THE GLOBE AND MAIL • SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015 SPONSOR CONTENT Stripping back gender in search of equality Men and women have been conditioned to perform outdated roles, argue two Irish activists on a quest to reveal the naked self beneath rowing up in a traditional Irish kids, I felt like I wasn’t what everyone Catholic family on the west- expected me to be.” Gern seaboard of Ireland in the It took O’Neill, once an altar boy, 1980s meant growing up in a patriar- a while to figure out exactly what chal society, in which Emer O’Toole was going on. “I really did not know observed with frustration that all what it was to be gay. There was no things were not equal. gayness around me – there was no A feminist fire was lit and further [British comedian] Graham Norton on fuelled at university, where a the- the TV, or Ellen [DeGeneres].” atre group gave the Galway girl In his late teens, he finally came courage to explore her developing out to his sister and good friends. “It sociopolitical views. She began was a different time – the mid-to-late cross-dressing and experimenting 1980s – and I was very eager to run with her sexuality. off and find other gays. As a col- When, in 2012, then a PhD student lege student, I threw myself into the at the University of London, O’Toole underground scene in Dublin, which, showed off 18 months of body hair on one level, was quite exciting. growth on national breakfast TV in But at age 21, like so many Irish gay the U.K., singing “Get your pits out for people, he left the country. Halfway the lads,” depending on whom you around the world, in Japan, under spoke to, she was either a feminist a flurry of wigs, heels and hosiery, superstar or quite mad. For O’Toole, Panti was born and shaped. currently an assistant professor of Back in Dublin, in the present day, Irish performance studies at Concordia the queen of irreverent entertainment University’s School of Canadian Irish has grown up somewhat and is an Panti Bliss, aka Rory O’Neill, became an accidental activist since becoming embroiled in a national debate on Studies, the hairy stunt was another accidental but willing activist, after homophobia in Ireland. AARON MCGRATH way to rebel against society’s rigid becoming embroiled in a national gender constraints. debate on homophobia. Pantigate – On Feb. 16, as part of Concordia’s as the affair became known – erupted on Feb. 26, O’Toole argues society is tells us we are very different, when the sentiment one step further: annual lecture series, Thinking Out when Panti, live on Ireland’s state “coded,” compelling men and women we really are not.” “Once we’ve been given the chore- Loud, she’s pairing up with another broadcaster, RTÉ, accused certain to comply to strict gender roles, In addition to her theoretical argu- ography of gender, there is no naked. uncompromising Irish lady, Dublin- sections of the Irish media of being perpetuating inequalities. ments, O’Toole explores what’s it It’s all drag.” based drag queen and LGBTQ (les- homophobic. The journalists cited “We code girls by dressing them like to act – and not act – like a girl, bian, gay, bisexual, transgender and threatened to sue, and RTÉ subse- in pink, telling them they are beauti- through the lens of her often-hilarious queer) rights activist Miss Panti Bliss, quently issued an on-air apology and ful and teaching them to perform experiences and experiments. When, THINKING OUT LOUD to address questions like: What does paid monies to those named. domestic tasks. We code boys by for example, she shaved her head, as what we wear say about sex and Following the furour, Panti deliv- dressing them in blue, telling them yet another gender challenge, people To register for the Thinking Out gender? Is what we wear fashion or ered an eloquent and emotional they are strong and that they should seemed to think she was psycho- Loud conversation with Emer political, or both? speech at the Abbey Theatre in Dub- build things,” she says. “The prob- logically unstable. Undeterred, she O’Toole and Panti Bliss, visit lin, chronicling a lifetime of feel- lem is that colour coding allows continues daring to act differently. concordia.ca/talks. The event ing oppressed by prejudice. The for different treatment of men and Nodding to famous drag queen is free, but spaces are limited. video, available on YouTube, has women, conditioning us to act, RuPaul’s quote, “We’re born naked, been widely viewed and reported on speak, behave in different ways. It and the rest is drag,” O’Toole takes ‘People will accept drag around the world. O’Neill says he was “gobsmacked” on stage in a theatrical by the whole affair. “In the beginning, JUST TALKING setting, but if we are I thought it reflected really badly sitting beside a drag on Ireland, but in the end, it said something very positive, as the vast queen, or a transgender majority of people cared about the person on a bus, we don’t issue and stood up and said, ‘That Dressing down like it. The space has Ireland is gone.’” Pantigate had made people realize been broken. It’s shaken the drag queen is more than just a our idea of what gender glitzy good-time gal. “In the past, gender divisions is and should be.’ if media wanted to ask me serious questions, they would always ask to Irish drag queen Panti Bliss and Concordia University professor speak to Rory. They didn’t feel they Emer O’Toole, assistant could ask Panti serious questions…. Emer O’Toole enjoy ripping sartorial norms apart professor of Irish It did make me a little angry.” performance studies, at Concordia While some drag artists present University themselves as female imperson- Generally I don’t use fashion to prove to yourself and others that ators, for O’Neill, it’s about present- make statements, but rather to a better, more egalitarian world ing a persona that’s neither male ask questions. Mostly, Yes, I’m in a is possible. “I am really interested to talk to nor female. “On a very primitive dress. So what? Panti about the idea of performing level, I think there is something Did you ever wish you were our identities versus everyday iden- very powerful about combining ele- Emer: I like to play with masculine, Qborn a woman? Would your tity, and the different layers of self,” ments of both sexes. The reason I’m feminine and androgynous ways of life have been easier? says O’Toole. “We are all performing using the female trope is because, dressing, and often surprise people roles all the time. I am a different theatrically, it’s more interesting. by looking femme one week and Panti: Generally no. I spend enough person now from the person I am Men don’t get to use what I call the boyish the next. I’ll shave my head, time as a part-time woman to with students or with a partner, tools of peacockery: makeup, big Panti Bliss (left) and Emer O’Toole. grow my hair long, then shave it know the drawbacks – though and none of those are unreal. Panti hair – all that stuff that makes you again. I’ll pair a sexy dress with occasionally, I’ve wished I was born embodies that idea in a way that’s visually interesting.” hairy legs and hiking boots. I’m a petite blond 23-year-old, mostly so powerful.” Breaking society’s long-held What does what we wear say not usually wearing makeup, but after football games. I would The man underneath Panti’s gender preconceptions is no easy Qabout sex and gender? if I am, I’m wearing a sh*t tonne run amok. sequins and war paint – Rory O’Neill, feat, though, and there is still much of it. I do this, partly to show that who also grew up in a small rural work to do, both O’Toole and Panti: It depends what you’re wear- these gendered symbols are not Panti Bliss is a drag queen and community in the west of Ireland O’Neill contend. ing. If it’s a boob tube and a care- intrinsically tied to my identity or LGBTQ rights activist. She is also – says he and Panti, although radi- “If I am wandering through the fully placed strip of gaffer tape, to the fact of being male or female a pub landlady and author of cally different, are two parts of the street, clearly as a performer with big you’re saying a lot, though not – they are simply symbols that can Woman in the Making: A Memoir. same core. hair and sequins, the general reaction everyone may want to hear it. be manipulated – and also because Her “Noble Call,” an impassioned “Panti lives in the real world – she is quite positive,” O’Neill says. “But it’s fun. speech about being different, told gets cabs, she hangs out in night- if you are a trans person who is just Emer: The clothes we wear say to an audience at the Abbey The- clubs,” says O’Neill, “so she can’t living life, that makes people much very little about biological sex – Why was breaking out of atre in Dublin, also made her an be entirely fake because she has more uncomfortable.” they’re not tied to it in any concrete Qgender norms so important overnight Internet sensation.