WARNING: This photo may not be appropriate for children.
Paula performs her signature “penis pirouette” for students in her transgender tutu. “Some people will say that my presence is ‘inappropriate,’” says Paula. “But that’s only because of a cisgendered, heteronormative, biologically obsessed worldview that still fails to realize that biology does not equal gender does not equal sexuality. Severing the false connection between those things is a big part of my work, which is why it’s so crucial that I be able to reach people when they’re still young enough to hear my message.”
Last week, conservative social activist Christopher Rufo — who attracted national attention with his crusade against Critical Race Theory in public school curricula before pivoting to what he terms “radical gender theory” — published a report on San Diego Unified documents that outline an effort to, in his words, “dismantle ‘heternormativity’ and break the ‘gender binary.’” Part of that effort included a sex-ed training module produced jointly between San Diego Unified and Planned Parenthood that advised teachers to call biological males “people with a penis,” because, says Rufo, “according to the district, some women can have penises.”
“That’s where I come in,” says Paula the Penis, a biological female who regularly dons an inflatable penis costume and performs for schoolchildren all over California. “Though I was assigned a sex – female – at birth by a gender-binary-dominated societal structure, and though there is a powerful cultural association with being female and not having a penis, by putting on this costume, I can become a person with a penis, no matter my sex, or gender, or sexuality. I’m a walking, talking visual aid, doing my part to take the trauma out of childhood.”