#simple explanations

[weavingbetweenworlds-blog]

How to read weaving patterns.

[meta-plastic]

Observation on the use of starred-out slurs:

The purpose of starring out a slur, I've noticed, particularly in context of discussion or theory about bigotry, is a metatextual communication to the reader. Specifically to readers who have been hurt by these words. It does not remove the information contained in the word, but it changes the emotional impact. It tells the reader: "I, the author, am cognizant that this word was used to hurt you, and hurting you is not my goal." It establishes trust.

To a reader who has not been harmed with that word, this metatextual information seems absent or pointless. Thus the clueless derails: "I don't get why you do that; it's obvious what word you mean!" (And, I'll add, if an author uses a starred-out slur in an insulting fashion, it negates the metatextual information; at that point they're basically just using the slur.)

There are definitely contexts where it can be more appropriate to use a slur intact: for instance, fiction or poetry that touches on lived experience. In those instances, the emotional impact is meant to stay.

But outside of that sort of context, it can be easier to establish civil and open discussions with people when you've let them know that you're not going to carelessly lob a bomb through their door.

[brayinghorses]

Holy crap what?

[brayinghorses]

Oh

[leahaday]

Oh gosh I think I understand everything now. It all makes sense once you have zombies and cats in the picture.

[tracymsga-blog]

Stone Butch Blues: A Novel

Published in 1993, this brave, original novel is considered to be the finest account ever written of the complexities of a transgendered existence.Woman or man? Thats the question that rages like a storm around Jess Goldberg, clouding her life and her identity. Growing up differently gendered in a blue--collar town in the 1950s, coming out as a butch in the bars and factories of the prefeminist 60s, deciding to pass as a man in order to survive when she is left without work or a community in the early 70s. This powerful, Stone Butch Blues: A Novel provocative and deeply moving novel sees Jess coming full circle, she learns to accept the complexities of being a transgendered person in a world demanding simple explanations: a he-she emerging whole, weathering the turbulence.