This Is Me

Week 33: Notes

What seems so obvious—taken for granted even—that people should live as who they are is the result of a historical struggle as well as being an ongoing one.

Saúl Armendáriz,  a well know US-American born Mexican wrestler, who fights under the name of Cassandro El Exotico is openly gay and challenges stereotypes by creating his own style, mixing masculine and feminine clothes. Jana Shortal, US-American journalist and talks about her fears of coming out and overcoming them by breaking the unspoken dress code for news anchors. Waria women, an Indonesian Muslim transgender community, often describe themselves as “women in the body of men” thereby challenging society’s either/or dichotomy. As of June 2020, 100 municipalities, a third of Poland, have declared themselves to be ‘LGBT-free zones’ which is being lobbied for by an ultra-conservative Catholic organisation. Since this violates the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Union has denied funding from the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund to those municipalities. Kumbia Queers, a Mexican-Argentinian tropical punk band prepare the way to a more optimistic outlook: a visit to the Chilean school for transgender children and a visit to a Bolivian wrestling ring, where  Merillanos Saez aka  Juanita “La Cariñosa” fights for respect in the face of her country’s fixed gender roles.