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20 Apr 2013

Watch this. Funny, smart, charming, inspiring - and wonderfully delivered.

Lana Wachowski, the transgender half of the Wachowski siblings (writers, directors and producers of the Matrix trilogy, Cloud Atlas etc) was recently given a "Visibility Award" by the the US organisation, HRC (Human Rights Campaign) and her acceptance speech is a must-watch thirty minutes.

gender | trans | people | movies
Comments 3

27 Mar 2013

What we call ourselves - and just who "we" are - is still a thorny issue

In the current issue of GCN a column by the magazine's Deputy Editor has created a lot of heat. Check out the comments under the article (or on Twitter or Facebook).

In her column, Ciara McGrattan argues that the "LGBT...QIA..." label has become too unwieldy and suggests that we should return to basics and simply use the term "gay". Along the way, she argues that trans folk, and bisexuals, and other groups should be excluded, unless they are currently sexually attracted to someone of their own sex, i.e. a trans lesbian is in, but a trans woman who is attracted to men is out. 

As was to be expected, a lot of people have taken great offence and the editor of GCN has responded, defending the printing of controversial or difficult opinion - and attracting a lot more angry comment.

Which of course is fair enough. I think a large part of the offence comes from the fact that this was printed in GCN which is supposed to be a "safe haven" for our community - including it's trans members - so it feels a lot like a slap in the face to read within GCN someone arguing to exclude some of our community. And to make matters worse it's written by the magazine's Deputy Editor, and it's hard to argue that it's simply her personal opinion and not that of the magazine's when she carries that title.

But, you can also argue that GCN has fulfilled it's remit to provoke debate and an exchange of ideas. You'll have to take your pick!

On a personal note... I am abolutely happy of course to have our trans and bisexual comrades - and anyone else who doesn't fit the traditional sex or gender roles - under the same umbrella. I suspect it makes our community stronger, and while there may be differences in our struggles, there are enough common threads.

However, I do wish we could agree on a simple umbrella term. I think the ever lengthening acronym is confusing and off-putting to people outside our community. It makes our case a harder sell. But what the simpler umbrella term is...? Sheesh! Search me! I like "queer" but I know lots of people hate it. I was speaking at an event with Senator David Norris last week and in my speech I referred to him as a "queer warrior" and he hated it, lol! "Puff" or "fairy" he was fine with, but not "queer".

The other thing I sometimes wonder is if it actually serves the trans community well to put themselves under the broader sexuality umbrella, rather than fight their fight under their own gender umbrella? Is their hand strengthened by associating with a larger group with whom they share a natural affinity, or is their case weakened? Are their waters muddied, so-to-speak, by issues of sexuality rather than gender? I don't know. But it seems clear that the trans community has, in general, decided it strengthens their hand, and that being so, I'm certainly happy to have them on board. Being T is definitely a harder path to find yourself on than being L, G or B, so the last thing they need is to be excluded from our already diverse and rag-tag group just because the name is a bit of a mouthful.

gay politics | trans | gender | ideas
Comments 16

26 Feb 2013

New Bowie video is full of old Bowie gender fuckery

The video for The Stars Are Out Tonight, the second track off Bowie's new album, is great, with an amazing cast of androgynous, gender-bending, fashion-y stars. Tilda Swinton is her usual amazing self as Bowie's wife in the clip, and that's androgynous Dutch model Saskia de Brauw playing the young Bowie character, and of course that's gender-bending (not sure if she identifies as trans or not) supermodel Andrej Pejic as the gorgeous young blonde who kisses the prone Bowie at one point. Nice to see Bowie still has an interest in gender expression.

people | music | fashion | models | gender | videos
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29 Dec 2012

Portraits of Albanian Women Who Have Lived Their Lives As Men

Photographer Jill Peters photographed "burneshas" in the mountain villages of Albania. Burneshas are women who have lived their lives as men, often from an early age, in order to avoid the strict codes that govern female lives as property of husbands (often arranged marriages with much older men), and assume the "privileges" of being male.

"The freedom to vote, drive, conduct business, earn money, drink, smoke, swear, own a gun or wear pants was traditionally the exclusive province of men. Young girls were commonly forced into arranged marriages, often with much older men in distant villages. As an alternative, becoming a Sworn Virgin, or ‘burnesha" elevated a woman to the status of a man and granted her all the rights and privileges of the male population. In order to manifest the transition such a woman cut her hair, donned male clothing and sometimes even changed her name. Male gestures and swaggers were practiced until they became second nature. Most importantly of all, she took a vow of celibacy to remain chaste for life. She became a "he". This practice continues today but as modernization inches toward the small villages nestled in the Alps, this archaic tradition is increasingly seen as obsolete. Only a few aging Sworn Virgins remain."

More HERE.

gender | world
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10 Oct 2012

That Julia Gillard smack down

You've probably already seen this clip of the Australian PM tearing the leader of the opposition a new one for being a sexist, mysoginist asshole, because it was all over the internet yesterday.

(I didn't post yesterday because I was having make-up sex. I broke up with me fella on Sunday - he won't mind me saying that 'cos he doesn't read the blog! - went out drinking on Sunday night, satyed out aaaaall night, fell home Monday afternoon a tired mess - but it was great craic - and then made up with me fella yesterday. Best. Break up. Make up. EVER!)

But two things strike me watching the clip.

1) Kath & Kim have a lot to answer for. I keep getting flashes of Kath while watching Julia.

2) The leader of the opposition looks like he might once have ratted out his girlfriend Liesl and her family to the Nazis.

gender | politics | world
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27 Sep 2012

A "douchebag" and a hairy Sikh woman restoring your faith in the internet

Jezebel has a story about how a "douchebag" posted this picture of a Sikh woman on Reddit, presumably for people to make fun of her, but then she responded. Eloquently. Prompting the original poster to respond to her response. And it worked out in a way internet exchanges so rarely seem to.

internet | gender
Comments 0

28 Jun 2012

Where are all the women?

Dubliner's will already know that we're getting another new bridge (It's been a great few years for bridge geeks in this town), this one only yards from O'Connell Bridge itself, and willl be carrying the LUAS and other public transport. I haven't posted much about it yet even though it's also only yards from my place because at this stage the construction is at the unexciting pile-driving stage and I don't want to bore you all with my bridge geekery. I'll wait till we get to a more picture-friendly phase of the construction.

Meanwhile, the Irish Times letters page has a running thread of people suggesting names for the new bridge - mostly naming it after the great and the good - and they have run the gamut from sportsmen to scientists to (as usual) writers. But so far, unless I missed it, no one has suggested a woman.

Currently there are seventeen bridges between the East Link and Heuston, and all seventeen are named after men. Not one of them is named after a woman.

If you go a little further out there's the Anna Livia Bridge in Chapelizod, but I don't count a poetic 'female' personification of the river Liffey as an actual woman. And the bridge at Island Bridge was previously called Sarah's Bridge after Sarah, Countess of Westmoreland, wife of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland who laid the first stone of the original bridge in 1791. However the brdge we have there now was renamed Island Bridge after independence.

Now I'm not one for advocating gender quotas for the naming of bridges, and of course in times gone by it was much more difficult for a woman to leave a historically significant mark on the city, but when you have seventeen bridges (twenty three, if you go out as far as Lucan) and every single one is named after a man (bar the couple named after landmarks), well, it begins to seem deliberately insulting.

So I say when it comes to naming the new bridge over the Liffey, let's name it after a great Irish woman. 

"Artivist" Will St Leger feels similarly about the representation of women among the statues in the city centre, and yesterday morning he tried to restore a semblance of balance by adding a new female statue to the city's statuary. She didn't last too long unfortunately.

activism | bridge notes | infrastructure | gender | dublin | art
Comments 14

16 Mar 2012

This year's Eurovision is shaping up to be a real doozy

On top of Jedward and Russian grannies and Swedish euro-pop-Kate-Bushes, now Austria has thrown some gender fuckery into the mix. Meet Conchita Wurst.

P.S. It's so much more fun again now that they're allowed sing in English again. Those few years where nobody understood anybody else were real doldrum years for Eurovision.

UPDATE: Disappointingly, Conchita is not representing Austria. Bloody foreigners and their less than perfect English confusing me by writing "Austria selection to Eurovision" when that's not exactly what they meant.... Alan pointed out in the comments that she only came second in the natioal final, and so we will not have the pleasure of her company in Baku. Awwww....

eurovision | gender
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16 Jan 2012

Swing out sister

Miss Representation, a documentary about women and the media, looks really interesting. It's also packed with high-powered contributions. However, although it premiered at Sundance last year and has been shown on Oprah's network, I doubt we'll see it here just because it's very US focussed. Still, even the trailer is worth a look.

UPDATE: Catherine in the comments tells us it is being shown here in The Sugar Club in Dublin on February 22nd, by The Irish Feminist Network.

(thanks Dave)

And at the risk of being accused of doing exactly what the documentary is giving out about, doesn't Gloria Steinem look amazing! But earlier today i said the exact same thing about Patrick Duffy so I'm an equal opportunity complimenter. Their gender and abilities are beside my point.

documentary | gender | politics
Comments 2

12 Jan 2012

Lovely story about an older brother standing up for his little brother to his asshole macho dad

This is taken from The Huffington Post but was originally published on the author Kristen Wolfe's blog.

Dear Customer Who Stuck Up For His Little Brother

You thought I didn't really notice. But I did. I wanted to high-five you.

Yesterday I had a pair of brothers in my store. One was maybe between 15 and 17. He was a wrestler at the local high school. Kind of tall, stocky and handsome. He had a younger brother, who was maybe about 10 to 12 years old. The only way to describe him was scrawny, neat, and very clean for a boy his age. They were talking about finding a game for the younger one, and he was absolutely insisting it be one with a female character. I don't know how many of y'all play games, but that isn't exactly easy. Eventually, I helped the brothers pick a game called "Mirror's Edge." The youngest was pretty excited about the game, and then he specifically asked me, "Do you have any girl color controllers?" I directed him to the only colored controllers we have, which include pink and purple ones. He grabbed the purple one, and informed me purple was his FAVORITE.

The boys had been taking awhile, so their father eventually came in. He saw the game, and the controller, and started in on the youngest about how he needs to pick something different. Something more manly. Something with guns and fighting, and certainly not a purple controller. He tried to convince him to get the new Zombie game "Dead Island" and the little boy just stood there repeating, "Dad, this is what I want, OK?" Eventually it turned into a full-blown argument complete with Dad threatening to whoop his son if he didn't choose different items.

That's when big brother stepped in. He said to his dad, "It's my money, it's my gift to him. If it's what he wants, I'm getting it for him, and if you're going to hit anyone for it, it's going to be me." Dad just gave his oldest son a strong stern stare-down, and then left the store. Little brother was crying quietly. I walked over and ruffled his hair (yes, this happened all in front of me). I said, "I'm a girl, and I like the color blue, and I like shooting games. There's nothing wrong with what you like. Even if it's different than what people think you should." I smiled, he smiled back (my heart melted!). Big brother then leaned down, kissed little brother on the head, and said, "Don't worry, dude."

They checked out and left, and all I can think is how awesome big brother is, how sweet little brother is, and how Dad ought to be ashamed for trying to make his son any other way.

(thanks Caroline)

gender | kids
Comments 5