Teri Toye

Teri Toye was the first successful transgender model of the 1980s. Teri Toye paved the way for many transgender individuals to come out and reveal themselves in the fashion world. Many labelled her as “the new fashion sensation” of the 1980s. Fashion designers and consumers could not get enough of her new 80s style androgynous look. In 1984, she moved to New York from Iowa to study art and fashion at the [School of Design]. She was offered a modeling contract with well-known designers such as Stephen Sprouse, Karl Lagerfeld and Jean Paul Gaultier. She walked on runways for Comme des Garcons, Chanel and Thierry Mugler. Model turned entrepeneur, Janice Dickinson stated, “I personally worked with the transgender model in Paris, Teri Toye, back during the Thierry Mugler Show, and she knocked the socks out of everyone." Toye also posed for photographers Steven Meisel and Nan Goldin, among many others.Teri was known as an all out trans woman. Other models prior to Teri who were transgender rarely came out, however, if they did they usually lost their livelihood. Toye was even featured in the popular V Magazine with an article headlining,"Teri Toye's Androgynous Barbie-Doll Look Continues to Inspire." Toye walked with famous models such as Iman and Elle MacPherson for modeling agencies such as Click Models in New York and City Models in Paris. ^[1][2]

In 1987 Toye suddenly disappeared from the fashion world and returned home to Des Moines, Iowa where she currently resides and has taken up real estate for work. Teri was quite the fashion icon of her time and still continues to inspire till this day. She was fortunate to acquire a legitimate and well-respected career, as very few transgendered women found success in mainstream fashion culture. ^[3]

At the time fashion had been driven mostly by the music industry, with a resurgence of 80s bands and pop culture, it was the era of power, money, and fashion in terms of bright colours and experimental body-conscious looks. "Multi-coloured and patterned leggings, boiler suits, dungarees, shoulder pads, Farrah trousers and Global HyperColour heat-activated T-shirts were the fashion of the decade. When it came to hair, the bigger the better. From Sloane Ranger-inspired blow-dries, big curls and perms, bleached hair or bright bubblegum shades, there was a look for everyone and everyone looked different. It was about making a statement and wanting to be seen." ^[4]

"Couture took a distinct "downtown" turn in the 1980's with the emergence of Stephen Sprouse, who set the fashion world on fire as the first designer to successfully merge street culture, punk, and high fashion in edgy clothing designs incorporating graffiti, vibrant and at times even garish colors, plus a fine arts sensibility." New York's East Village, is where Sprouse lived and clubbed with friends, such as photographer and illustrator Steven Meisel and Teri Toye. He dressed his close friend, novelist Tama Janowitz (Slaves of New York, 1986), and created the onstage look for Debbie Harry, the lead singer of Blondie. He also dressed celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Chris Stein (also of Blondie), Iggy Pop, Billy Idol, and the members of the band Duran Duran. ^[5]

Sprouse produced a body of work considered to be the most visionary of his time. He provided wonderful opportunities for Teri, featuring her in many of his runway shows. Toye was honored to work alongside one of the most famous "rock star" designers of the 1980's. Sprouse's clothing included graffiti, sequins, luxury and synthetic fabrics. He also used a lot of florescent colors such as lime,fuchsia,blue and orange. Toye turned heads on runways with Sprouse's collections. The two made a great team in defining fashion for the decade.

Toye for Interview Magazine

Brothers Mauricio Padilha and Roger Padilha co-authored The Stephen Sprouse Book. Not only were they fans of Sprouses', they took a liking to Toye herself and asked her to share some words about Sprouse. The three of them conversed for Interview Magazine days before the book's launch on January 13, 2009, which marked Teri's first appearance since leaving the fashion world in 1987.

Mauricio Padilha: Most people think of you as Stephen's muse. What would you describe your role in Stephen's career?

Teri Toye: Stephen was so shy. I encouraged him and I think I gave him confidence.

Mauricio Padilha: How did Stephen come up with the idea of doing graffiti on clothing?

Teri Toye: The streets of New York were alive and inspiring in the 80's. Graffiti was on everything on the streets. Stephen turned that Urban Expressionism into pattern. It was his natural thing to do. Stephen was an artist. It wasn't as much about the clothes as it was just getting people to look like he wanted. So of course he had to dress everyone. My favorite works were the Xerox pieces. The green and yellow Edie Sedgwick, the fuchsia Francesco Clemente eye, and the Jim Morrison. They were more punk and personal than the later pieces. But that's just me.

Mauricio Padilha: You modeled for Chanel and Thierry Mugler as well in the 80s. How was that different than modeling for Stephen?

Teri Toye: The biggest difference was that I just showed up and modeled in the shows. I had no influence or involvement in the creative part. I was just in their look. Not a bad way to look I must say!

Also, in Vmagazine Teri stated to Andre Walker:

“I just wanted to enjoy my life. I moved to New York to study at Parsons and hopefully to work in the fashion business. Of course, then I transitioned. I did work in the fashion business as a model, which was an amazing kind of gift and just an incredible validation. It means more to me now than it did then. I was just happy to travel and meet and work with people whose work I enjoyed. I worked with all the designers I loved. I was more interested in personal relationships than business. It was never a goal of mine to become a model. I was asked to do it, and of course I did, and I was enjoying it, and that’s it. But at the time, I liked everything else about modeling—the traveling, the parties, the social life, my friends—but the modeling I wasn’t that interested in. It was very intimidating to do those shows, and I was never crazy about the pictures. If I knew then how good I looked, I would have been a bigger bitch!” ^[6]

The Ballad of Teri Toye

<poem>"Teri Toye was born a boy but found being a boy a bore So Teri Toye had second thoughts and dashed quickly for the door It was the door of a very good doctor, a genius at the switch The snip was done, the past was shunned, the boy became the bitch.

Her ice cold beauty a weapon, her whip the dead blond hair And when Teri surfaced at club Area, suddenly she's “Girl Of The Year” Since it was the Hi-80's the unwritten rules were bent Such was Teri's chic even the mainstream did relent.

From the Boy Bar clique of Meisel to the rising Stephen Sprouse Teri runway walked her way up to Chanel. Yes, the venerable house Now comes a downpour of adoration, now comes thundering applause Teri is now not just ironic, the joke has become a cause And this where our ballad now takes a sad and tragic turn It is always sad to watch an icon, as quickly crash and burn

The clique it turned its back, the princess is expelled Ariane became the new toy before Teri's moment gelled But her hard jawed ghost still hovers in those neon NY nights I've heard that certain agents have Teri Toye dreams in sight So if you're tall and lanky and swing a dead blond bob The editorial kids are waiting to hand you that blue chip job."

<poem>[7]

References

External Links

http://www.bbook.com/the-season-of-stephen-sprouse-mania/ http://zagria.blogspot.ca/2007/06/whatever-happened-to-teri-toye.html#.VGbM7L5N2lI http://www.oddee.com/item_98843.aspx http://lavachequilit.typepad.com/photos/teritoye/index.html http://dariandarlingnyc.blogspot.ca/2010/09/lil-blonde-darling-teri-toye.html http://laslush.com/2011/10/model-transformation-boys-dresses-fashions-androgyny-fixation/ http://getit.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/oneclick?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Stephen+Sprouse%27s+time+to+design&rft.jtitle=The+Gay+%26+Lesbian+Review+Worldwide&rft.au=Strong%2C+Lester&rft.date=2009-11-01&rft.pub=Gay+%26+Lesbian+Review%2C+Inc&rft.issn=1532-1118&rft.volume=16&rft.issue=6&rft.spage=16&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=212107267

Homosexuality in American Football Homophobia and Black Racism: An American Oppression

There is a tendency to connect black male athletes with sports that require competition and contestation such as American football and basketball. These sports are said to require strength, speed and muscular force…abilities that are socially constructed as athletic masculinity and attributed to black males. However, these essentialist notions contribute to the segregation and discrimination of black gay male athletes. On the contrary, discourse surrounding gay male athletes is usually associated with femininity and non-aggressiveness. “As specific sports serve to structure beliefs and behaviours regarding “real” versus “sissy” sports and the men who engage in them, what I call “sports capital” can be used to illustrate how certain sports carry more influence than others in the construction of hegemonic masculinity…“sports capital” can be used to document how specific masculine sports are more valued than others in certain organizations, especially for segregating straight from gay men. For example, if orthodox masculinity prizes strength and non-feminine associations, then American football, soccer, basketball, ice hockey, golf and tennis are the sports which provide much more capital than figure skating,” as well as sports such as swimming, running, diving, gymnastics and cheerleading. ^[1]

According to Raewyn Connell, gay masculinities are the exemplary case of subordinated masculinities: “Gayness, in patriarchal ideology, is the repository of whatever is symbolically expelled from hegemonic masculinity”, it is associated with weakness, femininity and thus excluded from what it means to be a ‘real’ man.” [2] Usually, black male athletes are viewed as ultra-masculine, exert a great deal of aggressiveness and these men are more willing to put their bodies in danger to gain a win, whereas gay athletes are said to focus more on their aesthetical form. Authors Eric Anderson and Mark McCormack state in Comparing the Black and Gay Male Athlete: Patterns in American Oppression, “Despite the gains of both the Civil Rights movement and the progress toward gay and lesbian social inclusion, the understanding in sport remains that black athletes come in only one sexuality and gay men come in just one color”[3]

Although this article was written four years ago, this statement still holds its validity today. Gay male athletes such as Michael Sam (first NFL homosexual player drafted) break the preconceived norm that gay male athletes are “soft.” Sam was one of the most ferocious athletes in the NCAA, and on the field he portrayed aggressive masculinity. Many individuals, such as the Super bowl winning head coach, Tony Dungy question the affects of having a homosexual male in the locker room on the team. There is no longer a focus of the athlete’s skill but, more focus on how his sexual orientation will affect his teammates; although his private life should be irrelevant to his teammates as long as he maintains a professional image. “The locker room consists more specifically of both a place and a value associated with male power, identity, masculinities, competition, solidarity and adolescent behaviour. Furthermore, the locker room – metaphorical or otherwise – provides a safe space for men to discuss their ideas about their values, motivations, fears, desires, wives, girlfriends, mistresses, sexuality, career and family on a personal level. The locker room can be both formal and informal, and these patterns of socializing are sometimes used by men to create bonds through professional networking or sharing what are seen to be common interests of many heterosexual men, such as sports, sex, women and drinking. Most accounts of the locker room are “firmly” heterosexual and masculine, which can result in gay men feeling excluded as discussions sometimes take on homophobic discourses in form of jokes or anti-gay sentiments.” ^[4]

Anderson and McCormack argue to take into consideration interlocking categories of oppression, which Kimberle Crenshaw terms as ‘intersectionality’. Black gay athletes are intersectionality oppressed based on their race, class, and sexuality and not only in mainstream culture but also in their very own communities, ultimately leaving them with few support systems. Further research and investigation is needed to understand how race and sexuality as categories are intertwined with respect to gay men in sports. They are oppressed based on their gender performance. Athletes who portray hegemonic masculinity in competition are in reality practicing a form of alternative masculinity; they can attain the same physical and functional attributes of masculinity, however, their emotional and sexual attributes are different.

However, today black gay athletes have fought for their rights through political activism. Now with a decrease in cultural prejudice, LGBTQ individuals and organizations have earned more institutional and cultural freedom to challenge oppressions they may face. Successful black male athletes such as Michael Sam and Jason Collins (first openly gay player in the NBA) have helped paved the way for all athletes of organized sports to ‘come out.’ ESPN writer Farrell Evans quotes Collins and Sam, "I'm a 34-year-old center. I'm black. And I'm gay, " Collins said in Sports Illustrated when he came out in April 2013. “On Feb. 9, Sam was equally clear about affirming his multiple identities. "I'm a college graduate," he told ESPN. "I'm African-American, and I'm gay." Evans adds, “That Sam and Collins would align their sexuality and race is significant in understanding the ways that sexuality has been historically fused with ideas of African-American men. "Being gay for Collins and Sam doesn't negate being black," said Marcellus Blount, a Columbia University English professor who is writing a book about race and marriage equality. "And being black doesn't negate being gay.”^[5] Before Sam and Collins, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Charlie Sifford and Arthur Ashe were striving to break racial barriers as players in organized sports. Back in the day, simply earning the right to play was of the outmost importance. “When Robinson entered the starting lineup of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, the country was still years away from most of the landmark civil rights legislation that would lead to sweeping social changes that cleared the path for women, gay rights and same-sex marriage. In many ways, Collins and Sam can thank pioneers like Robinson for letting them now enter these stadiums and arenas fully on their own terms without having to make painful personal concessions. Hopefully, Sam and Collins will be remembered less for coming out than for their contributions to their teams. One of the hopes of the African-American generations that birthed Robinson, King and Ashe was that men and women could just go on with their work on the basis of the content of their character and work ethic, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.” ^[6]

References

External links

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/renew-america-pundit-sinfully-sick-michael-sam-will-destroy-black-america-emasculating-its-m http://gendersociety.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/being-a-black-gay-male-athlete/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2014/02/10/anonymous-reaction-to-michael-sam-exposes-the-nfls-anti-gay-hypocrisy/ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2060826-michael-sams-agent-speaks-out-on-homophobic-comments-after-nfl-draft-selection http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000325011/article/jonathan-vilma-clarifies-comments-on-gay-teammate http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/12/us/michael-sam-nfl-kiss-reaction/index.html http://www.si.com/si-wire/2014/02/11/cfl-players-fined-comments-michael-sam http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-dungy-sam-20140723-story.html Zipp, J. F. (2007). In the game: Gay athletes and the cult of masculinity. Contemporary Sociology, 36(4), 337-338. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/233602802?accountid=14771