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Ani DiFranco is bumming me out.

Sep 27th, 12 / 0 Comments

I’ve been a fan of Ani DiFranco since the late 1990s, when I bought cassette tapes of Little Plastic Castle and Out of Range–still my favorites, of the nearly two dozen albums she’s released. During that phase of her career, Ani was an out and proud queer punk feminist dirty folksinging ladydude and I was all about it. I mean, here’s this performance of the title song from Little Plastic Castle:

And this one, the title song from Out of Range:

So that was cool, especially for a babyfeminist who was trying to figure out the politics of being a ladydude in a culture that doesn’t particularly like ladydudes. I was 20 years old, and I was starting to get angry, and also by the way I was starting to worry about how grossed out I was by biodudes and how interested I was in bioladies and whether I was going to have to figure out that whole sexuality thing if I ever wanted to try being, you know, happy.

At the time, when I was 20 years old and basically a naive white kid from suburban Detroit, I really liked Ani’s brand of feminism. It was simple and clear, and contained a few key talking points:

Dudes aren’t really all that nice to ladies.

“I am not a pretty girl / that is not what I do / I ain’t no damsel in distress / and I don’t need to be rescued / so put me down punk / maybe you’d prefer a maiden fair / isn’t there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere” (Not a Pretty Girl”)

The Man wants to stick it to you, primarily by banning abortions.

“I opened a bank account / when I was nine years old / I closed it when I was eighteen / I gave them every penny that I’d saved / and they gave my blood / and my urine / a number / now I’m sitting in this waiting room / playing with the toys / and I am here to exercise / my freedom of choice / I passed their handheld signs / went through their picket lines / they gathered when they saw me coming / they shouted when they saw me cross / I said why don’t you go home / just leave me alone / I’m just another woman lost” (“Lost Woman Song”)

Ladies are pretty and I can have sex with them if I want to.

“We can touch / touch our girl cheeks / and we can hold hands / like paper dolls / we can try / try each other on / in the privacy / within new york city’s walls / we can kiss / kiss goodnight / and we can go home wondering / what would it be like if / if I did not have a boyfriend / we could spend / the whole night” (“The Whole Night”)

And of course all of the above points are totally valid and important to address. But they’re also the easiest parts of feminism to embrace, because they place the blame elsewhere and open up space for some good old righteous anger. In this respect, they represent an an early, immature version of feminism–a kind that can, given time, proper care, and lots of sunlight, mature into full-blown, complex and nuanced feminist politics.

As a feminist gets older, if she’s paying attention, she starts to see that the world is a little more complicated than she thought, and that a lot of different types of prejudice and oppression are acting on people all at the same time, and sexism and racism and classism and ableism and heterosexism and other forms of oppression are all wrapped up together. As a feminist gets older, she starts to see that the way a man treats a woman is just a symptom of a larger illness: Institutional disease. Our institutions–culture, education, government, religion–are all wrapped up in perpetuating oppression as a means of keeping themselves afloat. It’s baked right in to everything we do, every interaction, every transaction.

Not only that, but an American feminist–if she’s white and middle class–should start to see how “mainstream” feminism tends to focus on issues of relevance to white middle class women, to the exclusion of the interests and needs of nonwhite, non-middle class women. (It often takes a while, if you’re a white, middle-class feminist, to realize that your feminism can be a form of oppression of women who don’t look like you.) And she should start to see how feminism cannot stand alone as a belief system: A feminist who wants change needs to be critical of government and the law, needs to see the complexities of social action wielded for the public good. A feminist needs to be critical of feminism. She needs to be critical of herself. A feminist needs to change, in other words. She needs to get more complex and use that complexity to treat the world she’s fighting through as more complex as well.

Since Ani DiFranco is, as Wikipedia explains to me, “widely considered a feminist icon,” I’ve been holding out hope that her music would move from that immature, buzzword feminism to a more mature version that embraces complexity and confusion. But instead I got this, the title song from her newest album, which is a remake of a Pete Seeger protest song:

Let me just repeat some of the lyrics, in case you missed them. Heck, I’ll just go ahead and include the entire song!

They stole a few elections,
Still we the people won
We voted out corruption and
Big corporations

We voted for an end to war
New direction
We ain’t gonna stop now
Until our job is done

Come on all good workers
This year is our time
Now there some folks in Washington
Who cares what’s on our minds

Come one-come all voters
Lets all vote next time
Show ‘em which side are you on now
Which side are you on

Which side are you on now / Which side are you on / Which side are you on now / Which side are you on

Which side are you on now / Which side are you on / Which side are you on now / Which side are you on

30 years of diggin’
Got us in this hole
The curse of Reaganomics
Has finally taken it’s toll

Lord knows the free market
Is anything but free
It costs dearly to the planet
And the likes of you and me

I don’t need those money lenders
Suckin’ on my tit
A little socialism
Don’t scare me one bit!

We could do a whole lot worse
Than Europe or Canada
C’mon Mr. president
C’mon Congress make the law

Which side are you on now / Which side are you on / Which side are you on now / Which side are you on

They say in Orleans parish
There are no neutrals there
There’s just too much misery
There’s too much despair

America who are we
Now our innocence is gone
Which side are you on now
Which side are you on

Too many stories written
Out in black and white
C’mon people of privilege
It’s time to join the fight

Are we living in the shadow of slavery
Or are we moving on
Tell me which side are you on now
Which side are you on

Which side are you on boys / Which side are you on / Which side are you on boys / Which side are you on / Which side are you on boys / Which side are you on / Which side are you on now / Which side are you on

My mother was a feminist
She taught me to see
That the road to ruin is paved
With patriarchy

So, let the way of the women
Guide democracy
From plunder and pollution
Let mother earth be free

Feminism ain’t about women
No, that’s not who it’s for
It’s about a shift in consciousness
That’ll bring an end to war

So listen up you fathers
Listen up you sons
Which side are you on now
Which side are you on

Which side are you on now / Which side are you on / Which side are you on now / Which side are you on

So are we just consumers
Or are we citizens
Are we gonna make more garbage
Or are we gonna make amends

Are you part of the solution
Or are you part of the con?
Which side are you on now
Which side are you on?

Ok, so a couple of things:

Actually, feminism is about women. That’s actually the definition of feminism. I’m on board with you arguing that feminism is for everyone and that a natural result of feminism is peace, but don’t tell me that feminism isn’t about women. Two big middle fingers up on that one.
Uhhh ok so this song includes a lot of buzzwords, dudes: I don’t think any song in the history of ever has found a way to include Reaganomics, socialism, free market, patriarchy, and mother earth ALL IN ONE SONG! So that’s cool. But on the other hand…buzzwords suck as lyrics. The first rule of creative writing, as you probably know, is show, don’t tell. Buzzwords tell. And they are therefore not the most awesome language to use in song lyrics.
I wonder if Ani really thinks we the people really did win in the last election. Sure, we got a better President than any we’ve seen so far this century, but by no stretch of the imagination can anyone argue that electing Barack Obama led to a mass exodus of corrupt politicians and corporate lobbyists from Washington, D.C. Politics are as corrupt as ever, our Supreme Court is invested in maintaining corporations’ power over legal and political institutions, and most of the time when we watch “Congress make a law” these days it’s a law that works against the best interest of those who are most in need of Congress’s help: Women, the underclass, gays, nonwhite minorities. These days, I prefer that Congress not make a law, thank you very much.

If a person has been identifying as a feminist and practicing feminism for more than two decades, as Ani DiFranco has, we should hope that her politics would become more finely honed with time. Instead, this latest album has Ani relying on buzzwords and the most simplistic political messages: Vote, you guys! If you vote, the people win! It’s a disappointingly naive message, one that echoes the simplistic messages of her earlier albums–only this time, without the righteous anger.

Ani DiFranco is a female folksinger who has fought her way to her spot as a prominent contemporary folk singer who has been selling out concert venues for two decades. Along the way, she’s not only had to battle an industry that didn’t particularly want her, but she’s also had to deal with her fans’ criticisms of her life choices. Most significant among these criticisms was the shock, outrage, and disappointment expressed by her lesbian fan base when Ani got married to a man–and then divorced him and married another man. I’m not trying to judge Ani DiFranco as a person here–she’s had enough of that over the years. (Although I’m firmly in the camp that believes that she can do whatever she wants with her personal life, but if she chooses to talk about her personal life in her music she shouldn’t be surprised when people are disappointed in the paths her life takes–she made her life choices fair game for analysis when she decided to include them in her lyrics.) But I do think that what happened to Ani DiFranco can serve as a cautionary tale for younger feminists. Our society wants you to get your righteous (and deserved) anger out while you’re young, then it wants you to settle in to a set of political beliefs that don’t cause too much hassle for anyone.

There will be so many different pressures on you that are set up to turn an angry young radical feminist into a calm political moderate. By “political moderate,” I mean “anyone who thinks that voting for the better of two choices for President of the United States is sufficient to lead to victory for ‘we the people’.”

It’s our job as feminists to stay angry for as long as we can sustain our anger, because there’s plenty to stay angry about. It’s our job to put our queer shoulders to the wheel.

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Jenna McWilliams: still not a seminal thinker

Sep 12th, 12 / 0 Comments

Almost three years ago I explained why I hate the words ‘seminal’ and ‘disseminate.’ Here’s the explanation, in brief:

Both words come from the latin root seminalis, or seed, from which we also get the word semen.

Now: seminal, disseminate, semen. All linked to the notion of the seed, the germination of all things that can grow: the sowing of ideas, of genes, of the next generation of people, texts, and theories. The terms, though we may not think of it in daily use, are innately masculine–innately male. A seminal idea is one that has taken root, has grown, has spread; it engenders offspring in which we can see (genetic) elements of the initial idea, text, or approach. There’s not even a feminine equivalent. What would we say? He’s an ovulant thinker in his field?

As a female scholar, I resent the notion that my ideas may, if I’m lucky, be likened to the very masculine process of impregnation. I resent the paradigm that leads us to consider seminal ideas that allow other thinkers to bear fruit.

Since that post, I’ve made some headway in convincing some members of my scholarly circle to either replace those words with the dozens of alternatives provided within the English language, or to use those words but be aware of the way they sound to some Alert Feminist Readers.

At the same time, I’m still finding myself in conversation with people who think I’m a) overreacting, b) looking for something that’s not there, or c) being overly simplistic in my analysis of these terms. Lately this issue has taken on fresh meaning for me, since I’m studying for my qualifying exams and the word seminal, in particular, keeps rearing its ugly head.

So, at the risk of repeating myself, I want to reiterate my objections to the ongoing use of these terms. This time I’ll do it by outlining some general principles:

1. Cultures simultaneously reflect and reproduce belief systems. These belief systems include ideas about what counts as knowledge, what kinds of behaviors, values, and beliefs are “better” than other kinds, and who gets to be in charge of things like government, schools, law enforcement agencies, universities, and religious institutions, and what sorts of authority we’re going to bestow upon those leaders and the institutions they lead.

2. Language is one key area in which a culture simultaneously reflects and reproduces its belief systems. This includes not only the words that come into use (or fall out of favor) in a culture but also extends into how a language is structured, what sorts of words, metaphors and analogies are available to its users and how words are appropriated and recruited for use in new contexts. For example, in America we use the term “kindergarten” (German for “children’s garden”) to refer to a child’s first year of school because it aligns with our schoolish metaphor of cultivating learners. But “kindergarten” is not a universal term for that first year.

3. Over time, a culture’s vocabulary changes. This is true for a big huge pile of reasons, three of which being that certain words or terms get recognized for limiting our thinking, for being too limited in scope for some new purpose, or for being overtly offensive. For example:

The word meme was first coined in 1976 by Richard Dawkins, but took off within the last decade to account for the wildfire spread of new cultural products, inside of which were contained new behaviors, values, or ideas. Think honeybadgers, lolcats, someecards.com, and Antoine Dodson. Before the emergence of the internet, there was no need for the widespread use of the word meme, and now there is a need for such a word.

In America, the terms Negro and colored to describe Black people and American Indians to describe Native Americans or First Nations people have long fallen out of favor and are generally viewed as racist.

4. Some words in a culture may reflect yucky aspects of that culture’s belief system. This is so regardless of whether individual speakers of a language are explicitly aware of the connection between that word and its connection to yuckiness. This is why we tell kids to stop saying “that’s so gay” even if they aren’t aware that the phrase is linked to homophobia and heterosexism.

5. Individuals who are part of a nondominant group (i.e., are removed from power by dint of their gender, race, class, physical attributes/abilities, neurologies, or other characteristics) are far more likely to recognize words that reflect yucky beliefs about their group than are individuals who come from dominant groups. For a long time, I used the word “lame” to refer to things I didn’t like. I used “lame” like it was going out of style. As a non-disabled individual, I wasn’t primed to notice on my own that “lame” is a term that is characteristic of ableist language.

6. If an individual from a nondominant group (or an ally who is not part of that group) is able to articulate why she thinks a given term reflects yucky cultural beliefs, the person who has used that term is responsible to either justify continued use of the term or agree to abandon that term.

7. Justifications that do not count as reasonable include:

“But there’s not a better term to replace it with!” (Because if a word reflects yucky cultural beliefs, there’s always a better term, although it may require you to think harder about language than you want to.)
“I think you’re overreacting / seeing something that doesn’t exist / focusing on something that doesn’t matter.” Members of nondominant groups (and their allies) often see things that are not recognized by members of dominant groups. Because dominant groups get to be dominant, they get to spend a lot of time ignoring people who see things differently. That doesn’t make them right; that makes them oblivious. It’s not even necessarily their fault! They’re conditioned to be oblivious by a culture of power whose continued existence relies on nobody questioning the culture of power.

8. Justifications that do count as reasonable include:

{this space intentionally left blank}

9. Because if a term feels yucky to a member of a nondominant group, why in the name of all things awesome would you want to keep using it? Seriously. That makes you part of the problem. And who wants to be part of the problem?

The words seminal and disseminate are yucky to me. Because they are linked to the word semen, and because the word semen is a definitively masculine term with definitively masculine connotations in our culture, they reflect masculinist views of knowledge production and reproduction. Dissemination–the literal spreading of semen, or seed–often happens without consent, and is therefore a matter of physical violence, most commonly perpetrated on women.

Dissemination–the literal as well as the metaphorical ejaculation of semen, or seed–also reflects a heterosexist worldview. If I’m a seminal thinker, that’s because my seeds have germinated–because they were fertilized, and took root, and grew. Because the spreading of seed also requires germination, now we’ve headed into the world of male-female sexual activity. You can tell me the root of the term is botanical, not biological, but you can’t argue that the root word, semen, is more strongly botanical in our culture than it is biological. Which means that in general use, the words semen, seminal, and disseminate are at least more strongly linked to the biological activity of heterocopulation than to the botanical activity of plant reproduction.

Here are some other words you can use. They may require you to think more deeply about what you’re trying to communicate, because each of these words means something slightly different than the others, but that’s what Good Thinkers do anyway!

seminal: critical, crucial, fundamental, important, influential, original, primary, distinctive, distinguished, esteemed, extraordinary, famous, foremost, incomparable, leading, notable, noted, noteworthy, preeminent, prominent, formative, generative, ingenious, innovative, unprecedented, untried, unusual

disseminate: distribute, scatter, broadcast, circulate, diffuse,disperse, promulgate, propagate, publicize, publish, radiate, sow, spread, strew, radiate, bestow, deal out, deliver, devote, disburse, dish out, dispense, mete, communicate, declare, decree, make public, spread, proliferate

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Why I won’t be at the Chick Fil-A counterprotest

Aug 1st, 12 / 0 Comments

…and why you can’t win for losing, these days.

A bunch of queerfolks around the world plan on queerin’ up Chick Fil-A today as a counterprotest to “Chick Fil-A Appreciation Day” (aka: “take a stand against those fags”).

I won’t be participating.

This is one of those instances of small groups of like-minded people stepping up on public platforms and talking directly at themselves. People who hate gays enough to spend thousands of dollars to bus people to a fast food restaurant don’t care what a bunch of queer activists have to say. And queers who are angry enough to mobilize around a counterprotest…well, you’ll forgive them if they don’t care to listen to anything a group of homophobes has to say.

Protests work when they change opinions. Political demonstrations work best when they show the world that more people than anybody previously believed care about x or want to change y. In this case, though, media coverage of Chick Fil-A Appreciation Day is going to outshine the simple fact that Chick Fil-A has dropped in general public popularity in the days following its COO’s announcement that it opposes gay marriage and, well, gays in general:

I imagine the popularity drop was only partially about Dan Cathy’s anti-gay marriage stance, since it has been known for a while now that Chick Fil-A money was being directed to anti-gay organizations like Exodus International. I suspect that people are just annoyed that politics has officially marred their enjoyment of what is by many accounts a really good chicken sandwich.

I guess another nice side effect of political protest, as a friend and coworker just now noted to me, is the ability to connect with like-minded folks. I bet that’s going to be awesome, the meeting and connecting with like-minded folks. But in my neck of the woods, protesters plan to hang out at the KFC just down the street. You guys, KFC got a mediocre rating–45 out of 100–on the Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Index report. And Greenpeace International reports that KFC is one of several companies complicit in destruction of our rain forests.

I guess you can’t win for losing, these days.

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Greek politician slaps female rival on TV, carries his party to victory regardless

Jul 26th, 12 / 0 Comments

file under: don’t you dare think it doesn’t happen in the United States too.

The symbol of Greece's Golden Dawn party. Many have compared this symbol to the Nazi swastika.

You may have missed this, if you live in the United States. A Greek (male) politician named Ilias Kasidiaris attacked two female rivals on television: He slapped one woman, three times, and threw water in the face of another. Kasidiaris is a spokesperson for the far right Golden Dawn Party, a party which, as the British newspaper The Guardian explains, marches behind a flag that closely resembles the Nazi swastika and features members who regularly greet each other with variations on a Nazi salute. Golden Dawn is, by all indications, a neo-Nazi party and it is on the rise in Greece.

Kasidiaris is the spokesperson for Golden Dawn. And, on live television, he threw a glass of water at one female, left-wing politician and slapped–it seems more accurate to say punched–another female, left-wing politician. And, a week later, his party took just under 7% of the vote in a national election.

In the video below, Kasidiaris–a former army commando–clearly comes across as the schoolyard bully picking on people he perceives as weaker than he is. His victims do not fight back; instead, the show’s host attempts to intervene (nonviolently) and the show quickly cuts to commercial. (Kasidiaris was apparently confined to a room in the studio, and he is missing from the table when the show reconvenes.)

Golden Dawn is a party rife with bullies. And it’s not alone. Here in the United States, far-right parties use their platforms to attack people who can’t or choose not to fight back: Illegal immigrants (who can’t speak up for fear of persecution and prosecution). Legal immigrants whose first language is not English (who can’t speak up because of a language barrier). These parties seek targets they believe will not fight back: Gays (because of a perception that gays–especially gay men, who are portrayed as the biggest threat–are too effeminate to defend themselves). Women (because they’re “the weaker sex”).

If you’re the kind of person who’s predisposed to bullying behavior, it feels good to bully. It feels empowering. It feels like nothing else. Then there are those of us who believe you don’t fight bullying with any form of violence–physical, verbal, or emotional. So we get to feel good about ourselves for doing the “right thing,” while all the bullies see is that nobody’s retaliating.

And this, this is why bullies continue to bully. Because nobody stops them. Nobody tells them to stop being an asshole. It’s as true in the schoolyard as it is in politics.

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President Obama (finally) stands up for gay marriage

May 9th, 12 / 0 Comments

Ok, so this happened.

Obama’s televised statement came after two members of his administration voiced support for gay marriage. Vice President Joe Biden went first, on Sunday:

And on Monday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan followed up by tossing his support behind the cause:

The administration’s position statements on gay marriage sandwiched a primary election day that resulted in what the New York Times called “a trifecta of intolerance“:

Tuesday was pretty great for the forces of intolerance. North Carolina voters approved an amendment that makes discrimination an official part of their state constitution. Colorado Republicans stonewalled a vote on permitting same-sex civil unions because it looked like it would pass. And Indiana’s Republican primary voters tossed out the venerable Senator Richard Lugar and replaced him with a man who thinks our problem is that we have too much bipartisanship.

It’s almost as if the staggered position statements were, um, planned by some wily press team. (In related news: The West Wing has completely crushed my rose-colored glasses.)

Sure, it’s courageous for a national political figure to take a stand in favor of gay marriage–it’s dangerous and often leads to the end of even the most thriving of political careers. (And, by the way, this truth is further proof that those assholes who say that the homosexuals already have more rights than “the rest of us” are just assholes spewing shit. And if you’re wondering which assholes say that homosexuals already have more rights than straight people, look here. And here. Here here here brb taking shower to get bigot-crud off)

I’m supposed to be celebrating at the news from the Obama administration. But instead I just keep looking at this:

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Is Herman Cain the new Clarence Thomas?

Nov 10th, 11 / 0 Comments

Do you think someone should point out the obvious flaws in this argument?

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“when people do fight, they sometimes win…”

Jul 31st, 11 / 0 Comments

rick snyder gtfo You may have heard about Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s moves to supersede the authority of local governing bodies. Public Act 4, passed this year, gives the state the ability to replace and even dissolve local governing bodies during times of fiscal emergency. It has already been implemented in the city of Benton Harbor, where emergency financial manager (EFM) Joseph Harris has suspended the decision-making authority of city council members, and in the cities of Pontiac and Flint–as well in as the Detroit Public School system, where EFM Roy Rogers has used his state-given authority to modify union contracts for district employees.

Rachel Maddow explains the problems with this law beautifully:

Three things about Public Act 4 and Rick Snyder:

In the Maddow clip above, writer Naomi Klein says that the “well-kept secret” about political protests is that “when people do fight, they sometimes win…[e]specially if you’re willing to do more than just go to a march once.” Michiganders need to fight to either recall Snyder or make extra sure he’s a one-term governor.
We cannot let the right wing use the current national debt crisis to push through an anti-democratic political agenda. And even as this crisis gets resolved, we cannot let the right wing trick us into agreeing that when the sky is falling, any sort of protection will do.
However: Some people are getting a little fast and loose with terms like “fascism” and “dictatorship.”

While it’s clear to most that Snyder has violated the public trust in his office and trampled on the rights of Michigan’s citizens, he’s not quite a dictator. Here are some dictators for you; typically, they trample on rights through use of force, imprisonment, and terror; and the thing about dictators is that they quite often change laws to ensure their continued reign of power. In Michigan, people are organizing a petition to recall Snyder; if they are successful, a special election will be held during which the people will have a chance to decide whether they want him to go away. Certainly, corporate and right-wing interests will send their lackeys to the polls in force; it is up to the clearer heads to rally the rest of the citizenry into making their opinion count.

As reporter Samantha Power explains, “fascism — unlike Communism, socialism, capitalism or conservatism — is a smear word more often used to brand one’s foes than it is a descriptor used to shed light on them.” In fact, fascism is a political ideology that originated with Benito Mussolini; he explains the ideology in his 1932 Fascist Doctrine. Public Act 4 is certainly in line with at least some of the tenets of Mussolini’s fascism, most notably in his description of the Fascist State as

not reactionary but revolutionary, for it anticipates the solution of certain universal problems which have been raised elsewhere, in the political field by the splitting up of parties, the usurpation of power by parliaments, the irresponsibility of assemblies; in the economic field by the increasingly numerous and important functions discharged by trade unions and trade associations with their disputes and ententes, affecting both capital and labor; in the ethical field by the need felt for order, discipline, obedience to the moral dictates of patriotism.

But let’s reserve fascist for the people who are willing to embrace violence, institutionalize oppression, and wage war to stop others from pursuing alternate political agendas. Ok?

In the meantime, Michigan, I’ll be waiting for you to take care of business. I’ll be waiting for you to successfully recall or reject Rick Snyder at the polls.

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request from AERA Queer Studies SIG for gender-neutral bathrooms

Feb 14th, 11 / 0 Comments

Lately, and for lots of reasons, I’ve been spending most of my blogging energy on gender and queer identity and less energy on posts about education and educational research. But something happened today that combined my interests in these areas: A Special Interest Group of which I am a member has formally requested gender neutral restrooms at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

By permission of Caitlin Ryan, the membership chair of the AERA Queer Studies SIG, I’m posting the request letter below.

The AERA Annual Meeting is the biggest educational research conference that I know of. Because it’s so big, it’s easy for nondominant theories, people, interests, and needs to be overlooked and marginalized by the weight of the mainstream. At last year’s meeting, the most heavily attended events were those featuring established (read: generally late-career, generally mainstream, generally well known) scholars. I saw much lower attendance rates at the events focusing on resistance, alternativity, and less well established approaches and methodologies. This isn’t surprising, but it’s something I wish AERA governance would work on resolving. After all, those big names get heard at every conference and in every journal.

I’m glad the AERA Queer Studies SIG is working for more effective support for non-normative researchers. I’m new to this Special Interest Group, but so far I’ve seen signs that it’s working toward more effective support for non-normative research, as well. Here’s hoping this effort trickles up.

Letter below.

February 7,2011

Dear Dr. Larson and AERA Meeting Department Staff,

Because of your respective roles as the Program Chair and members of the Meeting Department Staff for AERA’s 2011 Annual Meeting, we as officers ofthe Queer Studies SIG are writing to ask for your help. In the past several months, we’ve all heard countless stories of bullying, harassment, and mistreatment of LGBTQ youth and adults. Whether in the papers, on the news, or in the Iflt Gets Better” testimonies on YouTube, a consistent message from LGBTQ people is that they felt like they didn’t fit in or were not welcome in their families, schools, and communities. Certainly, AERA cannot single handedly change this situation, but the members of the Queer Studies SIG are committed to making the AERA annual meeting as inclusive as possible.

To that end, we are requesting that AERA designate easily accessible and identifiable bathrooms at the 2011 Annual Meeting in New Orleans as all-gender or gender-neutral bathrooms.

Creating gender-neutral bathroom spaces at the AERA meeting serves members both within and outside of the LGBTQ community. First, this simple act sends a strong message about the rights of all LGBTQ members of AERA to participate fully in the organization’s activities and feel safe while doing so. Gender-specific bathrooms often position transgender and genderqueer people in compromising positions since they require people choose between categories that do not adequately describe their gender. We believe that all people at AERA events have the right to use public bathrooms that fit their needs without fear of incident. In addition, these spaces will also serve the needs of AERA attendees who might be otherly-abled or families traveling with small children.

To this end, we would like to request that at each of the primary venues there are genderneutral bathrooms designated throughout the building which would be accessible by all participants. We understand that this request would require coordination with hotel hospitality managers, and we as a SIG are happy to assist in that effort. For example, we would be willing to provide signage for the restrooms or language for a brief explanation to be included in the program or at information centers in each venue. Considering AERA’s size and notable presence in New Orleans, we feel that this gesture will promote AERA as a socially conscious organization committed to addressing heteronormative practices.

We look forward to hearing from you and working together to bring gender-neutral bathrooms to the 2011 Annual Meeting to better serve the diverse AERA membership. Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

The Officers of AERA’s Queer Studies SIG Connie North (chair), Barbara Garii, Janna Jackson, Tim Larrabee, Elizabeth Meyer, Jeffrey Poirier, Cathy Rosenberg, Caitlin L. Ryan, Amy Shema and Anna V. Wilson

Cc: Kris D. Gutierrez, President Arnetha F. Ball, President-Elect Felice J. Levine, Executive Director George Wimberly, Social Justice and Professional Development Director William H. Watkins, Social Justice Action Committee Chair

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why I identify as genderqueer

Feb 8th, 11 / 0 Comments

Here are some things I told a class of undergraduates this morning:

When I was a kid, I was never sure which pronouns–she/her/hers or he/him/his–applied to me.
When I was a kid, I was often confused about which public restroom to use.
When classes or teams were split into boys vs. girls, I wasn’t always sure which side to join.
I let people use feminine pronouns and refer to me as a ‘girl’ because that’s what they seemed to prefer, but I was not convinced they were right to do so.
When I was a kid, I was a biological female who lived in fear of being outed as a fraud for identifying as a ‘girl.’
When I was a young adult, I was a biological female who never felt comfortable being referred to as a ‘woman.’

Here are some other reasons:

In my statistics class, my instructor recently explained that ‘gender’ is a ‘simple,’ binomial category: There are only two possible responses.
As a culture, we spend too much time assuming gender and biological sex are the same thing.
As a culture, we don’t spend enough time thinking hard about gender identities and gender performance.
As a culture, we’re quick to judge people whose gender identities aren’t simple to interpret.

I still sometimes wonder which restroom to use. Sometimes people use masculine pronouns to refer to me, which I’m absolutely fine with. Other people always use feminine pronouns to refer to me, which is also okay by me. The last time someone tried to split us up into boys vs. girls, I argued and it never happened again.

I rarely ‘pass’ as a man and I rarely try to ‘pass.’ I rarely identify myself as a ‘woman,’ but I often talk about myself as a ‘lady’ or as a ‘gay lady.’ I like using the word ‘lady’ because I think it suggests an ironic relationship to gender and gender performance. Which suits me just fine.

Here’s a good video about the anxieties caused for transgender and gender-nonnormative people by public restrooms.