Don't Fuck Anyone You Wouldn't Want to Be (Kate Bornstein--3rd and 4th times are the charm)

It's been a BIG week--on Tuesday Leslie Feinberg spoke on my campus (more on Feinberg later) AND the women's basketball team won the NCAA Championship (more on basketball later). As if that wasn't enough for one week, then I got to see Kate Bornstein perform "Gender Outlaw" Thursday, and "Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger" Friday.

"Don't Fuck Anyone You Wouldn't Want to Be" is just one gem that Bornstein offered those of us in the audience.

While "Gender Outlaw" largely consisted of what now seems "standard fare" for a Bornstein performance, "Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger" was anything but that. I must note, however, that although Thursday's performance of "Gender Outlaw" mirrored much of the performance I last saw Bornstein give, ze did include some new material from her soon-to-be-released (June 2006) book, Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws.

"Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger" is scheduled to open in New York in June 2007, with the simultaneous publishing of Bornstein's memoir with the same title. This piece is about Bornstein's father, as well as about Bornstein being a father. A powerful piece full of vivid scenes from throughout Bornstein's life, the stories told reveal Bornstein to a greater depth than any of hir previous works.

I started this post because I wanted to reflect on Bornstein's performances...

I wanted to remember how captivated I was by the opening of "Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger" where Bornstein describes cutting a heart over hir heart--the initial sting of the blade as it first breaks skin, the warmth as the blade glides over you, the blood that follows the blade, the release in bleeding...

As a cutter I could feel every move of the blade as ze described it, along with the release, too. And this was just the beginning of the show!

I wanted, also, to remember "Don't Fuck Anyone You Wouldn't Want to Be." It is just so true!

Lastly, I wanted to remember the feeling of compulsion that emanated from Bornstein's performances that at once said, these things need to be said so others can hear, and these things need to be said, even if those they're directed at don't hear (more on this later when I post about Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower).

Check out Kate Bornstein's homepage yourself.