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Helping get the word out about this. See below for info.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS : FAT-POSITIVE ANTHOLOGY
1500-3000 words
Editor: Virgie Tovar – author, fat activist/lifetime fat girl, and MA, Human Sexuality
Deadline: November 15, 2011
I’m seeking personal essays for a fat positive anthology to be released in 2012. I’m seeking essays that either (1) focus on a specific event/experience that was truly flabulous or (2) tell the story of how you became a fierce fatty. I encourage contributors to hone in on a particular theme—like romance, parenting, family, fatshion, dating, performance—to use as a lens through which to tell your story. Fierce, sassy, thoughtful, authentic, non-fiction, previously unpublished, autobiographical stories from fatties who identify as women are welcome. The vision for this anthology
Continue reading Call For Submissions: Fat-Positive Anthology
Have you noticed how often the word “family” or the term “family-friendly” gets used? And have you given any attention to what it has come to mean?
The newsfeeds have been all a-buzz today with the story of Leisha Hailey getting kicked off a Southwest Airlines plane when she kissed her girlfriend. According to the airline, some people complained that their kiss was excessive and when flight attendants stepped in, Hailey got upset, so they kicked her off the plane. It’s unlikely that Hailey and her girlfriend were doing anything that heterosexual couples haven’t done. And in fact, according to the conversation on The Talk about the event, it seems that when Bruce Jenner & his wife Kris snuck away to the bathroom when
Continue reading “Family-Friendly” is a Cop Out
There’s a new post up on the Good Men Project, Is Sex Positive Ever Negative?, which highlights many of the ways in which sex-positivity is seriously misunderstood. The writer, Lili Bee, starts with an account of a conversation she had with a friend and the roadblock they hit when he suggested that she do some reading on sex-positivity. So she went to her mentor, Robert Jensen, to get his thoughts on the issue. And that’s where things get squirrely.
Bee starts off pointing out that one of the problems with what many people think of as sex-positive communities is that there’s often a reactivity to the overboundedness that has been imposed on sexuality. I agree with her that a lot of people who say
Continue reading Robert Jensen Doesn’t Understand Sex-Positivity
It probably shouldn’t surprise to anyone that, in general, women in the blogosphere get a lot more harassment than men. After all, just walking down the street, women get a lot more harassment than men.
While I’ve been aware of this for a long time, it returned to the foreground of my thinking when John Scalzi wrote The Sort of Crap I Don’t Get, which is a nice overview of the issue from the perspective of a man who understands this. He’s been blogging for 13 years and has had a very strong online presence for 20, so he’s seen the development of the interwebs for a while. It doesn’t even matter what the topic is- knitting bloggers get vitriol, too. As he says,
Why
Continue reading When Sex Bloggers Get Slut Shamed
Ms Wolf-
I recently ran across your article, Why is Rape Different?, in which you argue that allowing rape survivors to remain anonymous when we don’t do the same for any other crime victim infantilizes women and makes rape prosecutions more difficult. Although you wrote this some months ago, it’s still bouncing around on twitter, so I feel moved to respond.
You make the claim that:
It is wrong – and sexist – to treat female sex-crime accusers as if they were children, and it is wrong to try anyone, male or female, in the court of public opinion on the basis of anonymous accusations. Anonymity for rape accusers is long overdue for retirement.
So let me explain to you, Ms Wolf, why rape is
Continue reading An Open Letter to Naomi Wolf: Why Rape is Different
About a month ago, Kitty Stryker wrote a piece for the Good Vibrations Magazine, I Never Called it Rape: Addressing Abuse in BDSM Communities, in which she opened up a really important topic. It’s one that’s been simmering for a while and now that it’s come up in such a public way, there’s been a lot of different responses. There’s been the predictable set of comments, both on the Good Vibrations Magazine and on Fetlife (a social networking site for the BDSM crowd).
Some folks are making excuses for doms who assault their subs, some people are asking why people who have been assaulted don’t report it, and a few are trying to find ways to make room for both BDSM and rape awareness.
Continue reading BDSM & Rape: What Now?
Yes, the title is a mouthful, but the First Annual Conference on Earth-Based, Nature-Centered, Polytheistic and Indigenous Faiths: Gender & Earth-Based Faiths is going to be full of interesting presentations. If you’re pagan, witchy, wiccan, or any other flavor of earth-based faith, this one day con in San Francisco on September 24 is definitely worth going to. I’ll be presenting a workshop on masculinity and spirituality, btw.
They’re still looking for presenters, especially people who can discuss transgender, androgyne and genderqueer spiritual issues and practices. Check out the info below and pass it on!
CALL FOR PRESENTERS DEADLINE Extended to 8/7/11
To apply please email johanna@thepaganalliance.org for application.
Transgender and genderqueer presenters encouraged to apply. The Pagan Alliance’s first annual on Earth-Based, Nature-Centered, Polytheistic
Continue reading Call for Presenters: 1st Annual Conference on Earth-Based, Nature-Centered, Polytheistic and Indigenous Faiths: Gender & Earth-Based Faiths
As you may have heard, SlutWalk started in response to a Toronto police officer saying that women should avoid dressing like sluts in order to avoid harassment or rape. And what was originally intended to be a local rally has inspired dozens of similar marches around the world.
The word “slut” has a rather difficult and complex history. Some folks embrace it and reclaim it, while others argue that there isn’t any way for women to reclaim a word that has been so loaded with sexist messages. There has also been some really great discussion about the different impact the word has on women of color and the different relationships they may have with both the term and the notion of reclaiming it.
I’ve
Continue reading Slut-Shaming Enables Rape
“As a queer person, I feel…”
The other night, I was talking with someone who said something along these lines and although I’ve heard that kind of thing many times (with substitutions where it says “queer”), I finally figured out what it is about that phrase that bothers me.
I had a teacher once who pointed out that in English, we tend to say things like “I am hungry” while other languages approach it differently. In French or Spanish, for example, the literal translation is “I have hunger”. While this might seem like a trivial difference at first glance, it’s pretty profound. If I say “I’m feeling anger” instead of “I am angry”, then I’m also leaving room to feel sadness, boredom, excitement, or an
Continue reading When Identity Gets In The Way
I’ve been following the current debates about sexualization with a lot of interest, both because I want to live in a sexually healthy world and because these sorts of discussions often have a direct impact on my work as a sex educator. And while I’ve been sitting with the question of what a sex-positive response to the topic might be, especially after reading Renee Randazzo’s post on the Good Vibrations magazine and Peggy Orenstein’s post on mommyish.com, it wasn’t until I received a link to Onscenity that it came together for me.
My understanding of sex-positivity rests on the notion that the only relevant criteria for assessing a sexual act or practice is the pleasure, consent, and well-being of the people who choose it or
Continue reading Sex-Positivity and Sexualization
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