XX Boys

A fast-paced exchange of words and images, out of tune guitars and raucous shouts accompanies the awkward poses, defiant gestures and blasé posturing of this adolescent undertaking. Pretty boys and tough-looking lads play dirty in toilet cubicles. Pink mohicans clash against graffiti-covered walls. The close-up of a testosterone-induced dick-clit, a head in a urinal, a body in transition. A playful ‘fuck you’ from the boi with the cute panda print pants. Snapshots of gripping flesh, frantic fumbling, sweaty fists, hard and lingering. Zoom in on chipped red nail polished fingers. Cut to strap-on trannyfag action in an alleyway whilst, nearby, a love-bitten guy exposes himself behind a gravestone. In another frame, a genderqueer cockily performs an interventionalist pissing, whilst a boy submerges himself in a bathtub of strawberries, creating bloody stains on virgin whites. Cut lip and a bruised eye, the scarred chest of a female-to-unknown. To describe the photographic oeuvre of female-to-male (‘FTM’) transgendered photographer Kael Block is to re-enter and prolong adolescence.

Curious? Check out the work of FTM photographer Kael Block and his 'XX Boys' project which aims to increase awareness about FTM trans people - http://xxboys.20six.fr/

Slang-glossary:A 'Dick-Clit' is a hormonally-induced clitoris, which has enlarged and taken on the form of a micro-penis under the effects of testosterone. In other words, FTM guys on 'testosterone' grow their own trans-genitals! In case you didn't already know, a ‘boi’ is a variation of ‘boy’. A ‘strap-on’ is a dildo whilst a ‘trannyfag’ refers to a ‘female-to-male’ (‘FTM’) who is sexually attracted to other boys or men. In theory, the ‘genderqueer’ seeks to challenge the gender binary system and the traditional roles, relations and constructs of man/woman and male/female. More on the everyday conseqences of these allegedly 'radical' gender transgressions later!

'Now, I'm not going from a to b - rather, I'm zigzagging my way through an endless play of possibilities'

The following is taken from a diary entry I wrote nearly two years ago after just starting testosterone:

I write this after just starting hormones, watching with both fascination and awe as my skin, muscles, hair and flesh metamorphosise after each injection of testosterone. I feel excited but nervous at the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of this intense emotional, psychological and physical change. I am overwhelmed by feeling my existential reality shift and I acquire a new context for putting this phenomenological experience into perspective. Others mourn for fragments of my former self as I forge ahead, shedding old skin and attempting to fit comfortably in the new skin that grows slowly - a painful but necessary process. This present raw exposure is only made bearable by the sight of old skin peeling away. Residing in the realm of transition I am, at present, without a shell. I grapple with the new as I prise myself from all that I have known - no longer able to cling onto the safety net of my past, female, self. I remind myself of my new way of being (in the world) as my ageless boyishness is challenged. My queerness gets stronger and more playful. In becoming the white boy - my racial privilege becomes more pronounced yet it is transient, in keeping with my journey to manhood.