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Kristopher's Journal
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| I set up my new blog finally!
http://drakyn.blogspot.com
LJ has been really stupid lately and I no longer trust it.
I'll still keep reading my friends page and communities, but I don't think I'll post in my journal much any more.
I also moved all my current posts over to insanejournal (same name) and will probably update there too. | comments: 2 people said something or Say something   |
| | Subject: | T3h Rulez | | Time: | 09:46 pm |
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| Okay, even though I'm not that widely read or a big name blogger or anything I've been thinking that I'd like to write down my comment, friending, etc. policies so that anyone reading knows them.
Here is what sort of moderation is possible on a eljay: I can set it so that commenting is only allowed by friended users, registered users, or everyone (I have it set to everyone). I can choose to 'screen' comments, only I and the poster can see the comment until I unscreen it, for all replies, non-friended users, and anonymous users (only anon comments are default screened). I can delete comments. I can freeze threads; this means that no one can reply to that comment/thread.
If you don't have an eljay yet you want your comments to show up immediately, then make a free journal.
1. This is one of those things that really annoys me; NO deleting comments. Unless you comment is almost unreadable, just reply to yourself with any corrections. This goes the same for editing comments. I get comments emailed to me, so if i notice or someone brings up major discrepancies I will ban people for deleting/editing comments.
2. Here's another big one, Expect that comments that are cissexist, racist, heterosexist, classist, ableist, transphobic, xenophobic, anti-kink, transmisogynist, sexist, homophobic, etc. will be called out by myself or others. I admit that I am not an expert on all forms of discrimination or -ist/-phobic speech, so if you see something that I don't call out you can (if it's something that is probably plain bigotry, such as "all trannies are freaks!" you can snark and flame as much as you want. If you aren't sure if the remark is in ignorance, misinformation, internalized -isms, etc, please try to be somewhat polite). I am also not online 24/7, so i may not have seen that comment yet.
3. If someone is obviously flaming myself or others, posting real-life info, obviously trolling, etc. I reserve the right to screen, delete, freeze, ban, etc. posters.
This does not mean that i'll delete your comments and ban you if we disagree. If you post things that are hateful (for example, "God hates fags and trannies") and do not generate meaningful/interesting discussion I will probably delete or screen your comment (I'll probably just screen it, but if it makes me feel sick or is just too hateful I will delete it). If you are seriously off-topic (ranting about how gender is socially constructed on a thread about people disrespecting the murders of trans*people for instance) I will probably screen your comments. If someone is an obvious troll (such as Renee/Rainsong/Bliss/etc. or Dirt), I'll ban them; but I'm not going to ban people because I get mad at them or we disagree. If someone is spamming (text or pictures) I will delete and ban.
4. If you are a feminist and are uncomfortable with, disagree with, are ignorant about, etc. Trans* "agenda"/"politics"/"theory"/experiences/people then please read this before asking or lecturing me about it.
5. If you are a Christian and feel the same as the above, you can read the same as above and remember that i am not a Christian. I was raised by Christians, studied Christianity, and ultimately decided that Christianity is not the religion/belief set for me. I do not hate Christians or Christianity, my deeply-held beliefs (reincarnation, multiple Gods and spirits, etc) simply don't jive with Christianity. So please, do not try to convert or minister to me; it won't work.
6. NO chatspeak; except for obviously snark-related comments. Typos are one thing, typing 'u' for 'you' or 'no' for 'know' are entirely different. Please also try to not make too many grammatical/spelling errors that your replies are confusing or unreadable. Eljay and Firefox have spell-checkers (Firefox's is an add-on, but that's easy to install). Moreover, block-o-text is nigh unreadable; don't forget to hit the enter key when you need to so that others can read your post.
If you have problems with english that's another thing and I'll be understanding; just try so that I and others can read it.
7. If I ask for people to do or not to do something in a post; please do. For instance, if I say I only want trans* voices to answer something, not to attack people-only ideas, joking answers only, etc. please follow the guidelines. What I do to rule-breakers will depend on the post.
Friending Policy:
If you're an offline friend, please try to tell me offline that you're going to friend me or comment including your first name/nickname.
If you know/think I read your blog ad your eljay name isn't similar to or the same as your blog name, please comment.
If I don't know you, please comment to tell me! Otherwise I'll just think you want to watch my public entries. I may friend you back depending on your profile and new public entries, but I may not.
Most of my friends-only stuff is personal things (like problems with my sister, transition stuff, etc); very little is drama-centered. So don't worry if I don't have you friended.
If you aren't an offline friend and I de-friend you, it's probably just because I didn't have time to read your posts--don't take it seriously.
PSA: I've got offline friends friended and posts relating to my personal life on here. Not everyone I have friended is a feminist, liberal, etc. I am not responsible for what my friends say or believe (though on this blog I do try to call them out); many of my offline friends have abandoned their journals and many others are simply not interested in blogging.
Fyi, Zenhamster is my boyfriend's journal that he made this summer to snark at someone in my lolcat post--I don't think he's logged in since though. -.-;; | | comments: 14 people said something or Say something |
| | Subject: | Lol at Elaine | | Time: | 11:58 pm |
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| Ah, the ignorance and stupidity is truly astounding:
"For the record, I’ve been to a number of doctors and gone through a variety of therapies and guess what? They all have some different diagnosis and some different medicine they want me to try. And guess what? None of it works any better than regular exercise, proper diet, and community support of my feminist-vegan belief system. For me, none of it.
Now, you can say I’m just one of the many counter-examples and maybe your problems are worse than mine. And you may well be correct. I don’t mean to tell you want to do with your body. I really don’t give a shit. It’s your body. Use it to pose nude or get implants or hair highlights or smoke weed or get drunk or sunbathe or pierce it or get a C section or get an abortion or change genders or whatever. I do half that stuff myself. Do whatever you want. I’m just giving my personal opinion about psychiatric meds.
And I don’t mean to say anything about you personally when I say these drugs cause brain damage. I mean that they literally cause brain damage. I do not mean you are stupid for using them. I mean they cause your brain to damage itself. It happens that the damage it does makes many people happier. But it still causes damage. Just like a lobotomy “works” to make people less violent, so do these medications “work” to make people less depressed. It’s not as extreme, but it’s damage nonetheless."
"Side note: they’re giving anti-depressants to dogs to “cure” them of separation anxiety and to zoo animals to help calm them. They “work.” That is, the pills help these animals cope with their very normal and natural reactions to their very unnatural situations. Dogs get separation anxiety because they’re pack animals, not playthings for humans to own and leave at home while they work. Zoo animals get anxious because, well, they’re zoo animals. They should be out in the wild. Just tossing that out there…"
--http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/12/23/in-the-interests-of-full-disclosure/#comments
( Yay macros! ) | | comments: Say something |
| | Subject: | Holy Shit! | | Time: | 01:13 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/purplelemon/sassips/bitchy.gif) pissed off |
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| I just read this on Feministe and it blows my mind.
"A 7-year-old-girl is being hailed as an “angel from heaven” and a hero for jumping in front of an enraged gunman, who pumped six bullets into the child as she used her body as a shield to save her mother’s life.
Alexis Goggins, a first-grader at Campbell Elementary School, is in stable condition at Children’s Hospital in Detroit recovering from gunshot wounds to the eye, left temple, chin, cheek, chest and right arm.
“She is an angel from heaven,” said Aisha Ford, a family friend for 15 years who also was caught up in the evening of terror.
The girl’s mother, Selietha Parker, 30, was shot in the left side of her head and her bicep by a former boyfriend, who police said was trying to kill Parker. The gunman was disarmed by police and arrested at the scene of the shooting, a Detroit gas station. Police identified him as Calvin Tillie, 29, a four-time convicted felon whom Parker had dated for six months."
...
" Ford said she dialed 911 on her cell phone as she walked into the station.“The first operator clicked off and I dialed again and told that operator a guy with a gun was holding me hostage with a mother and baby and threatening to kill us. I told her the name of the gas station and then she said they didn’t have a unit to send.”Ford said she paid for $5 of gas and slowly returned to the vehicle, stalling for time as she handed Tillie the change. She said she kept stopping and starting the pump, hoping the police would show up.“I told him I needed more gas and took money out of my purse and went back into the station,” she said. The attendant, Mohammad Alghazali, 30, said he noticed Ford was crying and she told him what was happening. He called 911 as he heard shots coming from the vehicle.
[…]Alghazali said a police car on a street nearby arrived in less than a minute after his call."
A hero’s fund has been set up for Alexis:
Checks should be made out to the Alexis Goggins Hero Fund and sent to Campbell Elementary School in care of the Alexis Goggins Hero Fund, 2301 E Alexandrine St, Detroit, 48207. For information, call (313) 494-2052.
Even more info can be found on Silvia's Place, Beautiful, Also, Are the Souls of My Black Sisters, The Unapologetic Mexican, and What About Our Daughters?.
How DARE that 911 operator lie to Ford--an action that nearly caused Ford and/or her little girl to lose their lives.
I know, intellectually, that EMTs, police, firefighters, etc. are people and are racist, transphobic, sexist, etc., but I still feel that you all should do your fucking jobs. I want to fucking punch that 911 operator in the face and then hand her over to get held hostage and shot full of bullets. | | comments: Say something |
| | Subject: | I have blood on my hands too | | Time: | 12:09 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/purplelemon/sassips/guilty.gif) guilty |
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| Okay, Brownfemipower said what's always been on my mind when the whole anti-porn-radfem vs. sparkleponies debate comes up.
There are so many horrible jobs out there. You cannot make a hierarchy of great pain or oppression.
Spending your days in a field without any water or breaks, in an unventilated room chained to a sewing machine, or on the streets forced to 'service' men... All of those are ways in which loathsome people treat other people.
We are all responsible (that food you eat, the clothes you wear...). You can't live in the US (or other "developed" countries) and not be responsible.
Others have said this better, had more stats, etc., but our societies are based off of the blood and backs of others (usually brown folks').
The next time this debate comes up, hellfires, the next time you eat an apple or fold your clothes, think about who had to bleed for you to sit here. | | comments: 2 people said something or Say something |
| | Tags: | blogging | | Time: | 08:22 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/purplelemon/sassips/sick.gif) sick |
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| This was one of my comments on a recent Feministe post. I really like it and I didn't want it to get lost so I'm just copying it here for my own nefarious purposes.
******
I am not an ideology, a political view, a theory, a mutilation, a “most self-destructive embodiment of the patriarchy”, etc.
That sort of thinking is the same sort of bigoted thinking that causes people to see me and my brothers, sisters, and siblings in trans* experiences as less-than human. People are dead because most people cannot see us as more than objects of ridicule and curiosity. Because society-at-large sees no problem in making us justify our mere existence. Society, even feminists, see no problem with assuming that the stereotypes given by sexist, cissexist, transphobic, patriarchal journalist and publishing industries are true.
You want to know why so many of us medically, legally, and socially transition?
Fine, I’ll tell you.
Because we don’t want to commit suicide. Because our bodies (not, btw, our supposed femininity or masculinity) do not fit with what our brains expect. Because living a lie, pretending even for those you love and cherish the most, is a most poignant torture. Because disassociating from your emotions and the whole gorram world when your body becomes even less androgynous during puberty is fucking hell on your soul and mind.
Theory, ideology, politics…fuck no.
****** | | comments: 6 people said something or Say something |
| The other day Emily posted on what being trans* means for her.
And I can see some similarities between our meanings, like I experience the body dissociation as well and, just like with her, the intensity rises and falls. Given that everyone experiences things differently and I think there are different types of trans*ism, there are differences between our accounts as well (though reading her post, I see nothing there that is 'wrong' for me, only a few experiences that I haven't had and/or are more specific to trans*women).
( For me... ) | | comments: 14 people said something or Say something |
| So, I'm sitting in a tavern forum, just hanging out about to go on a quest and defeat the boss and reading some interesting links about white privilege when I see that Heart popped up to defend a p00r witt1e wace twait0r from t3h h0rribul WOC (who, I remind you, are morphing into the oppressive white men by silencing gr34t minds like Cheryl's).
Okay, she's a bigoted, narcissistic, bit o' cocksnot --I remember that-- but then I also remember that she's had some trouble in paradise lately what with some newcomer stirring up shit.
So I ramble on over to see if there's been a meltdown or something yet.
What do I find?
An article about little boys forced to wear women's clothes, dance, and who are raped by their owners. And dearest Cheryl's ramblings about how some people would see them as trans* and "what makes these boys 'boys' and boys in other cultures who are treated similarly transvestites or transgender or girls or women?".
Yep, apparently being forced and/or coerced into women's clothes and getting raped is what makes a person trans*!
I suppose this isn't surprising as this is the same arsewipe who thinks "women" is defined by a bunch of experiences like "being forced to work land you can never own" and "being forced to wear certain clothing under penalty of beatings, imprisonment or death" and even "being prostituted"(x2 even!).
She has also made a post that implied that a trans*woman plagiarized a poem because Cheryl felt that trans*women plagiarize the experiences/identities of cis*women.
She was bloody happy that trans*women can be kept out of Rape and DV shelters in Canada.
And has defended a bigoted researcher against "harassment because he refused to toe a particular party line" about trans*ism.
Furthermore, Cheryl has also alienated most of the POC bloggers she's 'met' with her unexamined and vehemently denied white privilege and racism. (Look closely at that list of women's experiences...do all of those look like something that have only happened to women, much less have recently happened to white women in the Americas and/or Western Europe? PS: Women have no power so they can't oppress other people!!!!eleventyone PSS: Sexism trumps racism, so neener neener neener to you!!!111)
BTW, did you know she is running for President? Yep, she'll impose a Man Tax and try to make a truce with Osama Bin Laden. That same article (not written by Heart, but by Aletha who runs the Freesoil Party Website), has this great quote, "It is not for nothing I say men have almost everything backwards, wrong, corrupted, twisted to serve the few at the top of the local hierarchal house of cards."
I know who I'm not voting for!
ETA:
In the comments of this post, "My gut, experience, knowledge tell me that the group of persons which will receive the absolute least sympathy and concern is female persons. We are trafficked, prostituted, enslaved, raped, all of the time by all sorts of men, ho hum, no big deal. But if it’s a boy or a transgender person, suddenly that’s a whole nother level."
She is most definitely trying to stir up shit (and I don't care, I'll bring her some) by posting these lies on this fucking day; Transgender Day of Remembrance! | | comments: 70 people said something or Say something |
| | Time: | 12:01 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/purplelemon/sassips/cranky.gif) pessimistic |
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| HRC, first you tell us you won't support and will be against any possible non-trans* inclusive ENDA.
Then, when an ENDA rolls around that excludes gender identity/expression, you say you won't oppose it but won't support it either.
Now you're sending out letters saying that SPLENDA is going to protect trans*folk and asking us all to support it?
( TransAdvocate has the page saved)
Fuck you.
You do almost everything possible for years to undermine trans* activism and now you're trying to do your own Transgender Day of Remembrance?
Fuck you.
And you know, rape and DV shelters are not where I generally expect to see blatant transphobia and transmisogyny.
Looking over the website of Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter...I see hate speech against trans*folk and especially trans*women.
And I didn't even have to link to any of the essays they share with the hate site Questioning Transgender. | | comments: 6 people said something or Say something |
| | Subject: | Not dead yet | | Time: | 07:04 pm |
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| 1. My computer is broken
2. I have a job in the mall and, as I am new, are being given a lot of hours (8-9 a day even)
Therefore, I am not online much anymore (this is the first time this week). | | comments: 8 people said something or Say something |
| | Subject: | Linking to a bunch of things: | | Time: | 02:56 pm |
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| Here is a brief history of trans* activists and HRC in case you have ever wondered why trans*folk distrust and/or dislike HRC.
More history: A brief summary of trans* activism throughout recent history, trans* and GLB interactions, and some reasons why trans* activism hasn't gotten as far in a lot of ways and places.
At least that hate crimes bill passed so if the police are able (and willing) to find the purp' sie will be prosecuted.
Here are a few fax and phone numbers of Congressional Black Causcus members; please call them to ask them to only support a trans*-inclusive ENDA!
Remember, ENDA, not SPLENDA!
Transphobia and cissexism are not absent from queer folk.
Here is ENDA.
Pam's House Blend has a lot of entries on ENDA. There are a bunch of discussions and links and information there. | | comments: Say something |
| | Tags: | my heros | | Time: | 04:40 pm | | Current Mood: | pessimistic |
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| Looking around the Silvia Rivera Law Project, I found this(2002) memorial article about Silvia Rivera.
A few excerpts from A Woman for Her Time:
"She may have been the prototypical Angry Queen. Unbowed, unbought, and virtually indigestible by a gay movement she helped birth, Stonewall warrior Sylvia Rivera died on February 19 of end-stage liver disease aggravated by too many years on alcohol and city streets.
Sylvia (né Ray) was one of those outcast femmy boys and butchy girls she worried so much about, who worked the streets and too often ended up floating under the Christopher Street piers, overdosed on drugs or beaten half to death by fag bashers, strung-out tricks, lovers, or cops.
...
With Marsha P. Johnson (the P stood for Pay It No Mind), she founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR, a radical group that did everything from marching to setting up crash pads as an alternative to the streets. Though Sylvia was herself frequently homeless, she spent the end of her life at Transy House, a direct descendant of the original STAR shelter. She lived to see the '90s protest group Transsexual Menace and, later on, the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA). In many ways, Sylvia was the Rosa Parks of the modern transgender movement, a term that was not even coined until two decades after Stonewall.
The earlier expulsion of transvestites by GAA was a harbinger of things to come. In 2002, butches, queens, fairies, high femmes, drag people, tomboys, and sissies have all but vanished from official gay discourse. They are rarely mentioned in the public pronouncements of major gay organizations. Federal gay rights legislation pending in Congress doesn't mention gender expression or identity, nor does the gay rights bill pending in Albany. In effect, gender has become the new "gay," the thing you don't talk about in polite or political company.
Although most gay groups have added "and gender identity" to their mission statements, in practice the application of this phrase is strictly confined to the rights of transsexual and transgender people. Yet a recent GenderPAC survey found that about a third of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals who experienced workplace discrimination reported that their problems were due to the perception that they transgressed gender norms. It seems unlikely that sexual orientation laws alone will protect such people, let alone heterosexuals or transgender employees who don't fit someone's ideal of "real" men or women.
When it comes to homosexuality, most gay organizations are determined to project an image of normalcy in which all gay men are Will Truman and all lesbians Ellen DeGeneres. Acknowledging anything less would be admitting that some gays and lesbians are people like . . . well, like Sylvia Rivera.
...
Finding food, shelter, a safe bed, and even some recognition for genderqueer kids was a lifelong passion for Sylvia. She saw them as society's most vulnerable outcasts. She picketed and protested, caucused and cajoled, and if the occasion called for it, which it often did, she submitted to arrest.
Sylvia Rivera went out as she lived: struggling to get gender issues on the map. She was hooked up to monitors, IVs, and a morphine pump last Sunday when local gay leaders stopped by the intensive care unit to ask her advice. Mortally ill, she held back the night long enough to give them hell one last time for not being inclusive enough. She died only hours later, at just 50 years old: a unique lady for a unique time." | | comments: Say something |
| You're a sixteen year old black girl eating your lunch in the high school cafeteria and you accidentally drop a bit of your cake. A security guard tells you to pick it up--no big deal, right? You clean most of the cake up, you've got to head to class and the floor is dirty anyway so you leave a couple of crumbs. This isn't good enough and you are told to get on your hands and knees and clean it up three different times. Embarrassed, you get up to leave and the guard pushes you down onto a table and in the course of arresting you, calls you nappy-headed and breaks your wrist.
Your classmate takes out his cellphone and begins video-taping the 'arrest'. When is is suddenly tackled and push his head into the ground and twist his arm behind his back. His sister, tries to intervene as the surrounding students also begin filming.
When your mother arrives and argues with the principle she is arrested, and is suspended without pay from her school district job. You are charged for littering and are expelled from school; the fourteen year old boy who first started filming is arrested along with his sister for assault.
This has to be fiction, right? Or if it's real, it just can't be happening in the US.
Wrong. Knight High School, Palmdale California.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2007/290907Secuity.htm
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=5677461
Brownfemipower has links to quite a few of the videos, that have since been posted to youtube, and a discussion about why kids of color are opting out of school.
"Why would anybody want to go to school in a place like this? And who the hell are *we* to honestly believe that the “war” taking place in our schools today (schools are war zones, after all), is not a war between administration/security gaurds and the students?"
Oh No, A WOC PhD has more to say.
"[One parent's] comments, and other similar ones in the thread, represent yet another example of the desire of certain segments of white America to pathologize people of color in order to excuse any and all violence or unequal treatment they receive." | | comments: 3 people said something or Say something |
| | Time: | 09:16 pm | | Current Mood: | pissed off |
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| LGB folk threw us trannies under the bus, again!
The fuckheads tossed gender identity out so they could have Bush veto the bill a bit sooner than it would have been had trans-inclusive language stayed in.
But ohh noes, they aren't really abandoning us; there will be a separate bill for t3h freakstrans* folk. It's not like SONDA-- they won't just stop caring about GENDA as soon as they get their rights. They are our friends for realz this time.
Fuck them. Maybe in their next lives they will be born as trans*folk and they'll wish that someone had made it illegal to fire or evict them based on their gender identity. | | comments: 4 people said something or Say something |
| Unless your idea of a Utopia is one where LGBT folks, POC (people of color), female-assigned and/or identified people, and other groups are treated as less than human.
Triggers for mentions as well as a couple accounts of rape, assaults, etc.( Read more... )
Urbane areas, the North, NYC, etc. are not immune from bigotry. We have racists, misogynists, homophobes, transphobes, etc. galore here. Here at my NY uni there have been all sorts of anti-semitic graffiti in multiple bathrooms.
Every time you are silent when someone makes a bigoted remark; each friend or relative you don't call on their bigotry; every time you ignore a person as they starve in front of you—you are supporting bigotry. Almost everyone is guilty. We don't want to rock the boat; we don't want to lose a friend; we don't know if that person is going to just go and buy drugs or booze. Well, you can change the subject in ways that make it obvious you don't want to hear that sort of talk; you can call someone out and if they can't deal with it you can make new friends or spend less time with that relative; you can give out granola bars or scarfs.
But there is Hope; nothing is Static. | | comments: 11 people said something or Say something |
| Can we stop using trans*, trans, transgender, gay, etc. as nouns?
You say blah blah blah a trans*person--not blah blah blah a trans*.
I am not a gay--I am a gay (or queer) person.
I am not a transgender--I am a transgender (or transgendered or trans*) person.
When talking about including or excluding trans*folk, can you, especially if you are yourself trans*(!!!), refer to cis* folk as just that--cissexed, cisgender, or cis*folk! If you don't like, don't know, or know that it would cause waaay more drama to do so, then at least call cis*folk "non-trans* folk".
When you talk about trans*women and women as two separate groups you reinforce the idea that trans*women aren't women (and you are a trans*woman!).
"Trans*folk/women are to cis*women as white folk are to black folk" fails as an analogy; find one that actually makes sense.
I have asked this before. What is the one experience or set of experiences that every cis*woman [everywhere of all backgrounds, races, class, nationalities, etc.] has had that no male-assigned person [anywhere of any class, race, nationality, etc.] has ever experienced?
What is this all-encompassing female experience?
PS: You automatically fail at life (-42 points) if you mention or talk about, in all seriousness, "Trans* Politics", "Trans* Agenda", "Trans* Lobby" or anything similar. | | comments: 7 people said something or Say something |
| So, I've been watching the LJ feminist community for years now (used to be a member, but then they were godmodding pretty badly and I got annoyed and left. Now I couldn't join if I wanted to since I'm a member of a few childfree and wank communities). Sometimes, I almost wish I was a member so I could comment on things, but times like this remind me that I'd just myself banned.
So far there are 105 responses and I'd say roughly half of them are people speaking up to be counted.
So far no Mod actions (warnings or anything)--for either transphobia or snark towards Demonista.
She made a post asking for all young radfems to speak up so she could see how many their are. And, of course transphobia comes up!
Fun quote: "I myself am mixed up in critiquing transsexuality vs. what's just plain transphobic. i try to still critique without going "teh evul trannies!"...
Well, not transsexuals, but the "surgery industry" for promoting such massive modifications to the body (ie double mastectomies, breast implants, shaving bone off the feet to make them fit high heels, shaving down adam's apples, penectomy, etc), people in general for believing in "male brains" and "women brains," how many drag queens try to look like Barbie dolls/"porn stars". Trans people are by no means the originators of gender roles, hyperfemininity, etc. but many do help perpetuate these norms."
Gah.
Why the fuck does it always come down to our genitals and/or our surgeries? I know it's not just trans*folk that get this treatment, but, to paraphrase Treebeard, "a [feminist] should know better!".
My medical decisions are not her business. They do not have to follow her politics to be okay. Trans*ism, despite what some hand-wringers would say, is not an epidemic or a new phenomenon that needs to be examined and stamped with RadFem Approval: Grade A MeatPolitics.
Later, she writes, "Even when I wanted to be male, i wasn't disgusted by my vulva, breasts, etc--I just thought i'd enjoy a male body more and it was very tied in with my sexual identity--even now i consider myself predominantly gay male.
So I definitely cannot speak for those who feel there genitals are wrong, but...why can't we all have been born with ambiguous genitalia, such as enlarged clitoris, micro penis, testicles that aren't descended, being XXY, etc, etc, etc. Then there would be no standards to hold one's body up to."
I just don't know what to think.
Is she a trans*person in denial, a woman who was almost conned into giving up her womanhood by the Patriarchy in an attempt to become male (like some say all trans*guys are), or a woman with a fetish she almost took too far? Anyway, she is spreading cissexism and is being called on it (yay!).
Moreover, I'm not intersexed (unless you count being transsexual--which I don't/won't until/if brain-sex theory or something similar is proven and labeled as such) but that sounds really insensitive and x-ist (I'm not sure if it would be ableist or cissexist or both or something else) towards intersexed folks. It reminds me of people who say trans*folk have the best of both worlds or isn't it great how Asians are smart (though obviously no oppression is the same, they just remind me of each other).
Well, I'm interested in what will happen. Demonista hasn't replied to any comments recently and most of the recent comments have been along the lines of "WORD".
But a few commenters have made me really happy; such as Armchairshrink, Zorah, Daddysambiguity, and many others.
Edited to add: http://demonista.livejournal.com/76207.html
WOW, just wow. Why do so many people rely on stereotypes? | | comments: 18 people said something or Say something |
| | Tags: | blogging | | Subject: | Utopia | | Time: | 01:07 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/purplelemon/sassips/hopeful.gif) hopeful |
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| Or Utopia?
I see a lot of talk, from everyone from feminists to Christians to queer folk, about revolutions and utopias.
But do we really want a utopia?
And do you know how your utopia will be built or how it will be run?
I say no.
There is no universal utopia; everyone's version will be different. Even things that seem simple are actually quite complicated. You say your utopia will have no crime? Well, define crime. Okay, so crime means stealing and assault. Okay, define stealing and define assault. Stealing means taking what doesn't belong to you? Well, those seeds belong to the plant, not you; so you can't eat. Assault is purposefully causing someone's pain? So, BDSM, disciplining your child, and re-setting bones are all out.
There is no one truth; everyone's truth is different. So, which truth gets to make it into the utopia and what happens to those whose truths don't agree with yours?
How many utopias have been made?
How many attempts have there been in human history?
I don't know, but there have been quite a few attempted utopias in fiction.
*Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed has a moon that was a communist/socialist attempt at utopia; artists, the depressed, and anyone who forms close ties with others are hurt by that society. Artists are often shunned for their work, those who become apathetic or anti-social for any reason, including depression, are shunned when they do not 'pull their weight', and you aren't supposed to try to own anyone's affections—not even a mate or a child.
*I don't remember the book's title or author it's been so long, but I once read a book where the utopia worked. Mind you, they had to genetically engineer humans to have less passionate emotions and less ambition for it to work—and if there were any throw-backs they had to be driven out lest their passions destroy the society.
*There was a movie on late one night where a virus had killed all the men, except for a few who were cryogenicaly frozen, and the all-female world was a utopia. Every so often a man would wake up and he would cause trouble and would be killed. But even when it was just the women the utopia was failing—there was still backstabbing and the weather was just as unpredictable as ever (which caused food shortages that caused more backstabbing).
*There is even a paradise mentioned in Saiyuki; but all that means is that humans and yokai (demons/monsters without many western negative connotations) were able to live together without going to war; it wasn't a true utopia, there was crime and pain and death.
*Of course you have the classics, such as Brave New World, 1984, or Fahrenheit 451.
Now, many will say that fantasy stories don't prove that a utopia is nothing more than a dream, but I think fantasy and sci fi are a way of exploring possibilities.
Authors are able to write out all sorts of possible scenarios, if you're a theorist trying to plan out your utopia you should read the scenarios and plan accordingly. After all, fiction authors have already done some of your brainstorming work for you.
Humans are animals; humans have passions and instincts and a high drive for survival.
If for whatever reason, weather or disease or even a God's displeasure, food production goes down, what will your paradise do? Will you engineer or breed out the survival instincts so there will never be a war?
What will your utopia of no violence do against a sociopath? How can people raised to abhor violence kill or even subdue someone?
If your society is against hierarchies, how will you keep them from developing them in the future? Will it be like in The Dispossessed where jobs are rotated and everyone gets their clothes and food from he same depots?
If your utopia is based on one or more Gods, how will you keep the faith? Will you execute heretics, or just re-educate them while you wait for your God(s) to show up?
Perhaps most important, how will you achieve your dreams?
Will you wait for the Gods to come down from on high (or from down low) to show everyone the Truth? Will there be a violent uprising of the working classes? Must aliens destroy civilization, allowing for the survivors to build anew?
If you are basing your beliefs and actions off of some future paradise, you should at least have some idea of what it is and how it will come about.
Or are you going to be like the Operative in Serenity—someone who believes hard and never questions while he carries out the duties he knows are wrong, but he is told they will help build paradise? | | comments: 16 people said something or Say something |
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