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Apr. 20th, 2015 03:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* "'People grab our veils, call us terrorists and want us dead': What it's really like to be a Muslim woman in Britain:" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10804880/Islamophobia-People-grab-our-veils-call-us-terrorists-and-want-us-dead-What-its-really-like-to-be-a-Muslim-woman-in-Britain.html
* I mostly couldn't with the Oklahoma Bombing Commemoration. It still hits me so hard two decades later, the slaughter of children, the first responders carrying small ash covered bodies like the dead of Pompeii. The frequent pretense since 9/11 that white supremacists in this country aren't the most frequent and dangerous terrorists.
* "Why are US military veterans being deported?:"
* "Supreme Court reignites 2008 police shooting case:"
* "Robert Bates interview raises new questions:"
* "School Official Says White Students Should Get Air-Conditioning Instead...:" http://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/school-official-says-white-students-should-get-air-condition#.pwdDN8EY2
* "How do you know Bansky is white????:" http://browngurlwfro.tumblr.com/post/116883997373/how-do-you-know-bansky-is-white
* "How To Grieve With Challah Bread:" http://eatingwithmyfingers.com/2015/04/16/how-to-grieve-with-challah-bread/
* A really long thing I wrote about self image:
I think selfies are important. They are people taking control of the image they present to the world. They are people saying, this is who I am and I love myself and I _am_ worthy and I don’t need your permission for any of those things.
So why don’t I ever post mine? It’s complicated. I am someone who figured out pretty early on the importance of self expression and presentation. I’m someone who most of my growing up fighting to survive and oppressed in some often pretty horrible ways for insisting on not compromising myself. The moment I had the freedom to truly express myself in images I grabbed it with both hands. I was flamboyant I stood out. You got in my way because of how I looked or who you thought I am or what you thought my limits ought to be, I ran you over. My image is and has been my choice.
In my youth I was painted, photographed, pursued by strangers for blocks, stalked. I can chose who I am, how I present. But once it is out in the world it belongs to the world. These days, I would rather be represented by my words, by my story, by my passions. I was always flamboyant, difficult, different. I was always utterly impatient with being pinned down by other peoples expectations and images of me. I am an asshole often and I’m okay with that. I am wrong sometimes and I’m okay with that too. Perfection is not achievable. I strive instead to make new mistakes to me every day.
My face and body were never me. They were a canvass, an instrument in the performance art I forged my life into until I got to sick to live that way any more, and so I changed.
My words are me. My words have always been me.
I am not ashamed. I am simply choosing how I wish to present myself to the world, and the choice not to post a selfie is also a choice and a means of self expression. I can be utterly brutal in exposing myself, and often am. My choice does not invalidate the choices of others.
I love all these selfies. I love movements like Black Out Day and Trans Visibility Day and No Shame Day. I love all these beautiful people showing themselves and taking control of their images, of showing the world they exist and are beautiful. So thank you to those doing it, who have done it, who will do it, who say defiantly that you/we (depending) are here, are really people, are empowered to show beauty or strength or vulnerability or what ever your picture happens to express.
I am here too. I am androgyne trans. I have cf carrier (which is why I’m always ill and what will be a major contributor to my eventual demise if an accident doesn’t get me first) and Ankylosing spondalytis (a very aggressive autoimmune arthritis which is what is wrong with my legs and why the crutch). I have a collection of other things, SID, a variety of co-morbids with the big two genetics things, a host of weird drug allergies that make treatment extra challenging. (Fun fact: the drug that I am not allergic to that can stop my body eating itself is too dangerous for someone with cf carrier, so I could never stay on long enough to do any good after the first year I tried it.) I try not to write too much about this stuff because it is boring to me in particular and I suspect to you. My family tends to approach this stuff in a darkly humorous way any way. Anyway, I am here, I exist. I spend a huge about of my day dealing with and working around this stuff. I am not ashamed of it, nor do I think I am less deserving of life and happiness, and if you are able bodied and cut in front of me in line because you assume you are more important than me, I will tell you loudly exactly the kind of asshole you are.
* "Once More, Into the Kennels:" http://grrm.livejournal.com/422311.html
* Incredibly cool beehive design: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flow-hive-honey-on-tap-directly-from-your-beehive
* We need $700.00 for Property taxes this month. Our Financial Situation continues Scary: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws or Lethran@gmail.com
* I mostly couldn't with the Oklahoma Bombing Commemoration. It still hits me so hard two decades later, the slaughter of children, the first responders carrying small ash covered bodies like the dead of Pompeii. The frequent pretense since 9/11 that white supremacists in this country aren't the most frequent and dangerous terrorists.
* "Why are US military veterans being deported?:"
* "Supreme Court reignites 2008 police shooting case:"
* "Robert Bates interview raises new questions:"
* "School Official Says White Students Should Get Air-Conditioning Instead...:" http://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/school-official-says-white-students-should-get-air-condition#.pwdDN8EY2
* "How do you know Bansky is white????:" http://browngurlwfro.tumblr.com/post/116883997373/how-do-you-know-bansky-is-white
* "How To Grieve With Challah Bread:" http://eatingwithmyfingers.com/2015/04/16/how-to-grieve-with-challah-bread/
* A really long thing I wrote about self image:
I think selfies are important. They are people taking control of the image they present to the world. They are people saying, this is who I am and I love myself and I _am_ worthy and I don’t need your permission for any of those things.
So why don’t I ever post mine? It’s complicated. I am someone who figured out pretty early on the importance of self expression and presentation. I’m someone who most of my growing up fighting to survive and oppressed in some often pretty horrible ways for insisting on not compromising myself. The moment I had the freedom to truly express myself in images I grabbed it with both hands. I was flamboyant I stood out. You got in my way because of how I looked or who you thought I am or what you thought my limits ought to be, I ran you over. My image is and has been my choice.
In my youth I was painted, photographed, pursued by strangers for blocks, stalked. I can chose who I am, how I present. But once it is out in the world it belongs to the world. These days, I would rather be represented by my words, by my story, by my passions. I was always flamboyant, difficult, different. I was always utterly impatient with being pinned down by other peoples expectations and images of me. I am an asshole often and I’m okay with that. I am wrong sometimes and I’m okay with that too. Perfection is not achievable. I strive instead to make new mistakes to me every day.
My face and body were never me. They were a canvass, an instrument in the performance art I forged my life into until I got to sick to live that way any more, and so I changed.
My words are me. My words have always been me.
I am not ashamed. I am simply choosing how I wish to present myself to the world, and the choice not to post a selfie is also a choice and a means of self expression. I can be utterly brutal in exposing myself, and often am. My choice does not invalidate the choices of others.
I love all these selfies. I love movements like Black Out Day and Trans Visibility Day and No Shame Day. I love all these beautiful people showing themselves and taking control of their images, of showing the world they exist and are beautiful. So thank you to those doing it, who have done it, who will do it, who say defiantly that you/we (depending) are here, are really people, are empowered to show beauty or strength or vulnerability or what ever your picture happens to express.
I am here too. I am androgyne trans. I have cf carrier (which is why I’m always ill and what will be a major contributor to my eventual demise if an accident doesn’t get me first) and Ankylosing spondalytis (a very aggressive autoimmune arthritis which is what is wrong with my legs and why the crutch). I have a collection of other things, SID, a variety of co-morbids with the big two genetics things, a host of weird drug allergies that make treatment extra challenging. (Fun fact: the drug that I am not allergic to that can stop my body eating itself is too dangerous for someone with cf carrier, so I could never stay on long enough to do any good after the first year I tried it.) I try not to write too much about this stuff because it is boring to me in particular and I suspect to you. My family tends to approach this stuff in a darkly humorous way any way. Anyway, I am here, I exist. I spend a huge about of my day dealing with and working around this stuff. I am not ashamed of it, nor do I think I am less deserving of life and happiness, and if you are able bodied and cut in front of me in line because you assume you are more important than me, I will tell you loudly exactly the kind of asshole you are.
* "Once More, Into the Kennels:" http://grrm.livejournal.com/422311.html
* Incredibly cool beehive design: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flow-hive-honey-on-tap-directly-from-your-beehive
* We need $700.00 for Property taxes this month. Our Financial Situation continues Scary: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws or Lethran@gmail.com