Conversations around gender and sexual identities are hot topics these days. In the heat of the moment, however, it’s useful to look back at how such conversations were framed in previous eras, and how our thoughts have evolved over time. Daniel Peddle’s ground-breaking 2005 documentary, The Aggressives, documented the beliefs, lives, and aspirations of a group of six fabulous aggressives, masculine presenting/identifying queer people of colour who were assigned female at birth. The six people featured were all from New York and were filmed over a period from 1997 to 2004. His 2023 follow up documentary, Beyond the Aggressives: 25 Years Later, revisits four of the original six contributors, Kisha, Octavio, Trevon, and Chin, to examine where life has led them. Filmed from 2018 to 2023, the film is a fascinating insight into how the narrative on gender and sexuality has evolved for these people, and how the queer individuals featured have carved out lives for themselves in American society.
Peddle goes out of his way to portray his subjects in the fullest light possible. We follow them for four years as they navigate romantic relationships, careers, family bonds, parenthood, transitioning (including surgery), religion, legal situations (including prison), as well as their journeys around their sexual and gender identities. Each person has had their own life struggles to conquer. The advantage of the long filming schedule is the ability to see the overcoming, over time, of tough life situations. Love, in all its forms, romantic, familial, and friendship, is the force that keeps everyone moving forward in the right direction. Peddle also interviews other queer people who had watched the original Aggressives documentary, and who describe the effect the film had on them. The supercool New Yorkers are all very easy on the eye. The insight of the bright and intelligent interviewees is inspiring and quote after quote will stick in your mind. Strength and grace prevail. There is talk of their inspiring ‘transcestors’. Octavio’s adult son sums up modern thinking with his reference to Octavio as: “He is my mum.”
What shines through Peddle’s interviews is that, although the language around identity has improved exponentially in the past two decades, many queer people don’t relate completely to a current textbook definition of themselves, say as a trans-man or a gay woman etc. They may have different feelings throughout their lives and often find gender and sexual ‘labels’ restrictive. This is probably the direction in which sophisticated societies are heading, and ultimately, in the not-too-distant future, we may be unlikely to define ourselves by the current definitions of sexuality and gender. Let’s hope Peddle follows up this excellent film in another couple of decades to reflect our ongoing queer evolution.
Queerguru’s Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
