Bralettes and Bust Downs
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Shaun sits down with Southern‑raised nonbinary barber and techie Chris to talk about battling the gender binary at work, growing up “both boy and girl” in a Black church home, and outgrowing labels like “stud” while still wanting to be fine, fly, and free. The episode also weaves in the legacy of Black trans trailblazer Sweet Evening Breeze and what it means to treat gender like something “Barbie‑smooth” you can accessorize, instead of a side you have to pick.
Shaun talks with Southern‑raised nonbinary barber and techie Chris about growing up “both boy and girl” in a Black church home, navigating pronouns in a “queer‑straight” barbershop, and figuring out how to live beyond a gender binary that keeps knocking people “between the washer and the dryer.”
In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, they dig into how family, church, and a “queer‑straight” barbershop shaped Chris’s sense of gender, why labels like “stud” no longer fit, and how words like “bulldagger” land differently across generations and online. Chris talks about studs, dykes, and transmasculine folks arguing over who’s allowed to wear what, the pressure to pick a side, and why gender feels “Barbie‑smooth” with room to accessorize.
The episode also weaves in the story of Sweet Evening Breeze, a Black trans trailblazer in early‑20th‑century Kentucky, as a blueprint for living loudly, strategically, and publicly queer in hostile worlds. Chris closes by offering some love to their younger self in Griffeys and overalls, talking about shaving their head, staying weird and tender, and trusting that both‑and has always been who they are
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Credits:
Host: Shaun Dawson · Guest: Chris · Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons)