a l'allure garconniere

foxesinbreeches: Francesca in her studio by Douglas D. Prince,...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:00:19 -0400

Francesca in her studio by Douglas D. Prince, 1976-1978

From the same series / Also

studioafrica: Photographer Hélène Amouzou was born in 1969 in...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:27:34 -0400

Photographer Hélène Amouzou was born in 1969 in Togo. She began taking photos in 2004 after enrolling on a course in Brussels, where she lives and works. Her images - in which bodies are ghostly or overlaid with wallpaper or sandwiched in suitcases - suggest transience: places which the human body can only inhabit temporarily, and humans who are constantly on the move.

Her work is weighted by the depth of her questions about place, being and the baggage that accrues to the black female body. Further, Amouzou’s images question certainties of nation, identity and belonging, suggesting that in-between spaces and un-belonging as the contemporary reality. in her own words: ““I always have the impression to be traveling. I am not Togolese, nor Belgian”

"Let’s stop claiming that certain genders and sexualities “reinforce the gender binary.” In the past,..."

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:00:15 -0400

“Let’s stop claiming that certain genders and sexualities “reinforce the gender binary.” In the past, that tactic has been used to dismiss butches and femmes, bisexuals, trans folks and our partners, and feminine people of every persuasion. Gender isn’t some faucet that we can turn on and off in order to appease other people, whether they be heterosexist bigots or queerer-than-thou hipsters. How about this: Let’s stop pretending that we have all the answers, because when it comes to gender, none of us is fucking omniscient.”

- Julia Serano, “Performance Piece,” from Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation Ed. Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman (via browngirlinterrupted)

foxesinbreeches: Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:00:10 -0400

foxesinbreeches:

Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (Dušan Makavejev, 1967)

Via The Cat Ladies

larecreative: Traverse de chat sur la 8e avenue #welovecats...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:05:55 -0400

larecreative:

Traverse de chat sur la 8e avenue #welovecats #monlimoilou #quebec #quebeccity

Sometimes I really love my city.

fuckyeahtyrone: “EQUALITY” scream the white gays with LEGALIZE GAY blazoned across their chests and...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:27:14 -0400

fuckyeahtyrone:

“EQUALITY” scream the white gays with LEGALIZE GAY blazoned across their chests and “NO BLACKS NO ASIANS NO FEMS” blazoned across their grindr profiles

navigatethestream: strawberreli: superqueerartsyblog: a...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:46:20 -0400

navigatethestream:

strawberreli:

superqueerartsyblog:

a shortie about what I think should be improved when it comes to Pride festivals… visibility for everyone sure would be nice!

you added aces, I’m so happy~

omg i love the part about cis heteros who consider pride to be their own personal circus!

coexistingalone: throughbackyards: Go home crackers....

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 08:55:53 -0400

coexistingalone:

throughbackyards:

Go home crackers. Gentrification is colonialism.

Seen at Lake Merritt.

GENTRIFICATION IS COLONIALISM

cornelstressed: Seen at MLK and W. MacArthur in Oakland

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 12:00:19 -0400

cornelstressed:

Seen at MLK and W. MacArthur in Oakland

<3 when your cat comes to comfort you on a particularly...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 16:23:37 -0400

<3 when your cat comes to comfort you on a particularly shitty day <3

"Your human frailty is not a regrettable fault to be treated by proper self-care so you can get your..."

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 12:48:18 -0400

“Your human frailty is not a regrettable fault to be treated by proper self-care so you can get your nose back to the grindstone. Sickness, disability, and unproductivity are not anomalies to be weeded out; they are moments that occur in every life, offering a common ground on which we might come together.”

- CWC Texts : Recent Features : For All We Care – Reconsidering Self-Care

osolibre: “I began to use the phrase in my work White...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 12:00:17 -0400

osolibre:

“I began to use the phrase in my work White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy because I wanted to have some language that would actually remind us continually of the way, the interlocking systems of domination that define our reality…To me, an important breakthrough, I felt, in my work and that of others was the call to use the term White Supremacy over racism, because racism in and of itself did not really call for a discourse of colonization and decolonization, the recognition of the internalized racism within people of color, and it was always in a sense keeping things at the level that in which whiteness, and white people, remained at the center of the discussion…In my classroom, I might say to students that when we use the term white supremacy, it doesn’t just evoke white people, it evokes a political world that we can all frame ourselves in relation to.”

- bell hooks, cultural criticism and transformation (Media Education Foundation video)

"The political context in which cultural symbols exist is important. Cultural appropriation happens —..."

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 09:18:29 -0400

“The political context in which cultural symbols exist is important. Cultural appropriation happens — and the unquestioned sense of entitlement that white Americans display towards the artifacts and rituals of people of color exists too. All “appropriation” is not merely an example of cultural sharing, an exchange between friends that takes place on a level playing field.”

- Decolonizing YogaBeyond Bindis: Why Cultural Appropriation Matters - Decolonizing Yoga

Cultural Appropriation: A conversation by Sanaa Hamid This body...

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 12:00:08 -0400

Cultural Appropriation: A conversation by Sanaa Hamid

This body of work is an exploration of the extent of cultural appropriation and encourages a discussion about it. I give the appropriator and the appropriated the opportunity to defend themselves and create a dialogue between them, while maintaining a neutral stance myself. I am not attacking those who appropriate, merely educating and creating awareness. Neutrality is key in this series, as i remove myself from my political and social status and opinions, stripping the problem to the most basic issue; taking an item that means a great deal to somebody and corrupting it.

somethingvain: Neo-orientalism in fashion - generalisations...

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 12:00:12 -0400

somethingvain:

Neo-orientalism in fashion - generalisations that lead to racial stereotypes: Alexander McQueen F/W 2000 ‘Eshu‘

It was a show notable for a number of things. Firstly, it was McQueen’s first show in Paris fashion week after having shown his collections exclusively in London fashion week thus far - a symbolic move in itself to a globe that took the art of fashion, of sewing and of creation more seriously. Secondly, it was a show that had been preceded by rumours of bombs or PETA violence because of the shows controversial theme. Most importantly, it was a show that was a continuation and a development of a theme explored in his earlier show ‘Nihilism’ (S/S 1994) and a theme that is still relevant today: the misrepresentation of the ethnic minorities that perpetuate the neo-orientalism so dangerous to the modern mindset.

The collection was inspired by the Yoruba tribe and specifically, by a deity called Eshu that often created conflict to test and teach humans (Alexander McQueen: Evolution by Katherine Gleason, pg.75), and so the collection showed reworked representations of Yoruba clothing including the orthodontic-looking device that pulled a model’s lips apart into a painful-looking rictus (Gleason, pg.76) as shown above. Of the collection, McQueen himself said “[It] was a reaction to designers romanticising ethnic dressing, like the Masai-inspired dress made of materials the Masai could never afford.” (Alexander McQueen by Andrew Bolton, preface pg.III).

When Edward Said wrote his book ‘Orientalism’, he was addressing the motives of colonisation - both economic (as prescribed by Karl Marx) and nationalistic - in shaping the study of the ‘Orient’ or the Middle-eastern/Asian cultures that fundamentally changed the way they were viewed as an ‘other’, creating the alterity that separated the savages from the civilised westerners. To some extent, McQueen’s ironic statement by himself appropriating the Yoruba clothing in extremes addresses the crass commercialisation of culture in the economic motives that have shaped the representation of minorities in fashion. In this way, it is a statement on the Neo-orientalism that has shaped cultural appropriation in fashion as Orientalism shaped western perception in the 1800s, where the profit margin relegates complex cultures to exotic ‘others’, the timelessness of McQueen’s statement underscored by Victoria Secret’s 2013 ‘Sexy Little Geisha’ ~~abomination~~ collection.

The question remains, was McQueen successful in separating himself from this movement, even in his self-conscious acknowledgement to it? The meta-fashion that McQueen practices - fashion reflecting on fashion - perhaps saves him through his awareness. I find his obsession with the ‘Noble Savage’ incredibly interesting, and will perhaps explore it more thoroughly in another segment.

written by somethingvain

"While fashion showcases a variety of sexual attitudes and lifestyles (the industry is pretty open in..."

Fri, 31 May 2013 14:13:00 -0400

“While fashion showcases a variety of sexual attitudes and lifestyles (the industry is pretty open in terms of queer identities, BDSM play, exhibitionisms, etc.), such polymorphous perversity is only sanctioned for those with a very specific body type. My teenage favorite, Carine Roitfeld’s Paris Vogue, may have shown girls who looked like boys and boys who looked like girls doing all sorts of things with each other, but the boys and girls within her pages all looked more alike, as boys or girls, than I or my best friends and lovers do to any of them—that is, they were all very thin, very tall, impeccably groomed and mostly white, while we are all so diverse.”

- Forever 69: Fu*k the Commodification of Sex by Fiona Duncan

zombimatter: hyperallergic: Nicholas Galanin Is Part of a...

Fri, 31 May 2013 12:00:08 -0400

zombimatter:

hyperallergic:

Nicholas Galanin Is Part of a Generation That Is Redefining “Native”

Nicholas Galanin, “Things Are Looking Native, Native’s Looking Whiter” (2012) (all images copyright…

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Write up is pretty basic but cool artist

"I consider that Kechiche and I have contradictory aesthetic approaches, perhaps complementary. The..."

Thu, 30 May 2013 12:00:12 -0400

“

I consider that Kechiche and I have contradictory aesthetic approaches, perhaps complementary. The fashion in which he chose to shoot these scenes is coherent with the rest of what he his creation. Sure, to me it seems far away from my own method of creation and representation, but it would be very silly of me to reject something on the pretext that’s it different from my own vision.

That’s me as a writer. Now, as a lesbian…

It appears to me this was what was missing on the set: lesbians.

I don’t know the sources of information for the director and the actresses (who are all straight, unless proven otherwise) and I was never consulted upstream. Maybe there was someone there to awkwardly imitate the possible positions with their hands, and/or to show them some porn of so-called “lesbians” (unfortunately it’s hardly ever actually for a lesbian audience). Because — except for a few passages — this is all that it brings to my mind: a brutal and surgical display, exuberant and cold, of so-called lesbian sex, which turned into porn, and me feel very ill at ease. Especially when, in the middle of a movie theater, everyone was giggling. The heteronormative laughed because they don’t understand it and find the scene ridiculous. The gay and queer people laughed because it’s not convincing, and found it ridiculous. And among the only people we didn’t hear giggling were the potential guys too busy feasting their eyes on an incarnation of their fantasies on screen.

I totally get Kechiche’s will to film pleasure. The way he filmed these scenes is to me directly related to another scene, in which several characters talk about the myth of the feminine orgasm, as…mystic and far superior to the masculine one. But here we go, to sacralize once more womanhood in such ways. I find it dangerous.

As a feminist and lesbian spectator, I can not endorse the direction Kechiche took on these matters.

But I’m also looking forward to what other women will think about it. This is simply my personal stance.

”

- Julie Maroh’s thoughts on the film adaptation of her graphic novel, Blue Is The Warmest Color (via filmmemory)

DYING TO SEEEEEEEEE THIS FILMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

"Femme is a personal identity, but it’s also a political one….It questions the idea that there can be..."

Thu, 30 May 2013 08:26:40 -0400

“Femme is a personal identity, but it’s also a political one….It questions the idea that there can be too much: too much blush, too much tulle, too many holes in your short shorts, too much calling out of racism, too many discussions about neocolonialism. Femme is resistance.”

- ~ Elise Nagy, “Exploding The Limitations: What Being a Femme Means to Me,” inourwordsblog.com (via queerintersectional)

"There is little precedent for fat androgyny. Generally our androgynous icons are svelte and lacking..."

Wed, 29 May 2013 12:00:21 -0400

“There is little precedent for fat androgyny. Generally our androgynous icons are svelte and lacking in secondary sex characteristics. David Bowie, Tilda Swinton, Katherine Hepburn; these small-bodied, predominately white figures of androgyny have created an aesthetic with little room for deviation. This means that for those of us with bodies that do not conform to traditional standards of androgyny, we are often misread and misunderstood, even in queer spaces.”

- Fat Queer Tells All: On Fatness and Gender Flatness - By Allie Shyer (via cassket)