Man and Woman enters opposite bathrooms that have mirrors in the front of them and on their right hand side. He is dressed in brightly colored woman’s clothing and beings to prepare for a day’s work at that the office. Her breasts are bound and she is dressed in baggy jeans and a t-shit with a baseball cap.
Erika and Elton: [Shocked and grabs chest] Thought there was someone else here. [Releases a sign of relief]
Marne: They tripped again. Tripped and stumbled into the bathroom door. She could hear her mother
Erika: My mother is a southern belle that don’t ring no more.
Marne: Mouth open—no sound. “Keep trippin Big Foot!”
Erika and Elton: [Starts to take off heels] I am a size 11
Erika: Mom always said men liked women with a hip-swaying strut but they don’t make “cute” shoes for women like me.
Elton: After all, I’m a man… [Starts to take off stockings]
Erika: a wo-man… [Drops pants]
Elton: a man without womb. I don’t have the ovaries for that job—to be free—to be myself.
Marne: I heard you shaved your head the other day
Erika: I took an ace-bandage, wrapped my breasts like they were open wounds.
Marne: Binding her brains to toddler shaped feet, concave breasts
Erika: The weight of slender switchblades pressed into concrete on Sunday mornings to impress Mother match the sloppy clank of Chinese girls finding footing in new shoes.
Erika and Elton: Still, neither of us fit.
Elton: My grandfather wore a kilt, you know? He saw who I was, and gave be my first kilt. [Starts to put on pants] He was a proud Scottish man. He had them for special occasions. Dad didn’t want me to have it. In this country, they call it a skirt and don’t respect culture—abuse every other culture ‘cause they don’t have they own. Grandpa had them in every color. He wore them with pride.
Marne: The mirror’s right there little girl….boy…child. Reflection full of rainbows.
Erika: I can feel the safety pin pinch the underbelly of my bosom. This is womanhood: suppressing the physicality of my sex to overcome the objectivity of it.
Elton: Grandpa said “you’ll have to wear the lies you start with.” I wore a suit to the interview. I’ll have to where it for the rest of my life, right? You dress for the role; you’ll get the roll. You dress like a man, one day you’ll be a man.
Marne: Awkward role play.
Erika: In the Ching Dynasty, heels defined womanhood.
Marne: Quit trippin over your feet, man-sized and worn out. There’s a difference between stalls and urinals. So, stand up straight. When you hold your dick stop tucking yourself inward.
Erika and Elton: Don’t judge me.
Elton: You played it once; you can play it again, after all, the work place is the theatre. Besides,
Erika and Elton: They’ll like you more.
Erika: [fully unwrapped by now, push up bra underneath] for a thousand years, broken feet folded at the arch, toes bent tightly against the soles. Our feet are free, but we’re still bound.
Erika and Elton: Unraveling who we really are.
Marne: This is womanhood:
Erika: looking fuckable for your boss.
Elton and Marne: This is professional:
Elton: [Puts on shirt] wearing my lie—a suit—the label of a business man—wo-man—man without womb—
ALL: After all, this is business.
[Erika and Elton put on shoes, walks to the mirror, starts to comb/brush hair, puts items in the bag, and looks up]
Erika and Elton: Oh it’s you. [Exits]
Thing we're trying to accomplish:
1. Gender Discrimination
2. Compare the concept of Chainese foot binding to breast binding
3. Conformity to societial sterotypes
4. Perspective of what it means to be a man/woman
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