Alok V Menon between edge and tenderness to dynamite genres

Poet, writer, orator, and a revolution in the world of fashion, this performer shatters all gender stereotypes. Profile and chronicle of his time in Argentina.

July 28, 2023

Lucas Gutiérrez

Edited by Ana Fornaro

“I love you more than you could ever hate me,” said Alok V Menon , during his only performance at the Niceto Hall in Buenos Aires. Poet, writer, orator, and a revolution in the world of fashion, this performer shatters all stereotypes with a fierce sweetness.

She is trans, non-binary, and possesses a talent that invites us to rethink and challenge every label we adopt. Born in Texas with strong Indian roots , her home was a safe haven. There, she also embraced the presence of her aunt, the lesbian lawyer and activist Urvashi Vaid . Born in New Delhi, she came to the United States at a young age and was involved in the LGBT movement from an early age, becoming an important figure during the AIDS crisis. Alok frequently mentions her in interviews, as part of the family clan that sheltered her.

Alok V Menon had a stint in academia before becoming a writer.

“Cis people in the room are allowed to laugh at me for an hour and they won’t be called transphobic,” he spits out with a mischievous grin and a corrosive tongue. Alok subverts the hate messages that LGBT+ people have received and throws them back in the face of society as a whole with a lethal weapon: humor.

Far from being banal or becoming the butt of a self-deprecating joke, he constructs a Trojan horse narrative. A horse built from knowledge, readings, history, and experiences, alongside hypnotic trends, all perfectly combined. He possesses a sharp and astute humor that ultimately conveys reflections necessary not only for enjoying a good time but also for surviving, not only as individuals but as a society.

Undo gender

“A legislator made a list of 850 books that he finds inappropriate for Texas public schools, including my book 'Beyond…', I had no choice but to read the entire list and I was shocked to see that Marie Kondo and her sparks of joy… were not included! I am pushing to get rid of gender norms, but she wants to get rid of everything!” Alok says in his stand-up with impeccable logic and rethinking who is a greater threat.

As an author, she has two poetry books, 'Femme in Public' and 'Your Wound/My Garden'. In "Beyond the Gender Binary" (the one they want to ban), she revisits her experiences as a trans and non-binary person. And, above all, she celebrates the joy of being this way, the often difficult journey it entails, and the victory of seeing it become something like "a homecoming." Without resorting to tedious self-help rhetoric, this book provides tools to make each journey personal, unique, and, once again, loving.

His show draws a queer, outsider, passionate, and effervescent audience, constantly searching for themselves. The show opens with Whatever Mike, who sings and rouses the crowd with a kind of "Spanish-infused Portugne" as if they were chanting church hymns.

W. Mike sings and dances in a white dress that floats in the stage lights, creating a chill, warm atmosphere, before introducing Alok. Crowned with a pink beret, wearing a floral blouse, pleated skirt, and neon heels, every piece of her fashion is a cry of freedom.

Each interview he gives leaves us with much to reflect on. In his appearance on the 'Man Enough' podcast, he addressed, as he often does, the idea that we are all fighting for liberation, but that this cannot make us forget the most oppressed sectors of society.

“Any movement that is trying to emancipate men from the grip of heteropatriarchy or women from traditional ideas of gender must have trans and non-binary people at the forefront because we are the most honest. We are tracing the roots of where these ideas of manhood and womanhood come from, and they come from a binary structure. This is why people like me who are visibly feminine and masculine, or neither, experience the worst of all these fabricated fantasies that are killing people, that are killing us.”

Fashion became a space for expression and everyday questioning for Alok

Fashion as a trench

Reading and listening to him helps us understand that the runway can also become a march charged with political messages. “I believe fashion should be a celebration of beauty. I believe that the gender binary is an obstacle to beauty. It limits our self-expression and confines our aesthetic imagination,” says Alok . He recounts the times he was told he “wasn’t trans because I dressed in a masculine way,” while sharing, with exquisite detail, how feminine he felt wearing a bow tie . It’s not about calming other people’s expectations; it’s about finding oneself. There isn’t just one way to be trans or non-binary, just as there isn’t just one way to be a man, a woman, or any of the many other identities. Again, his message finds us on the same side. We don’t need to think the same way to fight for the same rights.

“They dress to show off their genitals, stop sexualizing clothes!” Alok shouts with a knowing rage shared by the entire audience, who understand in this joke a manifesto and a critique of gender imposition based on (solemn silence) (open quotation marks) biology (close quotation marks). Luckily for us, she keeps talking, creating, questioning, celebrating, and sharing. Because however political everything she says sounds, she clarifies that, in addition to that, everything we're experiencing is an act of love. And she closes with a message, a promise, a proposal, and a hope: “Live to old age.” For many, this show is the beginning of a new life.

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