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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2011)
OREGON S LGBTO NEWSMAGAZINE music * APRIL 1. 2011 35 M BEER CHEESE WINE FOOD Big Freedia works it at the Santos House in Manhattan. 11 A M - 11 PM Tuesday - Sunday 6031 SE Belmont Street Portland, OR 97215 503 . 222.6014 www.cheese-bar.com “What the hell is Sissy Bounce? ... Take some of the most hypersexual, bump and grind you can imagine, remove everything but the sexed-up chorus, speed it up, and then remove the sexual identity of the artist /jVoY mi no performing it. What, what? That’s right. Sissy Bounce artists are purposely ^ androgynous, sometimes referred to as queer, sometimes transgendered, a 4-635 SE Hawthorne Blvd 5 6 3 .9 5 4 .3 1 3 3 very direct intent is to fuck with people’s heads about sexuality.” -SEAN BONNER, BLOGGER CAFFE who like to watch them dance). But she wasn’t always welcomed as an out, gender- queer performer in hip-hop’s hypermascu line world. “When we first started, it was a little bit rough.... As the years passed, people started getting used to it because we wasn’t going nowhere,” Big Freedia told The Corner in a March 2010 interview. “We had people hat ing on us and talking about us, trying not to get us shows and things like that, but it’s the music that got through. They couldn’t stop the music.... And the girls really adore us, that’s what really got us over, all the girls just loving on all of us.” Because most of Big Freedia’s sissy bounce peers are also gay men, straight women can identify with songs that talk about guys and seem to feel safer expressing their sexuality on the dance floor. “It’s like we step into their shoes and they can relate to what we’re saying and what we’re going through,” Big Freedia told The Corner. “We’re like girls, we’re going through the same things they are with the boys, so they really understand and can relate to us.” That said, because Big Freedia’s songs are light on the narrative and heavy on the crowd participation, it may be the liberating effects of shouting and shaking the night away that keep people coming back for more. “It’s as if punk had been reinvented for women,” Rusty Lazer, who performs with Big Freedia at Holocene’s upcoming Bounce & Buck 5, told the New York Times. “It’s just pure empowerment, physical aggression that’s not spiteful or vicious. I think it’s no accident that the slang term for a gay kid in New Or leans is ‘punk.’It’s pretty rewarding.” J0] L a w C ai MI NGO SIMPLE ITALIAN COOKING 3 5 2 4 N. Mississippi Ave 5 6 3 .4 6 7 .4 1 4 9 7 nights a week 807 NW Twenty First • Portland 503.226.4646 porquenotaces.com dinner _________ 4 m - ___________ 1.—- 1 c irri < Extended Hours With New Late Night Menu! Mon - Thurs 12pm to 10pm Big Freedia performs with Rusty Lazer and Portland's DJ Beyondadouht at Buck & Bounce 5 on Friday, April S, 9 p.m.; Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St.; $14; bigfreedia.com. Fri - Sun 12pm to midnight Ladies Night Every 3 Thursday 4612 se hawthorne i------------------------------------------------------- . Sfli-233-3996 www.dingosonline.com oin us on facebook IvVre gotkvg to party Like It's 195 The Awesome 80s Prom is a brand new blast-from-the-past interactive production set at Wanaget High's Senior Prom.Jn 1989! All the best characters from your favorite 80s movies are there and they are all competing for Prom King and Queen. So, tease up your hair, pull out your parachute pants and join rr - ft the breakdance circle. * ft/f ® ^ iJP'd p.» 1 F r id a y s & S a t u r d a y s J a n u a r y 1 4 - A p r il 2 3 5 0 3 -2 2 4 -3 9 0 0 w w w .p o r t la n d s p ir it .c o m 'P o rtla n d Spirit ‘Presents Ken 'Davenport's
