In the last week my blog has attracted more spam than usual to certain posts. One reason comments from new people are set for me to approve before appearing. An increasing number have been trying to get links to “shemale porn” posted in comments.
In LGBT communities, especially amongst transgender individuals, the term is considered offensive for its connotations, associations with sex industries and implication that one’s gender identity is less than genuine. It is often seen by transsexual people as a term of abuse. According to Professors Laura Castañeda and Shannon Campbell at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism, using the term for a transwoman is considered “highly offensive and inaccurate”.
Seriously, what kind of lowlife fuckwit do you need to be to start trying to post that on a trans woman’s personal blog? Take your objectification of trans women, trans misogyny and transphobia and use it to do unspeakable things to yourselves. Idiots.
So we were watching this programme on TV this evening, “Help Mijn Man Is Een Klusser”, which roughly translates as “Hey Some Men Do DIY And Some Of Them Don’t Finish It So Some Other Men Will And We Can all Be Sympathetic And Patronising To His Long Suffering Wife While Casting Aspertions On The Guy’s Masculinity”. Roughly! Actually I usually run in fear from the room round about scene two when the pity music comes on in the background (Flemish TV seems to think that if it involves Real People and pity music is not needed, it is probably not worth making). This time though, it was the Dutch version, from the Netherlands no less! Since the second scene came and went without pity music and a lack of horribly sterotyped gender role based humiliation I ended up seeing it all. As I did, several things struck me. In fact lots of things about it struck me, not least that I saw the whole thing, but mostly there were a couple of things that made it an utterly different viewing experience.
Firstly the presenter was black. Imagine that! A black man on television and no sport, crime or documentary on immigrants in sight! He was just a presenter, presenting! Secondly, the couple in question were a gay couple. Imagine that! A gay couple on television and not a glaring sterotype, documentary or news report to be seen! They were just a couple, one of whom was shit at finishing DIY projects! And that was what struck me.
After nearly a year back in Belgium, I have got so accustomed to non factual television being solely the preserve of white, cis, straight, ethnically Flemish people that this was so surprising that it was my main impression of a piece of televisual fluff. I’ve mentioned before how the Flemish have this massive conception gap between how they view their prejudice and how they enact it but seeing it so well highlighted in this manner really brought home how pervasive it is.
We went to see the new Ken Loach film, “Looking for Eric” last night. It was really good! You don’t need to be particularly aware of who Eric Cantona is/was to enjoy it but it helps for some of the nuances. Sometimes Loach’s films leave me feeling the message was more important than the characters, but certainly not this one. It was charmingly down to earth but whimsical and the people felt real. Film real to be sure, but still like possible people. Despite being relatively long we were surprised when it was suddenly over. Anyway, we liked it! Go see it if you were thinking you might!
Every now and then you come across something that makes you go “Oh wow yes, this” and I did today. It’s the mp3 of an event called “Girl Talk: A Cis & Trans Woman Dialogue” at the National Queer Arts Festival (in the US). You can find an article about it here on Body Impolitic and in there is a link to the mp3. Go listen! Go “Wow!”.
Every now and then I come up with a post I want to write (all right, you guessed, a possibly ranty post!) and then I never finish it. It sits there in a ghost alternate blogverse, unsaid, unloved. Why? Well, when it gets right down to it, I don’t want to rant all the time!
So instead in this post I’ll tell you how lovely it was to see my partner for an hour today (she’s volunteering for something all week) and how nice it was to meet her cousin’s new baby for the first time too.
I’m off to consider elephants now. They make me smile too!
I was going to write something insightful and erudite, on the subject of how we’re all still stuck linking bodies to genders and missing things out and such even with the emerging and newer words we have for them. It might even have been even witty! But actually, it’s a sunny day, there’s a breeze for the first time in ages! My partner is going away to do something totally Belgian, for a week, and I shall miss her. It’s Friday too! So instead I’m going to notice what a lovely day it is and how lucky I am.
I’ll probably be ready to mope about a bit from missing her by Sunday afternoon. I’ll be serious and heavy going then instead!
