A. Von Edge: GWSS 3404: Fall 2015

Ashley's Super Duper Totally Rad Transnational Sexualities Blog-O-Rama

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Yep, this is me. Finals weeks has me flustered.

Anywho, thanks for an amazing semester, GWSS 3404! 

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Course and topics: Optional topics post

Reflect on your developing thoughts on the course and the topics

We have covered so many topics that had never been given enough of a focus in my previous classes. I really appreciated that our readings came from different authors each week instead of taking the knowledge from a single textbook. I’ve realized the importance of looking at a subject from other people’s perspective. When I am gathering an opinion on a non-western subject or interest, I’ve learned to look at that issue from many different angles instead of just looking from someone’s perspective that is more or less the same as me. I’ve also learned that while it’s a good idea to look outside our personal bubble, that it can also lead some structures to try to implement change where that form of change is not wanted or needed.

As we discussed global right’s organizations or NGOs, we’ve been exposed to the problematic nature of forcing one’s ideas of what is humane or natural onto a society that doesn’t share the same beliefs. So often these actions come from a political standpoint, and those in charge are just trying to gain personal benefit from “rescuing” others.

Then there are topics like HIV and AIDS that should be more popular and discussed concerning global issues, but those topics are brushed over and seen as a problem for “them” not “us. The film that we watched about the organization that was working to create change concerning the narrative used to discuss the HIV/AIDS epidemic was very powerful. I appreciated that the film showed a wide range of people who were affected by the epidemic and it showed the sort of grassroots organizations that worked to eradicate the virus and disease from their communities.

Overall, I have found this course to be very powerful. While I wasn’t sure how I felt the classroom dynamic to be in the beginning, I thought that our class was able to be honest and open with each other by the ends of it. It was beneficial to sit in the circle formation everyday, so that we could really be face to face with each other when we were discussing such important and valuable subjects. I also think that is why it was hard to share in class at times, but it made me push through my own insecurities, which I think I am better for today.

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Emma Watson: Optional topic post

For this optional topic post, I will be writing about Emma Watson and her organization #HeForShe. Emma Watson is a 25 year old actress, who is most notably known for her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series. Recently though, she has made a name for herself as a global women’s rights activist. From what I’ve gathered from the internet encyclopedia, Watson began her involvement in philanthropy when we began working with People Tree, a fashion label that promotes fair trade. In 2014, she was appointed as an UN Women Goodwill Ambassador where she is able to give voice to issues surrounding women's rights and equality. With this appointment, she gave a very powerful and moving speech that also highlighted her new organization, HeForShe. Here is a quote from Watson’s UN speech: 

“I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.

Why is the word such an uncomfortable one? I am from Britain and think it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights.”

HeForShe’s main campaign goal is, “to spread awareness and spark action on the responsibility that men and boys have in eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and violence against women and girls.” This was taken from their “Action Kit,” which includes many documents about what the campaign’s goals and mission statements are, as well as ways to implement the various needs of the people they are fighting for. While I acknowledge the positive changes they are trying to make for women worldwide, I also take issue with some of their generalizations and proposed ways for solving women’s inequality worldwide. All in all though, I appreciate that she is working for women’s rights and although I fault some of the organization's methods, I think too often we fault feminism more harshly or more quickly than we would other organizations.

For more information: 

http://www.heforshe.org/

To watch Watson’s full UN speech, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-iFl4qhBsE

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Sex Work: Optional topic post

For this week’s optional topic post, I will be writing about the topic of “Reflect on your developing thoughts on the course and the topics.” I want to write about sex work and sex workers to process through my thoughts on the subject. Many of my friends as well as the classes I’m taking have been discussing sex work lately. Whether that be in the context of a health perspective or a rights-based discussion, I have gathered a lot of opinion-based information about this all recently.

My good friend Anna, who I re-blog a lot from, recently had done some zine work about sex workers. Here is a quote from their tumblr, “110% believe decriminalizing sex work is a feminist and queer issue and something all allies should be fighting for. Decriminalizing sex work should be a conversation that comes up in queer/feminist circles but is rarely discussed, is rarely organized into action. I’m not saying that people need to speak for sex workers, rather to support them, to do some of the grunt work, to take some of the backlash. Check out Sex Workers Outreach Project for more info on decriminalization versus legalization and ally resources!” I agree with Anna’s shared opinion that sex work is something that needs to be brought up in feminist circles more often. I find it controversial that it doesn’t, but I can see many reasons why it doesn’t. Even though many feminists believe in sex-positivity or sexual liberation, for some reason sex and sexuality are viewed differently when money is involved.

Overall, I hold a very limited opinion on sex work. I value the idea that everyone needs to make money, and that people should be able to use or not use their body as each person feels fit to do so. I think that my preconceived stereotype about sex work fogs my actual opinion on the matter. I find myself judging the conversation, but then when I push past my biases, I realize that I don’t have valid reasons for those judgments, and I believe they are there just from negative media and political representations of sex work. This is why I have appreciated so much information about sex work, so that I can better understand the subject and all that it can encompass. 

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support!

I 110% believe decriminalizing sex work is a feminist and queer issue and something all allies should be fighting for. Decimalizing sex work should be a conversation that comes up in queer/feminist circles but is rarely discussed, is rarely organized into action. I’m not saying that people need to speak for sex workers, rather to support them, to do some of the grunt work, to take some of the backlash. Check out Sex Workers Outreach Project for more info on decriminalization versus legalization and ally resources!  Anyways, did a drawing about it. 

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The Wedding Banquet discussion: Optional topic post

The Wedding Banquet was a very enjoyable movie to watch. I felt myself instantly following along to the storyline and feeling a sort of kinship to the characters straight away. I appreciated that a lot of the movie was not in English, which let me watch the movie and feel involved rather than dissecting every word that was spoken.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Wai-Tung and Simon are talking about what Wai-Tung should put on the list of requests for what he is looking for in a bride. They joke about her needing to have 2 PhDs, sing opera, be 5’9’’ (which came down from 5’11’), along with other requirements. One of the following scenes is Wai-Tung struggling to carry this women’s luggage as they talk about all the qualities she shared from that exaggerated list. Then when Wei-Wei dramatically confronts Wai-Tung at the lunch with this new woman, I knew I loved with Wei-Wei!

I appreciated the ending to the movie and how the father was much more aware and therefore accepting of what was going on than he had let on to the family. The scene with him and Simon out by the water was a beautiful example of breaking down stereotypes. I did critique this scene in my final essay, but for how it represents the father, I really did find it heartwarming. The critique I shared in my essay was that I was skeptical of if the father would have been so empathetic with Simon if he would have not had a grandchild on the way. My sister is dating someone who comes from a very traditional and strict Chinese family and she just told his parents that she was pregnant. She thought they would be okay with it once they processed that they would be getting a grandchild from their only son, but it has been a few weeks not and they are still not responding positively to the news. Everyone takes in information differently, regardless of the community or culture you are from.

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Week 13:

In “Gay Imperialism”, Haritaworn, Tauqir and Erdem talk about the integration project of civilizing “homophobic immigrants” (14). What is this project of integration? How does this affect LGBT Muslims, according to the authors?

The integration project of civilizing “homophobic immigrants” is a way to politicize and gain attention on two topics that are always quick to be used when it is beneficial for the ones speaking out against the subjects. Gay rights and immigration are two areas that are quick to be portrayed in politics and power. As was stated in Gay Imperialism, the ‘integration of gay migrants’ is a way for white gays to “stake out their territory in the lucrative integration game and entering mainstream politics” (14). This follows the problematic idea that gay rights can be seen as universal and the rights wanted or needed (depending on who’s talking about them) can be seen as the same for all gay communities involved.

The project of integration is a political tool used by outsiders to invoke and prescribe change to the insiders. When the outsiders gain traction with this prescription of change, they can then be seen as a powerful symbol. The article stated a great quote about this; “.. the colonial trope of the white man’s burden, who forgoes his own needs for the sake of saving the poor victims who cannot help themselves” (16). When Western organizations are seen helping those that are “less fortunate,” they are seen as “global champions of ‘civilisation’, ‘modernity’ and ‘development’” (16). Specifically in regards to this article, this project of integration affects LGBT Muslims because not only “represents gay Muslims as victims without agency who cannot represent themselves,” but it also portrays the Muslim community as the “ideological token victim who must be liberated from its ‘barbaric, backward’ society, by menas that include political and military violence” (16). I know I’m quoting a lot from the article, but as I was reading I really found their words to carry a lot of strength. The idea that LGBT Muslims come from a place that is at odds with ‘western values’ will only lead to great political involvement, which typically results in violence for everyone involved.

Jin Haritaworn, Tamsila Tauqir and Esra Erdem, “Gay Imperialism: Gender and Sexuality Discourse in the ‘War on Terror’”, in Adi Kuntsman and Esperanza Miyake (eds), Out of Place: interrogating silences in queer raciality. London: Raw Nerve Books, 2008. Pp 9-33.  

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Week 11:

According to Joseph Massad, how do US military and political interests in North Africa and the Middle East impact discussions of sexual rights?

US military and political interests in North Africa and the Middle East impact discussions of sexual rights because of the “Western interventionist trends and their effects on the contemporary Arab world”  that Joseph Massad speaks about in their article, Re-Orienting Desire (160). Colonization is often spoken about in terms of physical locations, but Massad refers to colonization in terms of thought processes and areas of knowledge as well. As the West worked on sexual liberation in their own nations, they also sought out the liberalization and “universalization of ‘gay rights’” internationally (160). Through organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the West was able to spread their beliefs about human rights, including sexual liberation and gay rights into other nations. Western-led NGOs try to change and spread the idea of gay rights, which can be looked at as that as a type of a missionary task and a way to spread cultural tolerance. This is problematic because then these rights are perceived to not exist in those areas already.

It is also problematic when organizations are labeled as international groups, but ran primarily by specific regions. The title of an international group is then misleading because the actions are still being represented from a Western-led perspective. When an issue becomes politicized, such as sexual rights in North Africa and the Middle East many organizations are going to jump on board to help “save” or “liberate” those that are deemed less fortunate. As Massad writes, “By inciting discourse on homosexual and gay and lesbian rights and identities, the epistemology, nay, the very ontology of gayness is instituted in such discourse” (174). Massad goes on to write that when gayness is politicized, it is turned to “support them or oppose them” (174). Issues such as telling people how they should identify reaffirms the need for a label to be visible within LGBT politics.

Joseph Massad, “Re-Orienting Gay Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World”, in Desiring Arabs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. 160-190

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Racialization and Sexuality: Week 8

I have felt conflicted lately about the spaces I inhabit lately because of my continued education about hegemony. I am a white female who is in a monogamous, heterosexual married relationship. I am college educated and come from a middle-class family. I was raised in a very white part of California and have absolutely benefited throughout my life from my white privilege. I have had my fair share of hardships, but I came out of those hardships better off than someone with less societal privileges would have.

With that, in regards to the prompt, I have thought a lot about my sexuality in retrospect and how racialization and sexuality have been intertwined in the communities I’ve inhabited. I appreciated how the articles this week spoke about breaking down our preconceived ideas about what is normal and abnormal, and who defines those areas in different communities. Alok Vaid- Menon writes, “I want us to think about our sexual desire as a process much like our academic intelligence. We need to learn about what turns us on, why it turns us on, how we feel about it. This process – like any other absorption of knowledge – is collective: we must encourage being called out, questioned, and not retreat into the domain of identity politics and subjecthood (but I’m gay…you don’t understand).” While I feel conflicted about my sexuality and how I’ve come to understand and to analyze my beliefs, I believe that the article “For Lack of a Better Word” really helps to put into words how sexuality is still a mysterious and misguided area of knowledge.

Alok Vaid- Menon’s article “For Lack of a Better Word” can be found at:

http://returnthegayze.com/2012/01/27/for-lack-of-a-better-word/

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Pronouns plus work

A small quick thing

This week I wanted to expand on identities. I read Sammy's post and it reminded me of a friend's tumblr post from a couple weeks ago. Here's a link to their blog:

http://bikesbabesandbooze.tumblr.com/

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My friend and I chatted about pronouns a while back and they really helped me work through some of the things I've been contemplating concerning pronouns and identities. I had recently come back from the National Young Feminist Leadership Conference held out in DC and really wanted to share with them everything I learned and experienced during that event. A few things stuck out to me and I knew my pal would have good feedback for me. At that conference, a friend of mine said, "I know this is terrible of me, but I'm so sick of having to write and tell my preferred pronoun all the time!" I kind of looked at them in disbelief and all I could say in that moment was, "Yep, that is pretty terrible of you." Not the most constructive response, but I was just shocked that this friend of mine was so self-absorbed in their own privilege in that moment. Everyone has the right to their own opinion, blah blah, it was good that they said what they really thought, blah blahhhh whatever, nope. It's fine that they don't feel the struggle of constantly being mislabeled, but it's not okay that they feel like it's such a burden to do something so easy for them that makes a huge difference for someone else.

I shared with my friend that I was curious about using they/them pronouns, and asked them what they thought about my interest in using those pronouns. I feel very feminine some days, much more masculine some, and somewhere else on the continuum other days. I really enjoy and feel more comfortable having my gender be fluid and I acknowledge that I am not alone in this enjoyment and recognition. While I am still learning and processing my identity, I also acknowledge that pronouns are a piece of larger puzzle. I feel as though I learned a lot from Rubin’s piece, “Thinking Sex” and reading that piece helped me to contextualize why some identities are accepted and normalized when others are not.

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Week 8

How do racialization and sexuality interact in the communities you inhabit? Draw on the ideas about desire and politics in Vaid-Menon’s essays to talk about this.

When I thought about this question in class I thought about both the community I grew up in as well as the community that I inhabit now.  

I grew up in a predominately white community where we had maybe 50 people of color in my high school of over 1,600 students.  In this setting it was highly taboo to date outside of your “racial group”.  When one of my white, female friends started dating a black student rumors went flying that she was “experimenting sexually” and everyone implied that she was only dating him for the sex (largely playing into the “once you go black you never go back” stereotype).  Her relationship was only viewed by others as sexual, and completely devoid of any real feelings or emotions.  Essentially, everyone acted like they couldn’t possibly actually like each other because they were different races and that’s just crazy talk! White people can’t actually like people of color, that’s just silly!  

I would like to think that my college community is much more accepting of inter-racial relationships, but sadly I haven’t seen a whole lot of evidence to back that up.  Inter-racial friendships are definitely a common occurrence on campus, but there still doesn’t appear to be a lot of inter-racial sexual or romantic relationships.  In over two years of being around campus I’ve only seen maybe a dozen inter-racial relationships while I’ve seen hundreds of other relationships.  It seems like the community at the U is open and accepting of inter-racial relationships (at least, most people say they are), but for some reason you still don’t see a lot of them…  (Maybe I’m just not hanging out in the right places??)  Overall, it seems like inter-racial friendships are better tolerated as well.  Any time sex is thrown in the mix a lot of stereotypes seem to get thrown in as well (like the idea that Asian men have small penises, black men have large penises, black women being hypersexualized with a focus on their butts, etc.).

This really made me think about my own sexual/romantic relationships…in high school I only ever dated white guys (but then again, this makes a lot of sense given the predominately white school I went to).  And now, after being at the U of M for over two years and being exposed to many more potential partners of more racially diverse backgrounds I’ve still only ever dated white guys.  I always thought of myself as being open to dating anyone as long as our personalities match well, but looking back I’ve never really experienced strong romantic attraction to anyone of color.  Now, how much of this is simply personal preference (like being more attracted to tall guys or blonde guys) and how much of it is influenced by the lack of racial diversity I experienced growing up I’m not really sure about.  I thought about the same thing when reading Vaid-Menon’s writing; was their desire for white men just because of a desire to be like the oppressor, or could some of it simply be explained by personal preference in characteristics of partners?  I definitely think it’s important to think about the ways that racialization and sexuality intersect both from a societal standpoint and from your own individual experiences.  

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I had a really similar setting growing up as it sounds like you did. When I look back on why I chose to date who I did, I feel very conflicted on whether that it was just individual preference or was it a racial choice because of the learned racial biases.. I didn’t grow up with any overt racial scripts, but did the medias portrayal of POC and the general institutionalized racist tones play that big of a part in the people I’ve dated in my life? I appreciated this weeks discussions because it allowed me to take a critical look at my own sexuality and desires. 

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Attention GWSS 3404:

How do we submit our annotated bibliography? Do we bring a hard-copy to class tomorrow or...? 

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Prompt for Week 6:

This book has been highly criticized, and I appreciate that. The author, Inga Muscio, writes in an unabashed and strong voice that pulls you to read more. As is said on the back cover, "With humor and candor, she shares her own history as she explores the cultural forces that influence women's relationships with their bodies." There were many times when reading this book I felt as though she was writing my story, even though her and I have such different backgrounds. Other times, I was completely confused. 

I had heard about this book before, with a title like Cunt, it’s hard to not remember it. I was assigned to read this book for a class called “Women and Empowerment.” It is not an academic text, even though it goes over many important events and issues in history. I appreciated that this book was not full of academic jargon because as bell hooks has theorized, when feminist theory becomes too engulfed with words and ideas that are not able to be understood by the masses, then it loses some of its power. Cunt is on the opposite end of the spectrum, especially compared to an author like Judith Butler whose work has been highly critiqued because it is not written for the average person.

All in all, I believe this to be a book that encourages empowerment and gives words to many emotions that I haven't been able to express until after reading this book. And with some of the chapter titles, how could you not want to read this book? "Cuntist Mystique" "Orgasms for Cunts" "Cuntlovin' Guide to the Universe", oh yeah! Also, my dogs approve, so there's that.

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IPV Myths Holding Us Back From Helping LGBTQIA+ Survivors

GO READ THE REST HERE PLZ!  A wordy comic about intimate partner violence in queer relationships. Please read and share! 

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re-blogging this old one so it can get some more attention. 

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With our discussions on sexuality and gender in this class, I felt like this was a powerful piece to share. I hope it made everyone more thoughtful about their presence and their relationships with others. 

For this week, I am choosing to post a video from one of my favorite slam poets, Ollie Schminkey. I really appreciate and I just am really into the ways they break down these ideas, struggles, and the real shit people in this world go through. From their website, “Ollie Renee Schminkey is a genderqueer poet/activist who is the director of the Macalester Poetry Slam and (as an official Word Sprout collaborator) the founder of Well-Placed Commas, a weekly poetry workshop to serve the needs of the Twin Cities area.” (http://ollieschminkey.weebly.com/about.html)

In this video “How to Love Your Body in 10 Easy Steps”, I felt like they were sharing the ways in which society oppresses people who are not cis-gendered or gender non-conforming. When Ollies says, “Blame yourself for not being a more convenient sin”, that really struck me. So many people, myself included, have been trained to follow these structural guidelines and set of rules for how a woman is supposed to and not supposed to act. I often feel guilty and self-conscious when I think of my gender and my gender expression, even though in so many other aspects of my life, I typically feel the opposite. This video brought words to many ideas I’ve been trying to translate lately. (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On3NXRqq6VE)

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holy shit what an amazing poem ahhhh

*( slight correction in your post about the ED in cisgender. It’s simply just cisgender or transgender - its an adjective, not a verb. I doing go transgendering around :P  )

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That makes sense, lol. Thanks for correcting!

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Tumblr Prompt for Week 4:

How do the ideas and the assumptions about sexuality Gayle Rubin talks about in “Thinking Sex” compare to ideas and assumptions about sexuality now, in 2015? What new standards and assumptions about sexuality can you think of?

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In the past 40 or so years, sexuality has been on a trend of liberation. Being ‘sexy’ or having overt sexuality is accepted as long as it’s being portrayed in some form of media, or at least in a hetero-normative standard; people are not shocked by incredibly sexualized advertisements on television, in magazines, or on billboards. While someone may still get a bit surprised if a woman actually walked down the street in lingerie, if that happened in a commercial or in a mainstream film, then it would be as if that was normal.

Some new standards and assumptions about sexuality could be that toys and kink are not as taboo as they were once thought of. With books like Fifty Shades of Grey being released, the idea of bdsm and kink are not as hush-hush as they once were. I also think that sexual orientations have become more acknowledged in the public sphere, which sets new standards for them. With actors and actresses coming out as gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual, the public sets a new standard for these areas of sexuality. As Rubin discussed in regards to the “Charmed Circle,” most of those areas could be revised to fit the new ideas and assumptions about sexuality. I also think that the ‘sex-positive’ and ‘body-positive’ movements show a revision to the assumptions and ideas Rubin is faced with when she wrote Thinking Sex in 1984.

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With our discussions on sexuality and gender in this class, I felt like this was a powerful piece to share. I hope it made everyone more thoughtful about their presence and their relationships with others. 

For this week, I am choosing to post a video from one of my favorite slam poets, Ollie Schminkey. I really appreciate and I just am really into the ways they break down these ideas, struggles, and the real shit people in this world go through. From their website, "Ollie Renee Schminkey is a genderqueer poet/activist who is the director of the Macalester Poetry Slam and (as an official Word Sprout collaborator) the founder of Well-Placed Commas, a weekly poetry workshop to serve the needs of the Twin Cities area.” (http://ollieschminkey.weebly.com/about.html)

In this video “How to Love Your Body in 10 Easy Steps”, I felt like they were sharing the ways in which society oppresses people who are not cis-gendered or gender non-conforming. When Ollies says, “Blame yourself for not being a more convenient sin”, that really struck me. So many people, myself included, have been trained to follow these structural guidelines and set of rules for how a woman is supposed to and not supposed to act. I often feel guilty and self-conscious when I think of my gender and my gender expression, even though in so many other aspects of my life, I typically feel the opposite. This video brought words to many ideas I’ve been trying to translate lately. (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On3NXRqq6VE)