Last week I said I might use this space as my own personal wedding freak-out zone, but then I thought, why don’t I just write a whole post about that instead? So that’s what I’m gonna do. Here are some stories we missed while I was figuring out how to turn every glass into faux mercury glass (it must be possible).
You Should Go or Do or Give
+ You have MERE HOURS to snag an acoustic version of the new Julia Nunes album by backing her Kickstarter!
+ Secular Women Work: A Conference For Getting It Done.
Queer as in F*ck You
+ Watch the documentary Toms: The Complex World of Female Love in Thailand by Coconuts TV.
+ This is an interesting take: They Myth of the Gay Community.
That is not to say that I, or other gay people, am annoyed to be an involuntary member of this rag-tag group of sexual minorities. But the term “community” perpetuates a one-off identity which has never been further from reality. This point is paramount in determining how non-LGBT individuals view gay people, and how easily a well-intentioned friend may understand the interests and needs of their gay friends and project this upon the monolithic “community.” A problem develops where people, gay or straight, may think that their support of same-sex marriage or employment non-discrimination statutes is a rising tide for all gay people—for our “community.” It may be self-evident that recently out CEO of Apple Tim Cook and other white professional men like him do not have much in common with the black gay men of Chicago. Yet the mindset and terminology of “community” builds a singular minority to the detriment of those less privileged among the LGBT identities. When marriage equality is the law of the land and many more affluent and educated gay individuals are fulfilled, the “community” will appear strong as individuals continue to suffer. We will be left to ask, “Who still cares?”
+ The Top Five Queer Voices of Anime and Manga.
+ Lisa Tedesco has Your Essential Lesbian/Bi Lineup for Sundance 2015 which I thought was already over but it is not, apparently?
+ Pakistani LGBT Community’s Fight for Rights.
+ Oklahoma Lawmaker Moves to Protect Parents Who Seek Therapy for LGBT Youth whaaaaaaat.
+ Mallory Ortberg has Cartoons Who Were Significant In The Development Of My Queer Identity And Current Inspirations For My Weightlifting Routine which perhaps you will relate to.
Doll Parts
+ New UK Guidelines Would Put the Onus on Rape Suspects, Not Victims, In Sexual Violence Cases.
+ The Cops Don’t Care About Violent Online Threats. What Do We Do Know? by Anna Merlan.
+ Your girl Carmen Rios has If We Divide, We Don’t Conquer: Three Reasons Why Feminists Need to Talk About Race on Everyday Feminism!
+ A Trio of Badass Scientists You Should Know.
+ “Girls of color don’t have films made about them.” Not the Way White Girls Do: A Review of Girlhood by Fariha Roisin.
+ Sophia Seawell interviewed Mimi Thi Nguyen on (Un)Productivity in the Digital Age.
+ Magic: The Gathering Smiles at Trans Representation with Alesha, Who Smiles at Death.
+ Celestial favorite Beth Maiden from Fool’s Journey interviewed Trung Nguyen on Personal Narratives in Tarot.
+ Sara Ainsworth on Lawyers for Fetuses. :swan dives into a pool of pudding while singing Loretta Lynn:
+ Amanda Alcantara interviewed Jova Johnson Varga, an activist behind the very first Black Brunch in Oakland.
+ Bleeding news! The latest on your bleeding! Some science and studies and speculation for your Monday. Girls Who Drink More Sugary Drinks Start Their Periods Earlier, Study Suggests and Beauty Products May Trigger Early Menopause! So there you go.
+ Miriam W. Karraker has Patti Smith on Tour 40 Years After Horses.
+ A Clitoris Was Successfully Reconstructed for the First Time in Sweden.
+ Julianne at Rookie has interviewed TLC: We Mean What We Say.
Saw This, Thought of You
+ LIP SMACKERS WILL CEASE PRODUCTION y’all what the fuck. I quit.
+ Julie Hecht with Why Do Dogs Love Snow?
+ How Backpacking Can Put You In Touch With Your Inner Saint.
+ Just Missy Elliot being perfect NBD it’s fine don’t even worry about it.
+ Jane Greenway asks, Why Are American Schools Obsessed With Turning Kids Into Robots?
+ Brace yourself: There’s No Such Thing As Nacho Cheese by Vanessa Wong. What is the world?
This story begins months ago, while I was reporting the launch of Old El Paso’s new nacho cheese-flavored taco shells. These shells, the marketers bragged to me, have a “big, bold cheese taste,” which naturally led me to ask them to describe how it tasted—a topic they doggedly deflected: “We don’t get too much into detail about that because it is such a competitive category,” said the company’s spokesman.
Um, seriously? It’s a cheese-blasted taco shell. And thus began an absurd, long-winded, and utterly unresolved discussion about what nacho cheese actually is.
+ :girlsounds: Taylor Swift is Bringing Haim On Tour.
+ :girlsounds: Here’s a new podcast for you and it’s about Drake: Trust Issues.
Local Autostraddle Meet-Ups
+ 2/8 Brisbane, Queensland: Picnic and Queer Shorts Viewing Party
I checked and they’re not viewing queers in shorts — it’s short films. So, temper your expectations is all I’m saying.
And Finally
Haley Pierson-Cox reminded me that you can make your own watercolors so let’s do that.
Laneia! Okay so before anything else, I just want to say that actual mercury glass from a wholesaler is like super cheap, yo. Do you have any friends with a wholesale license? If you do, get them to take you to whatever wholesaler’s near you and buy some $2 fancy looking candle holders or whatever.
Alright so I looked at your profile and it says you’re in phoenix! It looks like you have a Floral Supply Syndicate there–they’re awesome. There’s this super butch lesbian who works at my local one and she always gives me updates on her wife’s pregnancy whenever I go in. I can’t guarantee that you will have someone as delightful as her at yours, but it’s worth a try! Anyway that’s where we get a lot of our wedding supplies–including some inexpensive and lovely mercury glass and a bunch of other pretty containers/vases!
There’s also a few different wholesale flower suppliers in phoenix, too! I like Mayesh, but if any of them have local farms they’ll probs have really cheap seasonal stuff.
aaaanyway, if you want to talk wedding shit I am always up for that and also SO EXCITED FOR YOUR ARTICLE YES
THANK YOU JANE you are the loveliest most generous person <3 !! this was very useful info.
laneia i feel like i wanna take you on a weekend vacation in order to take a full 48 hours to unpack feelings about mallory’s cartoons article. did the fox version of robin hood make all of us gay and we’ve just never all compared notes and realized it? did i in fact write mallory’s article somehow without knowing it? is mallory the tyler durden to my Other Guy In Fight Club? why do i have all this soap? is mallory going to read this and feel alarmed? i have so many questions
I hope Mallory frequents Autostraddle. We’re all kindred spirits here.
is it bc robin hood was so twee? omg he’s like peter pan. OMG RACHEL THE FOX VERSION OF ROBIN HOOD IS LIKE A ROBIN HOOD + PETER PAN MASHUP.
i feel like i’m onto something.
That Toms documentary was really cool! I was particularly struck with the sentiment that Thai people are not encouraged to express their individuality but rather adhere to what is expected of them.
I know you’re an anthropologist, so I’m probably not telling you anything new, but Geertz back in the 70s wrote on Balinese and Javanese concepts of selfhood within the larger Southeast Asian context (not saying that’s exactly the situation in Vietnam, just bringing another perspective), and described a vision of personhood, and what brings feelings of happiness and fulfillment to a person, that are very different from those found in the West (where we can’t imagine being happy without finding ‘who we are’ and being ‘true’ to it).
I’m sure that being a person, especially a queer person, in Vietnam is complicated and difficult amid several competing models of selfhood, but I just felt like you were saying that Thai people are necessarily repressed or unhappy because of their cultural norms, which sounds like an undue condemnation.
I totally agree with the fox-Robin-Hood shoutout in the queer cartoon roots article, but listing Monterey Jack from Rescue Rangers and ignoring motherfucking GADGET is a HUGE oversight. The tomboy femme mouse mechanic who wore a belted jumpsuit and goggles on her head? Come on.
i am loath to speak on mallory’s behalf OBVIMOOSELY but i wonder if gadget would more likely fall into the category of love interest for her? and therefore wouldn’t necessarily have shaped mallory’s queer identity and/or workout regimen? i mean again, i’m just speculating here, but after a person holds up monterey jack as a lesbian root i’m basically obligated to try and make sense of it for myself, you know?
nacho cheese existential crisis
jane i can’t talk about it.
If we can’t trust Nacho Cheese what can we trust?
Cheese fries?
guys i dont think we should panic and lose sight of the fact that powerful experiential knowledge informs all of our shared subjective realities of nacho cheese and that cannot be taken away from us…nacho cheese is because we say it is. so dont worry, we’re all going to be ok #postmodernism
Bless this commentary. It soothed and healed my agitated heart. #NachoCheesePostmodernism
Should I write a postmodernist piece on nacho cheese for senior directed plays. Does the world need this. I need this.
yes. Special guest: Blue Moon Ice Cream flavor????????????
Wait, is that a thing??
I love when bizarre things are brought to my attention. I mean, “What is nacho cheese?” is never a question that has entered my brain. It’s just a part of life.
Oh, I can’t believe I missed this opportunity to tell my favourite corny joke.
Q. What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?
A. Nacho cheese!
(…Apparently because it doesn’t exist.)
*slinks away*
Umm, obviously the highlight of this article is THE HOMEMADE WATERCOLORS!!?? AMAZING<3 They seem pretty simple to make, too! Not that I need any more watercolors but…idk this looks important.
RIGHT?? i have 0 watercolors so i’m in the clear and can make a billion of them with abandon!!
A+ anime and manga article
oh good! one time i included a manga/anime top 10 list and some of y’all told me it was garbage and i was like hm maybe i shouldn’t include links to things i know nothing about! so this was a real risk i was taking, is what i’m saying.
that toms documentary was really neat! also i love you
There is so much cool stuff here. And I am way too tired to say anything sensible (even by my so-called standards) about it.
-I really dislike the word “community.” It’s a neat way to deal with diversity you don’t want to/can’t understand by lumping it all into one category you can dismiss easily. My current target for criticism of the use of this word is (sorry, fans) Jill Soloway. I’ll leave that there.
-Magic: that makes my day. I carry a card I was given once (it has personal meaning) in my wallet at all times and have been since 2002.
-The online threat thing is real. Passive stuff is also bad. Like those random Facebook requests from men you don’t know who want to be your “friend” (the latest one I got was from someone who listed his job as “Supervisor at UN”). Or Twitter replies that are just creepy. They’re not actual threats, but they’re menacing all the same.
-I never liked Lip Smackers for their intended use. I did enjoy eating them. You’re welcome.
There’s lots of good stuff here, but I especially love the Reactions video on unsung women in chemistry. As a woman in chemistry myself, I’m ashamed that I don’t know more about the accomplishments of other women scientists.
FUCK. YES. TLC.
I made nachos for lunch, so.
Nachos cheese is my favourite thing about America.
The video about the women is science is SO COOL. I have to figure out a way around my school’s youtube block so I can show it to my students! I have some pretty bomb preteen girl scientists, and the inclusion of women of color is excellent. More of that, please.
Adding that Thailand documentary to the insurmountable amount of things on my laptop/tablet/phone that I need to watch/read. Now I feel overwhelmed. But excited!