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gynandrous: Applied to those flowers and plants in which the
stamens and pistil are united in one column, as in orchids; said also of
the stamens (OED).
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Monika Treut's Gendernauts documents the female-to-male (F2M)
transgender cyber-community in San Francisco. The film is obviously
different to earlier films with gynandrous characters such as Liquid
Sky (Slava Tsukerman 1982), in which androgynous actor Anne Carlisle
plays both a (bisexual-acting New York punk lesbian) woman and a (gay)
man. Gendernauts keeps to Sky's gender-fluid principles ("I
don't choose my friends by the shape of their genitals") but the
punkish gender-b(l)ending transsexuals in Treut's docudrama are real
people acting on aspirations to contain both gender (and sometimes
genital) morphologies in one body.
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gynander: A woman with male characteristics; ... a plant whose
stamens are inserted in the pistil (OED).
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The featured F2M gynanders in Gendernauts include female-born
hormone-enhanced intersexual women (Texas Tomboy, Jordy Jones, Max Wolf
Valerio), an intersexual-born intersexual (formerly known as a
hermaphrodite), a cross-dressing woman (Stafford), and a female-born
transsexual (TS) man ("transman") with surgically attached penis (Les).
These gynanders are in various stages of transsexuality. Tomboy and Jones
have sparse beards and moustaches from taking testosterone. Stafford's off
and over the hormones. Jordy's awaiting breast-to-chest reconstruction,
while the iron-pumping Max has had his breasts removed and is awaiting
surgical attachment of male genitalia. He proudly wants "big balls".
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Treut's quasi-road movie follows the assorted gynandrous Friscoan
flaneurs and their lovers and friends as they drive, dine and amble about
in the Bay Area's streets, apartments, and transgender clinic. Tornado and
"sex queen" Annie Sprinkle are omnisexual het/lez/bi women who have had
transmen partners. Friends of the F2Ms include drag kings (Elvis
Herselvis), drag queens, M2Fs (Susan Stryker), female-born women (the drag
queen-like Pearl Harbor), lesbians, gays, etc. These members of the F2M
community and their friends converge at Club Confidential, a cabaret venue
for performing drag kings and queens.
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In some instances sharp humour comes as a relief. Giggle and wince at
the camp reality of Susan Stryker in her sexy nurse's uniform jabbing one
of the F2M boys in the buttock with a big intramuscular needle-shot of
testosterone. Laugh when Annie matter-of-factly explains how she simply
sawed the tip off the detachable penile rod that had popped through the
cockhole of Linda/Les's surgically-attached penis, during their copulation
("Lucky, I had a saw in the kitchen"). You may need to laugh, as this
bon mot appends a graphic clip of the incident -- urethra and all
(spliced into Gendernauts from Sprinkle's landmark F2M film,
Linda/Les and Annie).
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Most of the transgenders are visual cyber artists. Self-proclaimed
"goddess of cyberspace" M2F TS Sandy Stone, visiting professor from the
University of Texas, delivers the witty on and off-screen narration, with
occasional glimpses of the F2Ms' websites, which include BRANDON (about murdered F2M
Brandon Teena) and the Gertude Stein Webpage.
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gynandromorphous: Having both male and female characters;
applied to some few insects which appear to have both male and female
markings on the body (OED).
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Gendernauts avoids wallowing in academically-pigeonholing
bio-scientific discourse about 'gender dysphoria' and 'transphobia'. Victors
rather than victims, these gender-bending outlaws balance their concerns
about the unknown (possibly breast cancer-causing) effects of testosterone
shots in their female-born bodies with the conspicuous consumption of
wheatgrass juice and vegan salads (Man, this is Kalifornia). Never
wallflowers, these F2M transsexuals, intersexuals and transvestites
celebrate a healthy dose of transgender euphoria (transphoria?) and
confidence in their search for gynandromorphous bodies. The
Gendernauts transmen suggest new corporeal vocabularies and gender
mantras. (Let's sing: "I'm just a gynandrous embryo ... with wisdom borne of
pleasure more than pain..."?!) How ultimately frustrating that, as one of
the gendernauts reminds us: "not everyone in San Francisco is queer". We
all still have a long long way to go...
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Details
Gendernauts, by Arte/Hyena Films 1999.
Director: Monika Treut.
Screenplay: Monika Treut.
Cinematography: Elfie Mikesch.
Editor: Eric Schefter.
Cast: Sandy Stone, Jordy Jones, Susan Stryker, Texas Tomboy, Tornado, Max Wolf Valerio, Hilda Viloria, Annie Sprinkle.
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Citation reference for this article
MLA style:
Simon-Astley Scholfield. "Gynandrous 'Gendernauts' (BIFF #5)." M/C Reviews 18 Aug. 1999.
[your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/gender.html>.
Chicago style:
Simon-Astley Scholfield, "Gynandrous 'Gendernauts' (BIFF #5)," M/C Reviews 18 Aug. 1999,
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/gender.html> ([your date of access]).
APA style:
Simon-Astley Scholfield. (1999) Gynandrous 'Gendernauts' (BIFF #5). M/C Reviews 18 Aug. 1999.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/gender.html> ([your date of access]).
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