Pride week!

This week is Pride week in Hellsinki but this year I won´t unfortunately be able to march since I have a gig in Tampere that evening, nevertheless I wish everyone a good time for all the events! It´s really important to spread the message of equality -even in Scandinavia the LGBTQ-community is having some real issues about getting the message -and rights, through. Finland more than e.g Sweden, unfortunately. Here the rights of trans-people are being stepped on in some medieval ways: before you can change your gender one has to go through serious amounts of therapy and worst of all you have to go through an operation that castrates you! Plus if you are married before the change, -even if you are happily married, you have to divorce because the Finnish law of marriage is different for same-sex couples. Then if you want you can register your partnership even if it was with the same person you were married to in the first place. It´s utter bullshit.

We still need to explain why Pride is needed. There still is those remarks of "there´s no hetero-pride!" or "why do people need to flaunt their sexuality?". It´s not about flaunting, it´s about raising awareness that yes, even if in many parts of the world things look much more grim, it´s not all peachy here. People have, depending on their sexual orientation and gender preferences STILL not the same value or rights in the eyes of the state (or people, for that matter) and that is a serious issue. I´d like to make a leap into the matter feminism and how women face the similar, hypocritic issues as well but that will be a whole other can of worms and I´ve opened it quite a few times already :) Shortly: feminism is NOT about women (or any other gender for that matter) being "better" than any other, it´s about working towards changing attitudes, norms and right out hrm, "small issues" like getting the same pay for the same jobs as every one else. Or that it won´t be the girl getting raped and then getting the blame for dressing a certain way. Or getting shit for not "giving sex" when some moron goes and shoots a bunch of people because he was " a nice guy but never got any".  Or why she is being "slutty" when he is just "a player". Ohboy. I went there, didn´t I? ALL genders should be feminists! This includes boys/men being able to be all they want to be as well: not just masculinity in one way but to be all those attributes that our societies often lable as "feminine". Stop trying to put people in to boxes and except that we are all different, all equal.
A note 15min later: I just read this article about The strenght in being a feminine gay man that both Meth and Bent van der Bleu posted and its a great summary from another corner about the same issue <3
Added about an hour later: this really starts to feel like one of those "everyone-has-the-same-brain"-moments....Scotty the Blue Bunny just posted this with one of Exposed! the movies performers Rose Wood.

WELL. Before I get too carried away politically here´s some pictures from the Boylesque festivities (from Wednesday) that took place in Vienna this May! Huge love to everyone involved <3

OH! And do NOT miss the Pling Pling Party at Dubrovnik this Wednesday! My gals Bettie Blackheart, Lola Vanilla, Laila-Annikki Koivunen, Linnea von Kattendam and Minna Kivelä will be there for your entertainment as well as Elsa Gaselli and Lollers <3 No tickets before the event, just bring cash and love to the door!!!

My little tribute to Tom of Finland

The whole crew <3

World Famous *BOB* and the wonderful stage kittens clearing the stage of my stuff

All different, all equal

Sometimes...

 ...when I´m bored I think about how it would have been to run away with the circus.

But then again... I do like some stability and I find clowns to be a bit scary (for this I blame Stephen King´s novel "It" which changed my perception on clowns forever)...

 I have found my crowd of "strange people" with whom I feel very at home. People, who are very hard to label "this or that" and who aren´t afraid to be themselves, who courageously fight for equality, brother-and sisterhood and love  -and who all in their own way believe in tolerance and respect of all things different.

Photo by Adam Monaghan

You know who you are and this is a big virtual hug and kiss to all of you!

Girl power damn it!

Hello lovelies! 

It´s Friday again, and I´m down with a cold again. I have no idea how this is possible...it seems that my Autumn has been filled with cough, snot and headaches. But I´m not here to complain, no Siree! Well, not about the flue anyway. 

When I was in California on my honeymoon (it´s a while ago for sure!) I found a great bumper sticker that I´ve been proudly flagging on my little VW: "Well-behaved women rarely make history". It´s been somewhat of a mantra for me because it´s so true: niceness in all honor but I would have missed so many fantastic things had I always behaved as people expected of me. Women are still expected to "behave" in certain ways -trust me I know how deep those norms about "nice girls" live: I teach teenagers and get a dose of gender preconception every day. And yes yes: boys get that too. But this time I want to write about the girls.

Finland is one of the most gender equal countries in the world. This does not mean that it would be paradise. Sometimes I hear people say stuff like "Oh but women are treated so equally here in comparison to other countries, you really shouldn´t complain". Well I´m very sorry but until both sexes and all in between have exactly the same rights and equal paychecks there´s work to be done. And the prejudges live on. Proof follows:

Have you heard of ski-jumping? It´s a funny looking sport where a person jumps down from a high tower while attached to a pair of skies. Sounds weird,right? It´s very popular in Scandinavian countries and mid-Europe I guess... Some Japanese jumpers I´ve heard of but as you guessed I´m not a big fan. So why on earth do I take up ski-jumping in a burlesque blog?! Besides from being pretty camp it´s a sport that has -at least in Finland- been very male-dominated until lately. Then The International Ski Federation Council decided that one of the competitions should be carried out as a mixed competition. With girls AND boys! This didn´t sit well with the Finnish coach Matti Pulli who now openly moans about how it´s not a "feminine" sport and that girls really should not attend since "After all, we are talking about the World Championships here”. You can read the whole ugly ordeal here: Helsingin Sanomat International edition

Okay. Let me get this straight. Since it´s a big competition women should stay home and not come mess up the boys hard work?!?!?!? 

Let me remind you: this is said by a dude living in the TOP 3rd gender equal countries of the world: Huffington Post: Top Countries for Gender Equality 

It leaves me speechless. Women have been put "into their places" and forbidden from taking part in politics, social life, religion...you name it and very often it´s been with some lame-ass cockadoodle about what is perceived as "feminine" or that the uterus might get hurt or Goddess knows what else. Same reason but reversed is why teenage boys are afraid of hugging each other: because it´s perceived as not-masculine aka feminine aka "gay".  It drives me MAD. This stereotypical labeling of people just because you happen to be born with *something* between your legs!!!! Wake up people! A lot of us don´t feel we want to be defined by our bodies only! Some of us don´t even feel like we have or want to have "a gender". Maybe I have more than one. My darling says to me sometimes I should stop scratching my balls.

I love to play around with my feminine side. My big dream is to grow up to be a Faux Queen.

 I don´t have a problem with having boobs, I just have a problem when I´m banned from doing stuff because I have them. 

 So I will leave you with some of my idols: Mitzi, Felicia and Bernadette who prove crystal clear that Simone de Beauvoir was right: One is not born a woman, one becomes one.

P.S I know, I know...who gets to define "feminine" and "masculine", how we perceive it, what is sex/gender anyway, cultural differences and so on. I know, ok? I just needed to get this out of my system :)

Over the Rainbow

I have the immense and utter pleasure and honor to be a part of next years Helsinki Burlesque 

Festival´s main events! It´shall be special since it´s the 5th anniversary! Thee Dizzy Daisies will shake their tail feathers: the planning has begun as we speak and I can´t say how superduper-excited I am...

There will be workshops, wonderful people and a whole lotta bling let me tell you. The theme is "Over the Rainbow" - can´t wait to see peoples outfits! And Miss Indigo Blue will be there, I took her workshop last time she was in Helsinki and loooved it!!! Hugely inspirational! Not to mention the legendary Satans Angel! And Scotty the Blue Bunny! And many many more! Wow!!!!

Just the thought of it makes this icky November darkness seem a bit lighter. Well, I was just moaning today about how people already have put up Xmas lights in their gardens...I know it´s the drill in the US (out comes Santa, his reindeer and elves on the green lawns!) around Thanksgiving but I really can´t get used to it here at home. Maybe I´m just being boring. In my family even the tree wasn´t decorated until the morning of the 24th so maybe I´m just not used to it. Shit. Maybe there is a point to "holiday lights" - it is the darkest time of the year?! 

Or maybe it is, as someone I know pointed out, a matter of taste. Or lack there-of. As much as I love bling and glitter I just can´t see the beauty in the neon-lights shaped as candy canes blinking away... So I feel a little like the Grinch, moaning and groaning and peeing on peoples Holiday parades :) 

I´m going to wait until the beginning of December for my garden lights, until then I´ll settle for candles -and glögg (Scandinavian version of Glühwein: warm, spiced up red wine)! That should warm up these moaning bones! 

Now, I shall leave you with the lovely Dorothy and Toto who already went over the rainbow (and whose red ruby slippers I might have to steal...)  and bid you good night for now! Ta!