Logan Gutierrez-Mock's F2mestizo

There is an interconnection between social categorizations of race, gender, and class, that work in cohesive measures to create a disadvantage or advantage to those in a particular social group. Logan Gutierrez-Mock’s “F2MESTIZO” focuses on a biracial transgender man, who experiences life on both sides of the binary system, that being a white and a person of color, and a cisgender and a transgender. “F2MESTIZO” takes on the subject matter of intersectionality between race, gender, and class similarly to bell hooks’ theory on drag balls of the film, Paris is Burning. Although the ideas of passing between races and flowing between gender identities are often times seen through two different lenses, we see characters in both scenarios, enter and exit worlds of powerlessness and privilege, imitate race and gender to attain power, and establish a two-fold world of “us” against “them.” This, in turn, reveals much about the effects internalized racism that arises from the power complexities between race and gender.

bell hooks’ criticizes the

film Paris is Burning by asserting the black gay drag ball approach on imitating women and femininity as personified by whiteness.

The black gays’ “imitation” of the ruling-class white woman is therefore seen as a way for them to get close connections to the ruling-class white male. hooks argues that black gay drag balls ridicule, shame, and degrade women by imitating and over exaggerating not just any form of femininity, but white femininity. By “imitating” the idealized white woman persona, the black gay men are assumed to hold more power and become closer to the holy grail white male status. We see a similar “replication” of white culture in “F2MESTIZO” where a biracial transgender female to male named Logan, intentionally conceals his Mexican identity, whether it be in the public sphere or at school with his friends: “For years, [he] passed as white and made fun of [his]

heritage… getting a B in Spanish class; when [he], too, got a B in Spanish, [his] friends thought [his] imitation was hilarious.” (231). In order to achieve some source of power in the social world, Logan must convince those around him that he is white living in a white dominant society. He must replicate “white” traits such as having light skin, Anglo surnames, and unaccented English that correlates to dominance in the socioeconomic sphere. Not only does assimilating to the white dominant culture help Logan go to college and attain stable jobs, he will avoid the everyday racism that he would have experienced if he had chosen to express his Mexican background more audibly. When succeeding in passing as white, he does not experience oppression, but rather experiences privilege due to his white-characterized tendencies. What Logan experiences is an example of internalized racism, where one starts to believe that one must succumb to the preeminent culture by holding racist views against his or her own ethnic group. Although he is Mexican, he abandons any possible connections to his Mexican roots that can give away his hidden identity when outside in the public sphere, whether it means getting a B in Spanish class or making fun of his Mexican culture.
Logan in “F2MESTIZO” enters, exits, and lives in between the worlds of powerlessness and privilege. This wavering in between sides of the binary system is similar to the blacks in Paris is Burning who cross-dress with qualities associated with a sex not of their own. Logan is biologically born a biracial White and Mexican female. But through time, Logan establishes a different identity by passing as white and is convinced that she, in fact, feels like a he, revealing his transgender identity. bell hook critiques the manner in which Livingston portrays the black drag balls by informing readers that, in a society where the dominant culture is that of a white patriarchal supremacist culture, men dressing up as women are symbolically “crossing over from a realm of power into a realm of powerlessness” and vice versa for women dressing up as men (146). In many ways, drag allows people to cross into different worlds of social constructs, as passing through races and genders do. Logan in “F2MESTIZO” realizes that “the class privilege that [he] experiences within [his] family is linked to [his] white skin privilege. The most “successful” people in [his] family [are his] middle sister (who can also pass as white) and [himself].” (230). By enforcing a strict code of conduct to imitate white culture and white ideals, Logan becomes engulfed in a continuous cycle of internalized racism where instead of subverting or challenging societal norms regarding race and gender, he is assimilating to the societal norms. He and his family in no way embraces his Mexican identity outside of the family, but only practices this part of him at home. This is comparable to how drag queens express their homosexuality within the closed underground world of drag balls, but not outside where they are subject to judgement and ridicule for going against accepted social norms. The repetitive acts of “hiding” and standardization of hegemonic culture reveals that internalized racism plays a significant role in racial and gender identities and how they can relate to one’s class and status.
As previously acknowledged, there is an impression of “family” against the “outside world.” Paris is Burning demonstrates all of the characters as having only one family, that being the drag family. They are also “estranged from any community beyond themselves. Families, friends, etc., are not shown, which adds to the representation of these black gay men as cut off, living on the edge… At no point in Livingston’s film are the men asked to speak about their connections to a world of family and community beyond the drag ball” (154). The depiction of having no sense of family outside of the drag world, suggests drag as being the center of identity and expression exclusively shown and expressed in drag balls. Although drag seems to attempt subversion of societal norms, it in fact promotes them by having individuals conceal selfhood from the outside world. In a similar manner, Logan describes, “Spanish was the secret language I treasured in la casa de mis abuelitos… it was the language my family laughed in, the language they used for the stories we in the younger generations were not supposed to hear. English could not hold these emotions. English was for passing in the world” (230). The idea of “our world” and “their world” strengthens the dichotomy between the white race and the colored, as well as the dichotomy between the heterosexual and the transgender. By only expressing one’s true identities in a small group of accepting people and not expressing in the outside world to show resistance, the action only strengthens the societal norms of white superiority and heteronormativity. Succumbing to societal norms arise from repeated experiences with discrimination, which in turn ingrains a sense of internalized racism. Not only does Logan recognize a need for change in the status quo, he is, although mentally subverting it, in reality, epitomizes white culture imitation.
Logan Gutierrez-Mock’s “F2MESTIZO,” links similar connections to bell hooks’ argument regarding the intersectionality of race, gender, and class. The characters in both “F2MESTIZO” and Paris is Burning “pass,” imitate, and travel between the binaries of race and gender; as a result of internalized racism and power complexities, this allows them to experience both powerlessness and privilege.