Subculture Things

lavernecox:

On May 29, 2014, the issue of timemagazine magazine which proclaimed the “Transgender Tipping Point” was revealed with me on the cover. June 1, 2015 a year and 3 days later, Caitlyn Jenner’s vanityfair cover was revealed proclaiming #CallMeCaitlyn I am so moved by all the love and support Caitlyn is receiving. It feels like a new day, indeed, when a trans person can present her authentic self to the world for the first time and be celebrated for it so universally. Many have commented on how gorgeous Caitlyn looks in her photos, how she is “slaying for the Gods.” I must echo these comments in the vernacular, “Yasss Gawd! Werk Caitlyn! Get it!” But this has made me reflect critically on my own desires to ‘work a photo shoot’, to serve up various forms of glamour, power, sexiness, body affirming, racially empowering images of the various sides of my black, trans womanhood. I love working a photo shoot and creating inspiring images for my fans, for the world and above all for myself. But I also hope that it is my talent, my intelligence, my heart and spirit that most captivate, inspire, move and encourage folks to think more critically about the world around them. Yes, Caitlyn looks amazing and is beautiful but what I think is most beautiful about her is her heart and soul, the ways she has allowed the world into her vulnerabilities. The love and devotion she has for her family and that they have for her. Her courage to move past denial into her truth so publicly. These things are beyond beautiful to me. A year ago when my Time magazine cover came out I saw posts from many trans folks saying that I am “drop dead gorgeous” and that that doesn’t represent most trans people. (It was news to be that I am drop dead gorgeous but I’ll certainly take it). But what I think they meant is that in certain lighting, at certain angles I am able to embody certain cisnormative beauty standards. Now, there are many trans folks because of genetics and/or lack of material access who will never be able to embody these standards. More importantly many trans folks don’t want to embody them and we shouldn’t have to to be seen as ourselves and respected as ourselves . It is important to note that these standards are also infomed by race, class and ability among other intersections. I have always been aware that I can never represent all trans people. No one or two or three trans people can. This is why we need diverse media representstions of trans folks to multiply trans narratives in the media and depict our beautiful diversities. I started #TransIsBeautiful as a way to celebrate all those things that make trans folks uniquely trans, those things that don’t necessarily align with cisnormative beauty standards. For me it is necessary everyday to celebrate every aspect of myself especially those things about myself that don’t align with other people’s ideas about what is beautiful. #TransIsBeautiful is about, whether you’re trans or not, celebrating all those things that make us uniquely ourselves. Most trans folks don’t have the privileges Caitlyn and I have now have. It is those trans folks we must continue to lift up, get them access to healthcare, jobs, housing, safe streets, safe schools and homes for our young people. We must lift up the stories of those most at risk, statistically trans people of color who are poor and working class. I have hoped over the past few years that the incredible love I have received from the public can translate to the lives of all trans folks. Trans folks of all races, gender expressions, ability, sexual orientations, classes, immigration status, employment status, transition status, genital status etc.. I hope, as I know Caitlyn does, that the love she is receiving can translate into changing hearts and minds about who all trans people are as well as shifting public policies to fully support the lives and well being of all of us. The struggle continues…

weeping because this is so real

idiotbookperson:

A couple years ago, I went to an exhibit on Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Included somewhere there was mention of The Tale of Genji, the story that’s considered by many to be the first novel ever written. It was written in 11th century Japan by a lady-in-waiting named Murasaki Shikibu, and it is still widely read, and liked.

Later that year, I picked up a copy of Royall Tyler’s translation of Genji at a Half Priced Books in Austin. It’s an intimidatingly large book - over 1000 pages - and as such I haven’t worked up the courage to read it on my own yet. But in the time that I’ve been putting that off, I’ve been searching about for context, for contemporaries of Shikibu, to get a glimpse of a place and an era of history that I’ve read next to nothing about.

In that search I found Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book. Shonagon is frequently mentioned in the same breath with Shikibu, who was her contemporary and, at least apocryphally, her rival at court. It’s true that Shikibu wrote unflatteringly about her, once calling her self-absorbed and petty - characteristics which Shonagon certainly displays in her writing. And it would be easy to imagine Shonagon’s jealousy when Shikibu’s manuscript was quickly declared a national treasure, while hers was simply liked well enough.

The Pillow Book is not a literary groundbreaker, it’s not a work of staggering genius. But it is a very intimate glimpse into a period and a place quite distant from ours, and its value lies in this intimacy.

Through the Pillow Book Shonagon tells us about her life at court as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Sadako. It’s a scattered record of her thoughts and experiences, her observations on the beauty in nature and in the dress of the people at court. She was a gifted poet and a popular person at court, and as such includes many of her poems and witty conversations in her book. She also writes frankly about her many love affairs and those of her peers. She led a very privileged life, and has many unfriendly things to say about the lower classes and their lack of education and fine robes. This sentiment of hers is very much characteristic of the court in that era of decadence.

In representing this hyper-opulent regional culture so intimately, The Pillow Book, and Tale of Genji too, are frequently compared to Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past - the main difference being that Proust was kind enough to alter people’s names in his representations of them. Shonagon offers no such kindness to her subjects, which allows us an unveiled look at these figures who would otherwise be relegated to history textbooks.

Through reading The Pillow Book I got to feel very close to Sei Shonagon. I saw things from her perspective, and I appreciated her love of beauty and her enjoyment of life in general. As a primary historical text, The Pillow Book is most valuable not because it gives us the most accurate account of the period, but because it allows the reader to understand and relate on a very human level to a person who lived a thousand years ago.

THE AVENGERS ARE AT THE BEINECKE LIBRARY TRACKING DOWN THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT 

MY WORLDS ARE COLLIDING

gluta:

http://gluta.tumblr.com/