Also: The Eye of the Storm
For me, the lessons were sometimes pointed. My grandmother was quietly concerned that my siblings and I might not discern how we fit into a world that was so clearly defined by the Negro question. (For my grandmother this was the polite and preferred term.) My test came on one of those steamy summer afternoons as we gathered on our mats in the darkened house. Musie and Nurse Trammell sat side by side on rush-seat dining chairs, shushing us as we settled in. On this day there was no story. Instead, there was a quiz. “Children, we have a question for you,” they began. I perked up, eager to please. “Who here is a Negro?” my grandmother queried. Her tone was warm but her demeanor serious. She and Nurse Trammell leaned back, watching for our responses. “Who here is a Negro? Raise your hand,” Nurse Trammell gently urged.
Even at eight I prided myself on being a good student—quick and nearly always correct. Still, perhaps I hesitated, sneaking a look around the room. Did my hand go up only after the Miller boys, whom I so admired, raised theirs? Or was I confident, thrusting my hand in the air without a thought? Hadn’t I listened during enough adult discussions to know that when the word Negro was used it included my father? It included me. Recounting the story, as she did much later, my grandmother explained that my hand had gone up first, with my younger siblings raising theirs after glimpsing my skinny arm upstretched. I don’t think the women took much note of how the other children responded. It was assumed their hands would go up. The test, you see, was just for us.
RIP Gough Whitlam (a Great Australian):
Senator John Faulkner asked in 2002: “Are you comfortable being an icon and elder statesman?”. Whitlam replied: “Well, I hope this is not just because I was a martyr. The fact is I was an achiever.” He could point to achievements and reforms such as recognising China, abolishing conscription, establishing Medibank, introducing needs-based school funding, extending tertiary education, reforming family law, boosting the arts, indexing pensions, and moving to equal pay for women, voting at 18, one vote-one value and Aboriginal land rights. He removed sales tax on contraceptives. He broke the cultural cringe, introduced an Australian honours system and a new national anthem, made relations with Asia a priority and ended Australia’s involvement with imperialism, later revived in Iraq.
what if we interviewed geddy lee like he was a lady musician?:
I panic, drop the menu on the floor, and when I look up, there he is. His silhouette is framed by the late-afternoon sun streaming through the front windows. His hair streams past his shoulders in luscious, bouncing curls – barely a hint of Dippity-Do graces these locks. In fact, his whole look is a nod toward understated casual. Gone is the stage attire of skinny jeans, converse sneakers, and band tees, replaced by a green flannel shirt, dark blue denims that hug in just the right spots, and a pair of work boots that suggest “I was just digging through my garage for the snow tires before I left to meet you”, even though we all know he has an assistant who does that for him.
there is literally zero chance, zero, that bill clinton is not secretly eating meat and dairy from time to time let’s get real here. also, life is a rich tapestry.
When even the LDS-run-and-owned Deseret News thinks you’re being terrible, it’s time to check yourself:
For whatever reason, the gaming community has attracted an element that threatens to kill feminists. Such threats should not be taken lightly, nor should arguments that a room full of people with concealed weapons is a deterrent to a deranged criminal be given credence.
Utah lawmakers need to change this silly and potentially dangerous law.
Feministing runs a guest post by Emma Caterine on the trans men at women’s colleges conversation:
…let’s be clear: the attendance of trans men at “women’s” colleges is part and parcel with the bigoted decision to reject trans women. The gender binary view required that the scales had to be balanced: two trans enter, one trans leave. If you are scared of trans women’s “male socialization” and thus reject them–which I believe most, if not all, these colleges decided to do before accepting trans men–our male vs. female society requires you to also believe trans men have “female socialization” sufficient to be accepted, or at least not required to transfer.
I can’t help but grin at all these “women’s” colleges wringing their hands about what to do with all these misogynistic trans men at their colleges trying to decenter womanhood. They so fervently bought into the patriarchal lie of gender essentialism, of some sort of residual womanhood in trans men, that by the time these men have started challenging these colleges’ focus on women it is far too late to change their minds. That’s the kind of morbidly funny part.
I have Definitively Decided not to go to my ten-year college reunion in May OR EVER AGAIN, MAYBE? and I feel so good about it! This is me:
OH who wants to talk about the AHP article about being basic and class anxiety and how, as usual, consumerism is targeted at and yet simultaneously tearing down women? http://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/basic-c…
Ooh I thought it was fascinating. THOUGH, I was slightly irked by the idea that basic being used by white people toward other white people (instead of its history primarily used by black people) makes it “deracinated.” It now has different racial markers, not none. #whiteisnotthedefault
Very good point, I didn’t catch that. I’m also a little skeptical about how developing personal (or unique) taste is a privilege of location and class — I’ve met waaay too many people who responded to poverties of both wealth and experience with an extremely personal sense of style and taste. And it seems like “the basic” here is not really a product of that.
I don’t know, the rest of the article was good. It just went a little wobbly there at the end.
I agree. I think it’s more that, being that particular type of ‘basic’ middle class means that mindlessly buying into brands for that sense of middle class ‘belonging’ is easier and more attractive. Being upper/upper middle class gives you the means to look down on that sort of buying in, and being working class denies you the means to buy in.
I also don’t think that craving that sense of belonging is necessarily something to look down upon. I like some things that are considered ‘basic’ because I like that they’re a touchstone that can help me connect with a lot of people who aren’t just like me. Plus, earnestness and sincerity are cool.
In regard to money not being an indicator of taste: in food studies, I like to look at Bourdieu’s food space, which has financial capital (money, ability to make purchases) on one axis and cultural capital (knowledge, education) on the other. Because class can mean a couple of different things–wealth or refinement or both, and Bourdieu suggests that the consumer habits of low vs high income differs in quality and quantity, while the habits of low vs. high culture differ in kind.
If you look at basic bitches through that lens, basic-ness comes from having high enough economic capital to spend discretionary income on social markers, but low enough cultural capital that you might not realize your love of Starbucks lattes is gauche according to the tastemakers, whoever they are, and whatever gave them the right to judge.
Yeah, I see it as a manifestation of the disdain for the nouveau riche trickling down to the middle class/working class. These women are spending money, but they’re spending it wrong by buying coffee that associates them with the low culture group. I think the capital vs. culture aspects of class are fascinating and often overlooked. I grew up low capital/high culture while my boyfriend grew up high capital/low culture so while we both grew up middle class, there are huge differences in how we relate to culture, including the whole “basic-ness” thing.
“Deracinate” means to uproot – I don’t think she was trying to say it’s been stripped of racial markers.
…
My birthday is soon can someone buy me a dictionary?
I totally didn’t know that either…
i made the exact same mistake, so you’re not alone.
These days I learn all my vocab from comments on the toast.
I was nodding along a whole bunch. The only thing I thought was missing was a discussion of how the insult changes based on who is doing the insulting, even in just a punching up vs punching down way. That it’s an insult meant to denigrate or weaken a specific group is kind of given once it becomes a stereotype, but the context changes, I think? I dunno, just seemed like another angle.
I loved the article although in my experience I wouldnt consider it a class issue but definitely part of the “special snowflake” issue and this whole concept that your taste is an indicator of your quality as a person.
The way that we have been taught how to consume has made us think that our purchases *mean* something. But actually we are all buying things that just reflect our very specific demographic and so me buying some sort of bourbon infused pulled pork thing is the same as the basic girl buying her pumpkin spiced latte.
We are all just judgy little meatbags buying shit. I find that oddly adorable.
You articulated this very well, that in many ways we’ve replaced personality with consumption. I get so riled up when people talk about brand loyalty or liking certain things as if its a moral virtue, rather than a preference mostly born out of targeted advertising.
Yup, this is one of capitalism’s best tricks–when people define themselves by their consumption (self included) it makes the contingency and limits of capitalism even less visible, dissent less thinkable, commodities more important.
Which in turn does mean you can’t take class out of it altogether, IMO, since it’s so related to a) the ability to consume and b) what various commodities are understood to mean.
I had never heard “basic” used in that way. I imagine that makes me extremely basic.
And I am absolutely guilty of stereotyping this way. I work with an office full of Basic Women. I was using the word “conventional”.
I’m not sure I think of it as a function of race or class necessarily. The way I have thought about it (and I think about it a lot since I spend 40 hrs a week with these ladies) is that they are 100% products of the time and place and expectations where they grew up. So maybe that is a race and class issue. Shit.
they are 100% products of the time and place and expectations where they grew up
Ok, but isn’t everybody a product of the time and place and expectations they grew up surrounded by? I mean, this seems like a uniting factor across all human categories.
That’s what I mean, though. They are all the same age (about 15 years older than I am) and alll grew up withing a one-hour radius of our workplace. What I mean is, they are the product of a *very specific* time and place.
Also, over the weekend in Malaysia they had an event called “I Want To Touch A Dog,” which was targeted at dispelling fear of dogs http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/10/19/… which was apparently a huge success, and my facebook blew up all weekend with people taking about it. BUT now it’s attracted a lot of attention calling it evil and misguided, and just generally creating a gigantic foofaraw. http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/10/21/…
Interesting! This actually explains a lot to me- last year I lived in an apartment complex with a large Muslim population, and many of the women appeared to be TERRIFIED of my large, shaggy, friendly dog. Like, screaming and running away when I walked by. I just thought they were scared- I didn’t know touching dogs was considered taboo!
This sounds like a great event! Also lookit all the puppieeesssss
I can’t tell you how much I love the word “foofaraw” except to just say it. Here. Oh, there it is, I said it and now I will use it in sentences all day and perhaps for the next 12 days and 42 hours.
I never bothered with any college reunions – with Facebook, I haven’t really lost touch.
But I did hem and haw and wring hands over whether to attend my 20th high school reunion this summer. I went, and I am so glad I did, because even though none of my old friends were there it was lovely to see everyone and I laughed a ton. And then one of my classmates died of what I presume to be cancer a few weeks later, so I’m glad I got to see her one last time.
My 10th high school reunion is next month, and I’m going mostly out of spite but also because of that very reason – there are a few people I’ve lost touch with that don’t seem to have Facebook or any other social media, and I’d love to be able to see them again and catch up.
I went to my 10th highschool reunion and I LOVED it. 1. all my classmates grew up to be pretty progressive and cool people, and the ones who were super nerds are doing such good stuff.
2. several of the boys I had crushes on are now chubby accountants in suburban areas, and it was like, “aww yiss, first of all they were sweethearts, even back when I thought they were hot shit, secondly haha, you got turned down by a guy who is busiest at TAX SEASON and is getting a bit bald.” One even invited me to an after party and gave me his number!
3. I didn’t run into many people I didn’t like, but one girl who I absolutely hated in HS came up, and I didn’t recognize her at all. She was all, “eegghh! Hiiiii!” and I was all,”blink blink…blink…..?” and she was like, “Jessie? Remember?” and I was all, “squint….blink….um…yes, oh Jessie, hi…how are…you?” while clearly not remembering her at all and her looking at me like, “she doesn’t even remember me?! WHAT IS THIS SHIT.” Then in the bathroom it came back and I was like, “Ohhhh JESSIE. OH…I didn’t like her, she was mean!”. And then i felt SOOO good. I was like, “aww yes, if I had a time machine I’d go back and tell 16 year old me, “you aint even going to remember Jessie when you are 28. Enjoy!”.
3. Lastly if you come from the East coast I highly recommend moving to LA. That was huge, “OMG you live in LA?!” nailed it. I looked good too.
I liked the article about sexism in music interview, and then he went and spoiled the whole thing (briefly) for me by saying “Stop writing about girls like this.”
*Stop writing about women like this.
FTFY
The author is a she! You can still obvi prefer women to girls, but I never care what female writers select.
HANNIBAL BURESS THO.
He is amazing and I love him and now I need to re-watch Broad City for the fifth time. I need it to come back ASAP.
I am watching Broad City for the 4th time now, and I’m loving Hannibal more and more with each watching.
I am so glad he is calling out Cosby. I had started to watch old eps of The Cosby Show, and on a whim I googled Bill Cosby, and I was SHOCKED that I had no remembrance of these allegations! (Granted, I was a child in the 80s, but that is a big fucking deal!) I immediately stopped watching that show and felt gross.
I was at that show! It was prettttttty amazing, especially because Philly really loves Bill Cosby as he went to Temple. Still the crowd was definitely with him!
I just binge-watched Broad City last week and holy hell that show is hilarious and brilliant, and Buress is a ray of pure comedic sunshine every time he’s on screen.
The scene that sold me on the show for all time: Ilana buys Abbi’s hamburger drawing & tells Lincoln it’s because it combines her two favorite things. And Lincoln asks, “art and Abbi?” And he says it without a trace of jealousy or resentment, in fact the way Buress delivers the line you can tell he thinks it’s really sweet and endearing. It’d be so easy (and so Writing 101) to introduce conflict by having Lincoln be jealous of Ilana’s attachment & attraction to Abbi, but they don’t. Such great writing and great performances from Buress and Glazer.
I just adore Lincoln and Ilana’s relationship. Like, you can tell Lincoln wants them to be more together, but he knows that’s not Ilana’s style and he doesn’t push it. He gets her and he loves her for it.
What sold me is the scene where he and Ilana are making out after he replaces her tooth and she keeps trying to drag Abbi into it. And Abbi is just rolling around on the floor trying to get away (more of high!Abbi physical comedy next season PLEASE). I feel like it’s a beautiful summation of the relationship between the three of them
Oh man the dentist office floor attempted threesome/Abbi’s escape scene made me laugh so hard my sides ached the next day.
That was one of the MANY MANY times I have gotten short of breath laughing at this show.
ONLY 5 times???
Hahah just kidding. I have watched it more than 5 times though. I’m also going as Abbi in the ep where they get locked out of Ilana’s apartment for Halloween.
HANNIBAL BURESS. I just got around to watching High Maintenance and his episode was outstanding.
I don’t really understand the point of some of the examples in the Feministing article.
“5. Oh and also at Mr. What-About-Me’s college they required all 200 student leaders to attend a trans sensitivity training. Remember having that at your college? Me neither, but you know, lack of acknowledgment.”
Uh… how is this bad in and of itself? Have I not had enough coffee to detect sarcasm yet? Because I WISH these kinds of things had been taught at my college!
I think it’s a sarcasm thing, but it’s REALLY hard to detect.
The example before was of a trans guy saying they didn’t do enough to acknowledge trans men, and this example was just showing how ridiculous that opinion is since they’re having these huge trans sensitivity trainings (which are, of course, awesome!).
Hannibal Buress is now my new favorite man.
This is what ALL MEN should be doing: calling out the bullies and rapists and making the establishment aware that by ignoring this behavior they are complicit in it.
SECONDED. ALL THE SECONDEDS.
He’s definitely going straight to the top of my list of “dudes I would actually really love to pay money to see do standup”. Which is generally a much shorter list than the ladies’.
Yep. This is all I want allies to do. Not give their opinion on feminism, not sit on panels about women, not talk over women at every given opportunity, just CALL OUT OTHER MEN FOR THEIR BULLSHIT.
Men need to start getting together in groups to shun other men. Just shun all of the misogynists and bullies and rapists. It would be beautiful.
The Whitlam obituary is nice and all but:
“The Loans and Morosi affairs gave the Opposition leader, Malcolm Fraser, the “reprehensible circumstances” he used to force an election by blocking Supply in the Senate. Rex Connor, Minister for Minerals and Energy, who wanted to build a powerful nation by harnessing Australia’s resources, kept trying for a $4 billion loan from the Middle East after the government had ruled it out. Juni Morosi, an attractive Eurasian, was distracting Cairns. Whitlam sacked both for misleading parliament, but he had failed to control his cabinet.”
Well, fuck you too, Sydney Morning Herald.
P.S. It’s spelt “Junie”, but I suppose getting her name right isn’t as important as noting that she’s an “attractive Eurasian”.
A large inflatable pig just flew past my window and got caught on the garage, and just after I opened the window to take a photo of it, a little goth girl in her LBD and silly tights and pink hair ran out of the next-door apartment block and grabbed it.
I have nothing else to contribute.
You don’t NEED to contribute anything else. Just rest on your laurels today, knowing you’ve given us all we need 🙂
No, that was pretty great.
THAT.
Did not think today could get more entertaining after the flying pig. Went to Sainsbury’s and saw a pack of teenage dirtbags with their low-slung trousers on, all carrying pineapples.
Okay, well, you obviously win today.
I often feel like things happen to me and if someone else told me about them, I’d be sure they were making it up. My life is often ridiculous (generally because I make choices that will lead to good stories), but today was just sublime.
Is this an Invader Zim reference? Is Invader Zim still cool among the young goths as it was in 2002 or so when I wore a black velvet choker every damn day?
I had never heard of Invader Zim so have just googled and am none the wiser!
Spent the morning researching candidates and filling out my sample ballot! If you are a person who partakes of early voting get on it! I’m going after work today.
I voted already! (I’m overseas.) I even got an email saying that my ballot was in and would be counted. Good work, PostNL.
I think she was annoyed at some of the men complaining about the college not taking their concerns seriously, and she was pointing out how she would have liked have had that at her college. And how currently women’s colleges bar trans woman from attending there.
I was kind of sad that her main point seems to have gotten buried at the end of the article. This sums up what she was getting at:
“I’m talking about feeling entitled to be men in a women’s space and have that space cater to their desires and needs while trans women sit out in the cold.”
Yeah, the inclusion of this line is supposed to clear things up, but the rest of the article isn’t sarcastic enough to carry it through. 😛
My 10th reunion was apparently the worst thing ever. According to sources, most everyone was still very high school and extremely rude. I ended up at some other 10 year that year in another state with my DJ boyfriend so I just pretended that was my reunion.
But, my mother paid me to go to my 20th because she said it was important. So I went. And it was fun. I saw people I wanted to see that had become adults and some people who were still in high school snob mode. But if you didn’t hate high school and everyone there, you should go! But if it was a miserable experience, and you aren’t looking for any sort of closure or whatever, why put yourself through it. Plus it’s expensive.
Bill Clinton fully eats omnivore from time to time. I saw him speak in New Orleans at a healthcare conference a couple of years ago and he said he maintains vegan diet on a day to day basis, but does eat omnivore from time to time. (He was speaking specifically of cajun food at the time, which is a whole lot of not vegan.)
I initially read this as “Bill Clinton fully eats omnivores from time to time,” which is a different thing.
Who doesn’t enjoy a little cannibalism every so often?
I am friends with a person who performed in the All Jane, No Dick festival this weekend and I want to reassure everyone that much fun has been had at the lone protestor’s expense. Oh so much fun.
The stepmom of a guy I dated in university was a realtor for a very wealthy suburban Toronto neighbourhood and is good friends with Geddy Lee since she sold him his house. My ex was always saying how he’d totally come home and see Geddy Lee having tea with his stepmom all the time, so I would always casually suggest we go to his place when we hung out. I NEVER MET HIM. OPPORTUNITY SQUANDERED.
He coached my cousin’s Little League team in Toronto!
I just KNEW Geddy Lee would be all kinds of awesome. Suspicions of awesomeness confirmed. And let’s not forget the guy loved Aimee Mann, just in case anyone is doubting the full-on awesomeness that IS Geddy Lee.
This is a thing that I haven’t seen discussed re: women’s colleges and I’m wondering what other Toasties think.
Let’s say women’s colleges stop admitting trans men, and require trans men to transfer if they begin transitioning after matriculating. What happens to masculine-presenting women? I worry that there is lots of room for them to face harassment/pressure to transfer. I’m NOT saying that this is an argument to let trans men stay in women’s colleges – I am asking what sorts of policies/precautions could prevent women from feeling unwelcome in the one place where they’re not supposed to be policed for their gender.
(And if this seems like a straw man argument, I am asking because I have some dear friends who have experienced terrible treatment in supposedly “progressive” women-only spaces for being masculine-presenting, so it’s been on my brain.)
Hells to the no, that is not cool.
I hear what you’re saying, but I feel like generally speaking women attending a women’s college are unlikely to harass masculine-presenting women. One of the big points of attending a women’s college is that you don’t have to perform femininity if you as a woman don’t feel like it. Yes, there may be a bad apple on this front, but it seems very very unlikely.
I don’t know! I’m not super comfortable leaving at “that would never happen HERE!”
Right, but that’s why that’s not what I said.
There’s no guarantees that harassment wouldn’t happen anywhere. It’s far less likely at a women’s college, though, where people are usually not conforming to conventional gender roles all that much anyway. The idea that women’s colleges would have extra burdens placed on them to include trans-men because of a hypothetical fear about masculine-presenting women being mistaken for transmen just seems like a very high burden to put on women’s colleges, and based on a hypothetical.
Colleges have rules about anyone disrespecting (let alone harassing) fellow students based on gender or appearance, and those rules cover the (very reprehensible, I agree) potential situation you’re describing. Those rules should be well enforced, is how I would put it — those unisex (all-sex?) rules.
I feel like that’s not something that would suddenly come up after requesting trans men to transfer. There would need to be a culture in place already of students harassing masculine presenting women, which isn’t the culture that is currently in place at any of the women’s college I know of/work at/have friends who went to (they tend to be faar more accepting of masculine presenting women compared to any other spaces I’ve ever been in, and from what I understand that’s been true since well before there were any out trans students and remained that way afterwards).
I’m very very sorry about what happened to your friends but I don’t really think that what happened to them would be resolved by making those women-only spaces open to trans men. Whatever issue was wrong with the culture of those particular women-only spaces is clearly an issue with masculine presenting women, and I feel that even if they became more inclusive to trans men, they would just be nicer to men and still have their issues with masculine presenting women.
I should mention I don’t personally feel trans men should be required to transfer but I understand that’s a policy in place at one of the schools mentioned in the Wesleyan article from the other day.
I also think its good to remember that most women’s colleges are small and have fairly tight knit communities, they aren’t typical commuter schools or large sprawling campuses of 30k people. So their classmates are people they know well and recognize and study and live with day in and day out. These are also schools that have historically attempted to foster a culture of understanding, whether or not they have always succeeded, and there are policies in place to protect students from discrimination (as there are at most, if not all, co-ed universities).
I think it’s a little bit insulting to the intelligence and compassion of the students (even though I know that was absolutely not your intention, and you were coming from a place of concern!) to assume that they can’t tell the difference between their masculine presenting female roommate and the trans dude two halls down, and that they would single out one of those people to harass and push out. And if for some reason that were to happen I’m pretty sure the school would be able to deal with it the same way they would deal with any similarly horrifying case of harassment and discrimination.
While I don’t personally agree that trans male students who transition after entering college should be asked to leave (for other reasons), it’s my understanding that when this is done it’s to preserve these Colleges as a place for educating and empowering only women, regardless of whether they present themselves in a stereotypically female manner (maybe even especially when they don’t), rather than something that is being done to get rid of any stereotypically male qualities from the student body.
Again, I get your concern and I think harassing or discriminating against masculine presenting women is a terrible terrible thing but I don’t feel it’s something that is likely to be influenced by how these schools handle the question of whether trans men should be studying at their schools.
The Feministing article about trans students at women’s college demonstrates just the kind of perspective on the situation that the NY Times article suggests, and it frustrates me because the article had such blind spots. (Cisgendered Mount Holyoke grad here.) Yep, there are trans men on campus and there are efforts to accommodate them, but that doesn’t mean the “women’s college” identity has destroyed itself in an implosion of internalized gender essentialism. Women’s colleges are extraordinary safe spaces for queerness; I don’t know of anywhere else trans men could go where the exploration of their identity would be so accepted. They’re also very, very proud of their tradition of educating women–the women’s colleges that remain today have recommitted themselves to that mission over and over again. It would take a lot more than a handful of trans men, even loud entitled trans men, to eradicate that identity.
I feel like it also bears pointing out that the admission of trans men wasn’t a decision the colleges made at some point; it kind of just happened. There was one trans first-year that I knew of during my time at Mount Holyoke; the vast majority of transitions occurred after matriculation. That may not be the case now, since I graduated the better part of a decade ago and it’s getting easier to transition younger, but the truth is that without taking any action the college ended up with these students enrolled and fully participating in the student body, with many of their classmates supporting their right to be there (initiatives to make the student government constitutions gender-neutral at Mount Holyoke and Smith were entirely student-led), and has not decided to actively kick them out. That feels different to me from “They so fervently bought into the patriarchal lie of gender essentialism, of some sort of residual womanhood in trans men.”
Cis Smith grad here, and I completely agree. I graduated in 2010 and knew several trans* and non-binary students, and they didn’t detract from my experience there at all. I’d like Smith to admit everyone except cis men.
Edit to add: And if women’s colleges started forcing male students to transfer, you wouldn’t get fewer male students at women’s colleges, you’d just get more closeted male students at women’s colleges, which I don’t think is the better scenario.
Yeah, I’m not comfortable with any system that forces teenagers who are working through their identities to decide between hiding in the closet and being forcibly uprooted from their community. Like, you want to REDUCE young trans people’s access to stability? Not to mention that just because you’re out at school doesn’t mean you’re out to your family, and presumably if you get kicked out of college, they’ll want to know why.
(Also a women’s college alum.)
I think it’s also important to point out that Wellesley also accepts “study abroad” male students via the 5 college exchange (nevermind the fact that historically this has not gone well- it is possible), and besides that has men attending classes from various schools nearby, so to me it seems seriously hypocritical to suggest any strict policy against trans men. These varieties of men on campus, and people who do not identify as women, have not caused the women’s college to crumble to dust. Students share bathrooms with men and spaces with men no matter what. To me, it’s a moot point whether trans men are allowed on campus because there are already many types of men on campus. It’s just a question of how do we support those men (and not-women) while not erasing the history of the women’s college and the purpose of a women’s college, which is an important conversation.
Yep yep yep. Current (cis queer) Barnard student here. The real threat to a women’s college’s identity (as an institution geared toward subverting patriarchy through education) isn’t the presence of a few men on campus, but the transphobic policy of not admitting trans women. Like you said below, 100% female is not part of the picture–we’re one of four undergraduate colleges at Columbia, so our classes, dining halls, dorms, athletics, extracurriculars, etc have students from both sides of the street–but that doesn’t mean that we’re any less of a women’s college. Asking trans men (the feministing article doesn’t mention nonbinary students, which I found odd) to leave is a different kind of transphobic policy, but it would undermine our attempt to create a safer space in the same way. I’m friends with some of the trans and nonbinary students here (no, they’re not entitled assholes), and I can’t imagine not wanting them to be part of our community.
This conversation is definitely happening on campus right now. Students are advocating for trans inclusivity and some of our initiatives, like making sure there are gender inclusive bathroom in every building, have been successful, but we’ve had more pushback from the administration on the admittance policy (cue me shaking my fist, muttering “typical neoliberal corporate feminism”).
Last tear our student govt association invited Dean Spade, (a law prof, trans activist, and alum) to a town hall last year to talk about it and he said a lot of really smart things about the whole issue. (Videos and write up here: http://bcrw.barnard.edu/blog/dean-spade-on-trans-… Basically, he explained that the college should be a place for all gender oppressed people (read: everyone but cis men, which I think @ginkotree mentioned upthread), and I totally agree. I don’t think it’s essentialist to say that trans men experience gender-based discrimination and violence, not because they’re “really women” but because they’re outside the cis masculine norm (like @blushingflower also said upthread).
Basically: don’t worry women’s college alums. current students are ON IT. (But also: tell the alumnae office what you think, because, really, they only care about the cash).
I feel like the best solution is to allow anyone who identifies as female at the time of admission to be admitted (or have a chance at being admitted) and then let anyone who makes any kind of transition at college stay. That makes sense to me.
I saw Hannibal Burress live and LOVED IT. In other comedy news, pretty psyched that Leslie Jones has been named a cast member on SNL.
Same here, skipped the 10 because it tends to be when everyone is still in the petty one-upmanship game, but by 20 there are grandparents running around and people are much more awesome and “WOOOO, we were all such shits in high school. Man alive, I’m glad I stopped sucking.”
It’s hard for me to imagine what would happen in this scenario, because a women’s college that forced trans men to transfer out would be a very different place from the women’s college environment I experienced.
The one thing I can say is that there’s a difference between institutional policies and student culture. A masculine woman might worry about how the president/trustees/dean of admissions consider her gender presentation, if they even notice it, but her friends and classmates aren’t likely to take their cue from those people in determining how to treat her. (@hearyoume)
Is there an official Toast stance on Bill Clinton? I love him so and i just wonder if I am doing it wrong
The Toast has semi-officially adopted a (nonironic!) pro-Henry VIII stance, so I don’t know that you can be condemned too heavily for this one.
I’m assuming you mean you “love him so, while acknowledging the fullness of his various faults and not just attempting to brush them under the rug when others discuss how they are dissuaded by those same faults”?
The Nicole Stance is that literally ANYONE who wants to become, much less SUCCEEDS in becoming President of the United States (having seen that nothing will ever actually be accomplished and your family will be exposed to disgusting scrutiny in a way that other countries find repellent, and you will have to pretend you believe in God and disapprove of gay marriage until the polls point the other way and think throwing people in jail for pot is great) is a deeply deluded power-crazed narcissist who should immediately be prevented from holding office, so YOU DO YOU, GIRL.
(obvi people gonna keep running, but if my husband wanted to run and i couldn’t talk him down, i would just go on morning shows and talk about my abortion and flash my boobs until he had to withdraw)
*imagining a paradise where this behavior would not get a candidate shuffled out of the running*
While this is no doubt fairly true of the modern presidency, my follow-up question is how far back does this “running for office = automatically a narcissitic chump” assertion hold true? Did Carter’s candidacy inherently imply this? FDR’s? Lincoln’s?
Yes.
It runs back forever omg.
Men.
Forever.
Power.
Etc.
Ha!
Well-stated.
A friend of mine shared a story about the tutoring center where she works/I volunteer– this little girl comes running up with The Big Book of Presidents (or something like that) and asks, confused, “Where are the GIRL presidents??” … HEARTBREAKING.
Yes.
The only president I can think of who didn’t want the job very much is Garfield, and he didn’t last long enough to prove anything either way.
I mean, even before our current media culture and whatnot, running for president was still saying “I believe everyone will be better off with me in charge,” which is a feeling that I think is probably inherently bananas.
As robot says. YES.
For proof, you can listen to LBJ tapes on youtube, or read the private letters of any president ever (presidential libraries!). All the way back to our George the First.
I have died from the symbolism of that St. Louis protest photo gallery.
Yes. I made me almost weepy, especially the photo of the African-American woman in the pink pullover trying to pull back her older friend’s flag from the white man in sports gear. It was the Iwo Jima statue composition — spontaneously.
Was just thinking how awful it would feel to have my American flag torn out of my hands during a protest by someone who was saying I didn’t have a right to it… especially in the Ferguson context….
Yeah. The “eye of the storm” article is finishing me off, in terms of weepiness. Have to stop reading at work and come back to it later.
Agreed.
Nicole, my mom is waging a passive aggressive campaign to get me to go to my 10th college reunion, but I refuse to succumb. The theme is TENtucky Derby! I absolutely refuse.
Sam, can we just get together and drink heavily and sing our college fight songs in a neutral location of our choosing?
…all my comments about Bill Clinton eating omnivore would be perverted, so I’ll leave it at that.
Plus, I feel the need to apologize for my lack of proof reading. Time to time to time to time. I LIKE WORDS.
Would anyone like to discuss the Pistorius verdict? I don’t feel like I have anything to say, particularly, but it gives me an unsettled feeling — would be glad for a discussion.
Was a bit shocked that he has been living freely at his uncle’s “mansion” during the entire trial according to the NY Times article on it, and that tonight will be his first night ever in prison. After having murdered someone.
FUCK THE ABUSIVE MURDERER OSCAR PISTORIUS.
I actually hope Reeva’s family waits a few years and puts out a discreet hit via a contract killer who makes it look like an ACTUAL HOME INVASION.
“Pistorius could be released after 10 months in jail to serve the remainder under house arrest, according to legal experts.” — ughh yeah, do not like that (from an ESPN article on the verdict).
I don’t have much more to add beyond that I would read an extensively footnoted Nicole rant about all of Oscar Pistorius’ failings as a human being.
It makes my blood boil. 5 years is a goddamn joke, especially if he does in fact get out after ten months. I can’t imagine what Reeva’s family are going through right now. I second Nicole’s idea…wait a few years, then it’s payback time.
My high school class tried to have a 5 year reunion this year but it failed spectacularly, as in no one showed up. For me, reunions are kind of pointless because a) all the people whose lives I actually care about, I’m still in touch with, b) we are 24-year-olds, everyone of us has Facebook, so I pretty much know everything about everyone else’s lives anyway, and c) being 24 years old, most of us really haven’t accomplished anything beyond finished my Bachelor’s/doing my Master’s.
I guess it would be more interesting 10, 15, or 20 years down the road, but even then, I probably wouldn’t give a flying fuck because reunions are terrible and no one should ever be forced to go to one. You do you, Nicole.
My ten year high school reunion is next month and I’m just so TORN. Like, fuck that and all those people HOWEVER I a) have a mega hot husband id like to show off and b) was homecoming queen and would like to rub that in just once more before I die. Conundrum.
My best friend and I made a pact that we’d go to our high school reunions only to see who’s married, who’s pregnant, who’s come out, and who’s dead. We missed out on the 10-year, but I’m hoping we can make it to the 15-year reunion.
I went to my 10-year High School reunion and had a pretty decent time, though that may have been because I consumed many gin & tonics. People were super friendly and nice, including people I didn’t think liked me very much when we were kids.
My 10-year college reunion was super disappointing; very few people from my year were there. I would have had a better time just getting a bunch of friends from college together at one of our houses.
If there’s an open bar, go. (Even if you personally don’t drink, the shenanigans will be worth the price of admission.) If not, not.
Despite technically graduating with my class, I actually only attended the first day of senior year. So I might not even get an invite! I hope I do, though. My 10-year would be next year, and like you, I have a mega-hot husband to show off.
Yes.
I’m only ever going back if I win the MacArthur Genius Grant. What I would win it for, I don’t know. But that seems reasonable, right? That’s definitely news I would have to rub in people’s faces.
Nicole, you need to come to the reunion because I will be there at my 15th and knowing you is literally the only cool thing about me.
Aaah Toasties I was away at a conference in New Orleans! When I returned had two amazing Toast Postings! Thanks so much to Slowseptember! I just taped your card to my office door! [sic], your package was SO AMAZING and the magnets thoroughly impressed my husband. You make my Jane Austen quote postcards seem shabby. I’ve written back to both of you!
In other news, a panel at this conference may have had the most egregious academic title ever: http://imgur.com/iGVmpsk
Yay, glad you liked it! If you were wondering, the text is the beginning of a novel by Victor Pelevin.
thanks! I have heard of Russia’s Pepsi Generation before (I’m a historian of Europe), but that saves me the googling. It’s beautiful prose.
Yes, I thought it might be up your alley. The Russian title of the book actually is “Generation P'” (seems like it stands for “Pepsi”, turns out to stand for something way stranger). In English, it was translated as “Babylon” or “Homo Zapiens”, depending on the edition.
I will check it out, thanks!
I am jealous of your conference-going! You are in my field (kinda-maybe, it’s big, I know)!
My dad had to miss his 35 year MBA reunion this past weekend but one of his MBA buddies emailed him to tell him how awesome it was and everyone from Alberta and BC flew in on this one guy’s private jet.
…in other news, I don’t think my dad minded missing his 35 year MBA reunion this past weekend because he went to a fancypants business school and half his classmates are the kind of people whose ambition in life was always to have a friend with a private jet.
Well, my new ambition in life is to get a friend with a private jet.
I graduated in 1987, and did not know of any trans men at the time in the circles I traveled in. But certainly there was SO MUCH SPACE to explore all kinds of identifications and presentations – it was an enormously safe place, and I’m glad to see that tradition continue. I’m sad that neither of my daughters wanted to attend.
“But certainly there was SO MUCH SPACE to explore all kinds of identifications and presentations – it was an enormously safe place”
This is interesting to read, as someone who has never attended an all-ladies college. But if this is true, why is this debate even being had? : /
Well, it isn’t being had at Mt. Holyoke. It’s unfortunate that it has to be had at other women’s colleges.
I want to talk about this interview with Annie Lennox I heard this morning on NPR <a href=”http://(http://www.npr.org/2014/10/20/357622310/you-cannot-go-back-annie-lennox-on-nostalgia?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=morningedition)” target=”_blank”>(http://www.npr.org/2014/10/20/357622310/you-cannot-go-back-annie-lennox-on-nostalgia?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=morningedition). She has a new album out where she is covering some classic, extremely influential songs such as Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” (which is about lynching). This album is called “Nostalgia.” DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT THAT WORD MEANS, ANNIE?
She also said some stuff about Beyonce not being a good feminist because twerking, at which point I turned off the radio.
Edit: I can’t figure out how to make that link work properly, but if you Google “Annie Lennox NPR” it’s the first result.
*sigh*
I feel like maybe white feminist musicians from the eighties and nineties should just . . . not talk for awhile. (Looking at you, Ani DiFranco.)
How about Grace Jones? What’s she up to these days? Let’s do an interview with Grace Jones.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Yes, I agree! Mount Holyoke is part of a 5-college consortium with Amherst, Smith, Hampshire, and UMass, and students from any of those schools can take classes within the consortium. Bryn Mawr has a similar relationship with Haverford. Barnard is literally across the street from Columbia. “100% all female all the time” was never an option. (@avidbiologist)
I went to my 10th highschool reunion and I LOVED it. 1. all my classmates grew up to be pretty progressive and cool people, and the ones who were super nerds are doing such good stuff.
2. several of the boys I had crushes on are now chubby accountants in suburban areas, and it was like, “aww yiss, first of all they were sweethearts, even back when I thought they were hot shit, secondly haha, you got turned down by a guy who is busiest at TAX SEASON and is getting a bit bald.” One even invited me to an after party and gave me his number!
3. I didn’t run into many people I didn’t like, but one girl who I absolutely hated in HS came up, and I didn’t recognize her at all. She was all, “eegghh! Hiiiii!” and I was all,”blink blink…blink…..?” and she was like, “Jessie? Remember?” and I was all, “squint….blink….um…yes, oh Jessie, hi…how are…you?” while clearly not remembering her at all and her looking at me like, “she doesn’t even remember me?! WHAT IS THIS SHIT.” Then in the bathroom it came back and I was like, “Ohhhh JESSIE. OH…I didn’t like her, she was mean!”. And then i felt SOOO good. I was like, “aww yes, if I had a time machine I’d go back and tell 16 year old me, “you aint even going to remember Jessie when you are 28. Enjoy!”.
3. Lastly if you come from the East coast I highly recommend moving to LA. That was huge, “OMG you live in LA?!” nailed it. I looked good too.
This is late in the day, but this is such a good exploration of the issues facing Winnipeg the day before our municipal elections. One of the biggest issues in this election has been the divide between the non-indigenous and indigenous populations. A candidate widely considered as a potential front-runner whiffed it when he responded poorly to his wife’s racist Facebook rant (from 2010).
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/oct/21/win…
Unrelated to any of this: I received some ToastPost yesterday, and (I totally forget who it came from, and I am not at home, so I can’t check — I am terrible) it is hilarious because of the Hello Kitty factoid. You would not know this about me, ToastPost-er, but Hello Kitty has always creeped me out, and whenever I explain this to people, the big reason I give is “And she doesn’t have a _mouth_!” So, it’s nice to know that she does, in fact, have one. (But she still gives me the creeps.) ((But I love the postcard and the creepy Hello Kitty stickers, so this is all a compliment, I swear.))
I feel the Toast would enjoy this particular Gough Whitlam response to a heckler regarding abortion: “Let me make quite clear that I am for abortion and, in your case Sir, we should make it retrospective.”
Let’s face it, Gough was just awesome.
I am jealous of your conference-going! You are in my field (kinda-maybe, it's big, I know)!
Let's face it, Gough was just awesome.