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Celebrating gender expression with The Candy Book of Transversal Creativity

By April 9, 2021New Releases, News

Gender-nonconforming artists, actors, and fashionistas have contributed more to the world of art and fashion that people realise and Candy Magazine has been working to show us what we are missing.

The magazine has compiled some of the most insightful, creative, and boundary-pushing art and essays in its new release The Candy Book of Transversal Creativity. 

Drag queens, transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people have been inspirational in the world of fashion, and their contributions to creative industries are invaluable but constantly overlooked. Candy magazine creative director, editor and publisher, Luis Venegas, launched Candy Magazine in 2009 to help shine a light on who he calls ‘the transversal people’ who defy “the outdated rules of gender”.

“I wanted it to be glamorous and the same thing as Vogue magazine is, only focus on a group of people who, at the time, possibly weren’t going to make the cut to be in Vogue,” said Venegas.

To celebrate a decade of Candy Magazine, and the increasing visibility of trans and gender-nonconforming folk, Venegas published The C☆ndy Book of Transversal Creativity in 2020. The book is a compilation of what the editor considers the very best from the magazine’s first 12 issues, including art and photography from over 100 artists, including David Armstrong, Naomi Harris, along with insightful essays by Geena Rocero and Amos Mac.

The book has a wide representation of body types, genders, sexualities, and races, and all the fabulous boundary-pushing gender expressions including cross-dressing and androgynous performers. The art and photography is stunning, shocking, and exciting. Author of The Drag Explosion, Linda Simpson, explained how trans people have often been portrayed as otherworldly or perverted and this book can combat those stereotypes by showing “trans people as glamorous and chic and sexy,” she adds how it “is really empowering in many ways, and certainly a wake-up call for some people.”

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