[Peace] Urgent! Please Respond!

[Rachel Storm]

[PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL LOCAL ACTIVISTS AND FRIENDS]

Dear Amasisters, Local C-U Activists, and Friends,

For those of you who do not already know me, my name is Rachel Storm; I am a student of international studies and transnational gender inquiry. One of the things I do in my spare time is to write for Illini Media’s Buzz Magazine.  Those of you in AWARE, may know me as the writer who composed the article about the PTSD Panel back in September. Regardless of our affiliation, I am asking your help, if you are moved as I am.

	I recently had an article published in Buzz magazine that aimed to highlight the drag kings and queens of C-Street, in an attempt to humanize this often misrepresented demographic.

Here’s the online version, but it doesn’t include the illustration: http://the217.com/articles/view/the_kings_and_queens_of_c_street_bar

 I encourage you to pick up the printed copy of the article, so you know what I am referencing. On the centerfold of the current edition, you can find my article, and an illustration of drag people. I am deeply concerned about the illustration and how it misrepresents those I interviewed. I went to C-Street Bar to interview kings and queens and took many photos myself when Buzz didn’t send a photographer. After giving the photos to the editors, however, they deemed them unprintable due to their blurriness. I can attach the photos to anyone who is interested, and yes, some were blurry. Yet, others were not. We brainstormed what to do and I suggested they use the photos in an artsy-sort of way, perhaps drawing on them to highlight facial lines, etc. 
	
	Well, I shouldn’t have suggested that, because they decided to draw caricatures of drag people and refused to use the real photos at all. Journalism is made of hurried, last-minute decisions, but I am don’t study journalism and I know enough not to draw character representations of people without some serious caution.

	When I finally got to have a meeting with the head editor of the Buzz, Stephanie Prather, about my concerns and shame, she disagreed with my lament, telling me that they are not misrepresentations as they used my photos to gain inspiration for the drawings. I find that terribly hard to believe. (For starters, not a single drag queen I interviewed was white or had facial hair.) 

The reason things like this are problematic is that those who do drag shows and balls have been terribly misrepresented and if there is anything to do to right that wrong, it is to print an accurate representation. After I took photos of the drag stars I met, I let each see them. They approved of each one and were very excited to know they would be in the Buzz. I was too embarrassed to go over to C-Street’s Drag Show on Sunday to give them a copy of the article. 

	Stephanie Prather said she thinks it could be looked at both ways. She said that if there were others who were as concerned as I, than she would have received an e-mail. I tried to remind her that the images perpetuated a stereotype and that many people outside of the drag community may not find it problematic and those inside may find it nothing out of the ordinary misrepresentation. She refused to let me write a response to the illustration and said they wouldn’t issue an apology. In other words, I cannot apologize for this misrepresentation that was done in my name. She suggested I “keep writing about these issues and if [I] feel like [they] didn’t get it right this time, to try again.” (I would have laughed if I wasn’t so near to tears, realizing she wouldn’t do anything about it.)

	I know this has been long to read, but I wish I could express to those who read Buzz or saw the article that this was a misstep. Those who fall “outside” of the any community, in my opinion, should be constantly striving to represent that community in a way that it would represent itself. Stephanie Prather won’t let me write a response to the article, but I encourage ANYONE WHO IS SO MOVED to write her, the editor, a letter. Although your criticism will be indirectly to me, and I will be unable to have the public voice to say, “Yes! Yes! I agree with you!” the message will be conveyed. And that is the most important thing. Someone needs to speak out and they won’t let it be me. (Stephanie said that if I wrote a letter, which I am, it will only possibly be circulated internally.)

So please, write to Stephanie Prather BY TOMORROW MORNING to have your voice be heard! Hopefully, some response will be printed in this week’s Buzz (it hits stands every Thurs.). I feel really helpless in this situation. If you’d like to talk to me more about this, please e-mail. 

Stephanie Prather, Editor in Chief
Buzz Magazine
buzz at readbuzz.com
(217) 337-3801

Peace,
Rachel Storm 


	
International Studies/ Transnational Gender Studies
Buzz/217 Community Journalist
WIMSE Program Assistant
Forte International Exchange Local Rep.
(630) 677.7219
402 S. Race St, Apt. 2
Urbana, IL. 61801