Review of the show at Rhizome
Apr. 8th, 2007 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_fantastic_ms_foxAthen's Boy's Choir - Awesome.
Team Gina - ...usually entertaining.
Yeah, that about covers it.
Katz (from ABC) was eloquent and funny. He combined spoken word with video. He spoke about the time he stood by an anti-abortion protest with a sign reading "don't listen to these haters," then realized that there might be someone doing exactly the same thing at a pro-abortion protest, realiveng that this was silly, and wondering so how do we get along with each-other? This is when I started clapping (alone). He also stopped halfway through one of his pieces to say that he thought that the original wording might be kinda sexist, so he changed the words - and then he did it again with the different version which didn't sound as good. Bold.
He covered a variety of topics, and was critical, humorous and, when appropriate, self-implicating. Good social criticism. He made me think. Cheers. Worth my time and dollar. Go see him.
Team Gina also made me think, but mostly because I required a period of introspection to figure out why it bothered me. TG was a spoken word slash hip-hop act with synchronized dance. And stage-right-Gina had a tattoo that spelled out "13" in Mayan, which gets a point. But it was... whiny. The kind of whiny you get when well-to-do folks hang out in left-wing circles where you're supposed to be "oppressed" before being taken seriously.
There is a certain irony when a hip-hop dance team (where one member has an anthropology degree and the other is a professional artist) complaining about thirteen year old White boys emulating gangsta. Or complaining about said boys when what they're describing makes it pretty clear that the kid is not bothering them in any way; and is coming from a fucked-up family.
The piece about straight guys made me realize that I was sitting next to a straight (or bi?) (trans-) guy who would never do any of the things that they were kvetching about. Nor would any of the straight (cis) guys that I hang around with. And what they were complaining about wasn't that bad - it was a rude comment, much as heard by anyone who breaks with the social norm whether it's on the grounds of sexual orientation, or religion, or occuption, or familial composition. It sounds more to one of the social problems that develops when you hang around in homogendered (or homo-religious/occupational/hobbyist/ethnic) social circles: you forget why others act the way they do, forget how to deal with it (because you don't have to deal with it, you just have to walk back to your bubble), and start blanket labelling - and by escheving friendly social contact, you're not left with many positive interactions.
Still. Fun. Good as a warm-up act, not a full piece.
Team Gina - ...usually entertaining.
Yeah, that about covers it.
Katz (from ABC) was eloquent and funny. He combined spoken word with video. He spoke about the time he stood by an anti-abortion protest with a sign reading "don't listen to these haters," then realized that there might be someone doing exactly the same thing at a pro-abortion protest, realiveng that this was silly, and wondering so how do we get along with each-other? This is when I started clapping (alone). He also stopped halfway through one of his pieces to say that he thought that the original wording might be kinda sexist, so he changed the words - and then he did it again with the different version which didn't sound as good. Bold.
He covered a variety of topics, and was critical, humorous and, when appropriate, self-implicating. Good social criticism. He made me think. Cheers. Worth my time and dollar. Go see him.
Team Gina also made me think, but mostly because I required a period of introspection to figure out why it bothered me. TG was a spoken word slash hip-hop act with synchronized dance. And stage-right-Gina had a tattoo that spelled out "13" in Mayan, which gets a point. But it was... whiny. The kind of whiny you get when well-to-do folks hang out in left-wing circles where you're supposed to be "oppressed" before being taken seriously.
There is a certain irony when a hip-hop dance team (where one member has an anthropology degree and the other is a professional artist) complaining about thirteen year old White boys emulating gangsta. Or complaining about said boys when what they're describing makes it pretty clear that the kid is not bothering them in any way; and is coming from a fucked-up family.
The piece about straight guys made me realize that I was sitting next to a straight (or bi?) (trans-) guy who would never do any of the things that they were kvetching about. Nor would any of the straight (cis) guys that I hang around with. And what they were complaining about wasn't that bad - it was a rude comment, much as heard by anyone who breaks with the social norm whether it's on the grounds of sexual orientation, or religion, or occuption, or familial composition. It sounds more to one of the social problems that develops when you hang around in homogendered (or homo-religious/occupational/hobbyist/ethnic) social circles: you forget why others act the way they do, forget how to deal with it (because you don't have to deal with it, you just have to walk back to your bubble), and start blanket labelling - and by escheving friendly social contact, you're not left with many positive interactions.
Still. Fun. Good as a warm-up act, not a full piece.
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no subject
Date: 2007-04-08 11:24 pm (UTC)re: hip-hop etc. A lot of the complaints registered was the complaint of many kids embracing 'hip hop culture' as a way of justifying misogyny, violence and irresponsibility by kids who don't understand what 'street' culture is about.
re: Straight guys - it's hard to parse this one, because I've basically observed/experienced things like:
-straight men not recognizing feminine women as 'queer'
-or assuming that they might have a chance for sexual interactions anyways
Again, I think they were complaining of a larger phenomenon than ONE person.
Also, basically, in-group complaining (which I read this as "you know, the thing that happens to people like us that we all deal with in different ways") is a way to bond and communicate common experiences.
Finally, not all sexual interest is desired or flattering. I'm a little tired of the idea that I should *always* be flattered by people wanting to be in my pants: If the person is acting on fallacious assumptions, or does not respect me as an individual, it's just annoying.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-09 03:37 am (UTC)With the street culture - I'm just not sure about lampooning young teens: they're never going to hear it, and it's not challenging the audience to do or think anything differently, so it's not going to change anything.
I guess I'm on a praxis/compassion kick. This may be influencing it.
Come to think of it, I'm also on a "holy fuck, where do I locate myself and how does this... WHATTHEFUCKISWRONGWITHTHEWORLDANDWHEREAMIANDWHATSHOULDIDOANDWHYCANTWEJUSTALKTOEACHOTHER" kick. When referencing any knidfo common experiences, this tends to come up.
I want to develop that compassion sage character understanding that Leguin shows.
Date: 2007-04-09 04:33 am (UTC)Last few years, it was: "A nice guy and an ally in reforming/eliminating all the shit that's wrong with gender. See look, I'm taking Women's Studies, and I volunteer for Out-on-Campus, and I correct my friends when they caricateurize femisists and I'm very careful about not expressing unwanted sexual interest and so on."
At it felt like the answer was "no one's actually cared to answer that but the more you try, the more you'll be punished as /both/ Part-of-The-Problem /and/ not really a man." This is a real sore spot for me when I look at gender (and trans-gender) politics - EVERYONE NEEDS ALLIES AND MY SIDE KEEPS PISSING PEOPLE OFF.
Now it's "female."
And it still seems that the answer is "not a hell of a lot." And when I see an act that is complaining about being in a position that I am putting a lot of time, work, money and risk into doing and to hell with the consequences, /even if what they say is totally justified/, it still /feels/ like someone complaining about their yacht being too small.
Maybe you and me both need to have a (thoroughly considered and reflexive) LJ rant. If handled with "I" statements and so on, might this be an acceptable topic to throw up on QWIK? - "Complain and deconstruct."
Re: I want to develop that compassion sage character understanding that Leguin shows.
Date: 2007-04-09 05:59 am (UTC)Re: I want to develop that compassion sage character understanding that Leguin shows.
Date: 2007-04-09 05:59 am (UTC)Re: I want to develop that compassion sage character understanding that Leguin shows.
Date: 2007-04-09 08:08 am (UTC):P
Re: I want to develop that compassion sage character understanding that Leguin shows.
Date: 2007-04-09 07:40 pm (UTC)Re: I want to develop that compassion sage character understanding that Leguin shows.
Date: 2007-04-09 07:37 pm (UTC)So, I need to ask: Do you think that people with priviledge deserve medals for doing work (which is, in our case, not a survival mechanism but a chosen response to inequality) to make the world a better place? Like, I try to work on my sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, able-ism etc because I think it's a GOOD IDEA, and I want to reduce my social harm in the world: If there are any social rewards from such behaviour, they are that certain people might feel more comfortable around me and trust me more, that I might educate others and make them think, that I might create small social change, and maybe maybe maybe if I'm lucky, people will realise that despite my background, appearance, heritage, class, gender, physical ability that are classically aligned with 'everything that gets THEM DOWN' they MIGHT realise that I am on their side. It's 'thankless' work, and the last thing we should do is expect people, in their struggle, to expend vast amounts of energy that they are using to get by day-by-day to kiss our pasty white asses.
I'm going to re-post this in my journal as "why being an ally means you shut up and just do the work."
You're joining a minority, Sasha, and you still pass as the majority. As you get further into your medical and social transition, people will see you more as transitioning, and eventually, as a 'woman', or at least a catagory that is 'not-man'. (I'm adding this because you will encounter people who don't view transitioning/genderchange as a valid process.)
Minorities, in my experience, are actually more viscious and rigid about gatekeeping, because 'who we are' is an area that X group is still attempting to define for themselves in a positive/self-determining way. As well, there is a sentiment that one who willingly joins a minority has not earned the right to be there, unless you undergo X amount of oppression, that you 'don't get it', that you 'don't know what it's like', that the minority members cannot trust you because they arn't sure of your loyalties. If I was in this mindspace, an interrogation of you, for example, would be: "How can I trust that you will not come here, with your agenda from your point of priviledge, and how can I trust that you're willing to give that priviledge up, and how can I trust you to be part of our community and commit to that, as we who have no alternative have commited to it?"
This is a sad, viscious truth about minorities and in-groups, and it's one I want to see worked on in the future, but for now you, as a transitioning white-able bodied male-born person, and myself as a white able-bodies, gender-conforming bisexual(ish) female (and I am in some ways as suspect or more suspect than you) need to deal with when socializing, working and living within some communities.
"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it"
Date: 2007-04-10 01:05 am (UTC)This is relevant to me because the Trans Alliance Society is so small as to be barely functional, and I think this is in part because it's bad at being cis-inclusive. Not only does this make genderfucked but non-medical tg'ers suspect, but it also excludes friends, family and significant others who may actually get a worse ride than the trans person themselves - e.g. I live in Vancouver; my mother, in Kelowna. I get along okay in the TAS because people either know that I'm just starting, or assume that I'm a transmale with poor taste in clothes. But they also see that I volunteer my time... so maybe that approach really does work. But if I were to rag on cis folks, though I might be angry at MSP and anyone who voted for the Campbell Government, if I wasn't careful, I could be burning bridges.
With the women's studies ally stuff, I want to see men being included because the current identity politics framework is alienating both men and women. I want to see sensible men being rewarded because that way men will be more likely to straighten up their shit. I want to see majorities being included so that (after some proper education) we/they can help kick some ass.
It's understandable that people are cautious. There has to be some kind for outlet for that anger, and I want to hear about why people are angry, but I see identity-factionalism repeatedly destroying any chance of progress. And people from outside the demographic see this, and reinforce it by staying out and encouraging each other to stay out. And, as a consequence, the status quo goes unchallenged. That's why it frustrates me. That and the fact that I'm not really sure what to do about it.
"How can I trust that you will not come here, with your agenda from your point of priviledge, and how can I trust that you're willing to give that priviledge up, and how can I trust you to be part of our community and commit to that, as we who have no alternative have commited to it?"
Thank you very much for this perspective. It makes more sense.
For clarification, when I was referring to being read as female, I didn't mean so much as by activists as just in-general. It just pisses me off whenever I'm reminded. If the grocery clerk calls me "sir," the food will taste worse - that sort of thing. Totally irrational.
Re: "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it"
Date: 2007-04-10 04:20 am (UTC)1) Alturism - not that people shouldn't be thanked for 'good works', but that you should do 'good works' for the sake of the work, not your ego/rewards.
2) That though I think that minorities need to open up a place for the 'majority' to ally themselves with minorities, it shouldn't mean editing our experiences, lives, and feelings about being a minority, and that the 'majority' members should recognize that b/c they do not have an understanding of what it means to be in the minority, or a specific minority, that it will take a certain amount of listening, humility, empathy, education and hard work to become a trusted ally. Basically, it's good for the soul for a priviledged person to be an outsider, and need to learn new norms and perspectives, and being an ally can be a part of that process.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-09 05:57 am (UTC)can suck.
hearts!