Happy Sunday Funday, oreo cookie crumbles on ice cream! This is the second weekend in a month’s time that I have invested an entire day into the beach, so I’m happy as a plum. Here’s all the good stuff that was happening in this ever-turning world while I was re-applying my sunscreen!
This is Kate McKinnon Dressed Up as Scully in the Middle School
I figured I’d start off this week with the best thing to ever happen in the entire history of all humankind. NBD. (Thank you, Tumblr!)
This UFC Trailer is Deeply Moving
The promo video for Ronda Roussey’s upcoming UFC match against Holly Holm is, well, actually pretty good. It covers everything from gender expectations to general badassery, and probably your eyeballs and heart will enjoy it once your brain is done worrying about the glorification of casual violence. Or maybe you aren’t me at all, in which case feel free to skip that part.
Also, can I get “every revolution starts with a fight” tattooed somewhere on my body, or will you judge me? Or worse, will you or some drunken man try to fight me. JUST TELL ME THE TRUTH.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=159&v=2jSKMoXTvaQ
When Pregnancy is a Revolution
Trans activist Diane Rodriguez’s boyfriend, Fernando Machado, is pregnant with her child – and they’re excited to bring new life into the world while also destroying all of the tired societal norms surrounding family, pregnancy, and child-rearing yet to come.
Diane Rodriguez, a trailblazer in Ecuador’s LGBT community, made the announcement this week on Facebook, calling her boyfriend Fernando Machado’s pregnancy “one of the biggest blessings life has given us.”
She says their pregnancy is helping to shatter “patriarchal norms” and move the chains in a society where “transsexuality is viewed as the strangest type of diversity in the LGBT” community.”
“Some people are for this and some are against it, but that doesn’t make us uncomfortable. We knew that would happen and we were prepared because our goal is to shake the moral foundation in Ecuador and other countries,” Rodriguez told me. “What people need to understand is that our love is bearing fruit in the form of a child. We have wanted this effusively, and now it’s a reality.”
Ireland is Super Close to Marriage Equality
First, gay marriage won by popular vote in Ireland, making gay history. Then, half of its parliament advanced the Marriage Bill. Now, we take over the entire world in a flurry of rainbows, drag balls, and what I can only assume will be actual tsunamis of glitter. True / False.
Engaygment Photos to Melt Your Heart
Let’s take a break from our regularly scheduled lives to smile like total goofs at this adorable queer engagement photoshoot from Disneyland, apparent home of queer magic.
Assorted High Schoolers: “F*ck Westboro Baptist Church”
When the Westboro Baptist Church decided to troll a Oak Park high school for electing a trans prom queen, they clearly didn’t know who they were fucking with.
Students at Oak Park High School in Kansas City, Missouri, were greeted by protestors from Westboro Baptist Church last week after they elected a transgender homecoming queen… But they were quickly met with a counter protest by students supporting Landon Patterson, the transgender homecoming queen. Students carried their own signs of support and drove the church members away from their school as they passionately chanted: “Long live the queen!”
It’s Britney [Going All Out for Spirit Day], Bitch
Britney’s dedicating her October 14th Vegas show to LGBT youth in honor of spirit day, and she’s getting the audience – and the rest of the strip – in on the action, too.
Happy Birthday, Bo!
The president’s dog is the same age as my dog, and much furrier. Happy birthday to one of the most recognized beasts in the world!
https://twitter.com/FaustJulie/status/652488010173390849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Call me deluded, but I’d still like to hold out for the no-fight-needed (as in physical annihilation) kind of revolutions we still need to have for there to be actual acceptance of diversity and equality (not to mention peace) between people …
So, yeah, don’t get that tattoo.
Fights aren’t necessarily physical.
I think we all need a little fight in us, especially since women are so socialized to be agreeable and get along at all costs.
There are things in the world to be angry about. I find the more I can turn that clean-burning anger outwards towards the systems and perpetrators who deserve it, the less I direct it inward, where it turns into a kind of toxic, self-hating bog of sadness.
To live and try to be happy and to keep fighting the big bads and also make the time and energy to have compassion for myself — it’s a fight, every day. Dialethia is right. The most important fights aren’t physical.
So yeah, good tattoo :-)
Well, that was one kick ass vid!
Physical feminism FTW!
Btw, I abhor violence. For me, martial arts has always been about fighting myself not other people, and even when sparring, it has usually been about the mind, not about some expression of aggression.
Get that tat, is what I’m saying, not all fights take place in an octagon.
I want that tattoo, too!! Rousey is a little nutty, but I love the message she’s sending to little girls everywhere. That video made me cry. Did you know her mom was the first American, male or female, to win the world judo championship? And that she and her mom are women of color (afro-venezuelan and white)? I love her.
Ronda Rousey is transphobic as hell, and to be honest it makes me really uncomfortable seeing people ignore that. It’s just history on repeat. Transmisogyny/transphobia is admissible if the cis woman is deemed a good role model for other cis women.
That being said, long live the queen!
I think having a problematic fav isn’t a bad thing. Plenty of celebs are fucked up, celebs that AS and other social justice-focused sites glorify. To say that Ronda Rousey isn’t pushing through barriers for women is factually inaccurate. And that’s important for little girls to see. Very important. So yeah, I value her existence immensely. I think having her around when I was a little girl would’ve done wonders for my idea of what women were capable of and what they could accomplish.
See also: HRC only JUST started supporting gay marriage (like in the last five years), Caitlyn Jenner is a Republican, Ireland Baldwin is a big fan of redface, Demi Lovato doesn’t get that racism is a thing, Angel Haze is antichoice, Britney Griner and Glory Johnson’s relationship was romanticized even though domestic violence was a thing, etc etc etc.
When you say little girls, do you mean little cis girls? Because if I heard her call me an “it” when I was a little girl it would of been pretty traumatic. But the ends justify the means right?
Also putting systemic oppression on the same playing field as systemic oppression doesn’t make sense to me.
Besides the point, I also don’t think we’d be having this conversation on this website if she had made lesbophobic comments.
I actually meant to post this as a general comment, but it wound up as a reply somehow.
Also, I have problematic favs too. I really like a lot of the work that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do, but I’d never position them as role models for young girls, because of how racist they can be at times.
A good role model for girls is a good role model for all girls, and part of that means not willfully participating in the oppression of some girls.
Also, Rousey is a “truther” about 9/11 and Sandy Hook. So she says/believes a lot of dumb shit. I still think she’s doing incredible things for women and girls and breaking all the glass ceilings…like physically breaking them. With her fists.
I agree. It really broke my trans heart to read her comments about Fallon Fox, and how she refers to her with male pronouns.
It really sucks doesn’t it? I feel like I have to hold my breath before I let myself get excited about a cis woman doing awesome work.
It’s like does this person hate us too?
Britney Spears, forever the queen of my heart.
I really enjoyed that UFC video. It’s a great message especially for the young ones. You can do anything that the boys can do
Baby Scully Kate Mackinnon also looks like Angela Chase!
So cute, and bad ass!
This was said already by a few trans women upthread, I just wanted to add my voice to amplify their comments on Ronda Roussey. While I agree that a lot of our faves are problematic, because they are all human and no human being is perfect, I do also think that it’s important, especially on Autostraddle, to at least acknowledge the ways in which the faves that we gush over are oppressors of the various communities that Autostraddle represents. Praising Roussey uncritically, with no acknowledgment of the harm she has done to the trans community, is not worthy of what Autostraddle strives (usually very effectively) to be. While Roussey’s achievements are undoubtably commendable, they will always be tinged by her transphobia, at least until she apologizes and changes her tune (because people can and do change).
Some stuff is just kind of a deal-breaker for me when it comes to personal heroes. Transphobia is a deal-breaker. So is Scientology, domestic violence / violence against women (Xander Harris, say it ain’t so!), and Ugg boots with shorts. Heroes be warned!
<3333 jamie and jac <33333