queer embodiment

My Kink is Subversive Sapphic Music Videos- How Chappell Roan subverts gendered rules of embodiment in “My Kink is Karma”
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My Kink is Subversive Sapphic Music Videos- How Chappell Roan subverts gendered rules of embodiment in “My Kink is Karma”

It’s 2023. I have just shut my computer after a grueling day of classes and homework, all to turn my attention to yet another blue-lit screen. As I catapult myself into my bed, I open YouTube in search of the Bob Ross marathon live-stream that I can always count on being my first suggested video. As the app opens, instead of Bob Ross’ comforting face, I am greeted by a smirking woman with curly red hair, glittery clown makeup, and devil horns. Her name is Chappell Roan. As a drag queen myself, I was instantly intrigued. I click on the video, named “My Kink is Karma”, and watch intently.

Chappell Roan and Clownie: Woman with red curly hair, white tank top, and cheetah print shorts kneeling on the ground hugging the legs of a man in blue jeans and a yellow flannel. She is in a messy and disorganized bedroom.

The video begins with Chappell packing her things, mascara running down her face after she broke up with her cheating boyfriend, Clownie. Her body language in this first scene communicates that her potential is repressed by Clownie’s emotionally abusive nature. I notice how during the first verse, it is made very clear that this story is not about him. In fact, his face is not shown throughout the first minute and twenty seconds of the video. As the first verse builds into the chorus, Chappell transforms from sitting timidly on a street curb to embodying power, confidence, and control. Her transformation into her drag persona represents a shift in embodiment, from a place of trauma to a place of dominance. For the majority of the video, aside from the first minute or so, Clownie is notably docile, in a trance-like state controlled by Chappell Roan. This dynamic in music videos, where one party has total control and the other serves as decoration, traditionally mirrors gendered expectations of embodiment. “My Kink is Karma” subverts this dynamic by explicitly depicting how this level of control looks when the roles are reversed.

Chappell Roan and Clownie: A woman with red curly hair, clown makeup, cheetah print blazer and red fishnets straddling a man in clown makeup, yellow shirt, and blue jeans on a cheetah print bed. The room is dimly lit with a spotlight on Chappell Roan and Clownie.

According to Iris Marion Young’s piece “Throwing Like a Girl” (1980), feminine bodies are taught to occupy less space and use less bodily power compared to masculine bodies. When someone is socialized as a girl for example, they are taught to throw a ball without engaging the entire body; this results in a throw less powerful than someone who is socialized as a man, who is traditionally taught to maximize their physical strength. This dynamic can be seen in the first part of the video. Chappell’s posture is submissive and defeated while Clownie is throwing her things to the curb in a fit of rage.

Chappell Roan: A woman with red curly hair with tear-streaked makeup, white tank top and cheetah print shorts, and white cowboy boots sitting on the curb smoking a cigarette. She is surrounded by disorganized piles of her belongings.

During the rest of the music video, Chappell Roan breaks every rule of gendered embodiment. She looks directly into the camera while Clownie exists in his submissive state of hypnosis. He does not react when she pushes him down onto the bed, or when she throws his jacket into the fire. He does nothing when Chappell smashes his face into the cake, or when she pins him to the heart-shaped target. Clownie is not there to take up space like men typically do in music videos, but to receive the karma that Chappell exacts. His embodiment is completely in Chappell Roan’s hands.

Chappell and Clownie: A woman with red curly hair, a cheetah print blazer and heart-shaped clown makeup is staring into the camera, while a man in clown makeup and a white undershirt is staring down blankly.

Although I’m sure there is an argument to be made that reversing the roles of gendered embodiment is problematic because it still privileges one socialized group over another, I find Chappell’s subversion of feminine embodiment extremely compelling. Her video inspired me to revisit the ways that I practice embodiment through art. The next time I am on the stage in my heels (it’s where I belong 🎶), I will think of Chappell Roan’s subversive embodiment.

Sources:

Roan, Chappell. “My Kink is Karma”. YouTube. May 13th, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePsqyPMIg6I

Young, Iris M. “Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment Motility and Spatiality.” Human Studies, vol 3, 137-156. 1980.

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~Read Me Queer Bby~

As I scroll through the endless stream of photos on the internet – mainly my tumblr – I can’t help but be overwhelmed by how many adorable queer folks there are.  With amazing haircuts, clothing, artwork, music, everything.  Babes all on the internet with super cute selfies, what more could one want?

Only as I as I spend more time seeing these images, I become aware of a question that always seems to be lingering in the back of my mind when it comes to my sexuality.

Am I queer enough?

Continue reading →

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The Phallic Titty Manifesto: Queer Sex and the Naming of Parts

Transitioning is often seen through a medical lens, marked by physical changes to the body including hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery. While transitioning clearly demonstrates the fluidity of gender, the body, and how gender and the body interact and are perceived, the locations of sex on the body are often viewed as static. For someone to have fully transitioned, their gender and biological sex would seemingly “match.” I am in support of people doing whatever it is they need to do to feel good about their gender and I am in no way against this type of transitioning. However, what I believe is problematic is how this is typically seen as the default for trans* people. Not all trans* people transition or transition in this particular way.

The Phallic Titty Manifesto, a zine by a friend Jackie Wang

discusses the ambiguity of flesh, tits as dicks and dicks as clits, erotic lactation, Judith Butler, pregnant bodies, Louise Bourgeois, the lesbian phallus, unmaking and remaking bodies, expanding erogenous zones, and queer sex.

Through a queer lens, sex is no longer isolated to biological parts associated with our sex at birth or if they are their weight no longer holds. In this sense, there is a radical capability to transition or transgresses gender norms while still seemingly embodying the sex you were assigned at birth.

This makes me think of the usage of terms “female-bodied” and “male-bodied.” I have typically heard them used in the context of referring to trans*, genderqueer, and non-gender conforming folks. While someone will refer to someone with “they/their” pronouns in one breath, they will use “female-bodied” or “male-bodied” to refer to them in another. While I think this is subjective, dependent on the specific person and how they like to be referred to, I think this is extremely interesting. From this example, it is clear how deeply embedded sex and gender are in physical bodies. I think at times terms like these can (unintentionally) reinscribe the gender binary, in which some folks clearly do not identify with. If someone is trans*, why wouldn’t they be trans*-bodied (or however they would like to be referred)? Do you think it is inherently impossible to view the body, specifically sex on the body as fluid?