Intro To Transtudies Blog

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Extra Credit Post

In this video Cece McDonald and Monica James address issue that trans women of color experience in Chicago. Issues like criminilazation of trans individuals, sex trade, police brutality, killing of not only black men, but black women, discrimination, and suicide. Both Cece and Monica communicate in a manner that is approachable and personal which made their message more meaningful and understandable. I loved their realness because it made these issues personal. The link is available below for those who want to watch these two powerful women talk about issues that matter and need to be addressed. 

One of the things I appreciated was something Cece said, which was something along the lines of celebrating our trans women now who are alive, not just those who have died. This reminded me of one of the reading from class that was about remembering the trans people who have been killed because of their gender identity, but that we need to celebrate our trans people that are alive. I really appreciated this because if we can celebrate and accept trans people we can lower the death rates of trans lives, and hopefully end the discrimination.

I think one of the most important things that I got from this video was the importance of the community. Cece’s was helped by her community when she was attacked, and Monica was helped by her community when she was being sentenced on unjust charges. They both expressed the importance of community and how they were helped to now being advocates bringing communities together to fight. 

Overall, I would really recommend to everyone to take some time and watch this video. I feel like that sometimes in a school setting there’s words, or academic language that goes over my head, but Cece and Monica lay it out in a way that is comprehensible and accessible to all audiences.

YouTube video

Photo Cred 

[transstudieskat-blog]

Donna watched the Black Trans Lives Matter video. She noted the powerful moment when Cece asks people celebrate the lives of trans women who are alive as well as those you have passed. I really loved this moment. I think this celebration could help bring acceptance. She also saw the ways in which community was emphasized. I also wrote about this theme, I think that much change can come from a strong based, but the base is strengthen through love and understanding. The level accessibility is something Donna wants notes as a strong suit for the video and I agree.

[cbooth4gws-blog]

Extra Credit Post: BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER

In the video, Trans activists of color Cece McDonald and Monica James held a talk and discussion on black trans issues, with the main issues being targeted being the institutional racism and it’s relationship to trans people of color and transmisogyny within the trans community. Cece McDonald is a  black trans woman who was charged  for defending herself in a fight with a man who she called a “neo nazi”, whom had a swastika tattoo. After the assault, she was arrested and sent to an all male prison.  Monica James has been targeted by the police for years and now uses that experience to shed light on the abuses tran women receive from the criminal justice system.

Cece starts off making a powerful point that she might not have been there for the discussion if she was roaming the street alone when she was attacked, that she could have been “another name on a day that is given to us to remember our fallen sisters”; and that we should not wait to celebrate our trans activists when they are gone, but to appreciate them and are behind them and support them in the now. I also like that she pointed out that just because trans stars like Laverne Cox and Janet Mock are on TV, does not mean that the struggle is over, and that cis people should think about how to acknowledge those innate privileges on a day to day basis and think how can  use that to help trans women of color without taking the space of trans women, with an emphasis of agency. Monica James talked a lot about the activism needed, and how proud she was of the black trans presence at the event. She goes on to talk about that trans women make up 5% of the US population, yet they make up 20% of the prison population because of being targeted by police. She mentioned again that there needs to be more people involved in this movement because it was by chance that her and Cece were able to get out of facing many years of jail time, and if they would have been put away, who would be helping advocate for them?

I knew that there was a disparity between trans women of color being targeted by the police than white people, as there is in regards to most minorities, but that number shocked me. It is really hard to fathom that even though Trans POCs make up 5% of the population that 20% of them are put away in prisons.The systematic erasure of the black trans woman is real! I appreciated the fact that these ladies were able to get their points across in way that was understandable and relatable, which is something that I don’t see often from people who are well knowledged on the topic they are speaking about. Over all I found this to be a very insightful video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEr9q7594tA&feature=youtu.be&t=5m44s

[transstudieskat-blog]

Codi watch the Black Trans Lives Matters video and was interested in the incarceration of trans women and the way that the speaker chose to express themselves. I was also really shocked when i found out that there was such a big disparity in the number of trans women in the us and the number of trans women incarcerated. I think the way that both speakers talked was more in the direction that we need to go in. I think talking to a room of people in academic ways is not always effective in movements, however wee need to keep producing academic writing. 

[transstudieskat-blog]

Extra Credit : Black Trans Lives Matter

I watched the Black Trans Lives Matter—featuring CeCe McDonald and Monica James. In the video CeCe McDonald talks about transmisogyny and racism. She places emphasis on being “more real” on stage and speaking in away that accessible to everyone. Society has made a mold and she wants to break it and have people tell their own story. She wants to see more than tolerance, she wants acceptance of Trans lives, not just when lives are taken but while they are being lived. McDonald talks about the Prison Industrial Complex and she came into learning about it and becoming a leader in the movement. She always intersections of oppression to be acknowledged, she sees this in the BLM movement in saying that it’s not a movement for just black men’s lives, that we have to speak about all lives of colors. Acknowledging privileges and making space for more knowledge is something is going to help all “liberal” people. She talks about not needing people to fight trans people’s fights but to fight with them. Radical versus Revolutionary means that seeing change is not enough, taking charge and have your voice heard, being radical, is need now. Monica James talks about the movement bring housing, health care, job security, and security. She want everyone to become involved in order to achieve more things in the movement. She wants to press the inclusion of all trans lives. She wants the push of trans people to be involved in making her policies to help protect trans people. Media Representation is painting trans people as and deviant people, but trans people need to stand up against it.Trans people killing themselves needs to be addresses just as it is important to fighting against outside violence. She talks about how job insceruity can lead to Crimes of  survival like sex work and  shop lifting. James shares a personal story about how people perceive black and trans people in the justice systems. She really wanted to emphasize the importance of the community. The discussion expanded on a lot of points in their own segments. 

I was extremely moved by the call for community building from both McDonald and James. I really believe that many points about without a strong community base the movement cannot thrive not only because there are is  lack of jobs being filled, but because the community had to keep each other a float from the oppression. I really was moved by the amount of love and support that was felt throughout the whole video.

I was also very interested in the idea brought up of crimes of survival that are brought about because of job insecurity. When James was talking about her personal story while the cop, it shocked me. Then I really digested it an it didn't seem so odd. I feel like the way our society treats trans people and people of color is so inhumane that it is completely believable. It angers me that when policies are being built to “help” people out they are not being included .

Lastly, James talked about alliship during the discussion and complete nailed it in my opinion. I think it really opened my eyes to the ways in which people like me might think we are being helpful but in reality are moving over into space that isn’t ours. I think my work has be being  better partner.

[bianca-curlworld]

EC Post: Instructive Art

For my blog project, I wrote about Trans Latinxs and their relationships to families of origin. Of course I found information about conflicts and tensions that occur when a Trans Latinx comes out to their family of origin. However, I also found a decent amount of family members, specifically mothers and sisters, who eventually or immediately accepted and embraced their Trans family members and even got involved in organizations to help promote awareness and fight for Trans rights in their communities. Through this piece, I wanted to portray the feeling that it is possible to be accepted by the Trans and Latinx communities not separately, but existing as both identities always in both communities. This is why I painted the Trans flag in the form of a zarape (this is how my abuelita says it, but also known as “zerape”, “sarape”, “serape”, or even “saltillo” in some places) a traditional Mexican blanket which is also used as a ”gaban” (not going to translate/explain references anymore, si no sabes, just google it) similar to a “rebozo”. The zarape to me in itself symbolized a fusion of, or more so adaptation out of survival, of indigenous art and “tilmas” with Spanish influences. This seemed perfect because I wanted a visual representation of the blending of Trans and Latinx identities, so I used the patterns and colors of the Transgender flag in a zarape style. I used the silhouettes of a parental figure and a child figure to symbolize family. It was difficult to choose what symbol I wanted to represent family because there is really no general family formula and I did not want to stereotype the family structure. However, I did focus on family of origin for my project so I chose some sort of parental/guardian figure and some sort of child figure. Overall, I hope that when people view my piece, they get a positive sense of a Trans Latinx identity that can include love and support from families of origin. 

[transstudieskat-blog]

Bianca wrote about Latinx Trans people and their relation to their families, and although there were negatives there was a good amount of positive interactions. She then created a piece of art to represent these embracing moments in her research. I really love this piece because I completely connected to culture representation of the cloak she painted. I thought this was beautiful and thoughtful. I love it! I think it is something that people can really embrace and connect to.

[transstudieskat-blog]

EC: Her Story

Thursday, April 7th UIC hosted a series screening and dialogue of Her Story. Her Story is a web series that follows the lives of two trans women and a group of queer women in L.A. at intersects the worlds of gayness, dating, addiction, all the while bringing in day-to-day pleasures and struggle of trans life. The series was wonderfully written and produced.

I have written about the discussion that followed elsewhere. It was powerful and moving, but I want to focus on the production and story line for this post. I really enjoyed the fact that this series was produced by and showcased trans talent. I think that something that Angelica said that was really powerful was that if you want to see yourself represented you have to make that happen. This show is the perfect representation of how to make a show about a group of marginalized group of people. I love it.

Secondly, the story lines for this show are based on real trans experiences. That means that there are things in the show that for viewers like me might seem trivial, but for trans viewers is important to have represented. I love the scene where Violet and Allie are having lunch and violet explains how Allie’s femininity makes her aware of her own. I think things like this are so important to have on shows because you watch Allie realize things and as cis viewer you are doing the same and it speaks and educates while creating actual representation for the trans community.

Also, when Violet talks about her past with sex work and drug abuse, that made me so happy because it give a real life to this misconstrued image that mainstream TV has of trans people. Violet talks about what put her in that situation. She talks about the things that brought her out and how that placed her in a place of abuse, but finical stability. I think that giving that complexity to the stereotypes makes it so that we can move away from it being a trans stigma.    

[genderinschools-blog]

Tenth Post: Reflections

Overall I found the process to be more difficult than I originally expected. There seemed to be a lot of information on gender affirming practices in high schools but not for elementary schools. Through the articles that I read and videos that I watched i concluded that there was not much to find because unfortunately, there is not much out there. The reason I believe there is not much out there is because the parents do not want the conversation to take place. Time and time again there were accounts of parents saying their children were too young to be exposed to anything relating to transgender children or any form of gender non-conforming behavior. Too many refused to believe that it was anything more than a phase and many just flat out did not know or want to explain it to their children. Sadly, many children do not have full autonomy of themselves so if the parent shuts down the conversation, the child will not have the information or support that they need. Through this I learned children are much more intelligent than they are given credit for. And more importantly, they are far more compassionate and accepting. If you present something as a norm to children they accept it as such. If we allowed children to be themselves and not box them in any sort of gender I believe it would be for the best. If we look closely at what we consider gender non-conforming behavior and “expected” gender behavior we find the lines are quite thin. Separating the two is often based on arbitrary reasoning and what makes this scary is that they are used to discipline and keep children in order. Anything outside of the norm is punished accordingly and is often violent. Taking this into consideration we may be able to take a step in ensuring that all transgender and gender-variant children feel loved, validated, and supported in the environment in which they spend the most of their lives. 

[transstudieskat-blog]

I found this topic infinitely interesting. Gaby talks about the lack of information for the age group of children that she was researching. She believes that this is due to the fact that kids aren’t autonomous individuals. I completely agree with this. I believe that when we are young we are shaped by the schools we attend and the ways that adults react to our growth. I hope that schools start restructure the way that we look at genre from a young.  

[gws294rhetoricofsexwork]

See the full series here. ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw2Mg0PoxZkAHAzDiabWr9A )

[fourth post] Her Story: Subverting the Victimhood Narrative

I have written elsewhere on Her Story, specifically highlighting its portrayal of transgender community and intersectional identities. On those elements themselves, I suggest the entire series to my friends. For this post, I want to investigate one such plot arc in particular. In this episode, we find out about Violet’s history with sex work. Although it is not explicitly mentioned whether she still engages in sex work, her narrative covers many different interactions and relationships. Violet’s narrative is especially valuable because the writers, producers and actors of the Her Story series are all transgender persons.

This in mind, let’s take a closer look at Violet’s narrative. When asked why she is with Mark, she speaks about being new a city and entering into sex work out of financial need. Despite initial feelings of validation, her life quickly spirals out of control, and she speaks about developing a drug addiction. From this situation, Mark enters her life as a regular customer and takes her in. This mirrors, though not exactly, Julia Robert’s role in Pretty Woman. The idea that being a sex worker is inherently the role of a victim in need of rescue, usually from a male client is pervasive in sex work literature produced by the external gaze. It is all meekly reminiscent of the white savior complex.

However, Her Story subverts the Pretty Woman trope in a subtle way. The film is often described as a modern Cinderella story, where Richard Gere enacts Robert’s character’s metaphor about being saved by a knight in shining armor. What is different in Her Story, however, is a lack of a happily-ever-afer: instead of saving Violet from some phantasmal life of destitution, Mark is an abusive partner, violently isolating Violet, locking her in a tower instead of setting her free. In a certain sense, Mark’s betrayal represents the destructive nature of the Pretty Woman narrative.

Her Story’s subversion of the forced victimhood narrative demonstrates how dangerous it is. By insisting on a false pretense that all sex workers need saving, an activist can do significant, material harm. Instead of plastering the media with Richard Gere, man-in-shining-armor, we need to be promoting transgender persons and their own narratives as the foundation to build their own activism. We see that Violet’s recovery is not ultimately rooted in Mark’s intervention, but rather in her belonging in and building of her fellow transgender community. Our coalitions should be built for our communities, not paternalistically in spite of them.

[transstudieskat-blog]

Hedon explores the theme of sex work on Her Story. He addresses the similarities of Violet’s relationship to Mark and the one in Pretty Woman. Hedon says that it can be damaging to present the idea that all sex workers need to be saved. Also applauding the way that Violet saves herself through the trans community and friendships, and ends the posts with need for coalitions that actually help the communities. I also really enjoyed the idea that Violet wasn’t saved in Her Story, I think that they did a good job in having it play out that way. I want see more of this representation of sex workers in media. 

[blacktransstonewall]

Fifth Post: Black Trans Activist In-Depth

Marsha P. Johnson

Marsha Johnson was one of the pioneers of the LGBT movement. Her activism started as one of the original instigators of the Stonewall Riots. She was the cofounder of STAR, an organization that provided support in the form of shelter, clothes and food to other transgender women.

Johnson also worked as an activist and founder of the Gay Liberation Front, which fought for equal legislature for LGBTQ people. Johnson also was an activist during the AIDS epidemic and fought against the violence against poor queers by the gross inflation of medication for AIDS

Miss Major

Miss Major is a transgender woman activist that also originally instigated the Stonewall riots. She has been doing activist work for over four decade, focusing specifically on prison abolition and transgender womens rights.

Currently, she runs the Transgender, Gender Variant, Intersex Justice Project, which focuses on fighting oppressive facets of society that affect transgender women of color.

[transstudieskat-blog]

I really appreciated this blog overall. I real think Monique’s subject is important. I remember watching a review to the Stonewall movie on Youtube and the person was outraged at the erasure of all trans people of color. Monique highlights two very important people, Marsha Johnson and Miss Major. Both of them did incredible work and fought amazing battles against inequality.  I also think it s important work to take time pull stories like this from events that try to erase marginalize groups because it it redefines history instead teaching a white washed version of it. 

[translatinasandimmigration-blog]

“Exploring life at the intersection of transgender identity and immigration”

Before looking at the immigrant rights activism that Latina trans women do, it’s important to understand why they migrate to the United States in the first place

The article, Trans migrations: Exploring life at the intersection of transgender identity and immigration, involves an interview of ten Latina trans women and why they immigrated to the United States. It is estimated that out of the Latino immigrant population in the US, 25% of them are LGBT (Cerezo et. al 170) . There isn’t that much research done on the Latinx LGBT immigrant population so far. The article does highlight the main reasons for the migration of Latina trans women include economic opportunities, protection from violence, access to health care, and escape discrimination.

The article described the migration of trans people as sexual migration, which is “the result of repression,oppression, and persecution in relation to one’s sexual orientation” ( Cerezo et. al 170). Although Latinx LGBT individuals migrate to the U.S. to escape their home countries, they continue to face hardships when they reach the U.S. Finding a job is a constant struggle, and gender variant/ trans people are more likely to live in extreme poverty and resort to alternative economies such as sex work.

When it comes to studying LGBT immigrants in the U.S., the legal documentation process needs to be mentioned. A lot of the times, immigrants acquire legal status through family or employer sponsorship. For trans immigrants, it is difficult to attain legal status in the U.S. Without the support from their family, they’re unable to get family sponsorship. A lot of LGBT immigrants seek asylum or refuge to attain legal status, but that proves to be a difficult because of transphobia and homophobia. 

Through the interviews with the Latina trans women conducted by the authors, there were some main themes that came up in the interviews. One of the themes was “motivations to migrate” and that included gender expression freedom, the notion that trans people are more accepted in the U.S. than Latin America, and the belief that’s there’s greater economic opportunities. The second theme was “psychosocial stressors” which included lack of emotional and economical support,constantly being the target of violence (especially from law enforcement) , and dealing with decreasing mental health due to discrimination. The last theme was “employment challenges in the U.S.” which included the lack of legal documentation regarding to name and sex marker and resorting to survival work because of the many barriers these women have to deal with.

Photo credit

Cerezo, A., Morales, A., Quintero, D., & Rothman, S. (2014). Trans migrations: Exploring life at the intersection of transgender identity and immigration.Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 1(2), 170-180. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000031

[transstudieskat-blog]

Jazmin starts this post by giving us a brief understanding of why Latina trans women migrate to the US. Some of these factors include money, violence, health care access, and fleeing discrimination. She also explains the job insecurity for trans people within the U.S. Consequently; the legalization process can be difficult due to the lack of employer sponsorship, and without family support they cannot get a family sponsorship. I found this post so interesting because I felt that it showed me a side to immigrant struggle I do not often think about. My parents and siblings have become citizens, but I never thought about the privilege they had as cis men and women, only the oppression they had an latinx immigrants. 

[briggy1111-blog]

Course Reflection

In Transgender Studies at UIC I have learned a great deal. When we introduced ourselves the first day we were asked “Why did you sign up for this course?”. I didn’t have a real answer to this question and had a shallow answer of “Well, it’s the only 9:30 am class on Tuesday that I found interesting”. I wondered what material we would cover and what topics were important. As the course continued we used language that I have never heard and talked about Authors that I had never read. For a topic that I felt had a broad umbrella, I learned that I had virtually no previous knowledge transgender issues.

With the readings, health panel, and class discussions I learned a lot about the community and also a lot about myself. I learned that while I prided myself in being all inclusive and sensitive to people’s feelings I often unintentionally wasn’t sensitive or all inclusive. What I learned about this class more than anything was that we all come from different DNA, cultures, regions, etc. I found myself agreeing with comments from students in the class that I virtually have very little in common with. I also, found that I disagreed with women that I seemingly had a ton in common with during their interviews of Transgender women. 

[transstudieskat-blog]

Brigette came into the course interested and curious about the substance of the course. She discovered that she felt she had no knowledge of the subject previously. Also, she came across limitations to her own inclusion. She learned a lot more about herself and others through the cross. I general agree with learning about my own limitations. I think it is really good to take classes that might not seem to be your exact match to see what you can learn.

[latinxgws294-blog]

Reflection

Through my research and through listening to my classmates I learned that finding research is extremely difficult when it comes gender nonconforming people especially when they are another minority group.  But I have learned that some people are trying to proactive in the fight against discrimination which gives me a little hope this is in relation to the substance abuse program that is looking to be more culturally sensitive to the needs of trans people. 

With my research I think I can stop assuming certain things about people because there is more than meets the eye; everyone has a different struggle and a different story.  I want my blog project to inspire people to focus their research on gender nonconforming racial minorities because they make up a majority of the population and their voices matter. One of the biggest things I want people to take from this is the stigma that is associated with drug use to be eliminated. Substance use/Abuse is a disease that is often associated with weakness and that is not true, addiction is is powerful and harmful to the individual. 

Photo Credit Here

[transstudieskat-blog]

I can definitely agree that the research is not easy. I think that this is one of those silver lining moments, though. It is an opportunity to do research and get the information that we want. I also feel alignment with the need to research racial minorities in the trans community because I think that the trans movement can definitely come across as a white movement and forget the voices of the rest. I like this take on destigmatizing the trans community from the ideas of addiction. 

[transstudieskat-blog]

Course Reflection

My experience in the course has been very eye opening, I feel that I had a very basic understanding, and I’ll admit at time problematic, of what Trans Studies was. I felt that I really learned so much fundemental information. I think I will be trying keep up with the field on my own, as wells be critical of the information and ways in which it is presented. 

I really appreciated that this course explored some many different narrtives and issues that were discussed in the course. I cannot begin to describe the joy that it brings me to POC voices in a syllabus. It very encouraging to see that when you majority of syllabi are packed full of white voices. I think with a field that is developing so much it is important to make sure it has this aspect of inclusion and not tokenism. Course content was amazing. 

[transstudieskat-blog]

I went to see Body/Courage and blew my mind. This show was enacted by one woman and told the stories of many people from all walks of life. The stories centered around the relationships people have with their bodies. Her own stories take stage and bring her cultural background.

I found this event to be incredibly touching on the level of trying to see our own beauty. Pinnock tells the story of a man who was training his body to be strong for a sport, gets rejected from the team, and goes on to save a woman’s life. This story really seems to show the value that people can find in their own body, something that gender variant people can struggle in seeing.

Pinnock at one point says, while in character of a transwoman, “I don’t have the perfect body as a woman, but I didn't as a man either.” This to me made me see that gender variant people do not strive to be in a perfect body, but to be in one that is comfortable to them.  

Lastly, I feel that the play overall shows that body image issues that people seem to reserve only for women and complex and affect people of genders and non genders. I think that this play opens up the ways in which afflictions and pride in bodies shape society. If we were more open and accepting of all bodies gender queer folk might be more represented and accepted. 

[bonnie-gws-294-blog]

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the Her Story viewing and panel event (because I had to work), but I was able to watch all of the episodes online at http://herstoryshow.com - if you haven’t seen these, you definitely should take the time to watch the 6 episodes! Her Story follows the experiences with dating and identity of trans [and queer] women in Los Angeles. It highlights challenges faced by trans people and queer people with dating, and does a great job doing so. The series shows a lot of misconceptions society has about trans people and then dis-proving those misconceptions, including lesbians saying and acting in transmisogynistic ways. 

I really wish I would have been able to attend the event to hear the cast speak about the show. As I was watching the series, it was very clear to me that this show was written, cast, and produced by majority trans people, because of the way that many topics were dealt with. I applaud HerStory for having trans women play trans women, and show the stories and experiences of trans women. The challenges of dating as a trans person is not something that the general public might understand to be such a serious challenge, but this show did a great job portraying those challenges. 

When I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to the event, I was upset, and was hoping I would be able to find the episodes online. I was SO EXCITED, for many reasons, to find the episodes so easily online - it’s amazing that something like this is free for anyone to watch at any time. The messages in Her Story are ones that are so important for society to see and hear, so it’s great that this is so easy for people to find and to watch.

[transstudieskat-blog]

Bonnie highlights having Trans women play trans women and dating as a trans person. Both of these things were really significant to me as well. I felt that it was nice to see trans and queer talent play roles on screen. As for the dating, this was something wrote about as well. I am so intrigued to see how the relationships we are left with work out in the end and how they deal with trans women dating lesbian women and trans women dating cis men. Also, how race intersects  that. 

[bianca-curlworld]

I attended a screening and panel discussion on the series Her Story at UIC. the series is 6 short episodes that describe the many themes that are present in Trans people’s lives. The series focuses on Transwomen, with topics such as exclusion from Lesbian feminists circles, dating cismen and ciswomen, abusive relationships, intersections of race, sexuality, and gender identity, and more. Three of the main characters were present at the event and were the panelists in the discussion. See a link to the Her Story twitter page here: https://twitter.com/herstoryshow. 

I thought that this event was very useful. I loved the show because it was something very different in that the focus was around Trans women, including a Trans woman of color, the roles were played by Trans women, and the story line was very complex in that it touched on different aspects of their lives not just the idea of “transitioning”. It was amazing to be able to have the creators and actresses from the show there talking about their experiences and the backstories to the Her story story line. They talked about how the themes for the story were based off of their experiences and experiences of friends. One thing that came up was the possibility of including some Trans men and gender non-conforming people in the next season. The creators had originally planned for this to be a private project about their experiences only for their community of friends. Now that it was so well-received, it seems like the creators are thinking about expanding the stories and characters as they push for another season. They are now pushing for a network to pick up their show if they see that there is wide support, so watch the 1st season and tweet about it!

[transstudieskat-blog]

Bianca summarizes the Her Story viewing. She notes the diversity of the show and really enjoyed having the creators at the discussion. She also includes the way that friends and personal stories impacted Her Story and the way that funding made this project so successful. 

Bianca brings up the idea being tossed around of bring in transmen and gender non-conforming people into the show. I was really excited about this possibility. I think in the way that course was formed made me more conscious of gender variant people as a part of the same group of marginalization. I hope to see this develop in the show. 

[innerstrawberryruins-blog]

My Favorite Article

So far my favorite reading is Kate Bornstein’s Send in the Clowns. It is a short and sweet article that officers an alternative way to react when faced with push back from society. Bornstein makes some excellent points regarding how society enforces certain norms without question. Humiliation is used as a tool (Bornstein says a whip) that is used to control how people behave. When one does not fear humiliation that tool can no longer be used against them. Without that whip there’s not much control society can have over that individual. Bornstein states that acting as a fool in a play in these scenarios can help diffuse tense situations by making a joke of how ridiculous societal norms can be. This can be more effective than simply becoming defensive.

Although I really enjoyed this article and the points Bornstein was making, I could not help but think that the role of a fool cannot suit anybody and everybody. People are going to have different reactions depending on their personalities. A person who is shy or short tempered might not be able to effectively play this role. I myself am quite shy and do could only wish to achieve this method. What I would like to place emphasis on is the power of humiliation. I have learned to not let the words of strangers too seriously. They do not know me, plain and simple, making it easy to blow them off. This may not teach anybody anything, but I am one of those people who would not feel comfortable playing the fool. Those who can, should! Because making a joke of societal norms has the potential to get people thinking.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12784237/GWS%20294%20Spring%202016/Bornstein%20-%20Send%20in%20the%20Clowns.pdf

[transstudieskat-blog]

Desi chose Kate Bornstein’s Send in the Clowns. She has apprehensions toward who can actually play this role. Desi would like to see power be placed on humiliation, or the power it doesn’t have over her. I think I am with Desi on this one, in the sense that not all people can be clowns because of we’ve been programed to fear rejection, but those who can escape and speak for us should. They should take stage and flourish so that our voices can be heard. I think this is what Bornstien was getting at in saying these people were rare.

[ef-gws294-blog]

“[r]epresentation of queer death are instrumental to how a nexus of state and non-state institutions, individuals, human rights discourses, civilizational discourses, diasporas, and media work together to produce, represent, and manage queer lives and deaths according to national and transnational conventions of citizenship” (Shakhsari 566).

Sima Shakhsari’s Shuttling Between Bodies and Borders discusses the transnational forces (state, political, organizational and individual) during the ‘war on terror’ that construct both the lives and deaths of queer people. The article discusses the story of Naz, an Iranian trans-woman who fled her country to seek refugee status and received a placement in Canada. Mark Bingham, a white wealthy openly gay American man, who was killed on 9/11 while stopping United Flight 93 from reaching the White House was lauded as a hero after his death as well as an icon. Ayaz Marhoundi and Mohamad Asgari, who were hanged in Iran, were publicized by international media as being sentenced to death because of their sexual orientation and fueled judgements towards the “barbarity… [of] the Islamo-facists in Iran” (573).

I think that the argument both the argument and the stories that Shakhsari tries to unpack in this piece are very oversimplified, but more specifically the individuals whose stories they use within the piece. The argument that Shakhsari is presenting relies heavily on the analysis of Naz’s, Bingham’s, Marhoundi and Asgari’s. However, the author only gives a short blurb about their stories and the media response/narriative formulation. With more information, the ‘connect the dots’ argument the author was trying to lead the reader to would have been clearer and more credible.

That being said, I think that this work has a lot of value. I feel as though I made a personal connection to this reading because it analysis the global political landscape and its relationship to queer bodies in a way I wish it was more often noted. It’s very easy to hear a gripping story (as all of the examples Shakhsari gave were) and get swept away with the narrative that’s being sold. A world where the West is the haven of liberal ideals and where people are not only willing to flee their countries for that ‘freedom’ (as was Naz’s narrative), but willing to die for them (as Bingham was). Where people in other countries die because of that lack of ‘freedom’ (as was the case with Marhoundi and Asgari). The article pointed to both political forces for these narratives, like the ‘war on terror’ pushing for narratives that justify war based on reasons of ‘morality’, because , “violence against queers in Iran… incit[es] the masculine protectorship of the First World and the need to rescue the victimized queer Iranian” (573).

The way queer bodies are represented, both in life and in death are important. The problem isn’t only with how wrong it is to take a life/death and condense it into a snapshot and spin that snapshot to sell a story. This is an unfortunate reality to the way a non-public persons death is handled should it ever gain media attention. There is also a problem with the victim/hero complexes these individuals’ stories were personified into for mass consumption, again to sell a particular narrative of us vs. them, but this is also not the most pressing issue. The problem is most pressingly, that there is not enough out there in the public eye concerning queer narratives in the global context. Because of this gap in information there is a void in public understanding. This means that the queer bodies that are lifted into the spotlight are even more important, the way that their stories are handled and reproduced are even more important because there are so few. This fact, that these stories hold such weight because of their scarcity, means that the other problems that surrounded these narratives mentioned above become even more of a problem.

This layered problem that the article addresses is one that should make an impact on the way people consume narratives about queer and gender variant people. I think there is a complacency in media/state sponsored media consumption that isn’t questioned as much as it should be. As a student, especially as a student of political science, I think that this question of narrative in relation to the contemporary/current history of queer and gender variant bodies is too important to not discuss.  

Link to Article:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12784237/GWS%20294%20Spring%202016/Shakhsari%20-%20Shuttling%20between%20Bodies%20and%20Borders.pdf

All credit for photo goes to Qantara.de

[transstudieskat-blog]

Emily believes Sima Shakhsari’s Shuttling Between Bodies and Borders oversimplifies the stories that are presented within, but feels the piece was still really substantial. She appreciated that the article showed the way in which the narrative of the West being a perfect place is both false and harming to the East. Emily also focuses on representation of queer bodies. 

I completely agree with Emily’s analysis of the illusion created about the West as a haven. I think often times the west thinks of themselves as a utopian society that does not wrong and those out in the east are barbaric. By imposing our culture’s ideal and principles onto a different place in the world will do that no matter what culture it is. I also agree with the ways representation of queer bodies being used to “sell a particular narrative of us vs. them.” I feel that this is one of the many ways our media fails.