Wouldn’t it be great if I could just grow femmey sequin wings and fly away every time I felt unsafe?
MY FEELINGS EXACTLY.
(Source: claire-adactyl)
"The police are very kind when I’m a young white woman just doing my job, contributing to society. But when I’m at a protest they will follow orders to hit, kick, and pepper spray me. If I had been one of the queer women arrested and detained during the G20 protests in Toronto, as I easily could have been, I would have been subject to threats of rape, vaginal-digital “searches,” and homophobic threats and insults by officers. Police blame rape victims for “dressing like sluts.” Police give black Muslim cyclists fines of $1,316 for eight bicycle violations in the course of two minutes. Police beat native youth unconscious and leave them to die in the snow. As a woman, a queer person, and an anti-racist person, I do not trust the police. I do not trust them not to harass and abuse me, and I did not trust them not to harass and abuse the man who was making me so nervous in the store last week."
—
- Mary Burnet, quoted in “Trying to understand a tragedy” at the Halifax Media Co-op (April 23, 2012)
one of the best ways i’ve seen a white person address their privilege in relation to the attitude of “calling the cops” when you feel unsafe. for so, so many people, calling the cops means exactly the opposite.
Whenever I see photos like the one above, a part of me is led to believe that young white photographers are desperately consumed with acknowledging and representing their sexual, intimate lives in a way that many young people of other races do not (or do not appear to do). Meaning, when I see a photo of this, the two individuals almost always look like the two individuals in any of the other hundreds of thousands of photos that show two young people kissing or having sex. It is an apparent aesthetic that I have to wrap my head around but one that I can’t help but think about because I see it everywhere, all of the time, especially on Tumblr.
If we are increasingly becoming a visual culture, what does it mean when the aesthetics of these images are used to represent what it means to be young and sexual? There is a freedom inherent in these photographs that I can’t identify with, yet I yearn to do so. They remind me of the alternative, yet aspirational youth in many of Ryan McGinley’s photographs.
They also remind me of the sexual issues that I face as a young Black woman. Unlike women my age of other races, the number one killer of African-American women ages 25-34 is HIV/AIDS, and I have to largely consider whether or not my sexual choices will turn me into another statistic or if I will be able to live another day HIV/AIDS-free. This differs from many of my white female friends who more frequently admit to a fear of pregnancy than a life-threatening STD. There is, not entirely but significantly, a presence of weariness that comes to being young and sexual and Black and female. That is not to say that the “bliss” of such photos can’t be achieved by people with HIV/AIDS. Rather, I wonder what thoughts would arise in me if the figures in these photos were altered. Would I still think of “the beauty of youth,” or “freedom,” or “healthy sexual relationship” if the woman was Black, or if both the woman and the man were Black?
(Photo by Martien Mulder, a Dutch photographer based in New York. From Dossier)
i reblogged this a few months back but it is worth reposting, especially in light of the wonderful conversation nightmarebrunette has (re)started. bolded emphasis added by me.
