Tag Archives: transboi feminism

Dudes and sexual violence, Part 2 « The Filing Cabinet

I wrote some stuff here, but mostly Meg has some great insights, thoughts, questions. When we each stop procrastinating from our PhDs, actually hand in the work we have due, and take a break, I hope we write more about this together. I think it would be really super if DUDE had an issue on sexual violence at some point in the future. There’s so much to say, to ask, to interrogate… Continue reading

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Filed under "Queer Culture", Ask Max, Feminist Politics, Re-post

You can do it!

check out my interview with Art about acquiring surgery not testosterone on DUDE 2 EXTENDED: You can do it!

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Filed under "Queer Culture", Fashion, Feminist Politics, Law, Max Attitude, Policy, Re-post

Pronouns can be awkward

I like to think I don’t care which pronouns people use. But…I do. I guess I just like to be open about which pronouns people use because I don’t like stability, or being boxed in to something rigid. But the thing that disconcerts me is the reasons people use she/her/hers pronouns for me. Because if it’s just that they decide I am “female-bodied” – that’s not really cool. It’s true that I use and prefer he/him/his pronouns. And that my friends use them to describe me. But I do want to be cool with people using feminine pronouns. Continue reading

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Filed under "Queer Culture", Ask Max, Feminist Politics, Max Attitude

In conversation

I don’t think subversiveness in itself, even if it is achieved, is inherently valuable. In order to be a valuable form of alternative culture/activism I think it needs not only to be subversive (going against the norm) but cause no harm, and ideally even to have some benefit (beyond a possible/probable immediate personal gain).

The point is: I think in this case, as in most others, it’s more a question of the impact of a subversive action. And I do think that altering one’s physical sex characteristics is subversive. It definitely goes against the grain, it upends normative notions of permanence and inherent hierarchy based on sex. Continue reading

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Filed under "Art", "Queer Culture", Interview, Max Attitude, Re-post, Uncategorized

“That’s called coercion”

Even the title “Eclipse” can be seen as a veiled reference to coercion; meaning figuratively ‘loss of power or significance’ or, as a verb, ‘to deprive.’ This idea of deprivation makes little sense to the plot: the conflict surrounding Bella’s transformation into a vampire (being deprived of her human life) is deferred to the following installment (Breaking Dawn), and the deprivation that makes up Edward and Bella’s sex life is a constant theme in the entire series. Rather, the main plot thrust of Eclipse is a territorial one… Continue reading

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Filed under Max Attitude, Screen, What's Queer Here?

The Power of Politeness

All those dirty looks, short replies and general rudeness hints at the possibility of more severe mistreatment, suggesting that such mistreatment is justified; that the violation of gender deserves punishment. [...] Feminist sexual politics demands a certain nonchalance in regards to “female
masculinity” [...] I also don’t think it’s ok that maleness and (for the most part) masculinity are reserved for people with certain body types and/or assigned “male” at birth. Men should be able to be as femme as me; I should be able to be read as male. But feminist movement has shifted gendered expectations (rightly) so that women, too, should be able to look like me (and they do). Continue reading

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Filed under "Queer Culture", Max Attitude, What's Queer Here?

Flagging

Whereas in traditional gay male flagging culture things were fairly clear cut: navy on the left (top) seeks navy on the right (bottom) to fuck (where everyone has a perspicuous idea of what that means) – the development of a flagging language that draws attention to the ambiguities of bodies and of sex challenges traditional (and gendered) stereotypes about sex and demands a comprehensive understanding (and practice) of specific and explicit consent. Continue reading

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Filed under "Queer Culture", Fashion, Max Attitude, Re-post, What's Queer Here?

Risk, Subversion and/or Death in Queer Portraiture

“gender ambiguity in art is not inherently interesting or subversive” Continue reading

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Filed under "Art", Max Attitude, Uncategorized

On Being Defended

For a long time I thought independence meant self-sufficiency. But the stockpiling of abuse I have taken taught me that having people around to stand up for me was not only a valid survival technique (and what a privilege it was to have ever thought I could persist alone), but a complete pleasure. Continue reading

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Filed under Feminist Politics, Max Attitude, What's Queer Here?

Relational Violence & Glorifying the Vampire

I want to agree with Gauche Sinister that “it’s damaging and wasteful to withhold something you want, in order to punish someone else.” But it’s damaging and painful to be giving something to someone who wants it, when they are constantly denying you what you want. Not least because it takes a toll on one’s self-esteem Continue reading

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Filed under "Queer Culture", Max Attitude, Screen, What's Queer Here?