latimes:

Filipino nurses settle language-bias case: The $975,000 secured in a dispute with Delano Regional Medical Center is believed to be the largest such settlement in the U.S. healthcare industry.

During a 2006 mandatory meeting for Filipino staffers, nurses were told they were forbidden from using their native language at “any time in the hospital,” said Wilma Lamug, a former 10-year employee.

She said the hospital’s former chief executive vowed that “he would install surveillance cameras in nursing stations. Whoever is caught, they were threatened with suspension or termination,” Lamug said. “Sometimes, we were speaking English, but due to our accent and diction, they thought we were speaking something else.”

Although the hospital, near Bakersfield, employed a mix of bilingual employees speaking Spanish, Hindi, Bengali and other languages, managers targeted only the Filipinos and encouraged supervisors and other staffers to “act as vigilantes.”

Photo: Nurse Wilma Lamug is overcome with emotion as she recounts the discrimination she and other Filipino nurses experienced while working at the Delano Regional Medical Center in Delano, Calif. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

I have just (as in yesterday) finished my university studies. While training as a nurse I’ve seen this happen. Two students were threatened with failing their clinical placement if they continued to speak together in their first language. They were helping each other study. On another occasion a Muslim man was forced to either shave his beard or wear a beard shield at all times (like a hair net for your face; notoriously uncomfortable and not at all clinically necessary).

“We” are not the 99%. For one thing it doesn’t make sense to talk about an all-inclusive us while rocking combative rhetoric.

For another, I am instinctively wary of protecting the interests of some majoritised grouping at the cost of everyone else. And my suspicions would be allayed maybe if I hadn’t already spent a bunch of time arguing with people about what constitutes the core issue and what is ok to be sidelined…

anyway. Positioning blame on the 1% simplifies the practice of oppression overmuch: eliding the differences in privilege within the imaginary 99% makes it easy for hegemonic rule to continue unchecked and if only the individuals change, nothing changes. 

So far I haven’t seen this be about changing the system so much as tweaking it to protect the privilege of the global middle class.  

I’m painfully aware that the movement got what credibility it had by way of being dominated by folks who’re rich (and in other ways repping for the hegemony) who discovered that capitalism sucks when they lost their well paying jobs. I’m terrified that nothing will happen here but a slight course correction to protect the privilege of these people.

But I’m going to go still. And I’m going to help. Because fuck it, I’ll take any odds I can get for change.

After a late night exploration of the OED inspired by a poorly researched post to facebook I’m all inspired to collate some notes on sexy bits. Like how “quim” can be used to mean vaginal intercourse as well as vulva/vagina,”quaint” was coined as some sort of pun on cunt in like the twelfth century, and “queem” (from which we get quim) means pleasure or satisfaction as in “that meal was heaps to my queem y’all”. I was about to get all excited about queem-quim, like “hey, here’s an instance in which a positive attribute was transferred to cunty bits”. Then I realised that queem and quim’re both made obsolete, like every other positive attribution ever.

There’s a great research article on terms for genitals here.

I just read Dale Spender’s Man Made Language (can you tell?) and in it there’s a quote from Greer’s The Female Eunuch:

“All the vulgar linguistic emphasis is placed upon the poking element; fucking, screwing, rooting, shagging are all acts performed upon the passive female: the names for the penis are all tool names. The only genuine intersexual words we have for sex are the obsolete swive, and the ambiguous ball” 

(you can read the text at <http://studentreader.com/germaine-greers-the-female- eunuch/>)

And of course, I fell in love with swive. The sidewaysness of it. The way a v can linger. I made a badge (it just said SWIVE), gave it to a friend (who I think didn’t know how to take it; understandable), was forced to explain the term and found myself lacking. So I went searching, and I found myself some disappointment. I’d like to see Greer’s sources for swive as intersexual (I rustled through my bookshelf for my copy of Eunuch but the passage wasn’t referenced so I’m at a loss: In the OED there are twenty odd quotes illustrating the use of swive and its derivations. A woman swives in one, a goddess loves to swive in another, but in the remainder it is men who are doing the swiving; several times women are swived but men never are.

So. A reluctant retraction and no more badges. Because I love to talk about sex and as much as I’m into specificity and descriptive language sometimes what’s needed is a word which speaks from shadows.

Also, and less to do with my getting laid: heterosexist patriarchal culture hurts folk and language is one way to be pitching a shift: we need a word (like swive maybe, but better) to talk positively about sex and to talk about sex without connoting woman-as-object (in the sense of predicate).

And I know it shouldn’t matter, that etymology is irrelevant to use, but I am put off fuck by the OED (again): fuck is “Probably cognate with Dutch /fokken/ to mock (15th cent.), to strike (1591), to fool, gull (1623), to beget children (1637)…”. Like, great word association, patriarchy. 

A happier note: fuckwind, windfucker - totally legit names for a kestrel. Amazing.

fuckyeahlgbtqlatinxs:

Nothing About Us, Ricardo Levins Morales

“This powerful slogan came out of the struggle of people with disabilities in South Africa. It could be the basic operating principle of peoples’ struggles all over the world.”

nobutreally.

textualgore:

sisterslowly:

…over the last few years I’ve met some fucking amazing transmasculine folk who’ve given me hope. I’ve come to really admire these people - in particular my housemate - and become intrigued by the possibility of modelling my masculinity on theirs…

like what bro?

(what behaviours, actions, ways of interacting, acting - ‘ways of being masculine’ - are worth emulating?)

It’s difficult to articulate the characteristics common to the people I want to emulate. Very broadly, it’s maybe:

.an orientation to service made visible by some sort of chivalry,

.an introversion which remains emotionally available,

.a kind of slow and stubborn strength,

.the sort of kindness which is closely targeted and which couldn’t be confused with nice. 

But obvs this’s just the way my tastes run. By way of more broadly applicable, there’s:

.the way transmasculine people interact other peoples’ masculinities. What gets validated, what doesn’t. And this I can’t describe, don’t have the language for articulating interaction.

.A sense I get of not needing to claim masculine traits as exclusively masculine (for instance validating physical strength as a positive feminine trait).

what about you though bro? What are you into?

adailyriot:

vicesandvirtues:

I’M SO FUCKING HIPSTER.  And bored at gabi’s because my boyfriend is blowing me off and she went to work and I’m hiding in her room because I don’t want to talk to her mom anymore.

Because I know that you are the person in the photo an not just some blogger reblogging some photo of a random white person appropriating native american cultural items, I will be responding directly to you.

I understand that you may have never even heard the term cultural appropriation before, and so you cannot see how you wearing this is racist and promotes not only harmful stereotypes about us Native Americans and First Nations peoples, but that by engaging in cultural appropriation (not to mention taking a photo of yourself in a cheesy head dress because it’s “hipster” and popular and will probably get you reblogs which will encourage others to engage in this harmful, hurtful, and disgusting act) you’re also engaging in a form of cultural genocide. It matters not whether that was your intention… after all, if you run over a person while on your way to the grocery store, it doesn’t matter if that wasn’t your intention when you set out; you still hit the person.. you can’t take that back and saying you didn’t intend to hit them won’t lessen the damage that’s been caused (the road to hell is paved with the best intentions). 

I know that you did not buy the headdress, but found it.. that’s cool (i guess) but you should’ve gotten rid of it so that no one else could have used it to engage in racist, genocidal, stereotype perpetuating acts.. as you have unfortunately done yourself.

You should be aware that we Native and First Nations people see you and others like you appropriating our cultures and spiritualities because you and a lot of other people like you see it as hip and the cool thing to do. However, we’re not pleased and we don’t find it cute. I personally don’t have the energy to write an essays worth of information out to you. But be aware that, I’m in a nice mood right now, so i’m not tearing you apart. And trust me, there tons of other Native and First Nations people here on tumblr and outside this site and the internet who would call you out in A LOT LESS of a nice tone. (i.e. they’d tear you to pieces). 

I would encourage you to learn more about what cultural appropriation is, stereotypes of native americans (since after all, your actions and your photo here is perpetuating them… and also because your perception of us Natives are probably deeply ingrained with the saturation of stereotypes that were given to you of us throughout your life… otherwise you might not be doing this shit), and Native American history… which if you live in this country, it is YOUR history as well.. particularly if you and your ancestors are white. It’s important to know what happened so that you know where our ancestors stand in history as well as yourself… and how you can become better and not continue the genocide. I would encourage you also to follow blogs/tumblrs BY Native and First Nations people so that you can understand and see our perspective.  If you truly appreciate our cultures, as many claim, you will do this and find ways to join with Native and First Nations people in solidarity and also learn about our cultures in a good and respectful way.

Because I believe in education, I will start you off with a series of materials to look into about cultural appropriation, spiritual appropriation, stereotypes of natives, Native American history (i.e. as I said, your history as well), as well as a place where you can find Native and First Nations tumblrs to follow. This is not all that is out there though, and there is a ton more here on tumblr alone. Look around.

• Article: An Open Letter To All Appropriators
• Article:  What’s Wrong With Cultural Appropriation?
• Article: Appropriation - The Reality of Indigenous 
• Article: The Critical Fashion Lover’s (basic) Guide To Cultural Appropriation
• Article/Except: Native Stereotypes In The Dominant Culture
• Article: Common Portrayals of Aboriginal [Native/First Nations] People  
• Article: The Impact of Stereotyping on Young People (in relation to First Nations)
• Articles: Readings on Cultural Respect 
• Article: Racism: A Primer
• Graphic/Commentary: Racism: What People Think It Means, What it Really Means 
• Zine: Cultural Appreciation or Cultural Appropriation?  
• Zine: Wanting to be Indian: When Spiritual Searching Turns Into Cultural Theft
• Documentary: Reel Injuns
• Documentary: The Canary Effect (pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, pt 4, pt 5)  
• Documentary: White Shamans Plastic Medicine
• Interview/Commentary: Commercialization of Native American Spirituality
• Indigenous Directory: Indigenous People of Turtle Island
• Educational Source: Reality Check! Indian Images

There are many great tumblrs which will inform you just by following them. Kahs for example (i linked a few of her articles) is a particularly excellent source.

I hope that you will discontinue engaging in these acts and I hope to see you join as as a true ally and not just another silly, ignorant person who engages in acts of genocide and oppression against us. There is much for you to learn and if you ask us questions nicely we may answer them. But realize also that if you get a hostile response that we get things asked of us all the time, and seeing images like this and other racist/stereotypes of ourselves and our people gets stressful and we feel hurt and it’s painful to look at these images and representations of ourselves.

I’d encourage you to do as much research as possible  (we all often reblog informative information, and so just by following us it’ll make it easier to learn. I say this not because I give a shit about follower count for me or anyone, but because this really is the easiest way to gain information as you’re tumbling) prior to asking us questions though. 

I hope that you do take my advice, and I do hope to see you as an ally someday. 

   

So, a bunch of the links above were really helpful for me. Thanks, adailyriot. Thanks heaps.

Hegemonic masculinity is the social code of those privileged by patriarchy. Its replication recreates and reinforces patriarchal modes of interaction. But in my experience cismen think of themselves as masculine, not as patriarchs. This distance invites a strategic argument to separate masculinity from patriarchy. This argument requires alternatives; I have seen in some of the transmasculine people I know possible rolemodels in this project.  

For many cismen, masculinity is core to self. My experience of people generally is that they engage more readily with criticisms of their behaviour when their core identity is not being problematised. Certainly the cismen in my life need to feel safe in their masculinity before they will engage in a conversation which might affect it*. Possibly, anti-(or even just non-)patriarchal masculinities are impossible and we need something entirely new. Maybe.

But over the last few years I’ve met some fucking amazing transmasculine folk who’ve given me hope. I’ve come to really admire these people - in particular my housemate - and become intrigued by the possibility of modelling my masculinity on theirs**.  I’m not suggesting that cismen can or should claim transmasculine peoples’ experiences of gender and the nuances of a masculinity performed from that perspective: I’m concerned with the appropriative effect of this, but since my thoughts on appropriation are nebulous at best I’ll leave that conversation for another time.

I’m also worried that it may not be possible; that the behaviours I’m talking about are accessed only through a life lived. But I’m pretty sure that the whole act of learning to be a person is the art of faking it til you’re making it. I am suggesting that, even without understanding the full context, behaviours can be emulated if you want to replicate the outcomes. And on the other hand. Cis folk - being the gatekeepers of gender in heterosexist society - are used to taking their gender cues from (and only from) other cis folk. I wonder what happens to hegemonic masculinity when cismen take their gender cues from transmasculine folk; I think it might be good.

- - 

*Myself included. I am deeply invested in maintaining the integrity of my masculinity. 

**This all assumes that trans and cis masculinities are somehow separate categories. I’m not really comfortable with that assumption since it could be read to undermine the legitimacy of transmasculinity, where the true measure of masculinity is understood to be cis masculinity. But since my argument is for an adoption by cismen of masculinities as performed by transmasculine folk it’s a distinction I have to make in order to speak. I am aware that this line of thought implies a cis validation of trans gender, a validation which can always be witheld, restricted or revoked. But that’s the reality of the moment: cis folk have got all the symbolic capital in the making of gender.

terror-incognita:

“I don’t think we can reclaim beauty. (…) We must shift from a politic of desirability and beauty to a politic of ugly and magnificence. That moves us closer to bodies and movements that disrupt, dismantle, disturb. Bodies and movements ready to throw down and create a different way for all of us, not just some of us.”

—

Mia Mingus, Femmes Of Color Symposium Keynote Speech, Oakland, California, USA 21 August 2011 http://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/moving-toward-the-ugly-a-politic-beyond-desirability/

In thinking about writing some sort of contradiction, I realised that any responses I might make to the inestimable Mia Mingus’ beautifully written speech would be, if not invalid as an idea, politically irrelevant to the conversation and necessarily uninformed as to context.

So less by way of contribution to conversation, more distracted soliloquy I want agree that the politic of the desirable always is going to be devastating, excluding, erasive (I mean the opposite of interpellatory). And, oh my but Mingus says it fine. But shifting weight to a new desire is just that and I think magnificence is no better.

I have to be able to get lowdown and lonely, stubborn stupid and dirtyminded; I have to be able to love myself unmagnificent and hold the language to call it so.