Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Kind of awful in an excellent way.
That said, sexy costumes are great when they make sense. When they’re just messed up, objectifying versions of men’s costumes, they’re just stupid. At the very least, throw in some scary or gruesome, ladies: sexy zombie nurse is way better than way overdone sexy nurse. Or really push it, & shoot straight to enema nurse.
Happy Halloween!
Doug Wright says what a lot of us have been thinking in this brief post:
I wish my moderate Republican friends would simply be honest. They all say they’re voting for Romney because of his economic policies (tenuous and ill-formed as they are), and that they disagree with him on gay rights. Fine. Then look me in the eye, speak with a level clear voice, and say, “My taxes and take-home pay mean more than your fundamental civil rights, the sanctity of your marriage, your right to visit an ailing spouse in the hospital, your dignity as a citizen of this country, your healthcare, your right to inherit, the mental welfare and emotional well-being of your youth, and your very personhood.”It’s like voting for George Wallace during the Civil Rights movements, and apologizing for his racism. You’re still complicit. You’re still perpetuating anti-gay legislation and cultural homophobia. You don’t get to walk away clean, because you say you “disagree” with your candidate on these issues.
So you have to ask yourself: is it? Is my equality that unimportant that it doesn’t even come up on your spreadsheet?
I’m sure I’ve complained about Facebook before: as a content provider – i.e. someone who actually writes original stuff that other people want to read – I have had my blog feeding to FB for a while because of the demand and the reach, and while I never liked the idea that FB was getting the advertising dollars in exchange for my content, I didn’t have to pay to have it there, so I had it there — for the ease of access for my readers.
But unless I pay exorbitant amounts – the people who want to read me there effectively can’t, and won’t, unless they make a point of clicking on my page.
Which is pretty much the same thing as people making a point of going to my blog to read it.
I will give them a chance to re-consider this policy, but if this continues, I will stop feeding my blog to FB entirely.
Your options, however, are good: you can instead subscribe to my blog via the subscribe box at the top right side of it , and you can choose which of my categories of posts to subscribe to. So if you read my only for trans issues, you can get only my posts marked trans. Likewise for politics or music or NYC or any of my other categories.
That way, you don’t actually have to click on the blog to read it, although of course that’s very welcome as well. More traffic is good for bloggers as it often brings in (in my case, tiny amounts of) ad revenue. So it’s a good way to support any and all of your favorite bloggers, including me.
Honestly, if you like me, or anyone who is LGBTQIA-identified, don’t vote for this guy. He hates us.
It’s not the kind – or the list – that I would give at the end of my Transgender Lives course, but we do read several of the authors mentioned.
So take the Trans Quiz & find out how many famous trans people you can name.
I got 29/30. You?
… did you know Romney/Ryan plan to bring back the Global Gag Rule? No, I didn’t either.
Mr. Romney has pledged that, on his first day in the White House, he would reinstate the “global gag rule,” the odious restriction that has been used to deny federal money for family-planning work abroad to any organization that provided information, advice, referrals or services for legal abortion or supported the legalization of abortion, even using its own money.
and
The gag rule did nothing to prevent use of government financing for abortions because that was already illegal under federal law. But it badly hampered the work of family-planning groups overseas, forcing clinic closures, reduced services and fee increases. It also violated principles of informed consent by requiring health care providers to withhold medical information from female patients. And, by stifling political debate on abortion-related issues and violating free speech principles, the gag rule badly undermined America’s credibility as it tries to promote democracy abroad.
So again, no difference between candidates, my radical friends? This one is huge.
I think she makes a good, simple case for the problem with the Romney/Ryan ticket.
He will not be your advocate. Be your own. Vote.
As it turns out, Mitt Romney didn’t ask for the binder full of women, even. He was given it.
What actually happened was that in 2002 — prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration — a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.
They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.
So there you have it. He’s not even as woefully un-sexist as he claims to be; he’s even more sexist than that.