Tag: fashion

Tobi Hill-Meyer, Autogynophilia pathologizes normal female behavior

Tobi Hill-Meyer: Autogynophilia pathologizes normal female behavior.

…they were cis women. No one is going to take away their womanhood for feeling sexy about lingerie and slinky dresses. This seems to be something cis women, particularly femmes, do all the time.

The bottom line is that the behavior classified as autogynophilia is normal female behavior. Charles Moser did a small study where he tried applying the criteria for it to cis women and found that 93% of cis women qualify as autogynophiles. So why are trans women subjected to this standard and often stigmatized, punished, or denied access to healthcare if they fit this criteria? And why is there no similar criteria for trans men?

It seems to me this is primarily about exerting the control doctors have over trans people to maintain male control over the sexuality of women.

Status Flight and the Gendering of Google Glass

Status Flight and the Gendering of Google Glass

masculine-cellphone-original

Think back (if you’re old enough) to when very few people had cell phones, back when they were huge and expensive. When you picture someone using one of those cumbersome early cell phones, whom do you picture? Is it a white guy in a suit, maybe wearing a Rolex and 1980s sunglasses? Yeah, I thought so. When they first came out, cell phones—like pretty much every brand new, expensive technology—were status markers. A cell phone said, “I am wealthy, I am powerful, and I am so important that people must be able to reach me even when I am away from my home or office.”

Cell phones got smaller of course, and less expensive, and more common. Elites were saved, however, by the arrival of the touchscreen smartphone. Though not as pricey as the first cellular phones, the first iPhones were still expensive and hard to get; even with a $499 price point and a mandatory two-year contract with AT&T, people stood in line at Apple stores for hours to get their hands on one. The iPhone became an instant status symbol in 2007—but fast-forward to 2013, and what now? There’s roughly a zillion different touchscreen smartphone models on the market. The iPhone itself is available on all four major US carriers (without unlocking); from three feet away, a brand new $849 iPhone 5 is pretty much indistinguishable from a used $90 iPhone 4. Once an exciting status symbol, even the touchscreen smartphone has become plebeian and mundane.

Here’s a thing that happens: elites (and people in general) like status symbols, but when status symbols become too easy to obtain and thus lose their status-signifying power, elites begin to dislike those things—and to look for new status symbols to replace them.

You Look Like Shit: Fashion and Etiquette for Anarcho-bros

You Look Like Shit: Fashion and Etiquette for Anarcho-bros. I’m not down with this whole workshop description, but I am intrigued. I would go to this, if Berkeley and I were closer.

How are we supposed to trust our comrades when every day they are shoving cargo shorts and ill fitting t-shirts in our faces? In this presentation, we will be looking at one of the pillars of femme methodology—fashion—in order to critique some of the invisible authoritarianism inherent in typical anarcho-bro styles. In particular, we will discuss the black bloc and imagine alternatives to the supremacy of the all black uniform as the image of global anarchism. It is apparent that the black bloc has almost entirely eclipsed its role as a tactic and become nothing more than a symbolic gesture or a sign of affiliation and in this way is indistinguishable in its usage from any other nationalist uniform. How can we move away from these symbolic fetishes and apply the concept of direct action to our fashion choices? And is it necessary, as some have claimed, to hold a temporary moratorium on the black bloc in order to allow new innovations in anarchist resistance? Far from mere frivolity, we will see how fashion plays a critical role in the efficacy of your projects, actions, crews, collective houses, romances, etc and is imperative to the goal of abolishing capitalism and the state itself. A solid grasp of fashion will offer anarcho-bros a path out of perpetual douche-baggery and can potentially guide you from bro to boulevardier. I repeat, this event is a truly bro-friendly safe space; you will not be shunned, spit on, or scratched at any time during this presentation.