Hi, all!

I have some “informations” for you, as we say in franglais (aka Frenglish):  I like to write music in my beyond-ample spare time.  Not just that, but I’ve fished some of it out from under my mattress and posted it to my lovely little Myspace page for all to hear. Myspace.com/gisellerenarde

Most of my work fits into a collection I call “Butchering the Classics” because, along with my Garageband software, that’s what I tend to do. Hopefully I butcher them in a way that is pleasing to the ear, at least.  Have a listen; it’s all free.

I started (re)arranging classical music to use as a soundtrack for my promotional book trailers (like, did I mention I also write erotic fiction? lol) but soon developed a taste for producing my own music, such as it is.

As for my butchering, it tends to be of french impressionist music. “The Little Shepherd” you may recognize as a composition of Claude Debussy’s, whereas “She’s Like the Swallow” is a traditional Canadian song. I enjoy those hauntingly beautiful sounds, reminiscent of twilight by a lakeside campfire. I also love Bach, which led me to produce “I (heart) Bach,” an elegant arrangement of his F minor keyboard concerto.

“Vous le voulez comment?” is a sexy little number I wrote (all by myself, mommy!), which begins with a bit of pleading.  Although the lyrics are “vous le voulez comment?” (“how do you want it?”), the intensity of expression suggests something else.  The subtext reads more as, “I’ll give you anything you want, just fuck me already!”  Then we get into the “ah, oui, c’est ça,” suggesting the pleading has paid off.  Doesn’t last long, though.  It ends with a musical joke, because, hell, sex is funny.

I feel like I’m giving an awards speech, here.  Finally, I would like to thank my mother for forcing me to practise piano as a child.  All those lessons were good for something after all…

Bright Blessings,
gigi

Giselle Renarde - Canada just got hotter!

www.freewebs.com/gisellerenarde/

In talking with my mom and grandmother about my darling Sweet, it became clear to me that many people who are generally accepting of the transgendered community have little grasp on the terminology. That’s not a dig. Of course people aren’t going to be aware of definitions if they’re not a part of the community or if they haven’t studied trans issues academically

With that in mind, I would like to provide a bit of a trans-dictionary. The following is adapted from transproud.com and an article by Warren J. Blumenfeld of the Univesity of Massachusetts, combined with my academic and Sweet’s acquired knowledge. This at least provides a baseline for those who have come across these words but aren’t quite sure what they mean, though not every trans person will agree with every definition.
Definitions of Transgender Terminology

Biological Sex (or Chromosomal Sex): An individual’s sex as determined by their chromosomal makeup, which hormones predominate in the individual’s system, and internal and external genitalia. The distinction commonly made is that between male and female, but between 1% and 4% of the population is born intersexed, with biological aspects of both sexes to varying degrees.

Cross-dresser: An individual who sometimes wears clothing considered inappropriate for that person’s biological sex. Cross-dressers generally want to “pass” as their target gender.

Cross-living: A TG person who lives full-time in their preferred gender image, whether in preparation for a sex-change operation or not.

DRAB: DRessed As a Boy

DRAG: DRessed As a Girl

Drag Queen: Generally refers to a gay man who sometimes puts on women’s clothing in a performative capacity, without necessarily attempting to “pass.”

Drag King: Generally refers to a lesbian who sometimes puts on men’s clothing in a performative capacity, without necessarily attempting to “pass.”

FTM: Abbreviation for Female-To-Male cross-dresser or transsexual.  Other abbreviations include “F to M” and “F2M”

Gender Dysphoria: Medically, refers to extreme discontent with the individual’s biological sex.

Gender Identity: An individual’s innermost concept of self as male, female, intersex, travesti, hijra, two-spirit… and the list goes on. Take your pick!  We all have one, whether we’re conscious of it a whole lot or only a little.  Gender identity is about how we perceive ourselves and what we label ourselves, and it doesn’t have to be consistent with biological sex.

Gender Image: The individual’s gender-presentation out in the world.

Gender Role: Socially/culturally-defined roles and behaviours assigned to individuals based on their gender.

Genderqueer: An umbrella term describing individuals who don’t subscribe to the binary identities of male and female, who fall outside gender definitions, or who see themselves as both male and female.

Hijra: A member of the venerated (at least historically) “third sex” of India. Most hijra are biologically male or intersex, and dress and identify in a way reserved for women in that culture.

In Transition: A transsexual in the process of changing sex. This including taking hormones, cross-living, and finally surgery. A practical minimum for this process is about two years, but usually it takes longer.

Intersex: An individual born with the full or partial sex organs of both male and female, or with underdeveloped or ambiguous sex organs. This word replaces the politically incorrect hermaphrodite.

MTF: Abbreviation for Male-To-Female cross-dresser or transsexuals.

Non-surgical Transsexual: A transsexual who seeks sex reassignment through hormones and cross-living, but stops just short of surgery.

Pass: To exist convincingly in one’s preferred gender image.

Post-op: Transsexuals who have had sex-change operation(s), and now have the physical anatomy they desire.

Pre-op: Transsexuals who have not yet had their reassignment operation(s), but who are working towards it.

Sex reassignment surgery (SRS): Sex-change operation.

T-friendly: An organization, institution or individual that embraces transgendered peoples and their needs.

Transgender (TG): Frequently used as an umbrella term encompassing all those people who transgress society’s gender norms. A transgender person may feel society is limiting that individual’s personal expression by maintining two distinct gender constructs. This term often includes transsexuals, cross-dressers, two spirit, etc.

Transphobia: A form of oppression exercised against the trans community; the fear and hatred of TS/TG people, as well as those gender-transgressive element that exist in all people.

Transsexual (TS): A TG individual who wants to or has changed their body to be more in line with their gender identity.

Two-Spirit: A traditional role in Native American and Canadian First Nations societies, this term describes both the feminine and masculine spirit co-existing in one individual.

Hope you’ve found this listing helpful.

Bright Blessings,
Giselle Renarde

www.freewebs.com/gisellerenarde/

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the oldie-baldies?  I do.  I love those physically fit bald men in the 50-65 age group.  What can I say?  I’m a grave robber (the opposite of a cradle robber…?)

And what’s not to love? Bald is the new leather.  I love those shiny crowns, I love that short greying stubble that runs from ear to ear, and I love the vast expanse of forehead.  When I see a bald head in a crowd, I think, “Now there’s a man oozing with T!”

And I’m not talking shaved heads, here.  A man’s got to be naturally bald to do it for me.  Why?  I guess because I associate male pattern baldness with increased testosterone levels, and increased testosterone levels with… well, happy thoughts…

Now, Patrick Stewart: sexiest man alive, in my humble opinion.  Take a second to open a new browser tab and search google images for the man.  It’s okay. I’ll wait.  Are you back yet?  No?  Don’t worry.  Take your time.  I’ve got all day.

Okay, now that we’re on the same page, Patrick Stewart is so bloody hot I can barely stand it!  If I concentrate on an image of that man for more than thirty seconds, my body erupts in spontaneous orgasm.  He’s just that good-looking.  I don’t know how many seasons of The Next Generation I watched just to ogle him.  Hell, I own two Star Trek movies on video and I’m not even a trekkie!  My Sweet (who is the ultimate trekkie nerd) is totally on board with the idea of a threesome between us and Captain Picard, and s/he’s not even into guys.

So, to all you men out there who are thinning on top, I have only this to say:  Don’t fight the hair loss!  Wear your baldness with pride!  Do it, if not for yourselves, then for me and the many other women out there who love to admire themselves in the sheen of a hairless scalp.

Power to the oldie-baldies!

Giselle Renarde

Canada just got hotter!

Joni Mitchell got me thinking.

It takes more than the usual Swan Lake slippers and tutus to get me to the ballet. I don’t understand narrative in motion. I need words. That’s why I’m a writer. So when my dear friend invited me to The Fiddle and The Drum, I almost passed.

“No, you have to come,” she pressed. “It’s a collaboration between the Alberta Ballet and Joni Mitchell!”

Well, that changed everything. I’m half in love with Joni Mitchell. Of course I went, and Thank Ganesh I did! The Fiddle and The Drum was the most spectacular piece I’ve ever witnessed. Joni Mitchell’s music and words gave the dance the narrative structure I needed while her photography cast in shades of toxic green gave the ballet a haunting air. It was a daring, biting criticism of the American/Albertan obsession with oil and the lengths to which we’ll go to secure something that’s only helping us slaughter our beautiful planet.

What stayed with me, conflated with this gripping dance, was a single sentence from the program. Jean Grand-Maître of the Alberta Ballet states, “as Ms Mitchell is incensed with human folly, she made it clear to me from the onset that this ballet could not be escapist entertainment when the world is in such shambles.”

I had to ask myself, “What is my art, if not escapist entertainment?” I write erotica, for Shakti’s sake! If I am producing art, must it not make a more important statement? More than just some people fucking? I felt I owed it to my fellow Canadian to produce something better.

And then I thought about Tangled Roots, my new release. Sidestepping the entire debate of whether or not porn, erotica, and the like are socially important (and I do think this art form serves the purpose of uniting those with similar tastes, assuring us that we’re not the only ones in the world, oh, say, sleeping with a transvestite, off the top of my head…) I’ll simply say that this new novella redeems my body or work. Sort of. Maybe. In a way. (Sweet’s always telling me not to be so self-effacing…)

This piece, if no other, makes quite pertinent social statements about the shape of Aboriginal identity in Canada, about systemic racism, about how internalized dominance and subordination can both manifest in the same flawed individual. It’s deep.

I’m hoping Joni would be proud.

Bright Blessings,

Giselle Renarde

“You’re such a contradiction,” my client told me as we ‘did’ lunch the other day.

“Really?”

“Of course!  You’re a porn-writing opera-loving radical feminist Leonard Cohen fan.”

“Yeah… so?”

In my mind, those elements aren’t so contradictory. Can a feminist not love a ladies’ man? Can an opera connoisseur not enjoy some filthy raunch?  Why do we need to place every artistic endeavour on this spectrum of high to low culture?

I don’t see opera and porn at opposite ends of some scale of artistic valour.  Neither do I see “erotica” and “porn” standing in opposition, though many people out there –readers and writers alike- do.

So, what’s the difference between erotica and porn?  I believe the standard definitions go something like this:  Porn is down and dirty, sex for sex’s sake, blow-by-blowjob smut.  Erotica is explicit sex within the context of a story, usually with accompanying emotions and motivations.

What do I write?  I write erotica, but I also write porn and I feel no shame in saying it.  Even my grandmother will tell you I am a proud pornographer.  What’s more, I don’t set my erotica above my porn.  I don’t set opera above Leonard Cohen.  It’s a big world; they can coexist.

We don’t go through life wanting one thing exclusively.  Sometimes we want Die Fledermaus, sometimes we want Anthem.  Sometimes we want Carmen, sometimes we want Who by Fire? Sometimes we want long, languorous sexual encounters, sometimes we want a cheap fuck.  One thing isn’t better than another, it’s all about what we’re in the mood for.

Okay, you’re right, it’s more complicated than that.  It’s also about what has greater social value.  In academic/social/intellectual terms, literature has a very high social value.  Erotica manages to feed off that a little bit, but it’s a sliding scale:  High Literature has greater social value than literary erotica, which has greater social value than porn.  However, the scale is reversed if your social group values porn and looks down its nose at literature.

When will we dispense with pretensions?  None of this, “I’m too smart for smut” or “I’m to badass for the ballet.”  Let’s just admit that we like what we like.  I am Giselle Renarde and I love Leonard Cohen, social justice, opera and porn!