© Katya Bogachevskaya
Travesty: The Phantom World of the Transvestite
It’s impossible to call them “men” because they do not feel at home in their own bodies – they try as hard as possible to resemble women -copying their gait, behavior and dress. At the same time it’s impossible to call them “women” – angular features and overemphasized feminine mannerisms become at once tragic and comical farce. Illusion. In fact – they are not men, they are not women; they live somewhere between these two worlds – in their phantom and imaginary world.
But they think that this reality is the only one possible for them and they consider themselves to be comfortable and free. They don’t see themselves from the point of view of others, comic figures – insane and dangerous. For the majority of my transvestite friends this strangeness remained something about which it’s better to keep silent (even in their childhood they began to wear their mother’s clothes and shoes, secretly trying on lipstick, Indian ink).
But among them there are people who were able to grow from underground drag-amateurs to Drag Queens. But even in this instance, the main area performance arenas are semi-enclosed nightclubs. It’s a very rare occurrence for someone to come out of this sphere.
In spite of the fact that the time when even in psychiatry transvestitism was called “perversion that has to be healed” has passed and modern science treats divergence from the “traditional” or “conventional” patterns of behaviour more tolerantly; attitudes toward transvestites in Russian society are still extremely hostile.
Enjoy the exhibition Travesty: The Phantom World of the Transvestite by Katya Bogachevskaya!
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