Big D's MANBODY MANIFESTO

1. Womxn have to work harder than men at everything. That is the water we all boiled in from birth; that is the patriarchy. It’s changing (slowly), but as a femme-presenting person, never forget how hard you have to work. Don’t worry! This will come in handy for your Manbody. 

2. The Manbody must take up SPACE. That means:

   • Space between all your bones, each vertebrae, everything stretched and extended and spacious!

   • Space between the legs;

   • Space under the arms;

   • Space between the fingers;

   • Space in the head: eyes wide, space between skull and jaw, lips parted! Tongue big! Teeth ready. 

The bigger your pose at all times, the more Man you read. Be bigger than you think you should be. This is true spiritually as well. Of course. 

3.     When it’s time for this Manbody to MOVE, imagine you are moving underwater, or pushing mud with your whole body, or breaking a thousand glass ceilings. Let your muscles squeeze your bones. Use EFFORT. More effort than your body actually needs to move. Make even small movements feel like a workout. Make even small body parts WORK. 

4. Have you ever seen a drag queen move like a big dumb gallumphing man? It kills the fantasy. We like our drag queens sashaying around looking cute and small and demure and all that girly shit. Little mincing steps, little butt wiggles. Little fingers to the face giggle giggle. Werk, queen! But that is not you, fucker! Don’t let their adorable femininity infect your hulking masculinity! Queerness is not a gay man’s monolith. That’s the patriarchy too. 

5. You could be reading this and thinking to yourself, This is so GD BINARY Big D. So true. I’m personally fired up about this topic because I see too many drag kings who look like they’re not even considering their king physicality. Maybe when I see more of what I like I’ll shut up. 

6. And it’s got to be more exaggerated than you think it should be. You can’t just go, I’ll watch a man move and then copy that. Remember, men aren’t constantly shattering glass ceilings with every fiber of their being! You’ve got to do more than the man does. Re-read 1, 2 and 3. 

7. This is true for your voice too, dude! You need to use your mouth and vocal cords differently than how you normally do. First of all, you’re creating more space in your whole mouth/jaw area. Think about every word taking up more space. Every syllable. Let your mouth and lips caress each manly syllable like golden coins spilling from your dick lips. Surprise yourself with how much you can enunciate or chew the words in your own special man-way. And put that voice down there. WAY down into your bowels. Lower than you think you can go. Don’t strain your vocal cords, don’t let it be painful or overly satanic. But go low, bro. Breathe deep, breathe more than you think you should. All that oxygen is YOURS.

8. Will it all work? Definitely. Do you know about grizzly bears? If you’re walking in nature and you come upon a grizzly bear, you have to get big. Grizzly bears have blurry vision, so if you make your body as big as possible, or if you’re with a friend and the two of you put arms around each other like one big body, the grizzly bear will believe that you are very big and be less likely to attack you. The same is true for audience members. They also have blurry vision, spiritually speaking. If you play big, you read big to them. They’ll buy it. They’ll eat their berries and enjoy the show. 

It’s not easy being a man. 

Let them know how hard it is. They’ll love you for it.