Fourth Way To The Third Gender

The court jester of yesteryear held an important position - using foolish antics, he could make fun and poke holes in the system. This position still exists in society for those willing to take it up at the risk of being made fun of. An important concept in the book (and movie) Fight Club is that "its only when we've lost everything that we're free to do anything". An important thing to lose is attachment to one's image - an important feature of Eastern ways-of-life. The jester was closer to enlightenment than the other schmucks in the feudal system.

Experiments with detachment resulted in a metal fan (me) singing a Backstreet Boys song (I Want It That Way) last year for the slowly dying music show organised by the slowly dying university music society; an even earlier example of detaching myself from my image would be the Bad Dancers' Club. This year, I targeted the unforgivably unoriginal fashion show organised by the generally unoriginal university fashion society. The aim was to create something which people would generally consider repulsive and uncomfortable for a show that is meant to produce items that are beautiful and comfortable. To create shock without outrage is a jester's modus operandi and the idea of a hijra sequence was born - the exact inception probably had something to do with a documentary I once saw, as well as an Occam's razor answer to the question 'What different thing can a guy wear for a fashion show?" Once the theme was decided, us like-minded (and big-balled) degenerates gathered together and produced a great showstopper, though that is aside from the point.

Fright Club?

My general disgust for the monotony of these societies gave birth to some memorable shows. Using myself as a channel for injecting the unexpected into these events served two purposes:

• Expressing my opinion without causing offence a la Jester, and
• Understanding the futility of preserving an image of self with respect to the environment; a highly personal and - dare I say it - spiritual development.

Again,

"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything"

Tyler Durden

Again.