Walk fully and boldly in my gender truth:

The musical life of Lady Dane

Dane Figueroa Edidi &

Joshua Palkki
Feminist Theory and Music 13
Madison,WI 6 August 2015

Feminist and/or queer theories are often used

as lenses in Trans* research
Although Anglo-American feminist theory
has focused on transvestites and transsexual
women for nearly twenty years now, it is
clear that the knowledge gained has been of
little benefit to transsexual women
ourselves (Namaste, 2009, p. 27).

Some feminist theorists have been less than

accepting of trans* women (e.g., Burkett, 2015;
Landsberg, 2002; Raymond, 1979; Wente, 2000)
The questioning of who gets to be considered a
woman can make dialogue and discourse
difficult and in some cases, impossible (Elliot,
2010; Hird, 2002; Stryker, 1994)
I am uninterested in having conversations in
which I have to prove I am a woman -Lady Dane

Lens: Intersectionality
Transfeminine woman of color Cece
McDonald was assaulted and
imprisoned for defending herself in June
2011 in Minneapolis, MN.
Johnson (2013) argued that Cece faced
interpersonal and state terror based on
the intersectional interplay of white
supremacy, gender conformity, and
heteronormativity (p. 140).

Method/Analysis

Co-constructed and co-authored

narrative case study (Barrett & Stauffer,
2009; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000;
Creswell, 2007)

Pinnegar and Daynes (2007): who owns

the story? Who can tell it? Who can
change it?
Criterion/Extreme sampling (Patton,
2002)
Coding (Saldaa, 2013)
Structural
Descriptive/In-Vivo

Research Questions
To what extent does trans* identity play a
role in the answer to the following:
What was the history and nature of Danes
music education?
What have been the most influential parts
of Danes musical life?
How do issues of power, privilege, and
intersectionality influence Danes life and
musical experiences?

Performer

Danes Story

Singer
Author/playwright
Cabaret artist
Dancer/dance instructor
Activist
Healer
History maker

Snapshots

When I was three years old, I had a

doll. And my mother had given me
this doll and it reminded me of my
grandma, and some people in my
family were like, take that doll away,
thats a boy not a girl. And I looked
up at my mother and I said, Im a girl,
I dont know what theyre talking
about.

Music as Salvation
But where I really got my start really was
church: singing in church in the little youth
choir, and that was great because the thing
about music is thatmusicreally as a
child, it was my salvation. It was my refuge.
It was my love. It was the time in which I
felt that I was really, really, really in my
element. I really was loved. I was really
accepted.

Power, Privilege, and Intersectionality

Trans* phobia and homophobia [are]
manifested through a white gaze and I
think that when we understand that we
can start to deconstruct how to dismantle
it. So what can society do [for the trans*
community] thats tangible? Stop killing us.
Stop making it OK for people to kill us.

Questions for Discussion

How has race influenced your gender journey?
What is the difference between conflating race and gender
and thinking intersectionally?
How can we turn conversations about trans* issues away
from the body?
What role can music (education) play in the expanding and
evolving conversation about gender the U.S.?
What people and/or which events influenced your gender
journey most?
What are the positives/negatives of trans* issues becoming
popular as of late in the news media and in popular culture?

Thank you.
Dane Figueroa Edidi
ladydanefe@gmail.com
http://www.ladydanefe.com/
Joshua Palkki
palkkijo@msu.edu
www.joshpalkki.com