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Also, why would anyone ever want to go to the bathroom in the women's restroom at an arena or stadium? The lines are ridiculous.
Wombaticus Rex » Sun Dec 06, 2015 1:39 pm wrote:American Dream » Sun Dec 06, 2015 1:32 pm wrote:Pitting Transfeminism against Cisfeminism is to me, unneccesary...
Sure, but...
...that's your privilege showing, right?
I'm actually not making a joke here.
Bryter » Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:10 am wrote:Project Willow » Wed Nov 18, 2015 5:23 am wrote:And woo-hoo, Caitlyn Jenner is "woman" of the year.
But of course. First it was Dances With Wolves, then Avatar, The Last Samuirai and so on. The white man is always the best shining example of whatever minority or culture he appropriates. It was only a matter of time before the white man went from being "the best indian" to "the best woman".
Bono named on Glamour magazine's Women of the Year list
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37845314
At a Brooklyn public library, drag queen Merrie Cherry read a few books to children and their parents.
Not your typical drag show
This is not the typical venue for Merrie Cherry's drag performance. "I haven't been around this many children in a long time. I've been around a lot of drunk people falling around, so it was very similar, you know, people trying to grab things from me," she joked.
Cherry does regular shows at bars around New York City, usually with a much older crowd than the kids she read to here. But the common thread is promoting acceptance.
Rachel Aimee is a writer and editor with Feminist Press. She began putting on Brooklyn's Drag Queen Story Hour after she heard about RADAR Productions doing the same thing in San Francisco.
"I really like that this program brings queer people and kids together in a way that isn't trying to hide queerness but is putting it at the forefront in a way that's really fun."
Libraries all over Brooklyn
The story hour has hosted multiple New York-based drag queens as readers, and has been held at different public library branches around Brooklyn.
They also use the events to promote their books, like KAMALA: Feminist Folktales from Around the World: Volume II and What Flowers Say.
Game Maker Avery Alder on the Mechanics of Care
I starting playing with goblin in late 2016, as part of a project of figuring out what wasn’t working for me in the communities I already seek identity with, namely queer and punk.
I’m a stepmom to homeschoolers, and so kid-friendly intergenerational spaces have become really important to me. I’m chronically ill and often fatigued, and so value low-barrier spaces that reject ableism. I want to spend my time in spaces that are thoroughly political, not in the sense of writing communiques and droning on about theorists, just in the sense of offering free childcare and bread, of putting harm reduction supplies in the bathroom. I want to build community in solidarity with crazy people and poor people and to reject respectability whenever possible.
The more I found myself talking critically about the communities I seek identity with, the more I started thinking, “well, this is a boring use of my time.” And so instead of fixating on ways that existing communities don’t make space for my needs and ideals, I started imagining what communities don’t exist yet that would serve them perfectly.
Goblin was born out of that. I talked about it sporadically for a few months, rooting around for axioms and motifs to anchor my thoughts.
In November, a friend asked me about goblin, and I wrote her saying “being goblin is a way of flagging that you want to include people not in spite of their sloppiness and uneven emotional growth, but because of it – because goblins come as they are, and they grow in community with one another. Being goblin means being intergenerational in an un-precious way. It means that kids are a part of community, that their messes and tantrums and experiments and giggles all take place between our feet. It’s about acknowledging disability and madness and trauma in a way that removes normalcy as our baseline.
Every body is a weird body and weird is good. Accommodating one another’s weirdness isn’t just worthwhile and important, and it’s not useful to frame it as noble or anything like that. Accommodating one another’s weirdness is the literal basis of goblin community. It’s how you nest, it’s how you romp, it’s what goblins always and necessarily do.”
It’s a fun thought project: to imagine a community that would wholly embrace and empower you and to imagine how you might communicate belongingness to those who you share that community with. Like for me, it’s goblin. It’s helped me learn more about what I want to contribute to the world.
identity » Mon Dec 05, 2016 8:08 am wrote:Teens in therapeutic boarding school adopt atypical gender behaviors to reassert dominance
While studying the rapid growth of the therapeutic boarding school industry, Jessica A. Pfaffendorf observed that troubled young men in at least one program most often displayed a type of "hybrid masculinity."
This observation -- young men incorporating more feminine behaviors in their social interactions while at boarding school -- presented a notable incongruence.
Earlier research has found that males in traditional boarding and preparatory school settings are prone to display masculine behaviors to signal their wealth, self-worth, and strength. In those settings, such behaviors have been positively linked to future attainment and success, said Pfaffendorf, a doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona School of Sociology.
But Pfaffendorf, who will present her research in a paper at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), found that young men at the therapeutic boarding school she studied intentionally used more feminine behaviors for personal benefit. Whereas traditional boarding schools have tended to focus on academics and college preparation, therapeutic boarding schools are specifically designed for those with emotional and behavioral challenges.
Pfaffendorf's findings are part of a larger investigation she began conducting in 2012 on the rise of therapeutic boarding schools. About 300 of these elite residential treatment centers exist in the United States, a number representing a threefold increase in the last two decades, Pfaffendorf said.
Such programs generally cater to those aged 13 to 18 who have behavioral and psychological issues, and who are dealing with addictions. Tuition for these programs can range between $75,000 and $100,000 annually, and they exist most often to help young adults graduate from high school, while offering interventions. Most often, upper-class, white young men enroll, Pfaffendorf said.
As part of her research, Pfaffendorf spent two years observing and conducting interviews at a therapeutic boarding school located in the Southwest region of the U.S.
The program in the Southwest operated on an active ranch, involving the young men in the grooming, riding, and training of horses, as well as wilderness excursions with counselors. The program, like most others nationally, also reinforced values associated with relationship building, interdependence, recognition of one's powerlessness, communality, and the open expression of emotions.
Pfaffendorf found that the young men often "spoke at length about their feelings, expressed emotion openly, and freely admitted their past wrongs and the guilt that came along with them." These men also described themselves as being more mature and having more purpose than their counterparts attending traditional schools.
"By communicating and responding maturely to situations, students maintain that they are better leaders and better able to succeed than other young men," Pfaffendorf said. "In these ways, students use hybrid masculinities to reassert dominance," particularly over those attending traditional schools.
It is important to note here that sociologists understand gender not as a biological occurrence, but as culturally-defined behaviors that are learned and performed.
Also important, Pfaffendorf found that the men did not fully embrace feminine demeanors. Instead, they aligned masculine and feminine styles with intention -- namely to assert that they were in control of their emotions and were, therefore, more mature than their peers.
Given the national discourse about male masculinity, often evoked during conversations about acts of violence carried out by boys and men, Pfaffendorf believes her findings may offer insight about how and why some young men adopt styles that are not usually perceived as "manly."
"Limited research attributes the growth of therapeutic boarding schools to a series of cultural events. The initial development of the therapeutic boarding school coincides with the height of the 'war on drugs' in the late 1980s," Pfaffendorf said. "In the immediate years after the Columbine shootings, the number of therapeutic schools increased six times over."
Pfaffendorf also found that hybrid masculinity was regarded positively. The young men were often rewarded in certain circumstances by women, employers, and educational organizations.
"In sum, students in therapeutic boarding schools may appropriate feminine qualities, but these qualities are used to reassert masculine dominance -- sustaining prevailing gender norms," Pfaffendorf said. "This contributes to what others have called the 'flexibility of patriarchy' -- that privileged men are able to mobilize feminine characteristics to their advantage and to assert dominance."
Pfaffendorf suggests that future research should evaluate the long-term implications of therapeutic boarding schools, and whether young men maintain their hybrid masculinity or return to more dominant forms of masculinity.
Such programs generally cater to those aged 13 to 18 who have behavioral and psychological issues, and who are dealing with addictions. Tuition for these programs can range between $75,000 and $100,000 annually, and they exist most often to help young adults graduate from high school, while offering interventions. Most often, upper-class, white young men enroll, Pfaffendorf said.
Pfaffendorf found that the young men often "spoke at length about their feelings, expressed emotion openly, and freely admitted their past wrongs and the guilt that came along with them." These men also described themselves as being more mature and having more purpose than their counterparts attending traditional schools.
"By communicating and responding maturely to situations, students maintain that they are better leaders and better able to succeed than other young men," Pfaffendorf said. "In these ways, students use hybrid masculinities to reassert dominance," particularly over those attending traditional schools.
It is important to note here that sociologists understand gender not as a biological occurrence, but as culturally-defined behaviors that are learned and performed.
Also important, Pfaffendorf found that the men did not fully embrace feminine demeanors. Instead, they aligned masculine and feminine styles with intention -- namely to assert that they were in control of their emotions and were, therefore, more mature than their peers.
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