feature image via Molly Adams for Autostraddle
Happy new week! I finally carved one pumpkin and decorated my house for Halloween, and I made soup yesterday, so I couldn’t feel more autumnal if I bathed in PSL and stapled a scarecrow to my backside. Are your costume plans all finalized and ready to shine? Did you go to a Halloween party over the weekend? Is it time for a second cup of coffee yet? (Yes.)
Queer as in F*ck You
+ Here you go! This is what’ll make your day 100% better!
+ I’m a Proud Queer Woman, But Here’s Why I’m Still Nervous to Come Out to Other LGBTQ People.
+ Divisiveness in Queer Spaces Undermines the Work of Change-Makers on the Front Lines.
+ Hannah Hart’s Newest Creation is Her Bravest Yet.
+ These are the Most LGBT-Friendly Cities in the United States.
+ Michelle Tea brings you A Walking Tour of the Places I Hit Rock Bottom.
+ Indonesia’s President Finally Speaks Out Against Worsening Anti-LGBT Discrimination.
+ SUICIDE KALE! Did you see the new poster, shot by Robin Roemer and designed by Alex Vega??
+ Chicano artist’s ‘Gay Lotería’ Series Celebrates Queer Love and Identity.
+ Eileen Myles on Writing and Social Media. You can also check in on Sandra Bernhard on the Pleasure and Peril of Being a Big Personality and Stevie Nicks on the Importance of Being a Romantic and even more people, because this website is very fucking cool.
+ I’m not linking to it, but shit like this is why we can’t have nice things: “Filmmaker Says Straight People Can Identify as Queer.”
Doll Parts
+ Leslie Jones is perfect, but you already knew that.
+ Pop Stars, Songwriters, and the Space Between.
+ The US States Prohibiting the Discussion of Abortion in High Schools.
+ An Arab Trans Woman, Struggling to Find Myself in Language.
+ Where Are Women in F.B.I.’s Top Ranks?
Saw This, Thought of You
+ Emmett Till Memorial in Mississippi is Now Pierced by Bullet Holes.
+ How America’s Criminal Justice System Became the Country’s Mental Health System.
+ Drone Shot, Road Reopens at Dakota Access Pipeline Protest.
+ STUDY: Race Impacts Student Referrals for Gifted, Special Education.
+ Federal Court Rules That “Even the President” Can’t Legalize Torture.
+ The Fight Against the Private Prison Industry Was Just Dealt a Huge Blow.
+ US Soldiers Told to Repay Thousands in Signing Bonuses from Height of War Effort.
+ Google Has Quietly Dropped Ban on Personally Identifiable We Tracking.
+ Liar, Liar: How the Brain Adapts to Telling Tall Tales.
+ Researches Have Found Where Depression Lives in the Brain.
+ The Power of Grieving, Even if by Proxy.
+ What “Ouija” Actually Means, and How the Game Has Changed.
+ Why do These Plants Have Metallic Blue Leaves? I don’t know, Margot.
+ The Great British Bake Off Changes the Way the British Bake.
To “I couldn’t be more autumnal,” I present this counterpoint: Kate McKinnon and Autumn’s Eve
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/autumns-eve/n42346
(Didn’t know how to embed the vid from NBC but I promise it’s worth the click through. TW for douche.)
I’m glad you didn’t link to it, but who is the filmmaker that says straight people can be queer? I have to know whose movies to scoff at for the rest of my life!
From the article:
“As an example of heterosexual queerness, Lewis shared a still from their upcoming film that showed a black man embracing his son. “I think this is queer in a way, because we are told that black men are not affectionate with their children,” Lewis said.”
When queer means everyone, it will also mean no one at all.
By that definition, this photo is super queer?
comment award
Wow. So, being queer is just defying offensive stereotypes now? Hm, ok.
https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2016/10/21/filmmaker-says-straight-people-identify-queer/ ?
I don’t agree with him but I think his opinion is more thoughtful than I expected. Worth a conversation rather than a boycott. He’s expanding the word “queer” to mean too much, but part of the point he makes is about how a heterosexual but non-gender conforming person could be “queer”, or how straight white cis men who have a “no fats no femme” attitude (for example) may be “gay” but not “queer”. I’ve had the same convo with people at a-camp.
also I just read more and learned that jamal uses “they” pronouns… my mistake ?
Yeah, I think this is some of what Cathy J Cohen gets at in her essay “Punks, Bulldaggers and Welfare Queens” (you can find a pdf if you google it, it’s from 1997). She makes a case for expanding queerness to include all people’s who sexuality is deemed inappropriate by patriarchal white supremacy. So for example, it would include a straight single mom of color because white supremacist ideology says that women of color have too many kids, shouldn’t have kids without being with a partner, etc. I think it’s an interesting thing to talk about! :)
I don’t know what the article says, but I know of straight Trans* folk who identify as being queer.
For myself, my feeling is the intent is the important thing. There is a world of difference between “Here is a community I feel safer and more accepted in” versus “I feel cooler and edgier by calling myself this (but can change my mind anytime something better for me comes along)”.
absolutely true
that article about vets being forced to repay signing bonuses was INFURIATING.
The military gets to lie to soldiers to get them to re-enlist and then punish them for believing it.
I really disagree with Hannah Hart’s recipe for saving queer women’s media. I really don’t get it – which one “compromised” to a higher degree, Autostraddle or AfterEllen, and which one’s still standing? I am a fan of hers for many reasons, but this talk is a huge question mark.
That piece about being reluctant or uncertain coming out to other queer folks, that was so relatable. I am also a bi femme Latina (and I’m in a relationship with a cis man), so all of the unpacking in there, I have in stages in my life as well. I do applaud that she’s more comfortable than I was at her age (I’m mid 30s). And I feel positively overall about youth and discovery and all the resources we have available now.
Yet, so much is familiar in there. I’ve found community with other bi women and nonbinary folks most of all, but the ‘not queer enough’ worries, comparisons, and other assorted questions are a reality.
Popping in to say I see the hell out of you. As another bi femme cisman-dating lady traditionally sweating feelings <3
Heteroromantic aces might fit the bill of “straight, identifies as queer”.
noooooope
omg that GBBO article made me cry I was not prepared for this
I looked up the “Filmmaker Says Straight People Can Identify as Queer” article and I think it’s an instance of a journalist giving a terrible title to an interview. The filmmaker in question (Jamal Lewis) uses they pronouns and cites “their black, gender-nonconforming, and fat identities as an integral part of their queer identity.” They’re working on a documentary called No Fats No Femmes that sounds awesome:
“No Fats, No Femmes interrogates and explores desire and the ways in which it is deeply informed by media, pop culture, and capitalism through interviews, archival research, and performance. The film critically engages the phrase ‘no fats, no femmes,’ which is popularly used on queer social networking/dating sites to describe one’s dating preferences, through the personal narrative(s) of 5 Black and Brown gender-non-conforming, queer, trans, fat, femme, and disabled people.”
I don’t think Jamal is an enemy here!
Wait Leslie Jones is 49?! Damn woman, being absurdly awesome apparently also makes you ageless.
Also I’m not saying I’m asking, but I’m asking.
I know, right?
Lennie & Pearl though
I think I actually, literally turned into a queer puddle of happiness watching that video
I know, right?
I shouldn’t be surprised or shocked at the defacement of Emmett Till’s memorial but stupidly, somehow I am.
Appalled, disgusted but I shouldn’t feeling shock.
I know better than that.