Sunday Funday Is Rewatching “The Watermelon Woman” and Revealing in Cheryl Dunye’s Black Queer Joy

Y’all I am so tired! Yesterday, I woke up at 7:30 to feed the cats (the normal time they demand breakfast), fell back asleep until 8:15, woke up just in time to turn on Shabbat services, fell asleep while watching them (sorry Gd), and then took a 3 hour nap later in the day?! PMS is exhausting?? And, on top of that, I think I’m getting a COLD! In the middle of pandemic summer???? It’s just unfair.

On the bright side, Alexei is cuddling with me under the covers, and Anya is laying in the sun and I feel 15% closer to getting my bidet to work at my new place, so not everything is bad, you know? But I am still tired. So, so, tired. Gonna drink 1000 ml of coffee and hope it helps. While I brew, read some of this good news from the week!

+ A look inside Compton’s transgender cultural district. It’s founded by a Black trans woman and “the world’s first legally recognized transgender district”.

+ The suffragette sash has uh, had an interesting transformation in the contemporary world.

+ Speaking of suffragettes, the lesbians were the ones doing all the heavy lifting (duh)

+ As mentioned in a recent Pop Culture Fix, we’re getting our Hallmark Lesbians!!!!!

A poster from a Hallmark movie is photoshopped to have Samira Wiley's face over the "man" character. Hallmark lesbians forever!

Even though it only had 23 signatures, I’m choosing to believe this is because of my change dot org petition

+ A new album for kiddos called the Trans & Nonbinary Kids Mix celebrates gender diversity in wee humans.

+ In a new piece in Wired, writer Daniel Duane makes the clear case for why the LGBTQ activism of the early 1970s in San Francisco, the hard-won tolerance that activism engendered, and the election and assassination of Supervisor Harvey Milk, set the stage for a stellar pandemic response at the highest levels of state and local government.

+ And some more on that same topic, how San Francisco’s legacy of community members helping themselves through public health crises has prepared the city for minimizing the risks of COVID-19.

+ Some queer artists and thinkers we should celebrate Pride year round.

+ The Watermelon Woman is required viewing for 2020. Plus, Cheryl Dunye was fine then and is still fine now.

+ Navigating reopening gyms (in Canada; please do not go to a gym in the US?!??!??) while being nonbinary.

+ Disney’s first queer lead is on a kids show named The Owl House AND they’re a bisexual!!!!

+ There’s a new mutual aid project in the Bay Area that’s delivering food to Black trans folks ❤️

+ The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis is a promising queer space opera.

That’s all they wrote babes. Gonna go inject coffee into my veins, put on my butch pants, and figure out how to install this bidet without leaking water all over my floors (WHICH SHOULDN’T BE THIS HARD!!!). I hope you have a week that provides you with love, rest, and care. I love you all so much! Here’s a goodbye picture of my weekend situation, featuring my two favorite lazy babies. Learn from them and really lean into only doing what you want to do (and not caring about unmade beds at 2 pm).

Two cats, Alexei and Anya, curl up into little balls next to each other on a bed. The bed has black and white stripped sheets and the image has a filter on it make it look like a Polaroid from the 1990s.

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Ari

Ari is a 20-something artist and educator. They are a mom to two cats, they love domesticity, ritual, and porch time. They have studied, loved, and learned in CT, Greensboro, NC, and ATX.

Ari has written 330 articles for us.

8 Comments

  1. There might be a link missing to the Bay area mutual aid thing? Unless it was just an FYI, which is nice also! Good luck with the bidet installation!

    • It looks like it, but if you click on it it takes you to the mutual aid article! Realllly unsure why (i do NOT understand wordpress lol) but it IS there! also thank you for reminding me that i meant to comment about that!

  2. Ari, I don’t want to cause you any panic, but are you sure it’s not COVID that’s making you tired and giving cold sypmtoms? Could you get tested? If you have any shortness if breath, could you get your oxygen levels checked? This can cause tiredness.

    Again, sorry if this causes you to panic, but I just wanted to bring it up just in case.

    • Yasmin thank you. I have thought that it might be COVID, and I need to get tested…I’m just scared I think? But that’s not a great excuse, not practicing good community care for the folks who helped me move, and you’re right. I should get tested. I haven’t had any of the other symptoms, but that’s not reason enough to ignore the ones I do have! ❤️

      • You’re welcome <3

        I hope you have access to a test and I hope it's negative!

        And I've had the same feeling last month when I hade a sore troath. Probably allergies, happens all the time. But I was feeling a lot better after I did it, more calm.

        (I also have acces to free tests, I called and made an appointment for the same day, and I had to wait about 10 minutes. It's not like in the US.)

  3. Enjoyed the sash article – quite a history from suffragettes to beauty contests. Loved the last line:

    “Undoubtedly, some suffragists would be appalled. They would, however, be pleased that all these bachelorettes and pageant queens could vote.”

  4. It just so happens that I watched Watermelon Woman a few weeks ago, thanks to my local library ! I was so excited to see it and was it ever worth it.

  5. Thank you for sharing the news about the Trans District in SF! Such happy news in a sucky world. Blanca Evangelista would be proud! <3

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