Unicorn Ethics: A Fragment on My Little Pony

June 27, 2011 By 20 Comments
Twilight Sparkle expressing pony values.

It is the job of fusty, addlebrained academic sorts to take things we all enjoy and take for granted, and then dissect it with the ponderous seriousness of a graying doyen of our particular art. Especially in the social sciences. Teasing out social messages, identifying wider imbricating discourses, and seeing patterns with relation to the media is usually a sombre affair filled with sad news. This is how this movie reinforces patriarchy, this is how this television show transmits transphobic messages, this is how our media is coarsening social attitudes, this is how this commercial is making us hate our bodies, and so on and so on. It is a rare, rare joy indeed when I get to turn my critical eye towards explaining how something in the media is positive in its influence on our society. When a good friend of mine nudged me into watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic I internally scoffed. It sounded cute, and nothing was wrong with cute, but I’m a woman in her 20s, jet setting … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feminist Theory and Criticism Tagged With: , , ,

The Revolution Will not Be Puppetmastered

June 17, 2011 By 3 Comments

By now word of the great Gay Girl in Damascus hoax has spread throughout the western world and the blogosphere, becoming a much ballyhooed object of derision, snickering, finger wagging, tut tutting and all the rest. For those of you not in the know, here’s Color Lines’ Akiba Solomon’s deft summary of recent events-- it precedes an analysis I highly recommend: On February 19th, shortly before Syria’s Arab Spring uprisings began, an American-born Syrian lesbian named Amina Abdullah Araf launched “A Gay Girl in Damascus.” Araf had been posting comments and debating Middle Eastern politics online for years, but created her own space at the urging of Paula Brooks, co-founder of the news site “Lez Get Real.” Araf’s blog featured her erotic poetry and her coming-out story—risky material since homosexuality is illegal in Syria. She also spread news of the government’s brutal crackdown on protestors, prompting Time.com to call her “an honest and reflective voice … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feminist Theory and Criticism Tagged With: , , ,

Trendy as a Tote Bag: Part II

June 15, 2011 By 1 Comment
SRLP GALA_0

Times are very hard, to be sure, and as I am now working in the fundraising department of a radical transgender rights oriented organisation I'm seeing yet another dimension to the endless Great Recession unfolding before me. Simultaneously, what I am constantly astonished by is how people in the most economically disadvantaged communities always manage to find a penny here and a penny there to help their sisters, brothers, and siblings in need. We're out there looking out for each other and that never fails to give me hope. It sounds a tad bit cheesy, yes, but for all of my snarky sarcasm and the like, I've always put a lot of stock in that gift from Pandora's Box. It's a precious resource in the trans community. So, what am I waxing all poetic about and what not? Well, this time around I'd like to solicit you all to fundraise for a charity near and dear to my heart-- so much so that I'm actually working for them. The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, an organisation for low income trans … [Read more...]

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ASOO! A Show of Our Own

June 2, 2011 By 1 Comment
asoologo

I have been at work on several things recently and been kept frightfully busy. I'm beginning an internship with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project in a few days, for one; but there's still more I could be doing, I thought. When my old and dear friend Heather Chase sat down with me and hashed out some ideas for collaborative feminist projects we could work on, we settled on co-hosting a podcast. A Show of Our Own was the product of that and our first episode-- with my crappy mic and all-- was posted this evening. For Episode 2 I promise to have a much better sound set-up (I already tested it tonight so all systems are go with that, but it was too late for this recording). But you can take a look at our two hour special first episode- devoted to discussions of material resources in women's lives. It comes complete with radical music and lots of feministy conversation turning around our personal experiences and some sociological research. From the academic to the personal, we're trying to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feminist Theory and Criticism Tagged With: ,
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