amo et odi

In 1937 Mass Observation called for people from all parts of...

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:20:36 +0100

In 1937 Mass Observation called for people from all parts of the UK to record everything they did from when they woke up in the morning to when they went to sleep at night on 12th May. This was the day of George VI’s Coronation. The resulting diaries provide a wonderful glimpse into the everyday lives of people across Britain, and have become an invaluable resource for those researching countless aspects of the era.

The Mass Observation Archive is repeating this call on 12th May 2013. The resulting diaries will be stored in the Archive alongside the 1937 documents. May 12th 2013 is likely to be quite an ordinary day, but for those researching, the ‘ordinary’ can often provide extraordinary results. Therefore, we would be very grateful if you could document your May 12th 2013 for the future.

Write as much as you can about what you do, who you meet, what you talk about, what you eat and drink, what you buy or sell, what you are working on, the places you visit, the people you meet, the things you read, see and hear around you and of course what you yourself think.

All you have to do is email them after you’ve written it up. More info at their website here.

octobermoonlight: Olivier Theyskens 1999

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:00:19 +0100

octobermoonlight:

Olivier Theyskens 1999

We demand random capital letters! We demand hyphens! We demand...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:43:00 +0100

We demand random capital letters! We demand hyphens! We demand the right to use the word “with” in unusual contexts! We demand the right to be crap at basic logic!

Here endeth the bi agenda.

[the picure’s from an article on pinknews.co.uk. It’s a photo of part of a Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child leaflet apparently endorsed by a UKIP candidate]

ETA: I wish I’d put a note on here to point out how gross anti-polyamory rhetoric is. Because it is gross and completely unacceptable. It really marginalises poly bis (as well as loads of other ppl obvs).

A MAGAZINE FOR QUEER YOUTH CALLED "DON'T DO BOXES"

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:23:00 +0100

A MAGAZINE FOR QUEER YOUTH CALLED "DON'T DO BOXES"

a local film student asked if she could make a short film at...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:57:00 +0100

a local film student asked if she could make a short film at last November’s Reclaim The Night. It’s finished and we’re doing a free screening next week.

Please come with space in your belly for tea/cake because we’ll be trying to raise some money for this year’s march.

See you there :)

ps the fb event’s here.

ETA: BFC is an all-genders group. All genders are welcome at this event. It’s a public screening so do come. You don’t have to have any connection to BFC or anything :)

brighton40treats: I look this DVD in as part of 40 Days of...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:26:00 +0100

brighton40treats:

I look this DVD in as part of 40 Days of Treats back in March :)

so what does it look like if i do it this way?

ETA: oh sweet it worked. Might put a description on later but heading out the door.

I want to reblog this post but there’s no reblog button. Help?

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:26:08 +0100

I want to reblog this post but there’s no reblog button. Help?

noetherian: originalplumbing: delicateheresy: Sylvia Rivera...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:29:14 +0100

noetherian:

originalplumbing:

delicateheresy:

Sylvia Rivera interview at World Pride in Italy

Sylvia Rivera gives a detailed account of what happened the night of the Stonewall Riots.

Seems wrong that a hip magazine exclusively for trans guys is reblogging this. Still, it’s worth watching even if you aren’t Original Plumbing looking to use the struggle and activism of trans women of color to lend cred to your dude parade.

#nw

wandererssmile: Everytime I come back from a feminist theory/gender studies conference I have mixed...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:07:04 +0100

wandererssmile:

Everytime I come back from a feminist theory/gender studies conference I have mixed feelings about it.

“why am I studying gender and sexuality again?”

“I am done with this Saint Butlerism”

“there is a world outside this ivory tower, people. You should check it out sometime”

“y’all need to read more anthropology”

In fact I told the keynote speaker today she should read Tim Ingold. (Cuz sheez her arguments on nature/culture and materialism were flawed and outdated)

Decided to check out his blog … decided to follow him … top of his page 2 is a uncritical reblog of that biphobic, misogynistic anti-Gaga gifset. You couldn’t make it up.

Photo

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:00:43 +0100

Chris Hemsworth should have nominated for awards for Thor.

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:18:52 +0100

Chris Hemsworth should have nominated for awards for Thor.

I am a girl and I like film and TV. I used to be really into...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0100

I am a girl and I like film and TV. I used to be really into film and TV blogs so I suppose this is what I would have been reading if I were a kid in 1970? I thought it’d be mainly pictures but it’s mainly essays.

See that feature called “Coppered coloured …. and proud of it!”? Had assumed that was about a white person with red hair but (hello naivety & ignorance!) it’s about Harry Belafonte. It’s super-creepy. It practically forgets to mention his name. Srsly - they use his surname in the caption on his portrait and that’s it 0_o

These are marshmellows? Woah.

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:00:23 +0100

These are marshmellows? Woah.

There’s a bi group in Utah called the 1 to 5 club (named after the Kinsey Scale). What would...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0100

There’s a bi group in Utah called the 1 to 5 club (named after the Kinsey Scale).

What would the equivalent be for the Klein Grid?

Pls RT/ask your mathsy friends.

tiny-librarian: Gown designed by Olivier Theyskens, and worn...

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 23:21:38 +0000

tiny-librarian:

Gown designed by Olivier Theyskens, and worn by Kirsten Dunst in the Marie Antoinette photo shoot for Vogue Magazine.

Ah, I always wondered which dress it was that he designed.

shutthefuckupstraightpeople: friendlyangryfeminist: I have no problems with allies in LGBT+ spaces...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:00:27 +0000

shutthefuckupstraightpeople:

friendlyangryfeminist:

I have no problems with allies in LGBT+ spaces that welcome allies. I have no problem with the idea of ally week - that is, to recruit more straight, cis people into standing up for LGBT+ rights.

The problem arises in the practice, when allies start demanding appreciation and start demanding thanks. The problem arises when we become so preoccupied to welcoming allies that actual queer people feel unwelcome and feel like their voices are second to straight people, when ally becomes an identity rather than a process.

When allies start talking about equality rather than queer liberation, we’re in trouble.

When allies start talking about how we’re all just human, we’re in trouble.

When allies start talking about how labels don’t matter, we’re in trouble.

Bolding mine.

I don’t have much patience with allies. I suppose that’s mainly because I just don’t like people :) I actually find the concept useful in a lot of ways (well, I am an ally to all sorts of people, after all).

I never really get especially involved in anti-ally talk, but I think I’m going to pay more attention from now on. When I read them I’m going to think about what they imply for bi lives.

I want to start thinking about what each one means for nonbis in relationships with bis. Usually I look at everything just in terms of ‘what does this mean for bis…’ but someone mentioned to me the other day how ‘bi + allies’ spaces are important because nonbi partners often need a space where they can get support with/ relief from the homophobic & biphobic treatment meted out to them by people who know their partner’s bi.

Photo

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:00:31 +0000

On "holding hands on the street"

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:48:00 +0000

vegansexy:

So it seems like a popular idea that gets trotted out when discussing “passing privilege” with respect to bisexuals is the holding hands test.

Holding Hands Test: The idea that a bisexual person, if in a mixed gender relationship, will garner straight privilege because of who they are holding hands with as they walk down the street

It’s simplified imagery, but the idea is that bisexual people, because of their capabilities to be attracted to people of a different gender, may look like they are in straight relationships or may be read as being in straight relationships, and thus access many/some/all benefits afforded to straight people.

But notice that there is a difference between discussing how relationships appear and how the people in them (or not in them) appear.

Passing relies on much more than who you are in a relationship with; there are many moving parts and pieces, and gender identity and gender expression, affiliation with groups, your appearance, your geographical location, your race, your ability, etc etc all have an impact on what you pass for, how well, and how that’s read in different environments.

Privilege is also more than whether or not people mock you on the street. Yes, microaggressions and public hostility are important issues queer people have to deal with every day and can make life painful or exhausting or dangerous, but it is not the only sphere where privilege is relevant. If you are denied access to services, opportunities, recognition, or dehumanized on a systemic level, that is the fundamental arena where privilege exists and makes the greatest deal of difference.

It is very disturbing to me how many folks are completely willing to paint every bisexual person as white, cis, gender conforming, etc. Passing is something you do on an individual level, and not something we as bisexuals can do as a group. We are diverse; many of us in mixed gender relationships will never and can never pass in many meaningful ways. Many of us in mixed gender relationships might get to access things like legal marriage or adoption, for example, but are shut off from meaningful healthcare, job security, housing security, etc. because these heterosexist institutions reject all queerness (your mileage may vary) and many of us will not get any special points for our supposed or apparent dating history.

I acknowledge there are bisexual people who move in mostly straight circles, who are not connected to queer communities for a variety of reasons, etc. Perhaps that is the image standing in for bisexual people in all these discussions. But does anyone ever think that you’re talking about just a segment, and likely a small one, of the bisexual community? That many bisexual people have been out, been active, been working and dying and fighting along with every other queer person for our liberation? Who look queer, act queer, or are read as queer (whatever that means, wherever you are)? That we have not just suddenly infiltrated, but have always been here? And may not always feel safe coming out as bi? That all queer folks who are closeted, out of safety or whatever reason, deserve more than constant ridicule and being kept at arms length?

How bisexuals have to process their passing privilege is an individual task and process. No blanket statement can do that for you. Your mileage may vary, and an honest approach is obviously the best one you can take when figuring out if it’s your turn to speak, or your opinion is warranted, or what have you. There will be occasions where other queer folks who don’t have access to those sorts of things should be given the space to call that out or voice those concerns or issues, but those are not always non-bisexual people. Bisexuals, as a rule, should not be excluded from queer spaces or denied access or participation because not all bisexuals have or can ever access the sorts of privilege that would endanger or disrupt queer spaces.

And for the love of god, fellow white people, please stop comparing bisexuals and passing privilege to white passing privilege in communities of color. We have no business making these comparisons because we don’t know what the fuck we’re talking about. It erases bisexual people of color for whom these questions are not separate comparisons but rather interacting parts of a different whole, and it is wrong to appropriate tools to discuss and dismantle white supremacy for issues which discard them at will (which many discussions about bisexuality making these comparisons do). If a person of color is doing that sort of analysis, that is for them to make. But I have seen many a fellow white person finding the comparison convenient and deploying it when they think social justice rhetoric will help them reach a conclusion they don’t bother doing any work for, and that is just plain gross.

Also consider that you are talking about bisexual people, real people, who suffer from health and safety disparities that few people in the queer community seem to care to pick apart. When you rely on quick equations to discuss people and their lived experiences, you run a huge risk of making this debate super simple to satisfy an egotistical or defensive reason, rather than allow for the complexity we need to tease apart these issues.

Great post. I think I have issues with “not all bisexuals have or can ever access the sorts of privilege that would endanger or disrupt queer spaces” (have we ever?) and para 8 so I’ll need to think about that.

I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot recently. I wonder why we consider the holding hands test so important in discussions of privilege. Is stranger violence in public places the most ‘important’ oppression (is that the right word?) a person can face? Is it the most ‘important’ oppression people in same gender relationships face? Is it the most ‘important’ oppression that lesbian and gay people face?

I’ve never heard this point discussed. Did I miss the memo? Can anyone answer these questions for me? I wouldn’t know where to start working out my thoughts on the topic otherwise.

Comparisons are dodgy, I know, but I’ve been wondering about how this compares to the following:

in feminist circles you often hear a lot of talk criticising the way that mainstream anti-rape discourses often suggest that stranger violence in a public place is a (the?) major danger a woman faces. Many feminists point out eg that most women who are raped are raped by someone known to them and that many are raped in their own home.

Thoughts?

Chrome just suggested I ‘correct’ the word heteronormative with the word determinative.

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 22:29:23 +0000

Chrome just suggested I ‘correct’ the word heteronormative with the word determinative.

ladylikepunk: Butt to bald butt.

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:00:37 +0000

ladylikepunk:

Butt to bald butt.