The ‘Evil’ Vagina Monologues

Joy gets herself into a lather over the Vagina Monologues, seems they are pornography and promote violence against women. No really, I couldn’t make this sort of idiocy up. Apparently any frank discussion of women’s sexuality is the evil pornography. She also wonders Where have all the Feminists gone? chastising American feminists as ‘whiny’ and wondering why they don’t do anything to support Muslim women in their struggle for equal rights. This ignores all of the American feminists who have been doing everything from blogging about Muslim women’s fight to lending material support to groups like RAWA. But she’s Catholic and the Catholic Church has been lying for 2000 years so I shouldn’t expect anything else.

Religion Fluid and Fading

An interesting new survey on religion. It is becoming more fluid as people change their religious orientation or drop religion altogether. One of the many interesting bits of information

Today's report, available online at Pewforum.org, sorts people into major groupings — Christians (78.4%); other religions (4.7%) including Jewish (1.7%) and Muslim (.7%); and "unaffiliated" (16.1%), which includes atheist (1.6%), agnostic (2.4%) and "nothing in particular."

That means the ‘unaffiliated’ out rank all groups except Catholics (23.9%) and all groups of Baptists (17.2%). The ranks of the ‘unaffiliated’ jump to 25% of adults under age 30. No wonder the professional ‘value voters’ crowd is so panicky over this election cycle; they can feel their grip on power slipping permanently away.

I, of course, find this very encouraging news.

Peggy Noonan Idiot

Shorter Peggy Noonan Barack Obama doesn't understand 'normal' people like we rich white Republicans do.

Friday Random 10

1. Wild Child – W.A.S.P.
2. Bye, Bye Baby – Big Brother and The Holding Company
3. You Don’t Have To Cry – Crosby, Stills & Nash
4. Cyberface – Judas Priest
5. Sadness – Donavan
6. The Clairvoyant – Iron Maiden
7. Damned For All Time/Blood Money – Jesus Christ Superstar
8. You’re Crazy- Guns ‘n’ Roses
9. Four Horsemen – The Clash
10. The Right Profile – The Clash

Old 60’s rock, metal and punk. I need to expand my horizons.

Anxious Masculinity and the Morning DJ

There seems to be an epidemic of anxious masculinity affecting this country. Men who are unsure if the come across as masculine enough, who make misogynistic and homophobic remarks out of fear that they will be perceived as in some way effeminate. A prime example is Tucker Carlson boasting about gay bashing after persistent questioning of his sexual orientation. The frequency of off the cuff homophobic and transphobic remarks brought on by this insecurity has just gotten annoying and boring. It got frequent enough that I tuned off what had been my favorite morning radio station, KROQ, here in Los Angeles. I wasn’t mad, just annoyed by the boring predictability of it. These men are not bigots like ‘prono’ Pete LaBarbara, just insecure and afraid of being accused of failing to live up to the idiotic masculine ideal so beloved of the right wing in this country.

This morning on the radio station I switched to, Indy103, the same gay baiting ‘humor surfaced. At least it was from guests rather then the regular DJ’s but still there was same boring tone. I am so tired of this; I want a Queer Nation now!

Happy Darwin Day!

Today is Charles Darwin’s 199th birthday. So raise a glass to the man who came up with the concept of evolution through inherited characteristics and differential success aka natural Selection. While Darwin’s theory has been modified over the years to the New Darwinian Syntheses he is still the man who started it all. Darwin is a giant of science ranking with Galileo, Newton and Einstein as a father of a scientific revolution.

As for those who still can not except evolution or Darwin’s theory after 149 years, enjoy your 12th century religious myths the rest of us will get on with the 21st century.

A really level playing field

The American myth is that with enough hard work anyone can be a rich and successful person (originally successful man because women were strictly supporting cast, but that’s another rant). The converse was that if you were poor it was because you were lazy or had some other character fault. This is not where I’m going to go into the merits or demerits of this, this is where I’m going to combine that myth with the recent Spartan worship engendered by ’300’ and run it right off the cliff.

If you are born to wealth it’s because of the obvious moral and intellectual superiority of your parents, which you fully participate in so you deserve your wealth, goes the myth. If this is true then the young heir should be able to overcome in adversity’s that are put in their way, adversity’s that the poor have failed to overcome because of their moral and intellectual failings. Now he conservatives who are so convinced of their superiority swooned over ‘300’ considering it a moral exemplar for the ‘War on Terror’ overlooking the whole Leonidas whole leading his troops in battle rather then sending them into battle form 4,000 miles away thing. Well maybe we should take some more lessons from the Spartan’s. Specifically the practice of taking boys from their parents and training them to be warriors and testing their strength through adversity so they can prove themselves.

So I would like to make this modest proposal, take the children of the rich and foster them to families in the ghetto. Doesn’t matter which ghetto, black, white, brown, so long as the family is poor and the neighborhood has a high crime rate, failing schools and no social services. The scions of the rich should be able to rise above these minor environmental problems and make stunning successes of them selves given their inborn superiority right?

Offered in the sprit of Jonathan Swift.

Happy New Year!

How time does fly, it is new years! Happy Year of the Rat! Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Gender as Performance

In some ways all gender presentation is a performance, which is why I want to explore being a Drag King. But wait Natasha aren’t you a male bodied, pre transition Gender Queer who pretty much presents as male? Why yes I am which is why I am so interested in learning to perform as a Drag King. My male presentation up to now has been an unconscious result of how I was raised and acculturated. What I want to do now is deconstruct that presentation and relearn how to present as male. I want a consciously constructed presentation. I want to be able to vary my presentation to explore different male personas and modes.

I am hoping that this will help me when I finally try to present s female in the real world.

So any fabulous Drag Kings want a challenge?