Brandi Ayaan Beckett

Consider the following, you are not looking at my gender-identity, and I am not looking at your gender-identity. No one can ever “see your gender-identity” because your identity is within you and you’re the only person who has access to it. What I am seeing when I look at y’all is your gender-expression, and what y’all are seeing when you look at me is my gender-expression. Our gender-expressions are reflections of our gender-identities, and these expressions are viewed through the lenses of our gender performances. My gender-performance, and your gender-performance, is how we interact with, not just the society we live in, but also how we interact with our own gender-identity. To simplify all that jargon, gender-identity = your inner self, gender expression = how you project that identity from inward to outward, and gender performance = how you interact with society and yourself.

People will come away from this talk with a more clear understanding of how gender identities and gender expressions are cultural constructions that are linked to our cultural understanding of gender and not dictated by our sexual characteristics, or sexual orientations. During this talk, Brandi will challenge you to think about gender-identity, gender-expression, and gender-performance as constructs that are best described on a spectrum, and not through a rigid binary box system, and not by whether a person has, or has not, a dangly part between their legs.

During this talk, Brandi guides us through a journey of self-exploration and self-discovery while being completely open and honest with herself. This journey took her around turns she did not anticipate, or expect, and over hills she never dreamt that she could climb. Through rigorous and earnest questioning of herself, and through the painful process of ardently and honestly answering those questions, Brandi discovered herself; and for the first time in her life, Brandi started to feel comfortable in her own skin, moreover, for the first time in her life, she started to like her self. Brandi's story will move the audience to tears with honest pathos, and bring waves of laughter throughout the crowd with her palpable charm and cutting wit. Her unique journey and timely pointed message is just what we need in today's feverish and combustible social climate.