Michelle Tea: Playing with Facts
Tea’s first memoir “The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America” was published in 1998, based on short stories she’d penned for live performances. But her second memoir, 2000’s “Valencia,” was what raised awareness of the new voice for contemporary lesbian writers. Her honest recounts of hardcore sex, drug addictions, and the merry-go-round-passing-around of girlfriends in San Francisco during the 90s kicked open the doorway for young female writers to help them realize their lives are worth writing about. The Village Voice named “Valencia” as one of the top 20 books of the year, and it also won the award for Best Fiction from LAMBDA.
Now Tea, 33, has successfully published four memoirs that detail different eras of her life, from her post-adolescent dreams of leaving blue collar hometown Chelsea, Mass. to do heroin with Billy Idol, to her prostitution exploits as a survival tactic. She’s written for several publications, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian and “The Believer,” in which she penned a controversial first-person narrative detailing the consistent war between The Michigan Womyn’s Festival and Camp Trans.
In the piece (titled “Transmission from Camp Trans”), Tea kept a journal of life in the small camp of transgenders not allowed to be part of the Michigan fest, an all female gathering where women are known to stand up-front, topless and unshaven, to watch acts like Ani DiFranco or Amy Ray. Camp Trans is a much smaller festival that runs the same week in protest of Michigan and its organizers unfair treatment of trans-women and men.
“I had hoped it would stir things up,” Tea says. “I had an agenda, because I want to go to Michigan. I want the policy changed.”
Tea wasn’t sure if her article was being read widely enough for change, so she sent emails to lesbian and feminist magazines who ran articles and ads for Michigan, urging them to write about the struggle of transgenderds who are banned from the festival.
“It’s creating a media bias and I thought there should be articles about it, because it’s a newsworthy thing in our community,” Tea says. “I enclosed the Camp Trans piece in my e-mail and told them they could print it for free, or have somebody else write about it. Just get it out there.”
And though the policy has yet to change, Tea’s article received more notoriety as it was published as part of “The Best Non-Required Reading of 2002.”
Recently, Tea has received some criticism based upon her boyfriend, a female-to-male transgender named Rocco. She has struggled with the public perception of her identity, as she says she refers to herself as “queer” but that there are those who won’t let her straddle the line between lesbian and bi-sexual.
“I think people don’t have an accurate understanding of transexuality or trans people,” Tea said. “A lot of lesbian women or queer girls or whoever, excuse the fact I’m with Rocco because he is trans, and I would so much more rather them hate me for being with a man. That displays their lack of understanding. Trans men want to be seen as real men, like any other Joe on the street.”
Tea has openly spoken out on behalf of her boyfriend and transexuality, and has been interviewed as an authority on the subject in the past couple years. Tea’s open book policy might get her in trouble some of the time, but it also makes her a very credible and honest advocate for whatever she’s writing or speaking about.
Still, Tea does not consider herself an outright activist, claiming that her writing is more self-indulgent than anything else. But when reminded of her touring to promote her graphic novel “Rent Girl” and speak to people about the rights and lives of sex workers, she gives in.
“[I feel like an activist when] I’m with a troupe of people with varying experiences, and we’re going into Alabama or Arkansas unmasked, and as a group we’re being out and vocal about the sex industry and demystifying it,” Tea says. “I do believe people can be changed from our shows, like men that come into the bars we’re at and expect a stripper and lap dance. Instead they get info they didn’t want or expect.”
Tea has never been one to hide her feelings or her past, which is why she’s been able to publish four books of material from of her life thus far. Her third memoir “The Chelsea Whistle” focused on her childhood outside of Boston, where she painted a fairly negative portrait of her hometown and family life.
“My family doesn’t read my books,” Tea said. “It’s really hard for my mother. I think she knows that since I’m writing about the family, she thinks that’s all I write about; all about her and how horrible my childhood was.
“And the townies were pissed,” she continued with a laugh.
Tea’s newest project is a novel, her first long-form piece of fiction, titled “A Rose in No Man’s Land.”
“It’s about a girl who is 14-year-old loner, like a little burgeoning butch dyke with no self knowledge,” Tea says. “It’s basically my weird sick teenage fantasy. It was a really weird experience because I’ve never written fiction in such a sustained burst.”
Tea is also working on two anthologies (one about queer youth, the other about trans youth) and is also working on adapting her work for film and t.v., attempting to reach more “visual” learners.
“We’re talking to the producer of ‘Queer as Folk’ for a cable about hookers,” Tea said. “It’s about contemporary feminist minded, smart prostititues, and there are intersections of class and gender. I really hope it happens, but it’s hard to find people who are interested because they assume it’s going to be depressing and pathetic. They can’t comprehend there is humor.”
Tea is also scripting a comic book, which she says is taking up most of her time, but for the near future, she’s not ruling out another book.
“I don’t know if my next book of my own is a novel or memoir,” Tea says. “I’ll probably flip a coin. I have strong ideas of what both would be.”
