In this dual projection slide show of collaged imagery, FlyHole tells the story of a housefly who transitions into a man in order to cruise gay bars. Text and images are photocopied from the March 1985 issue of the adult, gay digest magazine, Manscape, including illustrations by Mike Kuchar. Text and images in FlyHole are appropriated from the short erotica, “The Dildo in my Pocket,” published in Manscape (March 1985). The original story is about a “woman” who “disguises herself” as a man in order to pursue the gay man “she” is in love with. Despite using outdated language and transphobic tropes, the story accurately depicts the concerns and fears many trans-masculine people have about passing, takes seriously the gay desires that some trans-masculine people have for men, and portrays the main character as a competent lover, capable of bringing a cis gay man—and, presumably, Manscape’s readers—to orgasm. Through the use of collaged images of flies onto sections of text from “The Dildo in my Pocket,” the main character is transformed into a housefly who transitions into a man. Through this alteration, the transphobic notion of trans people are grotesque is reworked into a science-fiction, anti-assimilationist parable. FlyHole holds onto Mascape’s trans-masculine history, while circumventing heteronormative gender-assignment.
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