Shame is (perhaps) a virtue for those with infinite lives to live, in a finite world. However, since (at least I) have but one life to live, in an infinite world, I must persevere to live beyond shame.
May 30th, 2012
spotted by the tea shop - mills needs more things like this (Taken with Instagram at Mills College)
(Source: sweetsugarpop, via go-west-youngman)
May 29th, 2012
Queer in Public
I love this idea of resonance, of not having to constantly out oneself or conform to stereotypical gay appearances to have our sexual orientation read correctly, but live with all parts of the self in alignment and have that resonate to those around us. When a confident person walks into a room or a party, that aura of confidence resonates around the room. Everyone can feel, or sense it, even though that person isn’t going around and declaring in each conversation, “I’m confident!” Why can’t it be the same with other key parts of our selves, like our sexual orientation?
One line I can’t stop thinking about: ” I should avoid acting afraid because of assumed straightness.” This is the ideal I, too, want to press towards. There are real dangers in society if we do not act through a fear of the sexual orientation of those around us who are the socially accepted norm. We are policed through this fear of “assumed straightness,” and we police ourselves, because we do not want to be harmed or put into a stereotypical box and have the lid closed on us to all other possibilities. At the same time, I know I cannot get lost in this fear—it is easily internalized, with crippling results. I am still searching for the right way to deal with all the pressures.
A suggestion - resonance, over visibility.
For most of this tumblr blog, I’ve been trying to think about how to make my being-gay (for the sake of this post, it’s easier to say gay instead of bi), visible. My preoccupations have been with the oppression of having to be in a closet, of the need to have to come out in order to be publicly gay, of having to self and publicly identify as gay (as a stereotype), and about how exactly I can live my life with the fact of being gay being true…and yet to not have my gayness mark me any more differently than any straight person’s orientation does. I’ve been wondering about how to like men, yet not fall into the category/stereotype of ‘gay’ and all the cultural baggage attached from the departure gate.
My problem has largely been about having visibility, and yet not being consumed by this fact of myself being visible; I want to be known as gay, to be able to acknowledge being gay, and to be visible as gay. Yet, this basic visibility immediately opens me up to being just-gay, to being a stereotype, because having to make my gayness visible tends to overwhelm anything else I am. In order to initiate a relationship, to experience this part of myself (which, being an attraction, does dwell with others and not solely myself), I need to be visible as gay in order to make a date possible.
At first, I thought about the idea of being open, not out - basically, of just acknowledging my sexual orientation freely without worrying about coming out of the closet to anybody. But, this is a very limited option: if no one asks, how will they ever know? I’ve only recently begun finding out people’s sexual orientations being similar to mine, around me, but that is because I’ve never thought to ask and it took an accident to prompt questioning at all. Further (but I will post later on this), it is harder to affirm your gayness when you are bisexual, and hence I can join in with my heterosexual friends in appreciating the beauty of women and not face questions or be able to say I like men too.
Last week, I was listening to a lecture by the philosopher Simon Critchley - this man is one of the foremost Levinas scholars, and so I may want to do my doctorate with him some day down the line. He was lecturing about politics, and he was discussing a shift in the focus and goals of public protests. In the 60’s through to the 90’s, the goal of social activism was for protests to be visible. Large crowds would protest and show popular opinion, creating a space to be seen in, so that their voices might be made visible. However, Critchley points out, there has been a shift towards public protests holding resonance (as opposed to visibility). What I have taken this to mean is that we want not to be visible, not to be heard, but to be felt - to resonate our sexualities to those around us. Imagine striking a tuning fork against the side of an empty wine glass, and hearing the sound resonate throughout a table full of empty glasses - my being gay must be felt by those around, not merely seen.
And so, now, a possible tool - resonance. It is not a problem of having to be seen as gay - again, if my being-gay has to be announced, it immediately becomes “the thing” about me, a central and all consuming fact which (remembering Foucault) then filters all other facts about me. Instead, I must strive for a way of my sexual orientation to be one bit of sound, sung amongst multiple infinite others, reverberating off of those with whom I interact, instead of one visible thing protesting for its place in everyone’s view. I know this is convoluted - I can only sketch what I am feeling at the moment, but I hold hope in this idea.
I guess the idea would be to freely integrate my sexual orientation into my daily life, such that whenever I am grabbed by a fancy towards a guy, I should simply act as if he could be gay, that he could be homosexually oriented; the idea being that I should avoid acting afraid because of assumed straightness. Perhaps, if I can cease to worry about my sexual orientation being an important and limiting presence to my mind and heart, if I stop fretting about having to make myself visible as gay, I can allow the simple fact that I like boys as well as (and, for the moment, more so than) girls to resonate with those I meet.
How to make this work, this is the question…
- Katniss:
- Gale:
- Katniss:
- Gale:
- Haymitch:
- Katniss:
- The Prep Team:
- Cinna:
- Rebels:
- Johanna:
- Johanna:
- Katniss:
- Plutarch Heavensbee:
- The Victors:
- Katniss:
- Peeta:
- Wiress:
- The Victors:
- Snow:
(Source: thisfoldedmind, via zenfrogyeah)
May 28th, 2012
![mohandasgandhi:
humanrightswatch:
The US must stop sexual violence against immigrant farmworkers.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farmworker women and girls in the United States face a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their workplaces because US authorities and employers fail to protect them adequately.
In a new 95-page report, Human Rights Watch documents rape, stalking, unwanted touching, exhibitionism, or vulgar and obscene language by supervisors, employers, and others in positions of power. Most farmworkers interviewed said they had experienced such treatment or knew others who had. And most said they had not reported these or other workplace abuses, fearing reprisals. Those who had filed sexual harassment claims or reported sexual assault to the police had done so with the encouragement and assistance of survivor advocates or attorneys in the face of difficult challenges.
Farmworkers described experiences such as the following:
A woman in California reported that a supervisor at a lettuce company raped her and later told her that she “should remember it’s because of him that [she has] this job.”
A woman in New York said that a supervisor, when she picked potatoes and onions, would touch women’s breasts and buttocks. If they tried to resist, he would threaten to call immigration or fire them.
Four women who had worked together packing cauliflower in California said a supervisor would regularly expose himself and make comments like, “[That woman] needs to be fucked!” When they tried to defend one young woman whom he singled out for particular abuse, he fired all of them.
© 2011 AP Photo
This is important.
Undocumented workers are humans, too, and deserve to be protected.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m44gqjcK131r2y8uzo1_500.jpg)
The US must stop sexual violence against immigrant farmworkers.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farmworker women and girls in the United States face a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their workplaces because US authorities and employers fail to protect them adequately.
In a new 95-page report, Human Rights Watch documents rape, stalking, unwanted touching, exhibitionism, or vulgar and obscene language by supervisors, employers, and others in positions of power. Most farmworkers interviewed said they had experienced such treatment or knew others who had. And most said they had not reported these or other workplace abuses, fearing reprisals. Those who had filed sexual harassment claims or reported sexual assault to the police had done so with the encouragement and assistance of survivor advocates or attorneys in the face of difficult challenges.
Farmworkers described experiences such as the following:
- A woman in California reported that a supervisor at a lettuce company raped her and later told her that she “should remember it’s because of him that [she has] this job.”
- A woman in New York said that a supervisor, when she picked potatoes and onions, would touch women’s breasts and buttocks. If they tried to resist, he would threaten to call immigration or fire them.
- Four women who had worked together packing cauliflower in California said a supervisor would regularly expose himself and make comments like, “[That woman] needs to be fucked!” When they tried to defend one young woman whom he singled out for particular abuse, he fired all of them.
© 2011 AP Photo
This is important.
Undocumented workers are humans, too, and deserve to be protected.
(via communityandresistance)
(Source: sleep-eat-paint-repeat)
Hey! A few buddies of mine decided we’d start a trans*/non-binary confession/advice blog called TransFess. We’re just starting out, so input would be greatly appreciated!
(via projectqueer)
