(Beatriz Preciado, Testo Junkie, Paris: Grasset, 2008, 315.)Īlthough Preciado then describes the operation during which a female body can make a credible mustache/beard, it is important to remain with this previous quote and the care attached to the posture and things that first appear as subtle like the gravity point of the body. Once the verticality is consolidated, the freedom of movement of the torso, as well as the extension of the arms is amplified. The legs slightly spreading, the increase of distance between the feet reinforce the double-support sensation of the body. Thus, the corporal gravity center - culturally situated for women at breast height (site of sexualization par excellence and focus point of the hetero-male gaze) - moves toward the pelvis. By flattening the chest, and by fattening the pelvis, we modify the corporal axis and the equilibrium between the shoulders, the arms and the legs. We dress with men clothing, we learn to fabricate a packing with condoms filled with cotton and to bandage our chests. In the book Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era(see past article), Beatriz Preciado recounts hir own participation to one of this workshop in 1998 at the New York LGBT Center (my translation): The idea behind the workshop is not really to give access to this impunity to more bodies, but rather for bodies that don’t normally have access to it, to experience it, and thus to understand its precariousness if challenged. The notion of “getting away” with things is precisely what characterizes a higher position in the relations of power: the impunity of behaving in a socially unacceptable manner without having to be accountable for it. You might want to experience the transformation from female to male as a way to intercept your so-called “normal” behavior as a woman, and discover new responses. Maybe during a lifetime of observing men in your neighborhood, on the subway, in the office, in cars, in your home, etc., you have a curiosity about how men “get away” with certain behaviors that would be considered undesirable or socially unacceptable in women. It is introduced by Torr herself as such: The “Man for a Day” workshop created by artist Diane Torr have been organized in many cities of the world, allowing many female bodies to experience the unusual absence of scrutiny on their body, as well as the freedom to behave more confidently. Workshops proposing to female bodies to embody a male one exist in different versions. This transformation involves a change in fashion, accessories, facial hair, haircut, but also in the very behavior and posture of the body.
The principle of the drag king consists for a body recognized normatively as a woman to embody archetypical male characteristics to experience society from the point of view of a body closer to the norm.
Exemplary photograph on Diane Torr’s “Man for a Day” workshop’s website
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