trans // feminine

"It is not that the potential of self-education has yet to demonstrated, but that its success has to..."

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:13:38 -0400

“It is not that the potential of self-education has yet to demonstrated, but that its success has to be suppressed in the service of compulsory education’s true purpose: The cultivation of thoughtless acquiescence and conspicuous consumption defines our culture and fuels the economy. Thus, the education system’s ultimate goal isn’t to impart knowledge or to inspire love thereof, but to train young people not to think much at all, because that’s what makes them good employees and good consumers.”

- John Taylor Gatto, quoted by Astra Taylor in “The Unschooled Life” (via heteroglossia)

cloudnoise: the struggle don’t lie, you searched this.

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:37:28 -0400

cloudnoise:

the struggle

don’t lie, you searched this.

While writing my paper on queer selfies, I found out that Tumblr may be valued at $1 billion dollars and I got to thinking:

Sun, 12 May 2013 05:20:34 -0400

What creates this value? Us. Therefore: WE SHOULD BE PAID TO BLOG.

BLOGGING IS LABOR. SELFIES ARE LABOR. FANDOM IS LABOR. REBLOGGING IS LABOR.

Judith Butler in the streets, Judith Butler in the sheets

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:34:47 -0400

boredangry: cmov: it is so frustrating that this is just...

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:00:19 -0400

boredangry:

cmov:

it is so frustrating that this is just sitting around, because of legal issues. wesleyan university press originally pushed for it, with joanna’s interest, but then later dropped it, probably due to how huge this volume is (900 pages) and the estate complications following her death. i’m really hoping it gets picked up by small beer or some other press.

hey topside will you publish the collected stories of joanna russ please

Author of The Female Man and How to Suppress Women’s Writing, an excellent piece of feminist satire. I hate when books are trapped due to legal bullshit.

synesthesiaofhope: Agnes Martin, Stars, 1963, ink &...

Fri, 03 May 2013 22:49:16 -0400

synesthesiaofhope:

Agnes Martin, Stars, 1963, ink & watercolor, 12 x 12 in.

WHY IS AGNES MARTIN SO SOOTHING? Can I get funding to study this? It would involve looking at lots of Agnes Martin pictures and attaching one of those fancy science colanders to my head.

identity // dichotomy

Fri, 03 May 2013 17:52:30 -0400

fuckyeahstellapeach:

soft butch // hard femme

boy witch // lady wizard

ferocious fairy // gentle goth

boi in a dress // grrrl in a suit

limp wrist // raised fist

Really aspiring to rock that right-hand side. Hard femme is tough, but I think I’ve got lady wizard and gentle goth in the bag.

From, I don’t know, maybe an US Weekly?

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:19:24 -0400

From, I don’t know, maybe an US Weekly?

ax8xa: Llorando Scene - Mulholland Drive Will also always...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:19:48 -0400

ax8xa:

Llorando Scene - Mulholland Drive

Will also always reblog Mulholland Drive anything.

Valerie Solanis Event - Canceled

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:25:37 -0400

Valerie Solanis Event - Canceled:

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, post links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

REAL LIVE EXAMPLE of interaction between trans and genderqueer folks and cis folks over a contentious figure’s contentious manifesto.

tender ∞ nettle: beginnersfarsi: askouija: mermaid-vision said: Elaborate a bit on what...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:20:01 -0400

tender ∞ nettle: beginnersfarsi: askouija: mermaid-vision said: Elaborate a bit on what...:

beginnersfarsi:

askouija:

mermaid-vision said: Elaborate a bit on what you’re looking for?

hmmmm

I’m looking right now specifically for a critique of passing/theory around passing with clear definitions

but in general any text that you feel like makes a…

WARNING: 3 cups of coffee, spent the morning reading theory

Possibly instructive to think of passing in the context of capitalist reliance on enclosure; enclosure of land and resources, enclosure of identity. That idea of “the commons” is in broad circulation (in the theorizing of occupy, for example) leads me to ask what a “commons” of gender was/could be. I’m also interesting in the idea that capitalism, imperialism are interested in both fixing people and meaning while simultaneously compelling ceaseless circulation. I guess that’s probably why Deleuze and Guattari called it “Capitalism and Schizophrenia”. Just reread Spivak’s revised version of the essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?”. It has me thinking that the act of passing can equally be posited as a strategy of resistance and autonomy AND as evidence of the success of current hegemonic constructions of gender. This indeterminacy is by turns disheartening, but also bespeaks the possibility of avoiding (what I think of as) the quicksand of revolutionary messianism that seems to have such currency these days.

Some of the talks at the Poetics of Healing conference made me surprise myself with my own feeling of resistance to the idea of the body as a metaphor. Taking care not to fall into the mainstream of US anti-intellectualism or the (more insidious!) activist discourse that sets up a dichotomy between thought and action, I find myself desirous of cleaving very closely to the practices and the materiality of witchcraft and passing.

Beyond that, I’m interested in the meta-issue of this discussion happening on tumblr, in particular in a sub-community that foregrounds issues of privilege and appropriation in an arguably productive but always performative way. Think of the ally/cookie idea. There is a mistrust of the performance of (a loosely collectively defined) virtue for reward, but there is not always a clear cut way to determine the authenticity of someone’s (or even one’s own?) motivations. Discussion here, too, is a kind of passing which should not go unnoticed.

O yeah, and Caliban and the Witch.

antiizionism: yanndere: tibets: el-dispute: Woman...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:06:44 -0400

antiizionism:

yanndere:

tibets:

el-dispute:

Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public

“I now reverse the gaze and record their reactions to me while I perform mundane tasks in public spaces. I seek out spaces that are visually interesting and geographically diverse. I try to place myself in compositions that contain feminine icons or advertisements. Otherwise, I position myself and the camera in a pool of people…and wait.

The images capture the gazer in a microsecond moment where they, for unknowable reasons, have a look on their face that questions my presence. Whether they are questioning my position in front of the lens or questioning my body size, the gazer appears to be visually troubled that I am in front of them.”

Photographer: Haley Morris-Cafiero

Project: Wait Watchers

Source

Thought this was actually really cool and I’d share it with you guys! Takes a lot to get up there and do something like this. Love it!

this is such a fucking important project to me because i am constantly stared at in public in a negative way and turned into some disgusting object for the amusement of others and this is a peaceful way to confront those people

turning the spectators into the spectacle

I so want to replicate this project. So relevant for anyone who is subject to this method of social disciplining.

What cultural forces drive the contemporary surge of interest in Tilda Swinton?

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:14:15 -0400

What cultural forces drive the contemporary surge of interest in Tilda Swinton?

Is there a universe where I have a big pink braid and comb my armpit hair?

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 03:48:09 -0400

Is there a universe where I have a big pink braid and comb my armpit hair?

How would that stupid Dove commercial go with trans and genderqueer folks?

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:46:11 -0400

How would that stupid Dove commercial go with trans and genderqueer folks?

interpretivescreaming: I made this chart this morning to help...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 02:15:58 -0400

interpretivescreaming:

I made this chart this morning to help contextualize some conversations I’ve been having.

myjetpack: A book of my cartoons will be out in three...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:45:00 -0400

myjetpack:

A book of my cartoons will be out in three weeks!

The task is hard and the rewards are intangible!

we need a little glamour & glamour arrives: THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT THING I HAVE WORKED ON FOR A VERY LONG TIME

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 22:23:10 -0400

we need a little glamour & glamour arrives: THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT THING I HAVE WORKED ON FOR A VERY LONG TIME:

cloudnoise:

HEY EVERYBODY
So, as y’all know, and have been made painfully aware of by my panic posts for the last few months/years/life, I’m currently neck-deep in work on my Master’s thesis. I’m pursuing an artistic thesis at NYU’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study, which means…

What the blarg! I’m writing a paper on queer selfies and the so-called tumblr aesthetic for a final this semester!

"The world is already constituted, but also never completely constituted; in the first case we are..."

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 23:19:53 -0400

“The world is already constituted, but also never completely constituted; in the first case we are acted upon, in the second we are open to an infinite number of possibilities. There is, therefore, never determinism and never absolute choice, I am never a thing and never bare consciousness.”

- Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (via heteroglossia)

Odofemi: An anthology of queer short stories accepted my piece in February,...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:30:19 -0400

Odofemi: An anthology of queer short stories accepted my piece in February,...:

odofemi:

An anthology of queer short stories accepted my piece in February, after a year of not responding to my submission. All was well. Today, I sent them an email asking when my contributor’s copy would arrive, and they wrote back that my piece had been cut from the final edit of the anthology. I asked…

Remind to self: solicit Odofemi’s work when making a publication.