Conservative Boycott Fails

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Alison

Things
haven’t been great in the world of conservative boycotts lately.
Conservatives tried to boycott Starbucks for supporting gay marriage and
over 600,000 people signed the Sum of Us
petition thanking Starbucks for supporting the right of all people to
marry. In contrast, only 35,000 people signed on to the Dump Starbucks
campaign.

The One Million Moms boycott of JC Penny failed similarly as JCP
chose to stand behind Ellen Degeneres. Director Monica Cole told OneNewsNow that other issues require her group’s attention, so OMM is moving on.

Conservatives
at the Florida Family Association have recently tried to stop gaming
industry giant Electronic Arts from putting out video games that have
gay character options, specifically Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old
Republic. While EA may not be a perfect company (check this Forbes article for more on complicating factors) they have made it clear they aren’t interested in censoring GLBT content from their games.

Jeff Brown, VP of corporate communications told Games Industry,
“Every one of EA’s games includes ESRB content descriptors so it’s hard
to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn’t about
protecting children, it’s about political harassment.”

Seeing all these recent failed protests makes me hope that the tide
is turning. Matt Kane, Associate Director of Entertainment Media at
GLAAD commented on the protest against EA saying, “Trying to rally
Americans around messages rooted in hate is a losing proposition.”

I was recently talking with friends about the terrifying legislation
Republicans are trying to push through all over this country. We were
conjecturing that maybe this level of hostility and aggression towards
women and all kinds of minorities seems pretty desperate. With GLBT
issues it seems like there’s only so far they can take this fight before
it’s over. Groups like Republicans Against the Marriage Amendment especially give me hope.

In the meantime, I’m hoping the conservatives will continue to waste
their time and wear their true colors. Each fail brings us just a little
closer to winning the fight against hate.

kickstarting the future of queer cinema

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Anna

queer cinema has always been an academic passion for me. in
addition to presenting a paper i wrote on cinematic legend john waters, i
had the honor of being invited to contribute an essay to coming out to the mainstream: new queer cinema in the 21st century,
which, among other things, examines both the advantages and drawbacks
of marketing and presenting queer cinema to a mainstream
audience. one of the larger problems with mainstreamed queer cinema
is that the hollywood process generally leaves narratives diluted and
watered down, or lost in a sea of ang-lee-budget production values.
the power of queer cinema and new queer cinema until the
mid-nineties had existed in its raw grittiness, its ability to make
people feel something they had never felt before watching film, because
these were stories previously untold on the big screen.

independent queer cinema, glorious as it may be, is not without its
problems either, mostly cash-related, which is why i was delighted when hollis brought to my attention this article from out magazine that looks at the role kickstarter is playing in the future of independent queer cinema. for those of you not familiar with kickstarter,
it is “the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects.”
kickstarter supports any sort of creative endeavor, from food to
dance to fashion, however, ”with $40 million spent on 4,700
successful projects, the film sector of kickstarter has garnered the
largest percentage of the over $125 million raised since its inception
in 2009.”

in fall of 2011, michael stabile’s documentary seed money, which
presents the story of late falcon studios founder and political
philanthropist chuck holmes, had run out of steam after 4 unfunded
years of crafting together interviews of porn stars, politicians, and
celebrities, such as one of my personal heroes, john waters. by
the end of december and six weeks after launching his fundraising
campaign on kickstarter, stabile had $28,430 and a new private investor
to help him take on the post-production costs that were previously
insurmountable for him. after watching the trailer, i am
absolutely psyched for this documentary to be released. not only
are porn and censorship topics near and dear to my heart, but chuck
holmes is a fascinating figure. and in an age where rick santorum, a man
who, among other things, wants to ban all pornography (but especially
gay porn), was a frontrunner for presidential candidacy, i feel
like it couldn’t be coming out at a better time.

having capital to get films made is one problem, but there is also the
separate issue of getting films distributed to the audience. for
filmmakers, kickstarter has been a solution for this as well. pariah, dee
rees’ semi-autobiographical story of a young black lesbian grappling
with identity and struggling to come out in brooklyn, was turned into a
feature film after it screened at 40 film festivals as a short film and
won over 25 “best short” awards. rees was ecstatic about being
accepted into 2011 sundance film festival in competition, but did not
have the means to get all the way there. using kickstarter, rees was
able to raise the $10,000 she needed to cover the post-production costs
and amount it would take to get her crew to the festival. getting
indie queer films like pariah to the festival circuit is
crucial, as that level of exposure is usually what helps films get into
independent theaters and the hearts and minds of audiences across the
world.

if you are a fan of independent queer cinema, i urge you to check out
kickstarter to see if you could be the patron of your next favorite
film.

Mind the (Wage) Gap

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Alison

Today
marks Equal Pay Day, the day women’s annual earnings catch up with what
men made in the previous year. If you consider that workers may receive even less pay due to sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, some of us might not have reached our equal pay day yet.

You can check out some history of unequal pay for women in the United States in this article by Kirsten Swinth, and you can read more about taking action on the National Committee for Pay Equity website.

Or watch this funny video about the issue and demand “a small box discount from your big box store.”

Cisgender Is Not A Dirty Word: Why I Own My Cis Identity

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Eliza Schwartz

Trigger warning: cissexism

In my second year of college, I took a class called “Beyond The
Binary: Trans and Intersex Studies” through the Women’s, Gender and
Sexuality Studies department. In that class, I learned a lot, but a few
things really stuck with me: the performativity of gender and the
liberatory potential of drag (thanks, Judith Butler!);
the way my mind has been socially conditioned to immediately think of
something in terms of its binary opposite; and the word “cisgender” as a
way to describe my gender identity and presentation, as described by Julia Serano.

At first, I did not understand the word cisgender. It sounded
clinical. But that is precisely the point. While some find the label
“transgender” to be extremely liberating, it marks bodies as Other in a
clinical and social way. Cisgender, the word for those who do not hold
transgendered identities, acknowledges this marking. Because the
“opposite” [binary language!] of trans is not “normal”. Cisgender
is a non-oppressive language way of destabilizing what bodies and
identities are considered the norm and reminds us of the constructed
(although with very real lived implications) of gender. I identity
as a cisgender queer White woman. I also have able-bodied and class
privilege.

I am fortunate to be a part of a virtual community on the internet
with trans activists. Many of them tweet and post often about cis
people’s discomfort with the label “cisgender,” finding it a derogatory
term. For me, cisgender is not a derogatory term, but rather an
essential identity that denotes my privileges and my lived experiences.
Cisgender acknowledges the intersections of my multiple identities on my
body and presentation. Cisgender reminds me to lean into discomfort and
constantly question my own gender presentation and the way gender
constructs enforce violence. Cisgender is an identity I am still
understanding and owning. When I do feel discomfort, I try to figure out
where that comes from. This is how I try to be an ally to myself and an
ally to my trans friends and those I have yet to encounter.

Many scholars, activists and activist scholars such as Stephen Ira, Monica Roberts, Amy Dentata, Avory Faucette, Tobi Hill-Meyer,
and others have written eloquently and accessibly about their own
experiences and about the larger fight for liberation. I will close with
the poignant words from interpretivescreaming.tumblr.com:

I WILL HONOR YOUR WISH NOT TO BE CALLED “CIS”

When you can show me your first email from a grad student that wants to interview you about your cisgender journey.

And that is why I call myself “cis”.

Melissa Harris-Perry’s ground-breaking national conversation on trans issues

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Hollis Finley

Today the Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC raised the bar on
the national media’s presentation of trans issues. Across two segments,
Harris-Perry devoted almost an hour to trans activism: it was the first
time I’ve seen that kind of time devoted to trans issues without solely
focusing on the narrative of one individual. In the first segment,
Harris-Perry and her panelists, including the wonderful Kate Bornstein, discuss the intersection of identity politics and activism.

But, for me, the most amazing part of the show is right at the
beginning, when Melissa Harris-Perry comes out as cisgender. What a
watershed moment! I don’t think cisgender has ever been defined on
national TV, and it was so refreshing to see the definition coming from a
cisgendered person instead of an “educating” transperson. In her
introductory remarks, she said:

I’m black. I’m a woman. And I’m cis… being cis means that
the sex of the body I was born with, the gender I was assigned at
birth, and my personal identity all match. And being cis does not make
me “normal” or “natural”; it just makes me, well, cis.

You can watch the first trans-related segment of the show below:

On the second trans-related segment of the show, Harris-Perry and her
panelists discussed the Obama Administration’s inconsistent application
of LGBT anti-discrimination policy. While the U.S. Housing and Urban
Development Department (HUD) issued a rule barring LGBT housing
discrimination by any landlord or entity handling HUD funds, the White
House will not currently sign an executive order requiring federal
contractors to follow a similar LGBT employment discrimination policy.

If you’d like, you can read the new HUD rule.
What’s so amazing about this rule is that it not only bans those
receiving HUD funds from discriminating against housing applicants on
the basis of perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, it bans
both those who have FHA loans and FHA lenders from doing the same thing.

Here’s the second segment of the Melissa Harris-Perry show discussion of trans issues, focusing on the new HUD rule:

Thank you, Melissa Harris-Perry, for hosting intelligent, in-depth conversations about trans realities and politics.

Visibility Round-up: trans* and androgynous imagery on Tumblr & Pinterest

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Hollis Finley

I know I’m late to the game, but I’ve been discovering the awesome trans*, queer, and androgynous content on Tumblr. If you’re feeling a little invisible or need some community support, I’d suggest checking out these Tumblr blogs:

The last two, MTF Butches and Femme FTM,
are particularly worth checking out because they provide much needed
visibility and validation for trans-identified folks who buck the
presentation “norms” of their gender. These blogs are a blessing
for all of us who have felt ourselves acutely aware of our gender
identity and gender presentation moving along independent axises.

So despite having been around since 2010, Pinterest is suddenly the hot new social networking site, recently becoming the fastest-growing stand-alone Web site in history. Although they’re small, there are a few boards on Pinterest posting trans* and androgynous imagery:

The Feminism & Gender board by Lindsay
The Gender/Queer Inspiration board by Salacious Parkerton
The Playin’ with Gender board by Kai Kitaji
The Beauty Knows No Gender board by Jen Fullington
The Genderqueer/Genderfuck board by Puck
The Genderqueer Cheer board by Vindal
The Gender Expressions board by Avory Faucette
The Transgender Life board by Avory Faucette

Many of these boards have yet to be fully developed, and I’m excited
to watch them grow. And I’m not surprised that the most frequently
duplicated image across the boards is this photo of friend of The Queer
and Now, Jiz Lee:

What are you looking at on Pinterest and Tumblr? Let us know in the comments below!

UPDATE:

Thanks to Jiz Lee for letting us know via Twitter that Crash Pad Series has a presence on Pinterest and Tumblr:
Crash Pad Series Pinterest
Crash Pad Series Tumblr

If you’re not familiar with the Crash Pad Series, it’s an awesome queer porn site by the wonderful Shine Louise Houston.

And if you’re not already following The Queer and Now on Twitter, you should!

Switcharoo: Hana Pesut’s Photo Project

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Hollis Finley

Recently I came across the Switcharoo project by Canadian photographer Hana Pesut.
Hana takes couples or small groups and photographs them in their
typical clothes. Then she has everyone switch clothes and takes another
photo. The resulting side-by-side set is a whimsical double portrait.

I couldn’t find an artist’s statement about the project, so I don’t
know what the photographer’s intentions are. What I find so fascinating
about the project is how similar the photos look — by switching clothes,
one can see the gender performance that the clothes require of their
wearers. When I look at the photos, I see the similarities between the
people, and it’s easier to tease out what qualities are attached to the clothes themselves.

What do you see in these photos?

Vij & Andy

Jodi & Rob

Pam & Bruce

Kristy & Brennan

Jen & Corey

Christina & Phil

Mish & Colin

Matt & Stormey

Maryanne & Dmitry

Katina & Jerry

Julia & Matthew

Dustin & Shmoo

Chad & Jessica

Leila & Azim

Genderqueer Masculine Clothing: Beyond Jeans and T-shirts

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Hollis Finley

As a kid, I hated getting dressed in the morning. Almost all my
clothes — especially anything formal or “girly” like tights and dresses —
caused my skin to feel tight and a knot to develop in the pit of my
stomach. I wish I could say I’d outgrown the experience, but
unfortunately it’s still a common occurrence. The only partial remedy
I’ve found is to wear the least restrictive and least gendered clothing I
can find. What in the 80s and 90s was stirrup pants and baggy
sweatshirts has become jeans and t-shirts.

This means that for years I’ve been the most under-dressed individual
at holiday gatherings and parties. Fortunately, this hasn’t caused
conflicts with others, just a self-imposed embarrassment. When
absolutely necessary, I’ve pulled old dresses out of the closet and
“suited up,” choosing to view my attire as part of a conscious drag
performance. But my patience with even that gender game has waned
recently. Dresses just don’t feel like an option anymore.

But wearing traditional men’s formal apparel feels like just as much
of a drag performance. The boxy or flour-sack suit jackets and tapered
slacks. (Just the word “slacks” makes me gag a bit.)

I’ve managed to avoid formal-wear situations for a while now, but my
luck is about to run out. While I’m really happy to be attending my
sibling’s wedding in a few months, it’s causing quite the clothing
panic. I want to be truly present at this joyous occasion, and whatever
outfit I’m wearing, I want to own it.

I just need to figure out what it is.

For inspiration, I recently searched the Web for queer clothing resources. Here’s some highlights of what I found:

DapperQ.
What is a DapperQ? A DapperQ is defined as “a transgressor of men’s
fashion. An authentic, courageous genderbender who uses fashion
as a means to expressing our ever-evolving capacity to advance
change.” This mammoth site has a wealth of information for
fashion-obsessed butch, trans-masculine, etc., people — from style
advice to designer profiles to encouragement to live at the
“intersection between personal authenticity and style.”
The Steampunk Collection from Marimacho

Marimacho.
Marimacho is a small, Brooklyn-based clothing line for “cis women and
transmasculine bodies.” Right now they have a limited line of dress
shirts, sportcoats, and bow ties, but I hope they’ll be offering more
soon. What makes Marimacho clothing different from traditional
“menswear”? “We make classic masculine garments with narrower armholes
and necklines, shorter sleeve lengths, more bust room, etc. In this way,
we offer cis women, trans men and gender queer folks the same standards
of fit and style available in mainstream menswear.”
Duchess Clothier. Definitely not in everyone’s budget, Duchess Clothier makes made-to-measure suits.

A custom suit from Duchess Clothier. Photo Credit: Jessica Watson, jessicawatsonphotography.com

But what makes Duchess different from other made-to-measure or
bespoke tailors is that they, in their own words, “absolutely LOVE being
able to provide perfectly fitting masculine suits for a natural (or
bound) female frame…” They make drool-worthy clothes with an
understanding of the unique needs of genderqueer and trans bodies (in
addition to making clothes for cis women and men). If you’re near San
Francisco or Portland and could use a finely tailored suit, you should
check them out.
Genderplayful. I can’t wait until this off-shoot of Genderfork
is up-and-running. Genderplayful will be a online marketplace for
people to buy and sell “androgynous, unisex, butch, dapper, femme,
gender-bending, gender-transgressive, and gender-fanflippingtastic
clothing solutions for all kinds of bodies.” You can read more about the
project on Genderplayful’s Tumblr page.

These Web sites have kept me inspired while I keep looking for the
clothes that work for me. If you have any other genderqueer clothing
resources to share, please comment below.

The Queer and Now

Commentary About Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

Monthly Archives: April 2012