Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
People ask me often whether or not it’s possible to be a man and a feminist, and my answer is always “Well of course, some of the coolest feminists were men, & right from the beginning, too.” But in case anyone needed a concrete example, this former coach from UC Davis is a damned good one.
Thanks, Michael Burch.
With this particular Matt, at least, it’s easy to explain: there is something so joyful and idiotic about anyone who would take the effort to make something like that.
& I’ve been in a few of those places, and the idea of the locals watching this guy dance just cracks me up.
& While I’m at it, I’m dedicating this post to Katherine.
If you’re over 40, go get your mammogram. Screening rates are in decline, which means less cancers caught sooner and more likeliness of mortality. Please, just go.
Aeneas, crashed out on his papa’s chair. (You can decide which one of us is his papa.)
I *know* people took pictures of/with me & Betty at First Event, but almost no-one has sent any! Please do send any photos you took of/with us, pretty please.
The Senate and House voted to approve an increase in the Minimum Wage, finally. The good news is that the increase will help working women – especially all those single mothers – who are struggling to get by. Now that’s family values.
Happy Birthday, Eddie Izzard!
Tonight is the Partners’ Drop-In Group at the LGBT Center. 7:30 – 9PM. The theme this month is community. Details here.
Mattilda a.k.a. Matt Bernstein Sycamore is an insomniac with dreams. She is the editor, most recently of Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity and an expanded second edition of That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation. She’s also the author of a novel, Pulling Taffy. Mattilda lives for feedback, so contact her or check up on her various projects via her website or her blog.
1) I love the way you use the word “assimilation” – it always reminds me of the Borg episodes of Star Trek – but I wonder how that term plays in different audiences – say a gay male audience as compared to a trans one. How do people respond to your use of that term, and its sinister connotations?
Generally I’m talking about the way an assimilated gay elite has hijacked queer struggle, and positioned their desires as everyone’s needs. In this way, we see the dominant signs of straight conformity reimagined as the ultimate goals of gay (or that fake acronym “LGBT”) success, i.e. marriage, monogamy, adoption, gentrification, military service, etc. We can see this fundamental absurdity where housing and healthcare and fighting police brutality and challenging US imperialism are no longer seen as “LGBT” issues, but access to Tiffany wedding bands and participatory patriarchy is seen as the bedrock.
So when I articulate these politics, it’s generally the people I’m holding accountable — gay men and lesbians with power and privilege — who are the most scared. Most gay men wouldn’t know Feminism 101 if it hit them over the head, so it’s not surprising that they see getting rid of homeless people and people of color and sex workers from the neighborhoods they’ve gentrified as a wonderful service to the “community.”
Generally it’s more marginalized queers, and especially trans, genderqueer and gender defiant freaks and outlaws and misfits — as well as feminists of various formations — who are ready to challenge the cultural erasure that assimilation represents.
… At least to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. Three female journalists who are also feminist activists have been arrested for trying to attend a workshop on journalism in India. Trying to attend, because they never got to: they were arrested at the airport.
“The arrest of these online journalists demonstrates President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s security and ideological paranoia which prompts him to ban all contact between journalists and foreign organizations and media,” said Reporters Without Borders (RSF), adding that the incident reveals “the fear that the women’s rights movement produces within the regime.” The three journalists are members of the Women’s Cultural Center, which runs a “One Million Signatures” campaign aimed at repealing Iran’s sexist laws. Recently, the campaign’s website was reportedly blocked by Iranian authorities, according to the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.
Good thing they’ve got a kick-ass lawyer.