Original Plumbing

Last updated
Original Plumbing
Original Plumbing Issue 7 Spring 2011.png
Spring 2011 cover
Editors-in-chief Amos Mac, Rocco Kayiatos
Photographer Amos Mac
FrequencyQuarterly, Biannual
First issueSeptember 2009
Final issue2019
CountryUnited States
Based in Los Angeles, California
Website originalplumbing.com
ISSN 2153-6341
OCLC 535650207

Original Plumbing, also known as OP, is a quarterly magazine focused on "the culture and lifestyle of transgender men." [1] The magazine was started in September 2009 in the San Francisco Bay Area, by editors-in-chief Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos. The magazine was later published and distributed from both Brooklyn, New York, and later Los Angeles, California. [1] Mac and Kayiatos created Original Plumbing to bring visibility to the trans male community. At the time of the magazine's conception, trans men received little to no representation on TV, in mainstream film, or in other “LGB”-focused magazines. [2] It is the aim of Original Plumbing to represent "true diversity in the female-to-male (FTM) trans community; in size, age, body, surgery, hormone use and non-use." [3] Original Plumbing is the first magazine for trans men made by trans men. Original Plumbing's first issue, with the theme “Bedroom,” sold out before it was even published in 2009 — but Mac and Kayiatos were still unsure how their magazine would fare when they started. According to Kayiatos, "When Amos and I started, we didn’t know how this would go over. In general, OP was a pretty blessed and magical experience. We set all of our intentions for the first year, things both grandiose and achievable. Everything came to fruition. It felt like we were doing what we were supposed to do." [4]

Contents

Mac and Kayiatos decided early on the magazine would have a limited run of 20 issues. The final issue of OriginalPlumbing was released in 2019, followed shortly after by the release of an anthologized "best of" book, published by Feminist Press. [5]

Meaning

The magazine's name refers to the term "original plumbing" as used by transgender people in Craigslist personal ads to indicate they have not had sex reassignment surgery. [6] [7] According to Mac, "It is our belief that surgery and hormones don’t necessarily make the man… It’s more than just that. Maybe it’s an attitude, a swagger, a limp wrist, or just an awareness of ones self. Needless to say, there is not just one way to be a trans man." [3]

Content

Original Plumbing's content includes advice, essays, interviews, and erotic/pornographic stories and photographs. OP was influenced by teen magazine aesthetics, vintage physique pictorials, and magazines like BUTT , Straight To Hell, and PhysiquePictorial . [8] [2] As founding editor and creative director of this project, Mac has photographed the majority of the content within Original Plumbing. [8] Each issue is theme based and limited edition. [9] The magazine is 8" x 10.5" when opened, with a page count of between 52 and 96 pages. [8]

Issues

Book

The Original Plumbing anthology, featuring the best of all 20 issues, was published in 2019 by Feminist Press. [8]

Related Research Articles

Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth. The term replaced the previous diagnostic label of gender identity disorder (GID) in 2013 with the release of the diagnostic manual DSM-5. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Jorgensen</span> First American widely known for gender affirmation surgery (1926-1989)

Christine Jorgensen was an American actress, singer, recording artist, and transgender activist. A trans woman, she was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trans man</span> Man assigned female at birth

A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identity or alleviates gender dysphoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender people in China</span>

Transgender is an overarching term to describe persons whose gender identity/expression differs from what is typically associated with the gender they were assigned at birth. Since "transgender studies" was institutionalized as an academic discipline in the 1990s, it is difficult to apply transgender to Chinese culture in a historical context. There were no transgender groups or communities in Hong Kong until after the turn of the century. Today they are still known as a "sexual minority" in China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender rights in Iran</span>

Transgender rights in Iran are complex, with seemingly contradictory laws in place. While there certainly are some extreme legal and social barriers to the rights of transgender people, Iran is, in other ways, more progressive on the issue than many of its neighboring countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender sexuality</span> Sexuality of transgender people

Sexuality in transgender individuals encompasses all the issues of sexuality of other groups, including establishing a sexual identity, learning to deal with one's sexual needs, and finding a partner, but may be complicated by issues of gender dysphoria, side effects of surgery, physiological and emotional effects of hormone replacement therapy, psychological aspects of expressing sexuality after medical transition, or social aspects of expressing their gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender</span> Gender identity other than sex assigned at birth

A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex, it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term may also include cross-dressers or drag kings and drag queens in some contexts. The term transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transsexual</span> People experiencing a gender identity inconsistent with their assigned sex

A transsexual person is someone who experiences a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desires to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katastrophe (rapper)</span> American rapper

Rocco Kayiatos, known professionally as Katastrophe and in some later releases as Rocco Katastrophe, is an American rapper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Sallans</span> Transgender speaker

Ryan Sallans is an American LGBT author, speaker, advocate and out trans man. Sallans began his transition in 2005. He travels the United States speaking to professionals, college audiences, and youth about gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation along with his story of being transgender and the changing nature of health care.

Feminist views on transgender topics vary widely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fallon Fox</span> American mixed martial artist

Fallon Fox is an American former mixed martial artist (MMA), and the first MMA fighter who is openly transgender.

Rupert Raj is a Canadian trans activist and a transgender man. His work since his own gender transition in 1971 has been recognized by several awards, as well as his inclusion in the National Portrait Collection of The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives.

Transgender health care includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions, as well as gender-affirming care, for transgender individuals. A major component of transgender health care is gender-affirming care, the medical aspect of gender transition. Questions implicated in transgender health care include gender variance, sex reassignment therapy, health risks, and access to healthcare for trans people in different countries around the world.

The participation of transgender people in competitive sports, a traditionally sex-segregated institution, is a controversial issue, particularly the inclusion of transgender women and girls in women's sports.

Amos Mac is an American writer, photographer and a publisher from Augusta, Georgia. Mac is based in Los Angeles as a writer for television and film.

Detransition is the cessation or reversal of a transgender identification or of gender transition, temporarily or permanently, through social, legal, and/or medical means. The term is distinct from the concept of 'regret', and the decision may be based on a shift in gender identity, or other reasons, such as health concerns, social pressure, or discrimination and stigma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meghan Murphy</span> Canadian feminist and journalist

Meghan Emily Murphy is a Canadian writer, journalist, and founder of Feminist Current, a feminist website and podcast. Her writing, speeches, and talks have criticized third-wave feminism, male feminists, the sex industry, exploitation of women in mass media, censorship, and gender identity legislation. She is based in Vancouver.

<i>Physique Pictorial</i>

Physique Pictorial is an American magazine, one of the leading beefcake magazines of the mid-20th century. During its run from 1951 to 1990 as a quarterly publication, it exemplified the use of bodybuilding culture and classical art figure posing, as a cover for homoerotic male images, and to evade charges of obscenity.

Discrimination against transgender men and transmasculine individuals, sometimes referred to as transandrophobia, anti-transmasculinity, or transmisandry, is a similar concept to transmisogyny and discrimination against non-binary people. Transmisogyny, discrimination against transgender men and discrimination against nonbinary people are types of transphobia which affect trans women, trans men and nonbinary people respectively.

References

  1. 1 2 "About". Original Plumbing Online. Archived from the original on June 27, 2014. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Nichols, James Michael (2016-04-17). "Meet Amos Mac, Founder Of A Groundbreaking Magazine For Trans Men". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  3. 1 2 Mac, Amos (Fall 2009). "No. 01 The Bedroom Issue". Original Plumbing.
  4. "Over 10 Years, This Magazine Made Space and Broke Barriers for Trans Men". them. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-17.
  5. Goodman, Elyssa (17 May 2019). "Over 10 Years, This Magazine Made Space and Broke Barriers for Trans Men". them. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
  6. Greenfield, Beth (October 19, 2009). "Original Plumbing launches". Time Out . Archived from the original on April 14, 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
  7. Trebay, Guy (August 11, 2010). "Giving Voice to the Once-Silent". The New York Times . Retrieved June 1, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Publishing". AMOS MAC. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  9. Tiffe, Raechel (November 2013). "Original Plumbing: Performing Gender Variance. Through Relational Self-Determination" (PDF). Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies . 9 (4).