i plugged my website into Gender Analyzer and it was 78% sure this blog was written by a man.
there's no explanation as to what indicators they look for or how they come their gender conclusions, but it's fun to play around with for about 15 seconds. and yet another manifestation of our obsession with gender coding and classifications.
in all the election hype, I fell off on my pledge to myself to keep this blog as up-to-date as possible. i'm also admittedly in the throes of an overdose of academic writing and moment of finance-searching so I can be flexible about returning to California. all this combines to push regular updates to the very back of my brain.
speaking of election hype, wtf?? Obama Commemorative Plates??? Is this necessary? Capitalism ain't really wounded til these things go.
but here's a mixed bag of what's been on my mind lately, in no particular order...
1. The Election Gobama! I spent part of the day phone-banking to remind voters in swing states of their polling places. However, most people sounded really pissed off that I was calling, hung up on me, or almost blithely - and definitely nonchalantly - confessing their disinterest in the election. I found it appalling, but quickly checked myself to leave the righteous bit behind. Why don't you want to vote?, I inevitably asked. Because they found the election boring, they weren't interested in the issues this time around, or they were simply too busy. Incredulous. Let the righteous bit roar - how could you not find any part of this election at all provocative, the least bit intriguing? How could you disengage so thoroughly? What is this apathy? What does it take to get people to care?
But aside from that bit of negativity, most of the night was spent nervously and later blissfully fixated to the TV. Ben watched me cry with amusement when they announced Obama won, and we both marveled at how utterly dead our corner of Cambridge was as compared to reports from New York, Berkeley and other areas around the country. Then I spoke with my mom, whose voice trembled with excitement. She sounded so happy, and she voiced to me her hope about having Obama as a leader.
This struck me more than my own reaction. Sure, it's a new feeling to actually support a politician, but I've only been voting for ten years. My parents, however, are children of the sixties, lived through MLK and JFK and Bobby Kennedy and the Black Panthers, and participated in moments of unparalleled political involvement and hope. They then, of course, suffered the disappointment and disillusionment of a country that squandered the potential of so many of its young leaders, that neglected to preserve the advances of the civil rights movement, and that ultimately assured its citizens through all means of policy and rhetoric that the best way to get ahead is through self-interest and conspicuous consumption.
Do I think everything's suddenly changed now? Of course not. I am pleased about Obama, but my joy is somewhat more measured now that he's elected and faces grave challenges on multiple fronts. However, it was worth it all to hear my parents' renewed engagement with politics and excitement about potential change that I have never seen, and have only heard about in their stories from the past, in photos trapped in albums stored on dusty shelves. I only hope my generation can help us all to move beyond what theirs lost.
2. Still Black
My friend Aruna invited me to see a documentary on transgendered black men called Still Black. The MIT classroom was actually pretty full, and the documentary was a fairly straightforward collection of about six or seven profiles of, you guessed it, transgendered black men. Really interesting stuff came out in the process of their testimonials, and rather than feign my familiarity I'll admit some of its was incredibly provocative and downright surprising. One identifies as a gay man after transitioning. One dates straight women, gay women, bisexual men, straight men. One married to a lesbian woman who continues to identify as lesbian while being with a transgender man. The story of the trans pastor with a young daughter, preaching equality to the church.
And throughout all these stories challenging our the traditional sex and gender binaries, the issue of race. How different it felt to be a black man, how people look at them differently now. How they don't feel like a rapper or like Obama, and aren't sure how to be themselves, how to be black without falling into a stereotype.
While it would have been interesting to see interviews with their loved ones or to learn more about how the community around them and society in general responds to these complicated gender issues, in the end I appreciated the bare bones, purist approach, highlighting these men in their own words. It was emotive and intimate and felt very real. Albeit a little long and slow in parts.
Most of all, it reminded me how much we do need documentaries like this, and continued conversations about what being trans means, about all the nuances and varying expressions of and identifications with gender and sexuality. I think we all have so many questions, so much information to share to clear the air about what can be fairly taboo subjects, and I find it better to be open than to pretend you know it all.
Aruna also brought up the hijra, the "third-sex" in India that is quite a familiar concept there but so foreign to us in the US that most can hardly wrap their minds around it.
Good to keep asking questions, to keep listening to stories, to keep on challenging what's normal.
In addition to records, I tend to collect random thoughts, so consider this my space for organizing them. I am a PhD student in Communication at UCSD, a DJ and emerging music producer, and a dabbler in a lot of other things.
