Say Something Once Why Say It Again?

I find I really have nothing to say at the moment. Not sure when I will having something to say so bye for now.

The Apocalypse is Neigh

When Mattel comes out with a Goth/S&M Barbie . While I think it's way past due the professional outrage brigade has their knickers in a twist again. I, in the meantime, am still not satisfied. I want transgender Ken and Barbie as well as a gender queer Ken/Barbie.

Viva La Revolution!

Friday random ten

Before The Dawn by Judas Priest
Last Gang In Town by The Clash
Commotion by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Black Night (Single Version) by Deep Purple
Wherever I May Roam by Metallica
Beautiful Girl by INXS
Mississippi Queen by Ozzy Osbourne
Planet Earth by Duran Duran
Temptation by Halford
Back Door Man by The Doors

Body Image

Almost everyone struggles with body image in this culture, we who are transgender more than most. Almost by definition the bodies we are born with do not match our body image, which is tied to our gender identity. We will do much to try and align our body image to our actual bodies, everything from clothes & makeup through hormones to plastic surgery. I have done little in the way of transition for various reasons so my body image nags at my mind almost constantly. It occasionally drives me to thoughts of do it yourself body modification. So you can imagine how strongly I reacted to this post, Renegade Evolution: Naked Force, Unite! Part II. I have always admired Renegade Evolutions’ honesty but the shear bravery of this post took my breath away. The post was part of a response to this dreck from Feminist Anonymist. The ‘you can’t be a feminist because you don’t dress or look the way I want’ idiocy is the sort of body image bashing that feminists so rightly accuse men of. It is every bit as vile as a ‘You aren’t a real woman if you don’t look like a Victoria Secret model’ attitude.

I really thought the whole idea of feminism was liberate women from having to meet anybody’s expectation of how they should look. To encourage critical thinking about issues like body image and to decide for yourself how you wanted to dress and present. So despite her name I don’t think Feminist Anonymist. Is very much of a feminist at all.

Express yourself, don't repress yourself

Wise words from Madonna who has done so much to mainstream Queer and BDSM culture.



Why are so many people afraid to even discuss much less explore human sexuality? I love exploring all the wondrous possibilities even if only in my fantasies. I am attracted to men, women and so many of he gender gifted people I have met. I find it very hard to understand why so many are not only not interested in exploring their own sexuality but eager to deny that right to any one else. It’s only human after all so go for it with no regrets

Gender Queer Reflections.

I don’t get to play with my gender presentation nearly as much as I would like to for a number of reasons. But life is short and I’m old so I plan to start screwing around with gender presentation a lot more.

The most obvious way to do this is with clothing choices. Thankfully we no longer have laws that make cross-dressing illegal. Not that I can convincingly cross dress, I bear a strong resemblance to Uncle Fester of the Addams Family. Still given my current limitations I still want do something out of he ‘male’ spectrum whatever that is. I used to wear mascara regularly until my mascara disappeared; I blame the Huskies and/or cats for that. So one of my first bits of gender transgression is to get some basic makeup and make regular use of it. Just some basic light cover and mascara I think for now. Clothes are a bit of a problem, finding something I like in my size is not easy as I am a big girl. I am not necessarily looking to buy women’s clothes; gender-neutral clothes would do nicely thank you. This of course brings up the question of what is gender-appropriate or gender-neutral clothing. That can’t be determined without cultural context, what would be gender-appropriate in the Goth sub-culture would cause apoplexy in the Southern Baptist sub-culture. I work in L.A. County, which is a mosaic of different cultures and sub-cultures which presents both problems and opportunities with fooling around with gender presentation. Reports will follow

Friday Random Ten

The songs that iTunes decided to play today

Poor Twisted Me by Metallica
Show No Mercy by Slayer
Death Trip by The Stooges
Superbeast by Rob Zombie
Teidhir Abhalie Riu by Clannad
I’m Afraid Of Americans by David Bowie
The Longest Day by Iron Maiden
Charles Atlas Song (Reprise) from The Rocky Horror Show
Meet The Creeper by Rob Zombie
Lost in the Supermarket by The Clash

Remembering Our History

By now even the dimmest theotard has heard of the Stonewall Riots but how many remember that three years earlier there were the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot?

In 1966 in California it was illegal to cross dress, having buttons on the wrong side of your shirt could get you arrested. On a hot August night in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district the police were doing a routine sweep to harass trans-women, hustlers, gays and lesbians when one woman in Compton’s Cafeteria refused to go quietly and threw her coffee in the cops face. One thoroughly trashed cafeteria, one wrecked cop car and nine nights of picketing latter and things had changed permanently in San Francisco. To quote from glbtq.com ;

In the aftermath of the riot at Compton's, a network of transgender social, psychological, and medical support services was established, which culminated in 1968 with the creation of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, the first such peer-run support and advocacy organization in the world.

We need to remember our history, remember that we have always had to fight for our rights.

A Statement of Belief

Given the dust up over a cracker I posted about below I thought now might be a good time to post this Atheists Creed I stole borrowed from PZ Myers ;

I believe in time,
matter, and energy,
which make up the whole of the world.
I believe in reason, evidence and the human mind,
the only tools we have;
they are the product of natural forces
in a majestic but impersonal universe,
grander and richer than we can imagine,
a source of endless opportunities for discovery.
I believe in the power of doubt;
I do not seek out reassurances,
but embrace the question,
and strive to challenge my own beliefs.
I accept human mortality.
We have but one life,
brief and full of struggle,
leavened with love and community,
learning and exploration,
beauty and the creation of
new life, new art, and new ideas.
I rejoice in this life that I have,
and in the grandeur of a world that preceded me,
and an earth that will abide without me.

The Cracker Wars

Recently Webster Cook did a horrible thing, he took a Eucharist home with him instead of eating it. This non-crime caused professional outrage merchant Bill Donohue to go into a tizzy. All this idiocy brought supper blogger PZ Myers to despair at the stupidity of it all. This of course caused Donohue to have another hissy fit . PZ Myers did not roll over the way some presidential candidates *cough* Edwards *cough* did, he is fighting back.. Thus the letter below and I urge all three of my readers to write in support of PZ as well



President Robert H. Bruininks,

I am sue you have received all too many letters regarding Professor Myers in the last few days and yes this is another one. I write in support of Professor Myers and his oh so personal blog. As well as occasionally twitting the religiously self important among us he does a wonderful job bringing cutting edge biological science to a large lay audience. From the quality and clarity of his righting I am sure he is a great teacher. I urge you to ignore the campaign against him that Bill Donohue has started. Donohue makes his living be being professionally outraged. No slight is too insignificant that Donohue can not find cause to go into a foaming rage at it. The best way to deal with his ilk is to ignore them, he will soon find some new non-event to fly into a rage about.

I do hope all this has not caused you too much trouble. Again I urge support for Professor Myers as he is a great asset to your University.

--
Love,

Natasha

Pansexual Panamorus Gender Queer Androgyne
I walk not in the spaces you know but between them
http://genderqueerview.blogspot.com/

Molecular Biology Has Never Looked So Gorgeous

As is has in the Hybrid Medical demo reel. It reminds me why I got a degree in Biology even if I never used it.

Why

Do they keep remaking good moves and doing such a horrible job of it? The latest potential turkey is the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. This trailer does not inspire confidence.

In Requiem, Thomas Disch

Writer, critic and poet Thomas Disch committed suicide on July 4th. A leading light of the New Wave in Science Fiction in the 60’s who helped pull S.F. kicking and screaming out of it’s ghetto and into the literary mainstream he quickly transcended genre. His writing such as Camp Concentration and 334 had a deep influence on me, I will miss him and his cynical but true view of life.

The Husky & The Bear

Freki my boy husky was barking Friday Night, Geri the girl can’t bark because she has no vocal cords, both were on their leads. So I came upstairs to let them in, Geri came right in but Freki was still barking. That was when I saw the black bear all of 6 feet away from me. Freki was about a foot and a half from the bears hind quarters and was not going to come in while the bear was still there. For a minute or two we all just stood there while I tried to talk Freki in, he wouldn’t come. Then the bear started to move around Freki, I called Geri & she came, I was going to put her back on her lead but when the bear saw her it took off with Freki right behind it. Luckily Freki’s lead did not let him corner the bear in the upper corner of the yard so I could go and bring Freki in. Freki is a brave Huky and worthy of his name, Freki being one of the wolves of Odin.

Good Riddance to Bad Trash

Jesse Helms is dead and it’s about damn time. He was a repulsive racist, homophobic excuse for a human being who left the world a worse place for having existed. He’s death is a nice birthday present to the country. Happy 4th of July all.

Darwin Year Began Yesterday

Sigh, late again but there is a whole year of celebrating to do. It was on July 1st 1858 that the idea of evolution by natural selection was first presented to the world in a joint reading of Darwin's and Wallace's papers at the Linnean Society of London. It didn’t make a big splash then but it has since gone on to be the most important idea in biology and now underpins most of modern biology.

The Beagle Project has a summery of the importance of this day to science. For a view of how evolutionary theory is applied to cutting edge research read ervs’ archives.

Have fun this year.

Happy Birthday

Ack! I almost forgot, it’s Debbie Harry’s birthday!

Enjoy

Strike Two

Obama is going to continue and expand Bush’s Faith Based Initiative according to the Associated Press

Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and -- in a move sure to cause controversy -- support their ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Fortunately that wasn’t the whole story ;

Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea -- so long as we follow a few basic principles. First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them -- or against the people you hire -- on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. And we'll also ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work

Better but still idiotic, why should the federal government give money to religious organizations? Organizations that are still free to discriminate on any basis other then religon such as being queer for instance.

This stupidity, he voted for the FISA bill that gave retroactive immunity to the telcos' and he won't end the occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan. Why should I vote for this dweeb? Only on reason really, that he will appoint moderate conservative judges and not reactionary loons like Alito and Roberts. I'll still probably vote for him but campaign? No my time and money go into keeping marriage equality a reality in California