Notes: Kate Bornstein
Feb. 21st, 2010 06:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sasha_featherCreate a life for yourself that is more worth living
*Identity
*Desire
*Power
These exist in a Venn diagram. Desire gets the worst rap in society and can mean many things, but she is mostly going to talk about the fucking aspect. She gives a call out to asexuality which gets a big cheer.
In the middle of the diagram should be something like Goddess/God, your heart, compassion. But instead exists:
-Gender
-Race
-Class
-Sexuality
-Ability
-Age
-Religion
-Looks
-Citizenship
-Family and reproductive status
-Language
Each by itself can be fine, but all these things combined can be deadly: they are vectors to rules, hierarchical systems of oppression. Masked by binaries.
Postmodern theory can keep you alive. She gives a 2-minute summary of post-modern theory which basically boils down to "things are more than one/things have more than one interpretation."
Bullies use language to coerce us into being false. Either/Or. She gives some examples. Classic is "man or woman" and they should be separate and equal. She doesn't think this is possible. Riddle of what weighs more? 1 tonne of bricks or 1 tonne of feathers? If you say they weigh the same you are wrong, because as soon as you move, some of the feathers fly off! The only time they weigh the same is IN A VACUUM, and life does not exist in a vacuum!! Others: Real or Fake, Kinky or Vanilla. Many binaries all over!
She lists many identities not covered in LGBTA: feminist, sadomasochist, queer, femme, butch, drag queen or king, intersex, asexual, kinky, queer heterosexuals, poly, gender queer etc, etc. She suggests GASP for Gender Anarchy Sex Positive.
Expression of gender and sexuality constantly shift depending on environment.
The US is the bully of the world. The right wing is defined by the radical right. Where is the radical left movement? Even those on the far left are still operating under the hierarchies of gender, race, class, age, looks, religion, sexuality, ability, citizenship, family and reproductive status, and language. There has never been a coalition that has included all these vectors of oppression.
*When values fail, we go to ethics. When ethics fail, we go to morals: this is where either/or comes from, the 10 commandments kind of things. When morals fail, we go to laws and the criminal justice system.
Somewhere she also talked about her scale of emotions which is in her book Hello Cruel World. She made clear that anger is a lot better place to be than some other emotions. There were some people at this conference that were quite angry: a group of queer people of color talked about how they and trans people and people with disabilities had been marginalized, tokenized, and excluded.
*Identity
*Desire
*Power
These exist in a Venn diagram. Desire gets the worst rap in society and can mean many things, but she is mostly going to talk about the fucking aspect. She gives a call out to asexuality which gets a big cheer.
In the middle of the diagram should be something like Goddess/God, your heart, compassion. But instead exists:
-Gender
-Race
-Class
-Sexuality
-Ability
-Age
-Religion
-Looks
-Citizenship
-Family and reproductive status
-Language
Each by itself can be fine, but all these things combined can be deadly: they are vectors to rules, hierarchical systems of oppression. Masked by binaries.
Postmodern theory can keep you alive. She gives a 2-minute summary of post-modern theory which basically boils down to "things are more than one/things have more than one interpretation."
Bullies use language to coerce us into being false. Either/Or. She gives some examples. Classic is "man or woman" and they should be separate and equal. She doesn't think this is possible. Riddle of what weighs more? 1 tonne of bricks or 1 tonne of feathers? If you say they weigh the same you are wrong, because as soon as you move, some of the feathers fly off! The only time they weigh the same is IN A VACUUM, and life does not exist in a vacuum!! Others: Real or Fake, Kinky or Vanilla. Many binaries all over!
She lists many identities not covered in LGBTA: feminist, sadomasochist, queer, femme, butch, drag queen or king, intersex, asexual, kinky, queer heterosexuals, poly, gender queer etc, etc. She suggests GASP for Gender Anarchy Sex Positive.
Expression of gender and sexuality constantly shift depending on environment.
The US is the bully of the world. The right wing is defined by the radical right. Where is the radical left movement? Even those on the far left are still operating under the hierarchies of gender, race, class, age, looks, religion, sexuality, ability, citizenship, family and reproductive status, and language. There has never been a coalition that has included all these vectors of oppression.
*When values fail, we go to ethics. When ethics fail, we go to morals: this is where either/or comes from, the 10 commandments kind of things. When morals fail, we go to laws and the criminal justice system.
Somewhere she also talked about her scale of emotions which is in her book Hello Cruel World. She made clear that anger is a lot better place to be than some other emotions. There were some people at this conference that were quite angry: a group of queer people of color talked about how they and trans people and people with disabilities had been marginalized, tokenized, and excluded.
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-23 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-24 10:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-24 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-24 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-25 02:02 am (UTC)Also, what were your thoughts on the postmodern part?
no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 01:13 am (UTC)Thanks much for making and posting these reports.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 02:12 am (UTC)Thanks for reading. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 02:35 am (UTC)<3