Da Newz

Col. Diane Schroer Wins Federal Discrimination Court Case

SMASHION

Lately I've been noticing that the fashion world's new obsession of the moment is gender non-conformity. (I feel there's a strong presence of this in United States and European fashion historically, but I've noticed a surge as of late.) Last spring it was big news when Andre J was on the cover of French Vogue. I was delighted to see a gender variant person on the cover of a major fashion magazine, but somehow I couldn't shake the feeling of their presence being a prop to the white Cis model. Andre J's blackness and gender varience was used to bolster the white beauty standard reflected in the white model, and their supposed Cis beauty.

Then there is Agyness Deyn, the new supermodel "it" girl that's widely thought of as the replacement for Kate Moss. She's quite androgynous, and I'm glad to see someone on the ftm spectrum, as there's pretty much zilcho when it comes to that in the popular media. She also looks comfortable in her gender presentation, on and off the runway and that's exciting to see.

Then there's Marc Jacobs, oh Marc Jacobs, whose photospreads have always been problematic. He's most recently been putting dresses on what I read as Cis male models. Marc Jacobs himself has also been wearing skirts around town. While something in me rejoices when I see Andre J, or Agyness Deyn on the cover of a magazine, something about Marc Jacob's pictures hits my funny bone. I'm excited to see any images of gender varience in major popular media outlets but I also feel the difference between these models and Andre J. and AD. It's the obvious lack of comfort that Jacob's models engender. There is something awkward and clunky about the pictures, as if the models aren't really at ease, which I think the viewer is meant to see as a dissonance that comes from gender varience. While I think that dissonance is something that I feel to varying degrees as a trans person, I can't help but feel like in these pictures Marc Jacob's is saying that the result of putting together "male" and "female" is an odd, freakish malaise. And it feels like he's appropriating gender varience in order to give his pictures some mystique and sense of tragedy. I think that as gender-bending was in vogue and approriated from gay, lesbian, queer and trans communities in the nineties, it's happening again now. The popular media seems to seesaw from appropriation of gender varience to full rejection of it, without actually engaging critically with Cis communities to educate them and expose Cism. Gender varience and transness become just another thing to spice up the life of Cis folks.

ISIS

SO this is my first post on Isis, and do I have some talking to do. First, I think in most of the discussions I've already seen on blogs about Isis's presence on the show I haven't seen much analysis of her class background, so I'll start by talking about how she was initially recruited for the show. In cycle 10 she was included in a "Homeless" shoot, where women of color were taken from a homeless shelter and used as "background models" in an ANTM shoot. I think it's interesting that this particular foundation, the Reciprocity Foundation, is dedicated to finding jobs in the creative sector for the youth and adults that use it. Sadly that shoot was a whole lotta fucked up. Using poor women of color as "background" models for white models emphasizes an idea that women of color should be in the service of white women, and should be used as descriptors for "ugly" against which the "beauty" of white women can be measured and validated. An instersection of race and class oppression is present here, as the women are meant to operate in the same way as the rubble and junk sofa of the shoot, highlighting the assumed "beauty" of the ANTM model that if isn't highlighted by race than by class. They're real live homeless girls! Gee, and isn't it great that they got this once in a lifetime oppertunity to be a prop?

But that's just one slice of the divine ANTM pie, I love how right off the bat Tyra marks Isis as different and asks a bunch of questions to her that she would never in a million years think to ask a Cis woman. Somehow the status of her genitals, and how long she has "known" she was a girl is up for conversation. The rest of the house seems to think this way too, as they all gather around her later that night to bombarde her with questions about her body. I realize that a lot of Cis people don't know that much about transness, wahwahwah, but guess what, I DON'T GIVE A SHIT, plz, somebody, educate yourself, I can definitely do without the awkward conversations with people I do and don't know very well about my body, genitals and guessed personal dna/hormone makeup. I wonder whether this sort of media exposure will encourage the Cis community to think that they have a right to ask trans folks these sorts of questions. This comes back to the idea that one of the things Cism* operates on is having the right to own trans bodies, meaning that any information that is witheld from cis society is seen as aktuly nawt allowed thx. How many times have I heard the phrase, however explicitly or implicitly, aggressively or "nicely", "But we/I have a right to know!" Basically, if you're not going to be handling my junk anytime soon, I don't see why you should feel you have a "right" to know about it. Also, interesting how Mr. Jay says he likes that Isis doesn't have an "agenda," because she answers their inappropriate questions and places an emphasis on herself as an individual rather than a spokesperson for the whole lgbt community at large.

Something really painful to watch for me was the constant refusal of most of the cast members to recognize her gender identity. So much love and respect to Isis for being able to pose amazing photos while the other women are telling her she forgot to shave, and that she's sweating too much. I would have probably knocked that booth over onto them. And so ridiculous that her photoshoot concept was "privacy" as the cast and Tyra were giving her absolutely none. But I think it was interesting how the Cis women were the ones "spying" on Isis in the shoot, as for so long it's been trans folks in the role of the spy in the popular imagination. Sometimes ANTM makes good parallels, but I'm not quite sure if they're intentional, and the lack of discussion and elaboration makes it feel like a fleeting attempt at serious inclusion. That part is @ 6.53 on the second clip.
* Just coined(?) by Your's Truly

PRAY FOR US SARAH PALIN!

Da Newz

Man To Be Tried For Hate Crime Murder of Teen Trans Woman Angie Zapata in Co.
German Trans Singer Wants to Be Known For Her Music

TEAR ME DOWN

Being T

Looks like an interesting documentary, excited to see it.

Da Newz

Lynne Cheney Wants Lesbian Daughter To Be Free To Marry
Obama "Blessed With Many Openly Gay and Lesbian Friends"

Sgt. Sass

Tinkin Kitteh

I've been thinking lately about how to realize the potential of this blog. I'm in love with blogs, and I've been looking for sometime for a good blog on trans/queer issues, and then I thought maybe I should just move this blog more in that direction. SO, I've been thinking today about something that happened to me yesterday. I met one of my roomates for the first time, and we got into a discussion about my sexuality and gender identity. I guess my other roomate told her something about my genderqueerness because she said "You know, I thought you'd be a much bigger, uglier, manlier version of Laura"(Laura is one of my roomates who's gay.) That made me think, well a bunch of things, but mostly, WTF, and then, why is being big constantly phrased as unattractive? Why is transness/genderqueerness constantly framed as ugly, and what the fuck does manly mean? She then peppered throughtout the conversation "Wow, that's so interesting" in relation to my gender identity and sexuality. Needless to say I was thrilled I could add some queer spice to her life.

So, after thinking a little bit, I think some of the "ugliness" of transness comes from the inabilty of a lot of people to see maleness and femaleness as not mutually exclusive. I think when a lot of people see folks who are read as trans, or learn that someone they read as cis is trans, it's like their mind is trying to put a square block through a circular peg, and that experience, of the juncture of two presumed mutually exclusive things, transfers as "ugly." When I think of popular images of transness I see some of the symptoms, and causes for this thinking. The serial killer in Silence of the Lambs. I remember how chilling their tucking scene was supposed to be, and how their transness was both proof and explanation of their delusion. And the end of Ace Ventura when they look up the villain's skirt and see a penis? O yea, I member dat. And if we aren't treated this way then when we are read as cis, and "found out" to be trans, somehow trans folks are still inexorably tied to sadness and tragedy, like how on ANTM Tyra told Miss. Jay and Jay how Isis was "trying to be a woman" (the tragic state of always "learning" and never being) and how Hillary Swank as Brandon Teena gets brutally raped and killed in Boys Don't Cry. Don't even get me started on the trope of deception, spying, sinful temptation and cis "infection" that surrounds trans folks. ACK ENOUGH IZ GOING TO GET AN EFF-ING DRINK! Here're some pics of lovely beautiful trans folks to leave you with.

SURVEY SEZ

Trans/Gender non-conforming survey on discrimination

Da Newz

GOP Downplays Palin's Gay Book Banning Flap

Current Mood

Da Newz

Sarah Palin's Church supports "ex-gay" movement

Milk Trailerr

wonder how it'll be...i watched the documentary the life and times of harvey milk this summer and was expecting a gay politician who got elected because he played up his white cis maleness, but it actually seemed like milk was sincerely dedicated to pretty radical intersectional politics. eXciTeD to see da moobie, been waiting fur so long/wat iz up wif da shitteh qualitee uv all da wigz, i mean puh-leaz!

HOLLYWOOD GLAMOURZ

<3 <3 <3 ERIKA LOPEZ <3 <3 <3

K so dis is my requisite post on Erika Lopez, author artist performance artist (?) extroardinaire, whose mixd queero grrl biker book flaming iguanas kept me alive when i was 13 and gave me hope for the future. Plus i was really psyched we shared the same first name, i'm not even gonna lie. Check her books out from da library asap, her illustrations are amazing and so are her stories.

DIS JUS MAYD MAI FAYCE MELT

LEET CHILD O MINE

Who knew Axl Rose was actually a huge twink? I didn't, but I'm sure as hell glad I found out.