Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

Sarah

Fashioning the Body

Concept Rythming Paper #2

I am a born female changed male, straight turned gay was hetero now homo but flexible because I am Trans.  Trans what, transsexual, transgender, transman, transwomen, what if I am just a person?  The label in which you submit yourself too is as much apart of you as you are of it.  Scott Turner Schofield’s performance of “Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps,” provides the opportunity for Scott to entertain and inform his audience that he is not the first, nor the last of his kind, but a link in history that sparks thought worthy of discussion.  It is Epic Theatre in Brechtian theology.

The room goes dark as the stage lights come up.  The narration cues the video of a baby fetus, solemn in a womb with the beating of a single heart.  Overhead a protective yet caring acquaintance informs our sense of imagination that this is a safe environment.  Dressed in gray pajamas, ready to settle down for bed, in time for a story, Scott intrigues the idea of building a “fort” with an open invitation.  Enclosed by three drapes appearing overhead, we have stepped forward to allow for this illumination to capture our senses.  Settling his props, the audience shifts one last time as Scott reads us his rules for the game, silently in agreement, numbers begin to fly in hopes of a little satire.  127 stories allowing for the intimacy level to rise between Scott and his peers as these personal tales awaken our senses and begin to provoke our emotions.

He looks dresses and sounds like a man.  He has a masculine name, he’s prone to letting the dirty dishes stack up, he uses the men’s room, and he goes by “he” but what keeps Turner back as a male is the “F” on his driver’s license.  Before Scott made the transition, his given name at birth was Katie.  Around the age of sixteen, Katie announced to her peers that she was a lesbian and was nearly homecoming queen at her high school, in addition to some softer detail, while Katie was in college she went by “KT” instead to help with her identity.  Over the last decade, Scott has written two other plays, Underground Transit and Debutante Balls.  He has also worked as a head counselor at La Vida Del Corazon which is an arts oriented camp in Costa Rica.  Scotts role was to teach self confidence, integrity and believing in oneself.  Being true to oneself is much more important then conforming to anyone else’s idea of how a certain gender should pass, it’s not a deception as much as it is a front.  “I don’t feel my body is wrong.” (Scott)

The chin-up head nod, to shave or buy tampons, boyish-lesbians (gateway drug?), ultra-feminine women, more of a dude (a sign of masculinity), “what’s up buddy,”  all children change as they grow older, but “becoming a man is less about equipment and more about attitude after the hormonal factor.” (Scott)  “The individual borrows the series of movements which constitute it from the action executed in front of him or with him by others.” (Mauss)  Turner shares with his audience that after he began taking Testosterone, his ladylike hourglass figure transformed into a males “V” with more body hair, more confidence and his voice dropped an octave, which for if some reason Scott wanted to go back, it is an alright voice for a female.  It feels like going through puberty from a teenage boy’s perspective, kind of like a lava lamp.  Scott also announces that he has no interest or financial means of taking his physical refinements any further; he is comfortable where he is at now.  Throughout his performance, Scott confesses that he is seen as one of the guys but is still questioned as a female; he is masculinity without its phallus.

According to Brecht a theatrical performance in order to be considered “Epic” it must entail:

1. Narrative
2. Arouses his capacity for action
3. Picture of the world
4. He is made to face something
5. The spectator stands outside, studies
6. The human being is the object of the inquiry
7. He is alterable and able to alter
8. Each scene for itself
9. In curves
10. Jumps
11. Man as a process
12. Social being determines thought
13. Reason

Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps could be taken as Dramatic Theatre but because of ifs location, audience and purpose for its educational value it fits directly into Brecht’s theory of Epic Theatre.  Scott provides himself as our subject matter and the ultimate rule of the game is the wheel which stands behind him, broken up into sections by words and numbers.  As each number is shouted from an accumulative crowd, the focus of conversation is changed to a different element of Turner’s experience.  “In every society, everyone knows and has to know and learn what he has to do in all conditions.” (Mauss)  According to Marcel tradition and technique are sacrificial to history, pre-prepared movements dominate the conscious and unconscious and it is through education where these ideas are grasped.  Every technique has its own form and it may be habitual less for the individual but more so for society.  Scott introduced a massive display of labels in his workshop for our program.  Words like Dike, Queer, Femmie, Bi, Metro, Straight, and not to mention the other alphabetically challenged slang to label those who are not like “us.”  People are not words, we are beings, souls, characters, humans, no matter what our sex, gender, or sexuality is.  In dramatic theatre great art is the most obvious thing in the world whereas in epic theatre great art has nothing obvious in it, it is cause and effect, the ability to be so and the option to be different.  Scott provides the anecdote that questions the reasons behind our own personal theories.

“His art makes people feel challenged but also invited…boy do people feel free to open up after his shows.” (Vinnie Murphy)  Scott Turner Schofield defies authority by talking about ideas that are not a part of every day discussion and in that regard his reasons for helping us question the politics of life related to the fashioning of bodies is undoubtedly an extraordinary sacrifice.  Which creates a glitch in society of those who know and understand, and those who do not know and refuse to learn? Besides, what difference does it really make how you orient yourself?  Commonality is not part of our individualistic manner.  In our society humans are suppose to be unique to their own character, not taking into consideration topics like: sex, gender, sexuality, race, economics, politics and the power discourse.  Brecht wanted art to produce social change and at the same time be visually stimulating, to entertain and inform.  Knowledge is nothing without mimesis and Scott Turner Schofield accomplishes this feat in his performance of Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps.