scATX: Speaker's Corner in the ATX

There on the lower left.  Wanna know who that cutie pie is?  Here’s Vanity Fair’s article.

A YouTube video of two hand-holding NBA players caused an Internet uproar

OH NOES!

And don’t bother looking to Europe for roughneck role models. Soccer teammates over there are known to occasionally kiss one another smack on the mouth after goals. (There’s even been evidence of post-goal cuddling.)

And according to a study released last fall by Bath University in England, “same-sex lip-locks among straight men are the norm in British universities and high schools.”

EXCUSE ME WHILE I BARF ALL OVER THE SCREEN FROM THE MIXTURE OF HOMOPHOBIA AND “EUROPEANS ARE GAY” GARBAGE THAT I JUST READ.

“I’m not a big fan of the bro hug, but only because that’s just something new to me,” said Cyrus Webb, a 35-year-old radio show host and blogger from Brandon, Miss. “Growing up, guys gave handshakes, ladies got the hugs.

“I didn’t personally have a problem with the gesture on the (hand-holding) video,” Webb added. “But I can understand why some who are sensitive about what is seen to be a manly or masculine event would see it as something that wasn’t cool.”

At least for now, hand-holding is certainly not up to bro code.

But as Chris Hall, administrator of The Bro Code Facebook page, points out, “(G)iven the above-average height of NBA players, I’m not sure who else they are supposed to hold hands with — if not each other.”

So glad that MSNBC and the TODAY SHOW made space for this shit.  This complete and total shit.

Because you know what this kind of shit and this kind of shit leads to??? – STUFF LIKE THIS: The Sad Risk/Reality of Being a Trans Person [TW].

This crap doesn’t exist in a vacuum and, therefore, is harmful.  Shame on ANYONE who tries to police how two other people act when it comes to affection and/or gender.

[TW for violence against trans people]

Link: Transwoman Severely Beaten at Baltimore McDonalds While Employees Watch [h/t @lifeversiontwo]

I watched the video (MAJOR TW) and I am just sick to my stomach.  Apparently all this woman wanted was to use the bathroom.

From Shaker Alexmac at Shakesville:

In this post I am going to deal with the intersection of transphobia and traditional sexism which impacts trans women most strongly. Julia Serano terms this intersection to be trans-misogyny. This synergistic (in a bad way) relationship can be seen in the pay gap between MTF and FTM transsexuals. You can also look at the much higher death rate for trans feminine spectrum people versus trans masculine people at the Transgender Day of Remembrance site. [...]

Media treatment of trans women often comes in the two flavors that I described in my first post—”pathetic tranny” or “deceptive tranny.” From the pathetic tranny archetype can come the horrible men in the bathrooms slur. You see, trans women are just men in dresses who want to rape little girls. Also popular in this category is men in drag, oftentimes with facial hair and deep voices. We trans women are just crazy “men” who think they are women. (See also: Buffalo Bill.) The opposite depiction is that we are deceivers and something disgusting, as can be seen in this wonderful clip.

From RachelPhilPa at Shakesville:

Every day, I must be aware of the threats around me and make conscious choices that non-trans people don’t have to think about. Does this restaurant that I want to go to have gender-neutral bathrooms? I want to wear a skirt today — do I have the emotional strength to stand up to the stares and snark that I’ll get? What’s the safest route for me to walk from point A to point B? Can I cross that intersection diagonally like I usually do, with that cop sitting there? Is today going to be the day that a cop pulls me over and sees the female name and male gender marker on my license, and will he do a freakout all over my body? It’s pride day — why did those two lesbians just mock me on the very day that we are supposed to celebrate our diversity? What’s the chance that I’ll be harassed by assimilationist gay men if I volunteer at that GLBT community center? (Pretty high, I’ve found.) Will I be welcomed at this or that women’s event? (Very unlikely, though it has happened). Am I willing to take the risk of commenting on a feminist blog — and deal with the inevitable “aren’t you just reinforcing gender norms” and “why do you have to mutilate yourself” questions? (not here on Shakes, thank the G-ddess and Melissa, but it’s happened on nearly every other feminist blog I’ve commented on.) Will this gym allow trans women in its women’s locker room? (Fat chance.) And on and on and on… [...]

And that includes bathrooms. For gender-normative people, especially men, using a public bathroom is so run-of-the-mill that it’s almost an automatic act. At worst, it’s something that is mildly unpleasant (Ewww! Stinky!). But for a trans or gender-variant person, public bathrooms are dangerous places, exposing us to harassment, ridicule, physical and sexual assault, and arrest and abuse by police. I avoid most of this harassment simply by avoiding public bathrooms where I can. But I can’t alway do that. Sometimes, I do get called for jury duty, and the worst part of jury duty is the tension and fear around using the bathroom in a building (courthouse) that is swarming with police. [...]

I think that it is pathetic that, should I need to travel, or I decide to just do it and take my lumps, that I’ll need to search this site to find a safe bathroom. No one should have to do that.

From Jos at Feministing:

Anti-gay violence and speech, anti-trans violence and speech, the use of homophobic and transphobic epithets, cat-calling and gay and trans bashing, are all about putting another person in their place in the gender hierarchy so the attacker can reaffirm their own power and position.

Everyone who experiences this broad range of attacks is being told they fail to conform to the gender identity at the top. I believe this understanding is crucial to battling all these forms of physical and verbal violence. While simultaneously challenging, for example, anti-gay sentiments, we can do the most to combat all these problems by going after the root: compulsory conformity to a binary gender hierarchy. This is why I believe so strongly in politics that put those in the margins, those experiencing the brunt of a particular system of oppression, in the center. Trans and gender non-conforming folks may experience hate and violence that is most obviously about gender non-conformity, but the understanding and experience that comes from this can benefit everyone who is harmed by this oppressive system, even raising the consciousness of those who are so psychically hurt they would turn to horrific violence to maintain this order.

My friend, SS, sent me a link to an article in The Daily Pennsylvanian, which is UPenn’s student-run independent newspaper. It is titled, Racism taints the University written by a STUDENT at UPenn.  Here’s a lengthy snippet:

I’m no stranger to racism. Being a minority, it comes with the territory. However, because of a recent experience, I cannot in good faith recommend that minorities come to Penn.

I was heading home at 2 a.m., which meant that students were stumbling out of bars and making their way back home as well.

Outside Harrison College House, I noticed a group of four white students — two females and two males — who were all drunk. I ignored their yelling, until I realized that the two guys were walking closer and closer to me.

Then suddenly, one of the girls spoke. “Yo son, what up dawg? Wut’s good, a’ight?”

Of course, I was taken aback. She was addressing me. “Nothing,” I responded.

“Word, really? Yo, what are you doin’ here? You belong here or what?”

“I’m a student here.”

“Nah, word. Yo, what you doin’ here?” the guy said, joining in her game.

I again replied that I am a student here. They ask me my age, again speaking mock slang to me. They continued to press whether or not I “belong” here. When they saw I was going the other way, they broke off, wishing me good luck and whatever garbled slang they had picked up watching television.

Unfortunately, it didn’t end there.

There were more drunk students around, but I did my best to ignore them. After my previous encounter, I was angry and didn’t want to be bothered.

A young white student blocked my way. “Yo.”

Here we go again.

“Yeah? What can I do for you?” I responded.

“I’m hungry, you see. Where can I get some fried chicken?”

Fried chicken? Did I really just get asked for a location to get fried chicken?

“Excuse me?” I didn’t know how to react. When racism is in your face like this, you don’t know how to respond. Many of us declare, “Oh, if this ever happened to me I’d smack them upside their head!”

But in reality, so many questions come to mind. “Is this person serious? Am I overreacting? Maybe this isn’t racist? Should I hit this person?”

“I’m looking for fried chicken,” he continued. “You look like someone who knows where you can get fried chicken.”

I needed to remove myself from this situation. I said, “Look, try Wawa if you’re hungry. I’m going now.”

He walked back to his friend and yelled, “I’m gonna go get some fried chicken! This nigger just told me where it’s at!”

Laughter.

Racism at Penn is usually subtle. It is a way of life, something that minorities come to accept. In class, it’s usually sly comments about us. In the dining halls, it’s people talking really loud, complaining about us to their friends. I overhear it.

But this was the first time it was so blatant.

While I have to say that there are a fair number (maybe a lot, even) of great supportive responses to the author’s story and his reaction to this racism, there were, of course, comments on the article that deserve trigger warning for racism, privilege, etc:

If you want to belong here, prove that you do. Find the resources you need to feel safe. Find people who make you feel accepted. If you’re graduating cum laude and you’re from such a disadvantaged background, then I’m surprised you haven’t taken a more positive initiative. An article like this will only weaken and shrink our minority communities by discouraging students form applying. This is college, not high school, we are adults, and it’s up to us as students to proactively define our school.

Let’s not consider Fling and extreme intoxication. Let’s not blame poor upbringing or wider society. Let’s certainly not permit that some people remain – despite the efforts of so many to the contrary – stupid, ignorant assholes.  Instead, let’s blame one of the most diverse and welcoming schools in the nation. And, as a solution, let’s encourage minorities not to come here anymore.  That makes a lot of sense.

We have to understand that “Penn is a lot different from most schools?” Yeah. It’s better and a hell of a lot more tolerant.  Your charge that few black men attend college? Is that really Penn’s fault, or the fault of a much larger set of problems in sore need of fixing?

Let me guess:  You’re a white racist?

Then you get to make blanket statements basically implying that every white person at Penn is racist. Am I allowed to be offended by that, or would that be racist? What about the countless times that my girlfriend has been harassed and called things by black men in west Philly while she is there volunteering her valuable time at a welfare center? Those men were wrong to do so, but I’m not about to go write to the DP and call all black men racist against white people because of a few incidents because I’m smart enough to realize that most black people are not saying things like that, just like most white people aren’t being racist towards black people.

This is a minor aside, but I felt compelled to comment on Abreu’s assertion that racism is pervasive in places like class and dinning halls:  “In class, it’s usually sly comments about us. In the dining halls, it’s people talking really loud, complaining about us to their friends. I overhear it.”
Are you kidding me? Is your view of race relations at Penn that myopic that you can’t see how diverse friend groups are here? Look, I’m a white male at Penn with close friends who are black, white, hispanic, Asian, whatever, and the idea that every person of color here is subject to complaints in class and at dinning halls is absolutely ludicrous. I’m really sorry for what happened to you, but you should realize that most of us enjoy each other’s company–regardless of ethnicity.

the best way to stop racism is to ignore it, not cry about it. chris, your guest column, whether you like it or not, has only increased racial tensions at penn (read the comments).

SS, who is at UPenn in some capacity, wrote this to me when they sent the link (which I am publishing here with SS’ permission), clearly upset about how the people in the above comments were responding to the author (and, I would say, rightfully so):

Oh my god, this poor guy. The comments are also so goddamn awful – I knew Penn students were privileged, but these comments are as if Privilege took a shit on the internet. Not to mention the number of victims who are telling this guy to keep quiet or have a different reaction? Heartbreaking …

So many people are trying to police his reaction to the racism he suffered (not to mention the assholes who are saying that he brought it on by being black on Penn’s campus) that I imagine he’s feeling even more oppressed (and in many more ways) than before writing what should have been a cathartic article.

Also: I’m fed up with people who don’t ever want to look beyond individual actions to the societies and institutions that implicitly condone, foster, disregard or overlook their fucked up behavior. First, universities aren’t responsible for rapist students, now they should also ignore racist students? Shouldn’t people in college be LEARNING about the intricate relationship between society and its members?

And I don’t really have anything else to say about this.  SS covered it.  My heart goes out to the author of this piece.  I hope against hope that it doesn’t make his experience at UPenn any worse and that, if anything, this does start a conversation that he feels needs to be had.

It reads:

Environmental Health and Safety and the Office of the Vice President for University Operations want to remind you that Austin has a significant bat population. Bats are considered a high-rabies risk species and should never be touched.  

If you find a live or dead bat in a building or a live bat outside that cannot fly, please call Environmental Health & Safety’s Animal Make Safe program at 471-BATS (2287).

Please remember to shut all windows and doors especially in the evening to help keep bats and other animals from getting into buildings.

I remember the first year at UT when I received this.  It freaked me out so much that I memorized the, thankfully, easy-to-memorize number.  So far, I have yet to see a bat in my campus office.

In case you don’t know about Austin and our bats:

Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge is home to the world’s largest urban bat colony, which is composed of Mexican Free-tailed Bats. The bats reside beneath the road deck in gaps between the concrete component structures. They are migratory, spending their summers in Austin and the winters in Mexico. According to Bat Conservation International^[1], between 750,000 and 1.5 million bats reside underneath the bridge each summer. Since Austin’s human population is about 750,000, there are more bats than people in Austin during the summer.

The nightly emergence of the bats from underneath the bridge at dusk, and their flight across Lady Bird Lake primarily to the east, to feed themselves, attracts as many as 100,000 tourists annually.^[1] Tourists can see the bats from the bridge, from the sides of the river and even from special boats.

Headline from MSNBC: “Headscarves slam brakes on women’s careers.  In secular Turkey, judges, teachers, and other officials are forbidden from wearing traditional Muslim head coverings in public buildings.”

From the article:

Despite earning degrees from one of Turkey’s best universities, none can be sure of reaching their career goals. What stands between them and their ambitions has little to do with dedication, loans or standardized tests. Instead, it is the traditional Muslim head covering they all wear.

Parliamentarians, judges, teachers and professors are forbidden from wearing the headscarf in public buildings, even though Turkey is predominately Muslim and governed by the Islam-oriented Justice and Development Party (AKP). Held in place by an old guard of secular bureaucrats, judges and the army, the ban has been eased at universities but remains unofficially applied in large parts of the private sector.

For many Muslims, the right of women to dress in accordance with their beliefs is on the front line in a battle with the traditional ruling class. For many secular Turks, the head covering is a symbol of everything they fear Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan government is working toward — political Islam and the oppression of women.

FIRST, as Samhita at Feministing said in response to the French burqa ban:

“Women’s rights” become a stand-in go to phrase to continue a legacy of pushing nationalist rhetoric and racist policy on communities that are already marginalized. In an effort to “free” women of color, they ultimately reconsolidate the very sexist and oppressive conditions they want to overturn, leaving most of us without the cultural space or actual rights to fight back on our own terms.

SECOND, MSNBC, I think it is possible to re-frame this NOT as the headscarf holding these women back but, in fact, a law that specifically targets ONLY Muslim women as the thing slamming a brake on their careers.  Interesting that you chose to frame it around the former…

[NB: This was sent to me by a friend who'd like to remain Anonymous as they are writing about their family.]

Last weekend I went to an annual church luncheon with my dad’s wife. She and my dad are very conservative, very religious, very Christian evangelical bible-as-the-literal-yes-LITERAL-word-of-God religious. This is the world where I grew up.

It’s an excruciating affair but usually manageable. Some woman in too much make-up leads us in song over a crappy PA system. A few women in the back sway to the music with one arm raised, their eyes closed. Someone gives their testimony. Church ladies do a skit. Sometimes there’s a fashion show.

But this year the luncheon was different. Yes the room was full of elaborately decorated tables, pouffed up white hair and husbands off to the side in a yearly gesture of domestic service to the women of the church, but there was an undercurrent of anger that I hadn’t heard before. The skit, the sweet ladies on stage, spoke not only of fighting the unbelievers; they were fighting the “enemies”.

I didn’t realize it until the luncheon started but the gathering was held in support of a local pregnancy crisis center. A woman who both went to the church and worked at the center stepped up to the podium to speak. She told us about the center and their mission which is committed to serving their clients “without regard to religious affiliation” however that lack of regard refers solely to their clients’ religious affiliation. The center’s religious affiliation came across loud and clear. They are a service working with God to prevent abortions. This woman believes that God speaks directly to her. Literally. She believes that every time she shows a pregnant woman who is seeking answers about her pregnancy and/or abortion a tiny pair of baby socks – and that woman breaks down in tears – God’s will is done.

Honestly none of this surprised me. My jaw was clenched and my fists were balled but really, it’s pretty typical. What was new, at least in the pastel setting of a ladies lunch, was the anger. This woman used the word “enemies” three times in her short speech. She talked about the people, the non-believers, who did not support their mission.

“They are our enemies. They hate us. They hate babies. They hate the truth.”

She said this.

I don’t even know where to go from here… This is what our lawmakers are forcing women seeking abortions to turn to before they can get an abortion? This is loving and moral? This is Christ-like?

No. This is bullshit.

[Tweeted earlier today by @FoxNews: "#JCrew ad shows designer painting son’s toenails pink. Does this cross the line? Check it out & let us know http://fxn.ws/i0K5wj #pinktoes."]

If you go to the link like I did, this is what you see:
[Image of a woman with her child in upper right, he has pink toenails.  The page is headlined: "SATURDAY with Jenna.  See how she and son Beckett go off duty in style."  In the lower right, a jar of pink toenail polish with this quote next to it, "Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink.  Toenail painting is way more fun in neon."  In the lower left is Beckett with his awesome black glasses looking freaking adorable.]

I retweeted FoxNews, adding “OMFG. NOT PINK TOENAILS ON A BBBBOOOOYYYY!!!”

To which the very smart @statesidemenace responded, “I’d really like to know how the phrase “Does this cross the line?” qualifies as news and not pandering.”

And to which the always spot-on @lifeversiontwo said, “What line? The immovable gender line?”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

[UPDATED: Now we know where Fox got this "news" from: Media Research Council's Latest Target: J. Crew.  I don't see pandering anywhere.]

_______________________

RELATED:

• Jesus’ General: J.Crew Trying to Steal Men’s Uteri, Masculinity, and Make Us All Socialist and Kenyany
• Feministe: One more reason to shop at J.Crew

From Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansa anymore:

If we took away the suits, cameras and sunglasses from this photograph we are left with a worrying picture. There is something medieval about this image despite that it was taken today in Paris. Is it reminiscent of what scenes from a witch hunt may have looked like hundreds of years ago? Surely, in a developed country like France, we have moved on a little from the this very public victimisation of women.

In France, women caught in public wearing the niqab or burqa will now be fined £132 or be faced with citizenship lessons. Does good citizenship not come from freedom and respect?

For more: French woman defies burqa ban as law comes into force (Times Live) and France’s controversial burqa ban takes effect (CNN).

Also, this:

[image of a tweet from @LailaLalami: "France bans the burqa; joins Iran and Saudi Arabia in the league of countries who legislate women's clothing.  Charming company."]

[UPDATE: I'm still stewing over this.  Here are my two thoughts:

1) If a woman wears a burqa because either she wants to, her religion asks it of her, or her husband/father demands it of her, banning it is not going to stop her from doing it.  It's what she wears to the GROCERY STORE!  And especially in the last case, if she is being forced against her will to wear a burqa (which I don't even like writing - as if I could ever understand this situation from the point of view of the woman being arrested in the picture above), then oppressing her via her clothing choices in order to fight against oppression - what kind of sense is that?  Well, it only makes sense if...

2) You don't like Muslims and you need a convenient way to go after them.  So, you decide to control their women and, especially, their women's bodies.  THAT story, that is as old as fucking time.  "The Traffic in Women" - it's a piece that historians and feminists and feminist historians constantly go back to when things like this arise because Gayle Rubin was onto something, something that has happened throughout history and that we still see operating today.  Society often operates on or is even BASED on struggles and exchanges between men over women's bodies.  And sadly, she's right, once again.  This time it's 2011 and it's taking place in France, that bastion of liberty.

Makes me sick.

Mona Eltahawy's take on this ban: right action by the wrong group.]

(image via: a soldier holding a sign that says “We can die but we can’t get paid”)

From producematthew on Tumblr:

A US Army soldier protests the potential federal government shutdown. American troops at home and abroad would receive only half a paycheck on April 15th before their salaries are halted altogether if the US Government fails to pass a spending budget by midnight on Friday. In addition to the salary freezes, life insurance policies for troops killed in the line of combat would not be paid to military families until a government shutdown is lifted, CNN reports. [via Twitter]

WHO’S PRO-LIFE NOW?

DROP THE RIDER THAT WILL DE-FUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD AND CAUSE PEOPLE TO DIE FROM PREVENTABLE AND TREATABLE CANCER.  And then you can PAY THE MILITARY PERSONNEL WHO RISK THEIR LIVES EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF THE FUCKING DAY.

Then LOTS of life will be honored.  Seems so fucking simple to me.

For more on the how the GOP refuses to pay soldiers and why, after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »