In this monologue, artist Jethro introduces his latest piece—a pair of rhinestone‑encrusted "drag boxing gloves"—as part of his ongoing sculptural series "Drag Everything Up." He recounts a harrowing ROTC hazing incident from high school in which he was blindfolded, forced to fight, and later restrained while another trainee beat him, leaving him bloodied and guilt‑ridden. Jethro explains that the gloves serve as a symbolic reclamation of power, transforming the violence he endured into a celebratory, gender‑fluid artwork that challenges masculine expectations. The statement concludes with a brief holiday greeting.
Chapters
This is my drag boxing gloves. See that? Hello, my name is Jethro and I wanted to continue my series about my art on my sculptural series called Drag Everything Up. And I'll explain this to you. So back in high school, I was part of the ROTC leadership training. And my trainees, co-trainees and trainers, they thought I was too effeminate, so they wanted to let the masculine side of me come out. So what they did was they blindfolded me and coached me that if I felt something, I should beat the hell out of them. And so they blindfolded another person and instructed them to not fight. Of course, I didn't know about this prior, and so when that happened, I did that and beat the hell out of whoever that person is. And when they finally opened the blindfold, I saw that he was bloody. And you could not just imagine the kind of guilt that I felt during that moment. The next day, they did the same thing. This time, they instructed me not to fight, and they held me back and even restrained me to even move. And they let that other person beat the hell out of me as well. And when they took out the blindfold, I was the one who was bloodied. And this really traumatized me. So much, but I just needed a moment. But I think my point is that you can turn your trauma into art. The purpose of this series is to take back the power of whatever that made me feel that I was subject to violence or bullying. And so this is my drag boxing gloves. I think that it changes the meaning of it. That's all. Happy holidays.
