The winning submission in the first essay contest (May 2019) was "The Heroes of our Time: Perceptions of Active and Passive Roles in Homosexual Sex - Osher Sabag's Performance as a Study Case," by Asaf Roth, class of 2019. Asaf's essay analyzes the performace of the Israeli drag artist Osher Sabag, focusing on the way it shapes perceptions of active and passive roles in homosexual sex. In order to create a proper frame of reference, the essay begins by presenting the way active and passive sex roles were perceived in the highly patriarchal Attic society in anceint Greece. The essay then introduces feminist and queer theories relating to this issue, and finally offers an analysis of Sabag's performance, including through an interview Asaf conducted with him.

The full essay (in Hebrew) is available at the bottom of this page.

 

Asaf chose to donate the 1,000 shekel prize to the Ma'avarim organization. Here are a few words from Asaf about Ma'avarim:

The Ma'avarim organization ("passageways" or "crossings" in Hebrew) is an Israeli NGO, which seeks to empower and support members of the trans community, facilitating both personal and social change. My decision to donate the prize money to Ma’avarim reflects the belief that by welcoming diversity in gender identities and sexual orientations, we in fact subvert harmful patriarchal values, thus rendering our soceity a place where we can all fit in better.

 

Thank you to the judging committee - Roni Faust (class of 2019), Roi Ilani (class of 2020), and Adam Chaikin (class of 2020) - and to the contest organizer, Danielle Babitz (class of 2020)!