Realness: is it "real" anymore?

Realness literally depends on whether or not people can assume either your true sexuality or your true/inner gender. For Butch queens, they're looking for the most passable male. The one who society would think was straight based on personal appearance. For Transexuals, judges are looking for the one with the smoothest transition. The one who looks like they were biologically born in their current gender. For Butches, judges are looking for the woman who could pass for a male naturally while living their life as a female.

After watching some recent ball footage, I noticed a pattern. Why is the violent black man considered the image of male figure realness?

In male figure realness, there are four distinct sub-categories, Executive (business suit conducting boardroom meetings), Schoolboy (appears to be in HS/college wearing trendy streetwear), Prettyboy (Metrosexual clean cut and masculine) and Thug (hoodies, jeans and construction Timbs). I noticed that 5 times out of ten, Thugs win over any other sub-category. When I asked someone why that is, he replied "wouldn't you pick the one that looks like he did time?" My reply: "Why is the violent drug dealing hoodlum considered to the "real" image of a black man? Why is a black male in a conservative image the caricuture?"

Have we, as a people, become so jaded by society that REAL is the epitome of a ghetto mentality? That one must scare and intimidate in order to be considered real. Now don't get me wrong, everyone likes a "daddy"; someone who dominates and takes charge but how has that image been distorted that you are ONLY real if you're brave enough to run the streets. Are men who dress stylishly, work a 9-5 and take care home a fading ideal? And if being hood, feared and intimidating will win you the category, is it the reason the ball scene butches are tempted to take T?

T is short for testoserone, a natural hormone that when injected into the body tricks the brain to produce male physical characteristics. It first causes a deepening of the voice, balances the softness in the face, creates body and facial hair and helps to sculpt a male physique if muscles are the desired results. Injecting this hormone not only fools the judges. This is the hormone used to assist Transmen with their physical transition from their born existence to their true inner gender.

This nurtured need to win trophies has fueled the AG/Butch community to not only inject themselves with strange hormones (most are not prescribed to the actual users but shared throughout several others) but fuels them to take on masculine names and ask the community to feed into their psyche by calling them by male pronouns as well. I'm sure that the use of a fake name or faked gender transformation doesn't assist anyone at being "real".

With the new uprising of hormone injected butches hitting the scene in alarming rates, one must consider what this does to the transmen community fighting for equality under the queer umbrella. Recently at the Milan Ball 2010, Icon Sean Ebony, an advocate for transgendered rights, publicly protested the butch realness category because three well known transmen walked it. A judge disputed that butches have been taking physique altering drugs for quite some time. It doesn't seem quite fair to be in a life transition and be seen as "every other butch" based on the greedy whims of a small few who want a trophy. Think of what this would do for the Femme Queen community if every drag category was rushed by dozens of boys using homones to win the category. Most BQID love the fact that they without chemicals can be a girl if only for a day. When will butches love themselves in the same fashion?

What does this do for lesbian women who when choosing a mate will have to accept a more masculine appearance then a lesbian should have to? They are forced to find attraction in a woman who takes drugs to look like a man only for a moment. In my opinion, this now opens the door for more femme/femme relationships since the femmes will be the only true women available. All this for a trophy or local recognition...?

A butch by definition is a woman who carries a more dominant way of thinking and mannerisms and for realness they must be easily can be mistaken as a man. Why is being your natural you not real enough? Your thoughts...?