June 30th, 2008 maggie
I haven’t been to the Boston Dyke March in a few years since I work on Friday nights, but this morning I enjoyed looking at MassResistance’s report. MassResistance is our super looney right wing anti-lgbtq organization and they love to go to queer events, take pictures, and then pretend to be shocked and appalled. I was looking at pictures, laughing at their offensive commentary, when I saw this.
Okay, the dyke march is all about clever, snarky signs. But that is just not cool. You can’t see the person holding the sign in this picture, so we can’t guess anything about hir or why ze might think such a sign is clever and cool. For a lot of us, Pride breeds insecurity about how we are seen and our place in the community. Why someone would think this is a good idea is beyond me.
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June 27th, 2008 maggie
I just had to share. One of my best friends gave me these. Read the rest of this entry »
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June 27th, 2008 Sassafras
It’s funny, this blog was going to be all about analyzing whether or not I still was functioning with a fair amount of internalized femme phobia surrounding the fact that I have been lusting after my freedom rings that I bought the first year I was out (then replaced a few years later) and how I wish I still had them even though they are an item of jewelry that I have not had in years. It’s pride weekend here in NYC and I keep thinking about how if I still really want them this would be the time to replace them, but then I stop myself and think about why I’m wanting to have them, and what I would gain by wearing them. After all, I have pride tattoos and those don’t seem to make me any more visible, and why is it that part of me is suddenly chasing after visibility (again) all of a sudden?
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June 24th, 2008 maggie
I’m back in the studio, rehearsing and tweaking my “Small Stone” solo for summer performances. That’s the bruise I get on my hip from rolling over and over on the hard floor. I love bruises, from dance and from other activities. I love having evidence on my body of hard work or adventures.
Dancers are social animals, and I’ve always done best with external motivation. So it’s hard choreographing on myself, then being my own director and coach. I run the solo trying to have two voices in my head. The dancer’s voice says plie, plie, turn, stop and also connects me to the emotions of the piece: slow, thick, sad, remember how it felt that summer, hot, dusty, on my bed, rocking back in forth, she’d spoon me and then say “switch” and we’d roll over and I’d spoon her. The coach says slow down, bigger, deeper, layout, go go GO. I’m learning. Read the rest of this entry »
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June 23rd, 2008 maggie
Hey! Did you know that “glamorous lesbians” is “not an oxymoron”? Thank the powers that be that we have the Village Voice to teach us about this phenomenon! This popped up thanks to my google alert and my Femme* Roommate and I immediately started reading it and sarcastically commenting on it.
I am so sick of pieces like this that proclaim the next trend in gender or queerness. Femme is in, femme is out, butch is out, “bois” are in, “futch” is in, butch-femme is history, butch-femme is the hot new trend, oh fuck, I give up. What happened to self-definition? Can we please have a real conversation about our lives, our communities, our genders without making up fake trends that jump all over people’s identities and lives? Read the rest of this entry »
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June 20th, 2008 Sassafras
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about the ways in which “femme” is constructed and performed in the world. With that in mind, the following quote really spoke to me in this very academic theoretical thought about the social ramifications and implications of femmeness:
“[the femme is] a betrayer of legibility itself. Seemingly “normal,” she responds to “normal” expectations with a sucker punch– she occupies normality abnormally.” - Lisa Duan and Kathleen McHugh from “A Fem(me)inist Manifesto”
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June 13th, 2008 Sassafras
Yesterday I was so excited to rush home from work to discover that my copies of ‘The Femme Coloring Book’ had arrived safe and sound at my house! For those of you who have not yet heard of this fantastic project, it was edited by Caitlin Sweet and includes the drawings of femmes from all over. Each drawing celebrates or explores the femme identity of the artist. For example, my page in the book deals with the paradoxes of femme identity for me- “femme is baking cupcakes while discussing queer theory. It’s loud makeup and big tattoos. It is a trashy, sexy, and smart queer perversion of femininity!
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