Cover Guys: Trans Male Portraits from Original Plumbing Magazine1. Issue 4 (2nd October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Korroch, Kate
• Is Part Of: Art journal. Volume 80:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 53
• Page End: 58
• Publication Date: 2021-10-02
• Subjects: Art -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Art -- Periodicals; 705
• DOI: 10.1080/00043249.2021.1947703
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0004-3249

Abstract

Abstract: In 2009 founding editors Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos set out to bring trans men into view in their magazine, Original Plumbing ( OP ). In establishing the magazine, the editors strove to craft a kind of visibility and access that was not prevalent for trans male people. Drawing from a decade of quarterly print publications, Mac and Kayiatos subsequently published "Original Plumbing": The Best of Ten Years of Trans Male Culture (Feminist Press, 2019). The book is a sampling selected by the editors from the twenty issues of OP . Unlike mass-media token covers of transgender cover models, the magazine maintained a decade-long, widely distributed representation of trans men in print. Of the almost four hundred pages in the book, roughly half reproduce portraits of trans men. Via an object study, I take up distinct portrait styles that dominate the collection and analyzes three key themes that arise—bare-chested covers, the playful conceal, and group portraits—in order to show how the editors created a space for representation beyond the gender binary that emphasized playfulness and community. OP 's photographs and texts have a tender and caring yet also yet raw and revealing tone. Mac and Kayiatos conclude in the book's letter from the editors, "By existing, you're changing the world" (xx). Their publication created a space to reflect and celebrate that change.