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"You're so GAY!"

Dreamed 2013/1/24 by Chris Wayan

a gender-bent scene from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'--in a meadow, an actor in a dark blue doublet gazes into the eyes of a deer-headed girl in a white gown. Dream sketch by Wayan; click to enlarge.


I'm watching a play with some friends in an amphitheater in a city park--is it "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with the sexes reversed? Looks like it--a man falls in love with a deer. Well, a doe-headed woman in a paper maché mask, sad-eyed, huge-eared, fur-faced. The audience laughs at the absurdity of a man attracted to this hairy thing.

But since I find the doe more soulful than any of the human actresses, and sexier too, the scene's not absurd for me, but moving. And sad. Imagine being the deer-girl, hearing a whole crowd laugh at me, judging me ugly, subhuman, unlovable!

But my sadness isn't just sympathy. Loneliness too. I'm the only one not laughing. Longing! I'm as different from these howling creatures as a real deer incognito among the monkeys.

My friend Dave noticed me wince; misconstruing my feelings, he teases me: "You are so GAY!" Guess he thinks I want that guy. I couldn't be pining for a deer, of course! That's impossible. So I must like men.

I feel sadder. Dave's right, in a way--my queerness isn't gay, but it has exactly the same effect--I stand apart, feel differently, forcing me to question what the crowd takes for granted. That's the essence of queer! But as gays gain acceptance they'll lose the insights of loneliness.

I won't. Lucky me.

But how can I find love when I'm wired too queer for queers?

At intermission, I get a shot at an answer...

Through the arch at the back of the seating, up a little ramp with a railing, a line forms to meet The Psychic. A short girl in a gypsy dress seated at a card table. A long line to see her, though--word is she's infallible.
Sketch of a dream by Wayan: a woman in gypsy skirts lays out Tarot cards on a card table. Based on a painting, 'The Fortune Teller', by Balthus.

As Dave and I near the head of the line, the intermission's ending. She starts zipping through querents, not waiting for them to frame their question--just answers their hovering unspoken issues! And people gasp in shock--she's nailing them.

As we reach her--the very last in line--she's already packing up her Tarot and folding her tablecloth. The oracle just glances at Dave and me, and says, infallibly:

"Your friend thinks you're so GAY!" And walks away.

Whoa. Proven true, but a rare thing to say. She's proved she's psychic all right! Just unhelpful. I wanted to know how to find a girlfriend. Or doefriend. Whatever.

As Act Two starts, the cast urges us out of our seats, out the amphitheater over coarse gravel walks toward a lawn. I realize I'm near-naked, though nobody seems to care. But I do: with only one shoe on, the sharp gravel hurts my bare sole.

I think of my friend Christine, who recently told me of her great experiment--going barefoot year-round in the modern world--voluntary queerness. So far she's lost weight, turned graceful and catlike... and unable to fly! Southwest Air wouldn't let her on their plane because she lacked shoes. I understand their fear she's a terrorist. Her non-shoes might explode!

"Maybe", I think, "I should toughen up and get used to naked soles..."

NOTES NEXT MORNING

Sculpture, 'Suplica', by Chris Wayan: two Barbies fused into a zebra-striped centauroid dancer on her foreknees, arms and eyes raised.


LISTS AND LINKS: drama - deer and deer-people - furriness as a sexual orientation - Out of the Closet! - dating and singles - loneliness - ESP and psychics - psychic dreams - oracles - dream humor - souls - puns - friends - parties - Catshall dreams she hits the Jackpot - sculpture - dancers - animal people - centaurs - Shakespeare vs. the Barbie Centaur Dancers

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