— Kai Green, Navigating Masculinity As A Black Transman: “I Will Never Straighten Out My Wrist” (April 5, 2013)
REMEMBRANCE, REVENGE, REVOLT (click through for pdf)
In response to Transgender Day of Remembrance
Baltimore, 2012
NOTE: The first link that was posted is wrong. This is the updated one.
“Let’s remember: wherever there is domination, there is revolt. We do not want more hate crime legislation. We do not want to assimilate into patriarchal heterosexual society. We do not want trans* bosses, CEOs, Senators, and police. We do not want a trans-positive capitalism, a trans-inclusive military, a trans-friendly state. We want the police out of our lives. We want the annihilation of all prisons, all courts, all states, all laws. We want to end marriage, the church, the family, and all other institutions that maintain patriarchy and property relations. We know the destruction of gender violence is impossible without the destruction of civilization. Nothing less than this will satisfy us.
This is not a call to cease crying, to ignore the power of memory, to push off the pain in our hearts. To do so would be to replicate hard-hearted militance and masculinist posturing. We want to cry, but we also know that tears alone will not loosen the death-grip of gender.
Today let’s remember the past and plan for the future. Let’s understand survival and revolt as inseparable. Let’s refuse the logic of individualism that prevents our pain from implicating society, and thereby separates us from our collective agency to fight back. Let’s take solace in the power of vengeance, in the possibilities that become real only when we are dangerous together.”
Fuck. Yes.
(Source: amethystfist, via petrushkab)
The Glittering World
Molly Surno is a multi-disciplinary artist, her work ranging from immersive and itinerant public film screenings (Cinema 16), to an upcoming documentary about the Miss Trans World Indian pageant. “The Glittering World” is a series of Polaroid photographs taken with the transgender Native American community while working on this film.
Her work reveals a new reality not only outside of societal norms, but also outside of stereotypical perspectives on subcultures altogether. When we think drag queens, we think pink, heeled, altogether with Western feminine ideals. When we think desert, we do not think disco ball. “The Glittering World” reminds us of the profound diversity of America, and how we yield new traditions through our historical fantasies and present desires. Surno’s use of expired Polaroid film even feels radical, and outside of the usual analog mourning—“nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.”
“The Glittering World” is on view, along with more of Surno’s work, at Gasser / Grunert, closing this week, Friday, July 13.
Images courtesy the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc.
this is so many of my favourite things in one art project. if only i were in nyc this week… go see this if you are!
Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law raises revelatory critiques of the current strategies pivoting solely on a legal rights framework, but also points to examples of an organized grassroots trans movement that is demanding the most essential of legal reforms in addition to making more comprehensive interventions into dangerous systems of repression—and the administrative violence that ultimately determines our life chances. Setting forth a politic that goes beyond the quest for mere legal inclusion, Normal Life is an urgent call for justice and trans liberation, and the radical transformations it will require.
right now, if there was any one book i could convince everyone to read would be normal life. i’ve been reading/thinking a lot about the justice system, and reading a lot about what is going on in the united states. another really accessible look at some of the incredibly punitive aspects of the legal system in the united states is this episode of NPR’s this american life.
—
Julie Goldman in May 2009 via Autostraddle — Robin Shoots & Riese (via clairebearstare)
i had this conversation with my friend deegan after i told him how much i loved southern comfort. every film with a trans character follows one of two plotlines: how they died too young/were murdered because they were trans or the trans person is a psychotic murderer driven mad by their desire to be the “opposite” gender. it’s so fucking shitty. even when we’re telling the stories of real people we feel the need to impose these scripts on them. where’s the multiplicity of stories? or representations?
(via claire-adactyl)
What I am saying here is this: don’t just open your eyes. It’s not enough.
Seeing my pencil skirt isn’t enough to tell you I’m femme. Seeing me with a butch isn’t enough to tell you I’m femme. These signifiers can be hints–take them as an invitation to your senses, all of them. Especially the senses that are deeper than the usual five, your sense of space, of proximity, of vibes, if you will. Noting the aesthetics of clothing or makeup or hair is not enough, because aesthetics are not enough to convey something as complex as one’s gender/identity. When we rely on aesthetics, we get lazy and reductive. When we are lazy, we make people invisible by refusing to recognize them, as what they are and as part of our communities–for identities are intelligible only in communities. When we are lazy, we take trans femmes for drag queens and straight white hipsters for femmes. In our laziness we reduce the entirety of femme to the singularity of an aesthetic: one type of body (with tits), one way of dressing, one way of partnering and fucking. Question your desire. Do more. See more.
"— Femme Post III on [real] Cuntext (via cuntext)
(via deactivated-catladysouls)
Violence is more than just assault. Political violence exists in institutional discrimination. People being denied housing, a source of income, medical care, etc, that’s all violence.
disclaimer: i must admit, i try to avoid arguments that begin with “why are talking about THIS when THIS is happening?!” but it has been on my mind for far too long and i can’t shake this. no, i’m not the best person to write about this, but i can’t find anyone else who has expressed similar concerns about it so i’m going to put it out there.
important note: this is not intented to criticize trans women, or the choices of one trans women over another; it is a criticism of which stories about trans women get told, and why. it is a criticism of silence. it arguing for a space in newspapers, on televisions, on the radio, and online for productive discussions about how dismantle institutional forms of transphobia, racism, and intersecting systems of oppression.
jenna talackova’s story, in short:
the Miss Universe Organization will allow Jenna Talackova, a transgender woman, to compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant.
“provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions.”
cece mcdonald’s story, in short:
Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is a young African American transgender woman who is charged with two counts of “second degree murder” after an incident that began when she was violently assaulted because of her gender and race.
unfortunately, if you know anything about oppression you wouldn’t be surprised to know which story is front-page news, and which one isn’t being talked about at all. talking about what happened to cece means confronting instituional racism and transphobia.
when you google “cece mcdonald,” you get 3 680 results.
when you google “jenna talackova,” you get 6 290 000 results.
asking to be allowed to participate in a beauty pageant, and being granted permission even though you were forcibly assigned male at birth, is perceived as revolutionary, forward-thinking, wonderful. jenna gets invited to talk shows, she gets her photo and name published thousands of times. she fought for the right to live her life the way she chooses to.
but what about cece? asking people to question and challenge the legal system that puts an african-american trans woman behind bars, charges her with murder, for defending herself against racist & transphobic slurs and physical attacks? no. that’s asking too much. that’s too complicated. “we don’t know the whole story,” they say.
do we not want to hear or challenge the stories that are too “complicated?” people don’t see one simple solution in the case of cece macdonald. it’s not a happy subheadline with an accompanying glamour shot. it’s not a matter of one rich white guy changing a rule after being pestered by a few LGBT organizations and having the financial means of filing a law suit.
in this case, you can’t even use the argument of the big bad mainstream media turning a blind eye. look at gay media outlets, too, and you’ll find radio silence. the advocate, “the world’s leading source for LGBT news and entertainment,” has three full-length articles about jenna tacklova. and when you search for cece? nothing. most of where i’ve found this information has been through tumblr and twitter.
INFORM YOURSELF.
SIGN THE PETITION TO HAVE THE CHARGES AGAINST CECE DROPPED.
TELL CECE’S STORY, because not enough people know her name or her story.
recommended reading:
things i'm into/post about: art, fashion, "politics," feminism, consent, social justice, queerness, identity politics, and generally speaking, badass empowering shit. my real blog is alagarconniere.wordpress.com.
often nsfw images.
disclaimer: the views expressed on this site are the author's and the author's alone. they do not reflect the views of her employer or any professional organization with which she is now or has been affiliated.
Sans titre by Jean-François Spricigo
Via The Cat Ladies
friendly neighbour.
Parisians walk on the street past lottery and vermouth advertisements in 1935.
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic
