AnnaMaria talked about how she loves to dress up as a drag queen - despite being female underneath it! and also about a Lap Dancing workshop she'd attended, which featured participants who were mostly lesbian and bisexual women, with some transmen and a handful of bio men. Everyone had to dance for everyone else, with the usual rules that the dancer may touch the dancee as much as they like, but the person receiving the dance must not touch the dancer - and what this meant in gender-variant space where you might be dancing for someone who wasn't attracted to you or vice versa. Some of the participants weren't keen on the idea that everyone should dance for everyone else - a lot of the transmen wanted only to dance for other FTMs - but they were talked into it and apparently went on to enjoy it. She said that she'd found it was most effective for the recipient if she touched them in places that reaffirmed the gender they were presenting as - so while she would touch women on the shoulders, waist or breasts, she'd touch men and FTMs in places that asserted their masculinity, such as the collar of a shirt or the upper arm muscles. I'm not sure what you'd do with girly boys or androgynes - after the workshop when I was describing this to someone else, he said that while he identified as male he wouldn't want his masculinity to be affirmed in that way, but I'm sure that within a workshop like that it would be possible for people to explain briefly their gender identity if it wasn't obvious from appearance. Certainly, if you were paying for a dance professionally, you should be able to ask for whatever you like. Various people decided there needs to be a workshop like that one BiCon, and would quite like someone to volunteer to run one, please!
On Sunday afternoon was the Decision-Making Plenary, ably run by
I'd thought about going to the Multi-Faith Worship at 3.30pm, but I needed to wash my hair - yes, I know that's a pathetic excuse, but I was feeling tired and grubby. When I got back to the halls, I found there was no hot water in either of the showers, or even in the sink. That was mildly traumatic, as it's been a long time since I've lived in shared accommodation and had to fight everyone else for hot water! But I boiled a kettle and somehow managed to wash my hair in the sink, despite it having only room-temperature water and being entirely the wrong height for me - and even managed not to injure my back in the process! Kudos to me, but ugh.ing
Then I went to
For dinner I had nasty Chinese takeout but good conversation with
The Ceilidh itself was fun to watch - it's one of these things I've always wanted to go to but not done so because of leg issues - but too loud, due to the "punk" ceilidh band who played everything at high speed. So after speaking to a few people about their costumes, I went through to the "quiet" bar, and stayed there for a couple of hours, chatting with various people including Alexa, Nickie and David, until it stopped being quiet. Then I went back to my room for chocolate & snuggling with Ludy.
On Monday 17th July I did not get up in time for Re-entry, the workshop about how to cope back in the real world, but I did get to the Closing Plenary and see the bi community "Cake" award presentations. Then I packed, and hung out on the grass with various people, mostly
All my BiCon photos are here, and the gallery is a mixture of public & friends-only photos depending on who they're of and if there are other people in the background. Let me know if you want the classification changed on any of them.