
Marquise and her/his girlfriend out in public might presume a
heterosexual
relationship if they are unable to discern Marquise's biological
sex. Those taking a
closer look might wonder, after figuring out that Marquise is a
woman, whether
Marquise's masculine appearance equates with masculine sex
acts in her/his
relationship, i.e., heteronormativity. In the film, Marquise lays
these questions to
rest when s/he states: "I eat her muffin, she eats mine. We are
still lesbians." Because
gender and sexuality are intertwined in non-traditional, non-
conforming, and even

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trasgressive ways here, others may have difficulty processing
or labeling
Marquise's gender or sexuality. Some might see this couple as a
heterosexual
couple, while others might view them clearly as lesbians. Yet,
a third alternative is
also possible, namely, viewing her/him as a representative of
some as-yet-unnamed
strand of human experience. Marquise demonstrates why
conducting research on
non-traditional, non-conforming, and trasgressive gender
expressions and relation-
ship modalities is important: Things - be they socially ascribed
categories, identities,
or relationships - are not always as they appear on the surface.
Tiffany, another character in The Aggressives , adds additional
weight to this
claim. Although Tiffany is a male-identified lesbian, she also
identifies as a faggot.
Rather than socializing primarily with other lesbians as one
might predict, she
socializes primarily with Black gay men and transwomen (i.e.,
people born with a
male body who identify as women; see Nestle et al. 2002;

Stryker and Whittle
2006). At the beginning of the film, Tiffany explains that she
only dates transgender
women because it is her preference. Later in the documentary,
alluding to pressure
she has felt from others related to her choice of sexual and
romantic partners, she
says, "I don't date transgenders anymore." By the end of the
documentary, text notes
that Tiffany dates both biological women and transwomen,
suggesting that she has
finally come to grips with the uniqueness of her sexuality and
has ultimately resisted
pressure from others, at least to some extent. Thus, Tiffany's
life and loves
demonstrate both gender expression and relationship modalities
that are non-
traditional, non-conforming, and potentially trasgressive. By
living her life, she
challenges societal norms of what is appropriate and what is
not.
Having focused on what can generically be called female
masculinity, with its
many shades of androgyny, let us now turn our attention to
expressions of male
femininity in a variety of forms.
Disco and Drag: The African American Male Diva Tradition
Male femininity is evident in the African American male diva
(or "queen") tradition,
as embodied in pop culture icons such as Sylvester (1947-
1988), RuPaul (I960-),
Willi Ninja (1961-2006), and now, more recently, Andre J.
(1979-). Although they

will not be discussed here, figures such as Little Richard (a/k/a
Richard Penniman
1932-) and Dennis Rodman (1961-) arguably could be located
within this tradition
as well (Galvin 1997). Even as they defy expectations for
masculinity in male-
bodied persons, these figures also defy expectations regarding
male femininity in
key ways, highlighting the complex nature of gender expression
and performance in
Black community contexts.
In the mainstream U.S. Black community, male femininity has
often been
accepted, or at least tolerated, among individuals who work as
entertainers, whether
as proverbial choir directors in an arguably sacred setting of
the church or
performers in the more mundane worlds of popular music,
theater, and dance.
Black male femininity - unlike white male femininity, which
relies heavily on camp
and mimicry of the racialized cult of true womanhood - tends
to carry overtones of
gender fluidity and even third gender status, discussed below.
These overtones, like
mati-ism, can be traced back to, but are not completely
collapsible with, past African
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cultural elements (Lorde 1984; Murray and Roscoe 1998;
Wekker 1993). Gender
fluidity is reflected in a number of ways, including highly
individualized mixes of
male and female elements, switching back and forth between
male and female
personae, and rejection of seemingly appropriate labels such as
transgender and
transsexual. Thus, the absence of clear labels does not negate
the presence of
discourses, however submerged, about non-traditional, non-
conforming, and
trasgressive expressions of gender, sexuality, and race in Black
communities. It
simply demands highly nuanced approaches to research, as the
following examples
will illustrate.
Sylvester James achieved fame for his gender-bending
performances of disco
music during the 1970s and early 1980s. Songs like "You Make
Me Feel (Mighty
Real)," "Dance (Disco Heat)," and "Do Ya Wanna Funk" made
Sylvester a sensation
not only in the gay club scene, but also with crossover
audiences. According to
biographer Joshua Gamson (2005), Sylvester grew up and
began performing in the
Black church, but also evidenced irrepressible gender non-
conformity as well as
creative and sexual precocity at a very early age. While he was
readily accepted by
his mother and other family members, members of his church

community treated
him with great ambivalence. To quote Sylvester on this subject,
"The people that
turned me out turned me out"; that is, those who introduced
him to homosexual sex
also marshaled him out of the church to protect their own
reputations.
By age 13, Sylvester was already wearing make-up to school;
within a few years,
he was "running the streets" of Los Angeles with other Black
gay and transgender
youth, participating in a subculture that was not unlike the later
drag ball subculture.
Sylvester's crowd, known as the Disquotays, spent the week
preparing their outfits,
obtaining materials by hook or by crook, for weekend parties
characterized by
Gamson as "an art form" (p. 3). Parties for these youngsters
(and their often older
spectators and hangers on) were often held in the home of well-
known singer Etta
James. Sylvester was best known for his giftedness and
creativity with costumery
(with which he not only mimicked femininity, but also
expressed avant-garde artistic
visions) and also for being a "diva," a "queen," and an
unbeatable yet gracious
"show stopper."
Eventually, Sylvester moved to San Francisco and joined a
largely white, gay, drag
and performance troupe known as the Cockettes. Achieving
considerable fame in this
milieu, particularly as the only Black member of the group,

Sylvester was eventually
offered his own recording contract on the strength of his voice
and his ability to draw a
crowd. Conflict ensued, however, over how Sylvester would be
portrayed on album
covers. He desired to be represented as he lived - an
androgynous yet largely
feminine, gender-bending gay male queen - while his record
company begged to
differ, concerned that this image would be uncategorizable and
would not sell to
mainstream audiences, even in the flashy environment of the
disco era. While
Sylvester, feminine touches and all, remained extremely
popular with largely white
gay audiences, racial dynamics did not fail to come into play in
this milieu: Sylvester's
overt sexuality and theatrics were exogenously celebrated in
manner reminiscent of
Josephine Baker in France during an earlier era.
A telling moment with regard to Sylvester's gender expression
and his associated
subjectivity occurred in 1977 during an interview with Dinah
Shore. During the
interview, Dinah asked Sylvester whether, in his relationship,
his partner was the
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392 J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400
man and he was the woman, and his emphatic reply was, "I'm
just Sylvester." Other
anecdotes from Sylvester's life reveal his distaste for being
categorized according to
gender and sexuality labels, preferring to characterize himself
in terms of his unique
and individual self-expression. By all accounts, "beyond
labels" would be a better
characterization of Sylvester's subjective identity.
The same might be said for RuPaul Andre Charles. His 1996
television show, The
RuPaul Show , broadcast on the VH1 television network, broke
barriers because it
was the first program hosted by a man dressed as a woman,
opening up discussions
about gender, drag, homosexuality, and transgenderism in the
U.S. mainstream.
Already well-known within the club scene for hit songs like
"Supermodel (You
Better Work)" and "Back to My Roots," and also famous as the
first "Face of
M.A.C." (a cosmetics company), RuPaul became a poster child
for gender-bending
during the 1990s. Yet, his persona raised questions,
particularly for those who were
unfamiliar with queer lifestyles, such as: Is he a man or a
woman? Is he a
transsexual? Should I call RuPaul "her" or "him"? What does
he consider himself?
Like Sylvester, RuPaul answered many of these questions
personally. For one thing,

RuPaul occasionally appeared publicly or performed out of
drag (for instance, see
the film But I'm a Cheerleader ), indicating that his self-
concept was larger than his
drag persona. In addition, RuPaul famously stated, "I do not
impersonate females!
How many women do you know who wear 7-in. heels, 4-ft
wigs, and skintight
dresses?" This comment alludes to but also departs from Judith
Butler's (1990)
notion of gender performativity, i.e., gender as the imitation of
an imitation, or
gender as created by repeated performance and re-
interpretation. That is, RuPaul's
statement suggests that, as a drag queen (particularly one who,
at 6 ft 4 in., is "larger
than life"), he is performing an extreme version of femininity
that exceeds what
biological women are likely to enact, thus detaching femininity
from female sex and
giving men as much claim to femininity as women. Yet, RuPaul
is also suggesting
that, in his performance, he is expressing his "true self' (a
concept foreign to Butler,
but significant for psychologists) - despite the non-traditional,
non-conforming, or
trasgressive nature of that self.
To further allay public misconceptions about his gender,
RuPaul has emphatically
described himself as a gay man who performs drag. This
statement removes any
suggestion that RuPaul can be categorized as "transgender,"
further decoupling
gender expression from transgenderism. In an interview (Beck
2005), RuPaul stated,

"The superficial image I project is a social commentary on the
world we live in....
I'm saying, 'Look, I'm beautiful with all this stuff on, but that
truth is who I really
am has nothing to do with any of this stuff.' I'm actually letting
the cat out of the bag
by saying it's not real at all. I never said it was" (p. 1). The
significance for social
and behavioral scientists is that outward gender expression,
however non-traditional
or mixed, cannot be read as a certain marker of subjective
experience or personal
identity; further exploration of lived experience and further
probing of personal
philosophy is crucial to understanding individuals subjectivity
and behavior. This
latter point is evident in another statement by RuPaul, in which
he connects his dual-
gender persona with spiritual practices in other cultures:
"There are a lot of young
people who need to see someone living their life outside the
box and being
successful at it. The shamans and the witch doctors remind
each culture to not take
themselves too seriously. They mock our culture by being both
male and female, but
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J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400 393
in that context, there is a much deeper message, which is that
we are all the same"
(Beck 2005, p. 1; see also Conner and Sparks 2004; and Harvey
1998, for
discussions of the relationship between queerness,
race/ethnicity/culture, and
spirituality).
One might argue that Andre J., as a phenomenon, is simply the
most recent
version of the male diva prototype, in the tradition of RuPaul
or Sylvester. Like
RuPaul, Andre J. makes significant references to his
spirituality as the wellspring of
his highly individualized self-expression. Like Sylvester, he
refuses traditional labels
for his gender and sexuality. Like both people, he creatively
mixes various markers
of gender, sexuality, and race (e.g., clothing, hair, movement)
and, like both men, he
works at the intersections of fashion, entertainment, and media.
Yet, there is
something more free-spirited and fluid about Andre J.'s
persona, perhaps reflecting
the Zeitgeist giving rise to Generations X and Y, on whose
cusp he was born. This
free-spirited fluidity is reflected in statements such as these: "I
woke up this morning
feeling really spiritual, calm, easy, and free." "I'm grown, I'm
evolved, I can accept
all that comes with being an individual. [Int: What comes with
being an individual?]
In my case, trust, faith, hope, optimism, courage, wisdom,

enthusiasm, and pizzazz."
"[T]here is always a message behind the glam, and that
message is, Become your
dream." "I want people to look at me and feel inspired, to feel
hope, to smile. I want
to surge positive energy in your body, confirm that you too can
be yourself." (All
quotes from Larocca 2007.)
As mentioned previously, the watershed film Paris Is Burning
(1990) highlighted
the struggles of everyday life for Black gay men, both drag
queens and transwomen,
involved in ball culture. One character featured prominently in
the film is Willi Ninja
of the House of Ninja. Born William R. Leake, Willi Ninja was
a Black gay man
most famous for popularizing vogueing in the ball scene; later,
his style of
performance was brought to wider audiences by pop star
Madonna. Although he
identified as a man, he also identified as the "mother" of the
House of Ninja. As
"mother," Willi Ninja not only embraced his femininity as a
man, but he also infused
the maternal role with Black gay sensibilities. Nigerian literary
critic Chikwenye
Okonjo Ogunyemi (1996) discusses the role of "community
mother" as a residual
Africanism that is accessible to people of any gender. In this
role, a person serves as
nurturer, guide, mentor, mediator, and disciplinarian to a group
of people bearing no
necessary biological relationship. The community mother
"leads people along"
towards a path of empowerment, using her or his accumulated

power (based on
seniority, experience, or personality) to protect and shepherd
the group. Willi Ninja,
an established choreographer, dancer, fashion model, singer,
and film star, taught his
"children" how to vogue - how to walk like a female model,
strike poses, and
dance - as well as how to survive in a world in many ways
hostile to gender-bending
people of color. Like Sylvester, Willi Ninja adorned himself in
an array of eccentric
garments, often blending female and male clothes together to
come up with an
eclectic, creative, gender-transcending style, and resisted
external pressures to
conform in terms of his appearance or personality. Like
RuPaul, Willi Ninja's
persona highlighted the performativity of gender as well as the
orthogonality of
biological sex, gender expression, sexual orientation.
Taken together, these depictions of non-traditional, non-
conforming, and
transgressive expressions of gender and sexuality among public
figures of African
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descent convey a number of themes. First, gender is more
complex than our
common linguistic code expresses. In these queer Black
figures, not only have we
observed female masculinity and male femininity, but also what
might be called
"stud" femininity (feminine characteristics in a female-bodied
person who identifies
with maleness) and "queen" masculinity (masculine
characteristics in a male-bodied
person who identifies with femininity). Were we to focus on
femmes (queer women
who identify with femininity) or butches (gay men who identify
with masculinity),
we might also find evidence of femme masculinity and butch
femininity - adding
additional layers of nuance to our understandings of gender
expression and its
psychic and social construction. Were we to scrutinize the
myriad relationship
modalities exhibited even within this limited sample, we would
also observe the
limitations of our conceptual scheme in the domain of
sexuality. Our current
language around gender expression and relationship modalities
do not voice these
possibilities, although we can gather behavioral evidence of
their existence.
Second, these continual subversions of our everyday and even
scientific notions
around gender and sexuality index the disciplinary nature of
the gender construct in
daily life (Foucault 1978a). One the one hand, individuals
strive to express their
inner directives (Maslow 1968), but, on the other hand,

institutional social structures
scramble to assort people into discrete boxes through which a
hierarchical social
order can be maintained (Rubin 1984/1993). People who
question the system
(Barthes 1957/1972; Sandoval 2000) transgress against norms,
experiencing some
admixture of liberation and peril. Scholars and others who are
concerned about the
well-being of queer people of African descent and others who
are similarly
vulnerable would do well to consider the ways in which
unthinking adherence to the
dominant social order delimits psychological and social well-
being, not only for
marginalized segments of the population, but for all humans
(Martin-Baro 1994).
Third, we notice that gender and sexuality are not the only
vectors of difference
around which inequalities and vulnerabilities accumulate. An
undiscussed but visible
factor is class, a/k/a socioeconomic status. Economic struggle
and survival concerns
add to and intersect with race-, gender-, and sexuality-based
marginalizations, placing
certain people at increased risk for the untoward effects of
prejudice, discrimination,
stigmatization, violence, and neglect (for example, see Phillips
and Olugbala 2006). In
matters as far ranging as healthcare, education, employment,
and religious
participation, class matters - and it must be taken into
consideration in conjunction
with race, gender, and sexuality when matters of well-being for
non-traditional, non-

conforming, and trasgressive people of African descent are in
question.
Fourth and finally, these representations force us to consider
how departures from
normative gender and sexuality are implicated in the ascription
or assumption of
racial identity, or the lack thereof. Numerous anecdotal
accounts relate how queer
sexuality and non-traditional gender expression have brought
accusations of not
being "Black enough" and even evoked racial excommunication
(Beam 1986;
Hemphill 1991; Moore 1998; Riggs 1991; Smith 1983). Even
heterosexual
individuals who are perceived as sexually unscriptable are
subjected to distancing
maneuvers from the African American community (e.g.,
Lemons 2008), thus
highlighting the extensive and totalizing nature of this
disciplinary process.
Throughout this paper, we have focused more on uncommon or
highly individualized
expressions of gender and sexuality than race, with the
understanding that gender and
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J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400 395

sexual difference often predicate racial difference - not in
terms of racial repudiation
or disavowal, but rather in terms of racial reconfiguration and
reinvention. People
who have already taken liberties in one area of identity may be
predisposed to take
liberties in other areas of identity.
Placing Non-Traditional, Non-Conforming, and Transgressive
Expressions
of Gender, Sexuality, and Race in Global and Historical
Context
While both the English language and Western culture are
impoverished with regard
to their ability to account for and represent people who fall
outside the traditional
gender binary, other languages and cultures better account for
such realities. Several
authors (most notably Williams 1986; and Roscoe 1991, 1998;
but see also Brown
1997; Jacobs et al. 1997) have written extensively about third-
and fourth-gender
statuses in Native American cultures. These genders (which
may, in rare cases, go up
to six) are roughly translatable into female-identified male-
bodied people and male-
identified female-bodied people, but may encompass intersex-
bodied people as well
as people who engage in homosexual behavior and people
whose social or biological
gender changes over the course of the lifespan. Far more than a
descriptor for bodies
and genders, these statuses often encompass meanings related
to social role
(frequently spiritual or economic in nature), sexual role (ritual,

procreative, or
recreational), as well as "gendered" characteristics that are
beyond the scope of the
English language. In the societies where these gender statuses
are named and
acknowledged, issues of self-disclosure ("coming out") are
virtually non-existent,
and, more often than not, honor rather than stigma is associated
with such gender
difference, despite the fact that third- and fourth-gender people
constitute a
numerical minority.
Other research demonstrates that third- and fourth-gender
statuses and other
recognized forms of gender-bending are not unique to Native
American communi-
ties. Historically as well as contemporarily, such statuses have
been documented in
regions of Africa (Donham 2002; Lorde 1984; Murray and
Roscoe 1998; Wekker
1993), Southeast Asia (Williams 1986), East Asia and the
Pacific Islands (Murray
2002; but see also Lee 2006; and Leong 1996), Central and
South America (Murray
1987, 1995; but see also Ramos 1994), and also within Islamic
communities
(Murray 1997). This is not to suggest that these statuses do not
appear elsewhere, but
rather to demonstrate the breadth of cultures recognizing
gender and sexual diversity
beyond the constraints of a binaristic system. A notable point is
that many if not
most of these statuses are integral parts of cosmological
systems that are undergirded

by spiritual or metaphysical understandings governing the
universe in general and
human characteristics and relationships in particular.
Transcendental Considerations: The Spiritual Self
Spiritual motivations for life choices, including choices about
identity, are under-
considered in most scholarly treatments of the topic.
Postmodern thinkers who
emphasize the socially and historically constructed nature of all
subjective
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396 J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400
phenomena are particularly averse to giving credence to
spiritual motivations
claimed by social actors, although social scientists likewise
have a history of neglect
and negation of spiritual aspects of subjective experience.
While the term "spiritual,"
with its connotations of religiosity (which are not implied
here), can be considered
problematic due to its nonspecific nature, there are few terms
that more readily
capture the transcendental and immanent dimensions of human
experience.
Additionally, the word resonates with popular parlance, which

increasingly seeks
to articulate people's highly personal experiences of connection
with or inspiration
by a nonmaterial realm of existence or activity, independent of
any institutionalized
religions or religious dogma (Conlon 2008 February 25).
Because sexuality, particularly non-dominant forms of
sexuality and gender
expression, are demonized within many of the world's religious
dogmas, a potential
link between sexuality and spirituality is often not explored
due to questionable
assumptions of its nonexistence. Yet, as mentioned above,
many indigenous traditions
posit a place for multiple forms of sexuality and gender
expression within their
spiritually-rooted cosmologies. In addition, accounts such as
the ones presented in this
paper indicate a tendency on the part of some people who
express gender or sexuality
unconventionally to autonomously and spontaneously make
links to spirituality. Texts
such as Spirited : Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian
Identity (James and
Moore 2006), Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions : Lesbian ,
Gay , Bisexual , and
Transgender Participation in African-inspired Traditions in the
Americas (Conner
and Sparks 2004), The Essential Gay Mystics (Harvey 1998),
and even Sexuality and
the Black Church : A Womanist Perspective (Brown-Douglass
1999) affirm this
reality. Thus, scholarly consideration of spiritual notions of
self (or Self, as it is
sometimes written, to differentiate it from ego) are warranted

and may provide extra
explanatory power. While a full consideration of this idea is
beyond the scope of this
paper, its introduction is intentional and crucial to the ideas
advanced herein.
Metaphysical approaches to Self, including approaches based in
theoretical
(quantum) physics, certain branches of philosophy, the world's
multiple wisdom
traditions, and mysticism, treat all manifestations of
individuality as reflections of an
inner state of consciousness, which can range from various
experiences of
individuality and particularity to a comprehensive and
subsuming sense of oneness
with all that is. Gender is an expression of a cosmic duality
principle that extends far
beyond male and female bodies, while sexuality is an
expression of a tendency to
return to oneness. Viewed in this light, infinitely proliferating
variations in gender
expression and sexual behavior reflect multiple reflections of
underlying cosmic
realities. This view is different from either traditional
essentialism as it is expressed
in rationalist and empiricist philosophy or social
constructionism as expressed in
postmodern philosophy. As such, it represents a third space and
a new model of
understanding identity and identity politics. The full
implications of this third space
and new model must be explored in future research.
Summary and Conclusions

Collectively, the selected people we have presented as
exemplars of non-traditional,
non-conforming, and trasgressive expressions of gender,
sexuality, and race
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J Afr Am St (2008) 12:378-400 397
highlight the complex, diverse, and multifarious nature of sex,
gender, sexuality,
identity, and identity politics. Based on these examples,
scholars and other interested
parties should immediately note the limitations of identity
labels and categorization
schemes. Labels and categories, while heuristically useful in
limited contexts,
generally render invisible important details of people's
experience and meaning
systems. Stated differently, people's subjectivity is
underdetermined by the labels
that may be affixed to them (even by themselves) and the
categories into which they
may be placed (or may place themselves) for convenience.
Although we focused on individuals for whom biographical
material was readily
available in the public domain, this research is also relevant to
the largely hidden
multitude "everyday people" whose own experience of non-

traditional, non-
conforming, or trasgressive identity places them outside or
beyond existing frames
of recognition and articulation. It is our hope that our study
inspires new research
and scholarship aimed at better reflecting the full diversity of
human experience
around gender, sexual, and racial self-conception and self-
expression, as well as
other dimensions of Self, transcendentally considered. The
ultimate aim of such
research should be that all people - regardless of gender
expression, sexuality, or
racial, ethnic, or cultural background - can and will say, of
themselves and to others,
"I am just so glad you are alive!"
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Contentsp. [378]p. 379p. 380p. 381p. 382p. 383p. 384p. 385p.
386p. 387p. 388p. 389p. 390p. 391p. 392p. 393p. 394p. 395p.
396p. 397p. 398p. 399p. 400Issue Table of ContentsJournal of
African American Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4 (December 2008) pp.
309-420Front MatterRace, Gender and Progress: Are Black
American Women the New Model Minority? [pp. 309-
335]B.K.'s Story: His Path to Becoming an Inner-City Custodial
Father [pp. 336-347]Perceived Discrimination: Multiple
Measures and the Intersections of Race and Gender [pp. 348-
365]Sex as Rebellion: A Close Reading of "Lucy" and "Brown
Girl, Brownstones" [pp. 366-377]"I Am Just So Glad You Are
Alive": New Perspectives on Non-Traditional, Non-Conforming,
and Transgressive Expressions of Gender, Sexuality, and Race
Among African Americans [pp. 378-400]"Standing on the
Promises that Cannot Fail": Evaluating the Black Church's
Ability to Promote Community Activism Among African-
Americans in the Present Day Context [pp. 401-413]BOOK
REVIEWReview: untitled [pp. 414-416]The Black American
Intellectual Tradition, 1850-1900, and William Sanders
Scarborough [pp. 417-420]

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