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Why isn’t there an equivalent of this in every class room and/or queer space?
Note: this is a modified version of a poster created by the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The original and others are available here for very … Click to continue reading genderqueer educational poster Like many of you who’ve been around since before the internet was but a twinkle in Al Gore’s eyes, I recall the good old days of the ‘net. Back when you hopped on your AOL account, punched in your screenname and password, and were greeted you warmly every time you signed on. In the mid 1990′s the internet was like one giant anonymous playground, filled with GIFs of dancing hamsters and slow-loading pornographic websites. And chatrooms. Oh, man. Chatrooms. Back then all you needed was a screenname like tweetybird22 and you’d be sure to make plenty of “friends” in chatrooms right away. “if ur looking for a good time, im me”. Oh yeah. Sure, you might be a 40 year old guy in Omaha, but when you sign in as xX_californiagurl_Xx what fratboy420 doesn’t know can’t hurt him, right? Right? 
And we were all forced to be "friends" with some asshole named Tom. Yep, everything was fine and dandy until one day, from the depths of hellfire and damnation, spawned a little thing called Myspace. Suddenly, the internet started transforming from a land of … Click to continue reading encoding the gender binary into today’s social networking sites 
Do chromosomes have anything to do with using the restroom? Public bathrooms can be exceptionally tricky places, as most genderqueers can attest. In these tiny, smelly public rooms, one’s gender is put to the ultimate test, and “failure” can lead to all manners of embarrassment. We at gender-panic have certainly both had days where wearing an exceptionally cute tie and vest combo led to awkward stares and confrontations in the ladies’ room. I end up on both sides of the test these days, as both the judge and the judged. The shop where I work has two single stall restrooms and to use them, one must request either the men’s or women’s key from the staff. This leaves me in a bit of a lurch. At any given moment in my work day, with only a split second to decide, I must correctly interpret the gender of countless people. It’s awkward for me, awkward for them, and just totally unnecessary. Binary bathroom systems are of course just a product of the limited gender binary that we live in. I am amazed, however, at how many … Click to continue reading in bathrooms and barrooms, on dumpsters and heirlooms Yesterday, I was walking home from work, listening to Athens Boys Choir and thinking how super awesome it would be one day to see him in concert. Imagine my surprise when I came home and saw an email in my inbox that he would be playing in Seattle next week – I almost exploded with the sheer squeefulness of it all. Everyone in the Seattle area should come! Another thing that made me squee a bit this week was my discovery that Express now carries a men’s XS size. Other small-framed genderqueers probably understand my excitement; it’s very hard to find well-fitted men’s clothes when you are only 5’4 and 125 lbs (which is my case, anyways). Express is admittedly a bit expensive (I only buy from the discount bins), but they generally have good sales. Ditto for AE, one of the other few men’s stores that consistently stocks XS sizes. And when buying clothes online, always remember to check out sites like retailmenot, where you can always find discount codes! Another exciting discovery was learning that Original Plumbing Magazine had released its first edition of … Click to continue reading zavi squees about things |
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