Bluestockings Issue 4

visionary feminism is a wise and loving politics.
-bell hooks feminism is

a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defning, establishing, and
defending equal political, economic, and social rights for everyone. if you
have some power then your job is to empower someone else. -toni morrison
feminism challenges dominant narratives. the idea that we all need to
subscribe to the same theoretical understandings of history is marginalizing.
we all have our own truths and histories to live. -krysta williams and erin
konsmo feminism recognizes that the personal is political. when I write I
am trying to express my way of being in the world. -zadie smith feminism
defnes justice as the end of racism, cissexism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism
and other forms of oppression. it is not our differences that divide us. it
is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. -audre
lorde feminism is respecting people of all genders, races, and sexualities as
human beings. without an emotional, heartfelt grappling with the source of
our own oppression, without naming the enemy within ourselves and outside
of us, no authentic, non-hierarchical connection among oppressed groups
can take place. -cherrie moraga feminism seeks to destabilize the status quo.
without community, there is no liberation. -audre lorde feminism is a
continuous conversation. our ultimate objective in learning about anything
is to try to create and develop a more just society. -yuri kochiyama feminism
is a lived practice. if we arent intersectional, some of us, the most vulnerable,
visionary feminism is a wise and loving politics. -bell hooks feminism is
visionary feminism is a wise and loving politics. -bell hooks feminism is
Vacancies and Other Celestial Ponderings
Emma Ruddock
Selfe 03
Hannah Fyfe
36,835
Jodi Goodnough
Untitled
Garca Sinclair
One of Many Queens
Kat Knutsen
Latinidad
Camila Pacheco-Fores
Lovely Sushi Rat
Tom Deininger
Fall of Icarus
Goldie Poblador
Untitled
Cheyenne Sophia
Hand Fan
Claudia Norton
Birds in Flight
Marcela Sierzega
Inside Out
L. Dan Nguyen Phan
Letter from the Editors
Bear Stand
Shari Rubeck
Oliver Suggests Acupuncture
Evan Elise Easton-Calabria
Mix Tape
Marissa Castrigno
Come Over
Cayla Lockwood
Te Women, the Myth, the Legend:
Misrepresentations of Pussy Riot in Western
Media
Natasha Bluth
Pathological Grill
Doreen Garner
Rhombox
Nafs White,
photograph by Garca Sinclair
(Un)productivity in the Digital Age:
A Conversation with Mimi Nguyen
Chanelle Adams, Ann Kremen,
and Sophia Seawell
All the Kings Birds
Kerri King
Imagining Feminist Intellectual Property
Tatum Lindsay
Mother Mirror
Tyler Vile
Somewhere on the Border
Kate Holguin
Series 6
Jenna Marsh
Te Frontier Heroine: An Interview with India's
Leading Lady, Nirupama Rao
Jasmine Bala
Te Radical Performance of the Carefree Black
Girl
Patricia Epko
Mentalism and Mad Romanticism:
Tumblr as the Tip of the Cultural Iceberg
Abby McHugh
7

8

10

11

16

17

18

25

26
49

55

56

60

61

65

66

69

75

Sexual Interfaces:
Understanding Human-Computer
Interaction Trough Digital Sex Devices
Sylvia Tomayko-Peters
Fucking
Michelle Marie
Excerpt from Stained Streets
Joseph C Saunders
Ali-Yiayia's 100th Birthday
Christopher Tompson
Pronounless Love Poem
Lizzie Davis
Choice, Neoliberalism and the "Genderbread
Person"
Darcy Pinkerton
Don't Take It Personally:
Legitimizing Individual Narratives in Social
Justice
Kerlyne Jean-Baptiste
Fall 2012
Kah Yangni
27

35

37

38

39

41

45

48

81

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

table of contents
Vacancies and Other Celestial Ponderings
Emma Ruddock
Selfe 03
Hannah Fyfe
36,835
Jodi Goodnough
Untitled
Garca Sinclair
One of Many Queens
Kat Knutsen
Latinidad
Camila Pacheco-Fores
Lovely Sushi Rat
Tom Deininger
Fall of Icarus
Goldie Poblador
Untitled
Cheyenne Sophia
Hand Fan
Claudia Norton
Birds in Flight
Marcela Sierzega
Inside Out
L. Dan Nguyen Phan
Letter from the Editors
Bear Stand
Shari Rubeck
Oliver Suggests Acupuncture
Evan Elise Easton-Calabria
Mix Tape
Marissa Castrigno
Come Over
Cayla Lockwood
Te Women, the Myth, the Legend:
Misrepresentations of Pussy Riot in Western
Media
Natasha Bluth
Pathological Grill
Doreen Garner
Rhombox
Nafs White,
photograph by Garca Sinclair
(Un)productivity in the Digital Age:
A Conversation with Mimi Nguyen
Chanelle Adams, Ann Kremen,
and Sophia Seawell
All the Kings Birds
Kerri King
Imagining Feminist Intellectual Property
Tatum Lindsay
Mother Mirror
Tyler Vile
Somewhere on the Border
Kate Holguin
Series 6
Jenna Marsh
Te Frontier Heroine: An Interview with India's
Leading Lady, Nirupama Rao
Jasmine Bala
Te Radical Performance of the Carefree Black
Girl
Patricia Epko
Mentalism and Mad Romanticism:
Abby McHugh
7

8

10

11

16

17

18

25

26
49

55

56

60

61

65

66

69

75

Sexual Interfaces:
Understanding Human-Computer
Interaction Trough Digital Sex Devices
Sylvia Tomayko-Peters
Fucking
Michelle Marie
Excerpt from Stained Streets
Joseph C Saunders
Ali-Yiayia's 100th Birthday
Christopher Tompson
Pronounless Love Poem
Lizzie Davis
Choice, Neoliberalism and the "Genderbread
Person"
Darcy Pinkerton
Don't Take It Personally:
Legitimizing Individual Narratives in Social
Justice
Kerlyne Jean-Baptiste
Fall 2012
Kah Yangni
27

35

37

38

39

41

45

48

81

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

table of contents
Editors-in-Chief Chanelle Adams, Lily Gutterman,
Ann Kremen, Sophia Seawell
Managing Editors Anastasiya Gorodilova, Maru Pabn
Blog Managing Editors Chanelle Adams, Ragnar Jonssn
Academic Marina Golan-Vilella, Shierly Mondianti
Art Jennifer Avery, Camille Coy
Culture Mollie Forman, Malana Krongelb
Features Tanya Singh, Shreena Takore,
International Jasmine Bala
Literature Melanie Abeygunawardana, Stefania Gomez
Politics Radhika Rajan, Lindsay Sovern
Sex & Health Katie Harris, Katarah Da Silva
Design Andrew Beers, Elizabeth Goodspeed
Illustrations Addie Mitchell
Business Felicia Iyamu, Julia Levy
Publicity Ally Nguyen
Social Media Joy Yamaguchi
Senior Blog Editors Kyle Albert, Patricia Ekpo
Blog Art Director Sean Simonson
of race, color, religion, nationality, class,
disability, gender, sexual identity and/
or presentation. We hope to promote and
practice inclusivity of all identities and
orientations.
We accept work of every medium and from
every genre, including: fction, nonfction,
poetry, visual art, video, performance, and
academic writing.
We work to make bluestockings a platform
for engaging work on feminist issues,
including those that express radical and
dissenting viewpoints.
We believe feminism can be a generative
process that has relevant and productive ties
to every other area of study.
We hope to create a community surrounding
bluestockings where creative production
can lead to self-refective conversations that
develop into broader social impact.
We believe that empathy for ourselves and
others is the foundation of our mission.
We identify as a feminist publication and
community.
Te four principles that guide our work are:
inclusivity, intersectionality, diversity, and
community.
We do not try to answer the question,
What is feminism? but rather, What can
feminism be? We recognize that people
have diferent feminisms and we believe in
a plurality of feminisms. At the same time,
our feminism is rooted in anti-oppression
and anti-discrimination in the belief that
feminism is inextricably linked to issues such
as race, sexuality, and class.
We understand our feminism as an ongoing
process that will always refect and build
upon itself. We constantly strive to do better
in our theory and practice of feminism.
We openly accept and encourage submis-
sions from many diferent backgrounds.
We aim to bring marginalized voices to the
center; to consciously feature members of
communities that are marginalized because
Mission Statement
Editors-in-Chief Chanelle Adams, Lily Gutterman,
Ann Kremen, Sophia Seawell
Managing Editors Anastasiya Gorodilova, Maru Pabn
Blog Managing Editors Chanelle Adams, Ragnar Jonssn
Academic Marina Golan-Vilella, Shierly Mondianti
Art Jennifer Avery, Camille Coy
Culture Mollie Forman, Malana Krongelb
Features Tanya Singh, Shreena Takore,
International Jasmine Bala
Literature Melanie Abeygunawardana, Stefania Gomez
Politics Radhika Rajan, Lindsay Sovern
Sex & Health Katie Harris, Katarah Da Silva
Design Andrew Beers, Elizabeth Goodspeed
Illustrations Addie Mitchell
Business Felicia Iyamu, Julia Levy
Publicity Ally Nguyen
Social Media Joy Yamaguchi
Senior Blog Editors Kyle Albert, Patricia Ekpo
Blog Art Director Sean Simonson
of race, color, religion, nationality, class,
disability, gender, sexual identity and/
or presentation. We hope to promote and
practice inclusivity of all identities and
orientations.
We accept work of every medium and from
every genre, including: fction, nonfction,
poetry, visual art, video, performance, and
academic writing.
We work to make bluestockings a platform
for engaging work on feminist issues,
including those that express radical and
dissenting viewpoints.
We believe feminism can be a generative
process that has relevant and productive ties
to every other area of study.
We hope to create a community surrounding
bluestockings where creative production
can lead to self-refective conversations that
develop into broader social impact.
We believe that empathy for ourselves and
others is the foundation of our mission.
We identify as a feminist publication and
community.
Te four principles that guide our work are:
inclusivity, intersectionality, diversity, and
community.
We do not try to answer the question,
What is feminism? but rather, What can
feminism be? We recognize that people
have diferent feminisms and we believe in
a plurality of feminisms. At the same time,
our feminism is rooted in anti-oppression
and anti-discrimination in the belief that
feminism is inextricably linked to issues such
as race, sexuality, and class.
We understand our feminism as an ongoing
process that will always refect and build
upon itself. We constantly strive to do better
in our theory and practice of feminism.
We openly accept and encourage submis-
sions from many diferent backgrounds.
We aim to bring marginalized voices to the
center; to consciously feature members of
communities that are marginalized because
Mission Statement
issue four | 8 bluestockings | 7
wave is described as building upon previous
waves of feminism by providing a more inclu-
sive platform to marginalized voices, bodies,
and identities through new media forms.
We believe, however, that the language of
waves is reductive. As we understand them,
waves are simply place-markers to locate
collective eforts and ideologies. Te histories
that have remained visible are increasingly
being called out for their exclusion of people
of color, queer identifed, trans* identifed,
gender non-conforming, working-class and
disabled folks. However, continuing to
employ the terminology of waves reenacts the
violence of this exclusion by attempting to
impose a unifed point of view on any moment
in time.
Te idea of successive waves reinforces an
ideology of linear progress, in which each wave
is understood to be more inclusive than the
last. We believe that this notion of progress
disregards the work that marginalized groups
were already doing, as well as the violent
structures used to suppress their eforts. Tese
voices were always there, just not listened to.
Waves suggest an ebb and fow a
powerful surge, but also a collapse. Why
As a multimedia platform in 2014,
bluestockings witnesses and contributes to an
explosion of feminist content. By working
with three distinct mediums a print
publication, a blog, and a zine we ofen fnd
ourselves negotiating the diferent constraints
and afordances of each. But through them,
we are able to engage in multiple conversations
about feminism, identity, publishing, and
the logistical practicalities of keeping it all
running (at some times more smoothly than
others).
In the process of trying to take stock of
our cultural moment, we notice that the term
feminism is being co-opted by our bipartisan
political system and propagated as a pop
culture commodity.
Feminism is trending; intersection-
ality is now a buzzword. We wonder: are
people calling themselves feminists without
empathizing and engaging with the move-
ments complex identities, communities, and
histories? Is the increased self-identifcation as
a feminist actually productive? What are the
limits of #allyship?
Supposedly feminism is entering its fourth
wave. Characterized by the digital, the fourth
L. Dan Nguyen Phan Inside Out
Letter from
the Editors
wave is described as building upon previous
waves of feminism by providing a more inclu-
sive platform to marginalized voices, bodies,
and identities through new media forms.
We believe, however, that the language of
waves is reductive. As we understand them,
waves are simply place-markers to locate
collective eforts and ideologies. Te histories
that have remained visible are increasingly
being called out for their exclusion of people
of color, queer identifed, trans* identifed,
gender non-conforming, working-class and
disabled folks. However, continuing to
employ the terminology of waves reenacts the
violence of this exclusion by attempting to
impose a unifed point of view on any moment
in time.
Te idea of successive waves reinforces an
ideology of linear progress, in which each wave
is understood to be more inclusive than the
last. We believe that this notion of progress
disregards the work that marginalized groups
were already doing, as well as the violent
structures used to suppress their eforts. Tese
voices were always there, just not listened to.
Waves suggest an ebb and fow a
powerful surge, but also a collapse. Why
As a multimedia platform in 2014,
bluestockings witnesses and contributes to an
explosion of feminist content. By working
with three distinct mediums a print
publication, a blog, and a zine we ofen fnd
ourselves negotiating the diferent constraints
and afordances of each. But through them,
we are able to engage in multiple conversations
about feminism, identity, publishing, and
the logistical practicalities of keeping it all
running (at some times more smoothly than
others).
In the process of trying to take stock of
our cultural moment, we notice that the term
feminism is being co-opted by our bipartisan
political system and propagated as a pop
culture commodity.
Feminism is trending; intersection-
ality is now a buzzword. We wonder: are
people calling themselves feminists without
empathizing and engaging with the move-
ments complex identities, communities, and
histories? Is the increased self-identifcation as
a feminist actually productive? What are the
limits of #allyship?
Supposedly feminism is entering its fourth
wave. Characterized by the digital, the fourth
L. Dan Nguyen Phan Inside Out
Letter from
the Editors
letter from the editors | 9 issue four | 10
crucial conversations. Blogs such as Black Girl
Dangerous have provided necessary sites for
critique and productive dialogue, as well as
supportive communities.
Trough our print publication, bluestock-
ings wants to recognize the importance of
the issues that digital feminism alone cannot
speak to. We believe in the importance of
working slowly and intentionally. We hope to
fnd the time and energy to resist the propul-
sive speed of cultural production. In print, we
archive these moments, these struggles, and
our engagement with these questions.
By putting our bound, square book out
into the world, we can locate bluestockings. As
a material object, it contributes to a tradition
of the physical, emotional, and intellectual
labor of independent feminist publishing.
It is a testament to feminism, a movement
inherently grounded in the multiplicities of
experiences and bodies.
We hope you will enjoy these pieces and
that they will challenge you. Tese conver-
sations do not begin or end in these pages,
but we have collected them here to mark a
particular time and place. Were honored that
youve joined us.
In love and solidarity,
Chanelle Adams, Anastasiya Gorodilova,
Lily Gutterman, Ann Kremen,
Maru Pabn & Sophia Seawell
should we categorize feminist movements as
transient and ephemeral interruptions of the
status quo?
To situate ourselves within the fourth
wave would be to accept a singular, prescrip-
tive way of both understanding and enacting
feminism. But outside of the ideology of this
fawed framework, we grapple with posi-
tioning ourselves in a broader movement.
Due to both necessity and desire, we are
online and engaged with digital feminism.
Trough the bluestockings blog, weve been
able to contribute to and experience frsthand
a growing feeling of momentum. But in the
process we are implicated in the imperatives of
production required by neoliberal capitalism.
Te simultaneous acts of generating and being
bombarded by an abundance of content adds
to the feeling of being unrooted, making it
increasingly challenging to fgure out where
we stand.
A moment cannot be fully understood
as it is happening. Navigating particular and
self-selecting niches of the Internet, we fear
that we may be operating with blinders on,
unable to formulate a clear vision or measure
of the impact of projects like bluestockings.
How can we tell how many voices our words
reach? What are the limits of our address?
Still, the online feminist community has
interrupted mainstream discussions, calling
attention to questions about the inclusions
and exclusions produced by our society at
large and in feminism historically. Hashtags
like #NotYourAsianSidekick and #solidar-
ityisforwhitewomen have created spaces for
Shari Rubeck Bear Stand
letter from the editors | 9 issue four | 10
crucial conversations. Blogs such as Black Girl
Dangerous have provided necessary sites for
critique and productive dialogue, as well as
supportive communities.
Trough our print publication, bluestock-
ings wants to recognize the importance of
the issues that digital feminism alone cannot
speak to. We believe in the importance of
working slowly and intentionally. We hope to
fnd the time and energy to resist the propul-
sive speed of cultural production. In print, we
archive these moments, these struggles, and
our engagement with these questions.
By putting our bound, square book out
into the world, we can locate bluestockings. As
a material object, it contributes to a tradition
of the physical, emotional, and intellectual
labor of independent feminist publishing.
It is a testament to feminism, a movement
inherently grounded in the multiplicities of
experiences and bodies.
We hope you will enjoy these pieces and
that they will challenge you. Tese conver-
sations do not begin or end in these pages,
but we have collected them here to mark a
particular time and place. Were honored that
youve joined us.
In love and solidarity,
Chanelle Adams, Anastasiya Gorodilova,
Lily Gutterman, Ann Kremen,
Maru Pabn & Sophia Seawell
should we categorize feminist movements as
transient and ephemeral interruptions of the
status quo?
To situate ourselves within the fourth
wave would be to accept a singular, prescrip-
tive way of both understanding and enacting
feminism. But outside of the ideology of this
fawed framework, we grapple with posi-
tioning ourselves in a broader movement.
Due to both necessity and desire, we are
online and engaged with digital feminism.
Trough the bluestockings blog, weve been
able to contribute to and experience frsthand
a growing feeling of momentum. But in the
process we are implicated in the imperatives of
production required by neoliberal capitalism.
Te simultaneous acts of generating and being
bombarded by an abundance of content adds
to the feeling of being unrooted, making it
increasingly challenging to fgure out where
we stand.
A moment cannot be fully understood
as it is happening. Navigating particular and
self-selecting niches of the Internet, we fear
that we may be operating with blinders on,
unable to formulate a clear vision or measure
of the impact of projects like bluestockings.
How can we tell how many voices our words
reach? What are the limits of our address?
Still, the online feminist community has
interrupted mainstream discussions, calling
attention to questions about the inclusions
and exclusions produced by our society at
large and in feminism historically. Hashtags
like #NotYourAsianSidekick and #solidar-
ityisforwhitewomen have created spaces for
Shari Rubeck Bear Stand
title | 11 issue four | 12
hold them back. Tis is post-transition
and muscles coat your arms casually. Our
arm-wrestling competitions have become
a thing of the past. You are wearing green
suspenders over a white shirt and have a
ridiculous top hat tucked under one arm.
Its 1920s-themed! you
say excitedly, cmon!
A bit confused, I slide out
of bed and stand up.
Where?
At Johns. In Williamsburg. If we
hurry, we ll be there by ten. Here. You
toss me a tube of red lipstick and
start going through my dresses.
Sweetie, I dont know, maybe I
just want to relax tonight.
No, cmon! Its the party weve been
waiting for. You know the 1920s is
the only time I like to dress up for.
Tis, unfortunately, is true. I sigh and sit
back down to watch you. It is strange that I
have gotten used to your short hair. You have
parted it to one side now, in a comb-over, I
suppose, and, although you have gel in it, it
is still a deep red. Your suspenders lie fat
against your chest. Since top surgery eight
months ago, I have become used to this as
well. At night my head lies fat against you.
It wasnt always like this.
On the day you realize you fnally have
enough money saved for the top surgery
youve been talking about for years, I
cry. You call and make an appointment
man is alone, he hears the piano keys practicing
songs by themselves. Tis means their home
is never quiet. Tis is called companionship.
I turn my head back to face the ceiling. I
try to swallow but end up gulping air back
in instead and cough. Oh, oh, oh, the
acupuncturist says, moving the beaded
curtains aside and making them tinkle
as he enters. His English name is James
and afer he shook my hand he told me
it makes him sad that people here cant
pronounce his Chinese one. Like the
other me not alive, he said, Only real
inside now. I told him I understand.
Now he adjusts my arms and tells me,
Yes, pain, you. Circles no good. Energy
go out, out! He places the last needle in
the sof spot of my lef hand, between my
thumb and index fnger joints, and I am
surprised I dont feel any pain at all.
Out, pain, out, he says, patting
my shoulder reassuringly, You alone
then. Good. He adjusts the needle in
my forehead just a bit, making it oddly
twinge. Pain leaving now. I say you.
Instead of answering, I close
my eyes. Sofly, he leaves.
Hey, you say, arent we leaving now?
What? I ask.
I thought we were going to the party!
You stand in the doorway, bead curtains
pulled to one side, your arm braced to
Oliver suggests acupuncture and later I
tell him therapy must be working because
he only had to suggest it once. For 25 bucks,
I get to lie on a massage chair for an hour at
the community clinic downtown. An insider
tip from the woman I made the appointment
with on the phone means that at 8:15AM I
am here all alone. Five fights up, I recline
with needles in my forehead, feet and hands,
listening to music that sounds alternately like
a toilet running above me and rain. While
resting, I turn my head towards the window
and look out across the fre escape. Facing me
is another brownstone with windows showing
someones home. I fnd a kitchen with
white cupboards and a blue bowl on a small
table. Cereal, I decide. I spy the other bowl
resting beside the sink. A strangely-shaped
plant tilts into view from one corner of the
window. Despite being more brown than
green, it seems to only be going through
adolescence and so I decide it represents
hope. Beside the kitchen is a room with a
piano and an overstufed green couch. I spy
Te Wall Street Journal on the nearest arm.
A couple lives here, I decide, theyve been
together seven years this June. Two years ago
they celebrated forever by adopting a striped
kitten named Harvey who sleeps on their
feet as they read newspapers on the couch. On
Tursdays they do take-out. Tey still toss
quarters to see who will bring the laundry to
the cleaners three corners over. One of them
plays the piano and sometimes, when the other
Oliver Suggests
Acupuncture
by Evan Elise Easton-Calabria
hold them back. Tis is post-transition
and muscles coat your arms casually. Our
arm-wrestling competitions have become
a thing of the past. You are wearing green
suspenders over a white shirt and have a
ridiculous top hat tucked under one arm.
Its 1920s-themed! you
say excitedly, cmon!
A bit confused, I slide out
of bed and stand up.
Where?
At Johns. In Williamsburg. If we
hurry, we ll be there by ten. Here. You
toss me a tube of red lipstick and
start going through my dresses.
Sweetie, I dont know, maybe I
just want to relax tonight.
No, cmon! Its the party weve been
waiting for. You know the 1920s is
the only time I like to dress up for.
Tis, unfortunately, is true. I sigh and sit
back down to watch you. It is strange that I
have gotten used to your short hair. You have
parted it to one side now, in a comb-over, I
suppose, and, although you have gel in it, it
is still a deep red. Your suspenders lie fat
against your chest. Since top surgery eight
months ago, I have become used to this as
well. At night my head lies fat against you.
It wasnt always like this.
On the day you realize you fnally have
enough money saved for the top surgery
youve been talking about for years, I
cry. You call and make an appointment
man is alone, he hears the piano keys practicing
songs by themselves. Tis means their home
is never quiet. Tis is called companionship.
I turn my head back to face the ceiling. I
try to swallow but end up gulping air back
in instead and cough. Oh, oh, oh, the
acupuncturist says, moving the beaded
curtains aside and making them tinkle
as he enters. His English name is James
and afer he shook my hand he told me
it makes him sad that people here cant
pronounce his Chinese one. Like the
other me not alive, he said, Only real
inside now. I told him I understand.
Now he adjusts my arms and tells me,
Yes, pain, you. Circles no good. Energy
go out, out! He places the last needle in
the sof spot of my lef hand, between my
thumb and index fnger joints, and I am
surprised I dont feel any pain at all.
Out, pain, out, he says, patting
my shoulder reassuringly, You alone
then. Good. He adjusts the needle in
my forehead just a bit, making it oddly
twinge. Pain leaving now. I say you.
Instead of answering, I close
my eyes. Sofly, he leaves.
Hey, you say, arent we leaving now?
What? I ask.
I thought we were going to the party!
You stand in the doorway, bead curtains
pulled to one side, your arm braced to
Oliver suggests acupuncture and later I
tell him therapy must be working because
he only had to suggest it once. For 25 bucks,
I get to lie on a massage chair for an hour at
the community clinic downtown. An insider
tip from the woman I made the appointment
with on the phone means that at 8:15AM I
am here all alone. Five fights up, I recline
with needles in my forehead, feet and hands,
listening to music that sounds alternately like
a toilet running above me and rain. While
resting, I turn my head towards the window
and look out across the fre escape. Facing me
is another brownstone with windows showing
someones home. I fnd a kitchen with
white cupboards and a blue bowl on a small
table. Cereal, I decide. I spy the other bowl
resting beside the sink. A strangely-shaped
plant tilts into view from one corner of the
window. Despite being more brown than
green, it seems to only be going through
adolescence and so I decide it represents
hope. Beside the kitchen is a room with a
piano and an overstufed green couch. I spy
Te Wall Street Journal on the nearest arm.
A couple lives here, I decide, theyve been
together seven years this June. Two years ago
they celebrated forever by adopting a striped
kitten named Harvey who sleeps on their
feet as they read newspapers on the couch. On
Tursdays they do take-out. Tey still toss
quarters to see who will bring the laundry to
the cleaners three corners over. One of them
plays the piano and sometimes, when the other
Oliver Suggests
Acupuncture
by Evan Elise Easton-Calabria
issue four | 14 oliver suggests acupuncture | 13
I curled my body around yours at night,
in the times I bit my tongue as you lay
fat on your back at 3AM and muttered
that in this position you could never fall
asleep. We didnt have sex for two weeks,
at least not on record, because you werent
supposed to make your heart beat too fast.
I feel like Im old, you complain.
Sweetie, I reply, leaning over to
check a tube, I thought this was
about you being born again.
Now, eight months later, the scars
underneath your nipples are pink, and
almost red from the heat afer you
shower. I call them your half-moons,
although sliver moons would be more
accurate. In return, you call my breasts
your full moons, and tell me how much
you love them at least once a month.
Oli, we are on diferent cycles
now, I say, sometimes wistfully.
Honey, you reply, taking my hand, I
dont have any cycles anymore. Testosterone
has made your voice drop, and I imagine it
descending a staircase, taking one footstep
down your throat each month. I still dont
know where all this is leading, you know.
But apparently tonight is leading
us to Williamsburg, because you are
already dressed and have just picked out
a blue dress and a white belt for me.
Do you have any pumps? you
call out from inside our closet.
Pumps are for grandmas, I call back,
I say slowly. I restart the song and change
my tone. In fact, I love everything of yours.
Especially those abs, look at them! And I
would love your butt, if I could actually see it.
You roll your eyes again, smile,
and fnally turn around.
We are transitioning together, although
your body is the only one that changes.
My feelings are a wide spectrum of colors,
thrown like abstract art against the wall.
Te truth is, I want you to change and still
stay the same. It becomes easier when I
start to call your transition your alignment
instead. Alignment means that this change
is simply you becoming more of who youve
always been. Still, it is hard. I love it when
we shower together, because now it is the
only time I touch your breasts. Although
my hands move quickly, I still get to lather
up soap and hold them in my hands. Tey
are lighter than mine, and fuller, although
I hate to admit it. I no longer regard you
as female, but I still love the feeling of
our chests pressed together as we hug.
Afer your surgery, when I drained the
tubes underneath your armpits because
you werent allowed to lif your arms, as
I gently spread thick salve over the raised
skin of your stitches, we were pulled closer.
It happened without words, in the days
directly afer, when you spent half the
time groggy from painkillers, in the way
bras in the laundry bin are mine. I feel
guilty for this feeling, because I know its
hard for you to hear, but I also know we
understand each others transitions.
Tats okay, you say, and squeeze my hand.
Sometimes, though, I tell you I am
jealous of your changes. I wouldnt mind
if the fat around my hips redistributed
itself, too; one day I say, half-jokingly,
that now I think I might want top
surgery, too. Sometimes it would be pretty
fucking liberating not to have breasts.
No! you say loudly in mock horror,
your eyes wide. You reach out dramat-
ically and hold onto my chest. You
cant take my best fiends away!
Really, though, I know I am a woman
the same way I know you are not. At
night we make love like we always have,
with you on top. In the morning you
bind your 34Cs while I clasp my bra, and
every two weeks you stab a needleful
of T hard into your thigh. One Sunday
night I sit on the bed and make you do a
fake model show to track your changes.
Turn around now, I say, cranking
Gloria Gaynor up loud, as you roll your
eyes in the middle of the room, your shirt
of. Afer you still havent moved, I warn,
If you dont start turning, Im going to put
on Olivia Newton John and make you
sing Youre Te One Tat I Want to me!
Your face turns serious for a second and I
know it has nothing to do with the song.
I hate the name Olivia, you say. I pause.
I dont hate anything that used to be yours,
with the doctor for the fnal clearance,
staring at me while holding the phone
with one hand and picking at candle
wax on the table with the other.
Yes, you reply in response to a ques-
tion, I had my gender marker changed
in February. Im legally male now.
I realize Ive been ready for this step
of your transition until you say you are
taking this step of your transition. Afer
you call, you come over to me on the
couch. I am looking down at the small
hole on one of the cushions, the one I
may or may not have been making bigger
by pulling at the thread every time Im
anxious. Afer sitting, you gently pull my
hand away from the hole and push the
piece of thread I just picked back into it.
Tere, there, you say, in half-joking
comfort, and pull me towards your chest.
Afer top surgery, you ll be closer to my heart,
you know, you tell me with anticipatory
satisfaction. Your heartbeats are confdent
and resounding, like drums in battle or feet
marching on hard ground. I dont respond
for a minute, staring instead at the water
stains on the wall beside the radiator. Te
scene looks like the carnage afer a war, pools
of barely-there blood next to vanquished
oblong creatures reduced to broken outlines
from the blasts. I try to determine what
theyve become. Water bugs, I decide.
Still looking at the wall, I suddenly
burst out, But Im going to miss your
breasts! I imagine, not for the frst time,
what it will be like when all the sports
issue four | 14 oliver suggests acupuncture | 13
I curled my body around yours at night,
in the times I bit my tongue as you lay
fat on your back at 3AM and muttered
that in this position you could never fall
asleep. We didnt have sex for two weeks,
at least not on record, because you werent
supposed to make your heart beat too fast.
I feel like Im old, you complain.
Sweetie, I reply, leaning over to
check a tube, I thought this was
about you being born again.
Now, eight months later, the scars
underneath your nipples are pink, and
almost red from the heat afer you
shower. I call them your half-moons,
although sliver moons would be more
accurate. In return, you call my breasts
your full moons, and tell me how much
you love them at least once a month.
Oli, we are on diferent cycles
now, I say, sometimes wistfully.
Honey, you reply, taking my hand, I
dont have any cycles anymore. Testosterone
has made your voice drop, and I imagine it
descending a staircase, taking one footstep
down your throat each month. I still dont
know where all this is leading, you know.
But apparently tonight is leading
us to Williamsburg, because you are
already dressed and have just picked out
a blue dress and a white belt for me.
Do you have any pumps? you
call out from inside our closet.
Pumps are for grandmas, I call back,
I say slowly. I restart the song and change
my tone. In fact, I love everything of yours.
Especially those abs, look at them! And I
would love your butt, if I could actually see it.
You roll your eyes again, smile,
and fnally turn around.
We are transitioning together, although
your body is the only one that changes.
My feelings are a wide spectrum of colors,
thrown like abstract art against the wall.
Te truth is, I want you to change and still
stay the same. It becomes easier when I
start to call your transition your alignment
instead. Alignment means that this change
is simply you becoming more of who youve
always been. Still, it is hard. I love it when
we shower together, because now it is the
only time I touch your breasts. Although
my hands move quickly, I still get to lather
up soap and hold them in my hands. Tey
are lighter than mine, and fuller, although
I hate to admit it. I no longer regard you
as female, but I still love the feeling of
our chests pressed together as we hug.
Afer your surgery, when I drained the
tubes underneath your armpits because
you werent allowed to lif your arms, as
I gently spread thick salve over the raised
skin of your stitches, we were pulled closer.
It happened without words, in the days
directly afer, when you spent half the
time groggy from painkillers, in the way
bras in the laundry bin are mine. I feel
guilty for this feeling, because I know its
hard for you to hear, but I also know we
understand each others transitions.
Tats okay, you say, and squeeze my hand.
Sometimes, though, I tell you I am
jealous of your changes. I wouldnt mind
if the fat around my hips redistributed
itself, too; one day I say, half-jokingly,
that now I think I might want top
surgery, too. Sometimes it would be pretty
fucking liberating not to have breasts.
No! you say loudly in mock horror,
your eyes wide. You reach out dramat-
ically and hold onto my chest. You
cant take my best fiends away!
Really, though, I know I am a woman
the same way I know you are not. At
night we make love like we always have,
with you on top. In the morning you
bind your 34Cs while I clasp my bra, and
every two weeks you stab a needleful
of T hard into your thigh. One Sunday
night I sit on the bed and make you do a
fake model show to track your changes.
Turn around now, I say, cranking
Gloria Gaynor up loud, as you roll your
eyes in the middle of the room, your shirt
of. Afer you still havent moved, I warn,
If you dont start turning, Im going to put
on Olivia Newton John and make you
sing Youre Te One Tat I Want to me!
Your face turns serious for a second and I
know it has nothing to do with the song.
I hate the name Olivia, you say. I pause.
I dont hate anything that used to be yours,
with the doctor for the fnal clearance,
staring at me while holding the phone
with one hand and picking at candle
wax on the table with the other.
Yes, you reply in response to a ques-
tion, I had my gender marker changed
in February. Im legally male now.
I realize Ive been ready for this step
of your transition until you say you are
taking this step of your transition. Afer
you call, you come over to me on the
couch. I am looking down at the small
hole on one of the cushions, the one I
may or may not have been making bigger
by pulling at the thread every time Im
anxious. Afer sitting, you gently pull my
hand away from the hole and push the
piece of thread I just picked back into it.
Tere, there, you say, in half-joking
comfort, and pull me towards your chest.
Afer top surgery, you ll be closer to my heart,
you know, you tell me with anticipatory
satisfaction. Your heartbeats are confdent
and resounding, like drums in battle or feet
marching on hard ground. I dont respond
for a minute, staring instead at the water
stains on the wall beside the radiator. Te
scene looks like the carnage afer a war, pools
of barely-there blood next to vanquished
oblong creatures reduced to broken outlines
from the blasts. I try to determine what
theyve become. Water bugs, I decide.
Still looking at the wall, I suddenly
burst out, But Im going to miss your
breasts! I imagine, not for the frst time,
what it will be like when all the sports
issue four | 16 oliver suggests acupuncture | 15 issue four | 16
the front desk we make an appointment for
two weeks from Tuesday and I ask James why
he became an acupuncturist. He tells me he
came from China twenty years ago with his
wife and children. He was a pediatrician in
Fujian but didnt have the money to redo his
medical degree here completely. No trans-
lation, he says, pointing at the certifcates
on the wall behind him, New life now. Tis
one good, too. I nod and say thank you.
Stepping out into the sun 10 minutes
later, I think of the red glint of your hair in
bright light, how vividly it contrasts with the
pale of your face. A cab blares rap as it hangs
a lef, but I imagine I hear swing. Except
for the 1920s, you still wont dress up for
anything. I remember suspenders fat against
your chest and the day I laughed when I
found your sports bras on my side of the bed,
tied with ribbon and a bow. Now, although
it is silly and daytime, I tilt my head upwards
and search for the moon. I imagine I see it
but cannot make out its shape. I contem-
plate its cycles. I think of how we change.
Edited by Melanie Abeygunawardana
the only pump we have is for you, and it
defnitely doesnt go on your feet. You know
what they say about shoe sizes though...
Tis is a trans joke and I hear
you roll your eyes and smirk.
Found em, you say, emerging from
the closet. You hold up white strappy
sandals that used to be yours.
Okay, beau, I say in acquiescence,
holding out my hand. You pull me up and
very epoch-inappropriately grab my ass. I
am not used to you being so hyper. I realize
that since you began your transition your
happiness has been a staircase heading
in the opposite direction of your voice. A
slow but never-ending ascension so far.
Tis is the answer I give people
when they ask what has changed
the most about Olivia. Ten I tell
them thats not your name.
30 minutes later, back on the ffh foor,
a small buzzer rings and James returns to
check on me. He places one hand on my
forehead and the other gently on my wrist.
I am still so far away I dont react at all.
Alone now, he says approvingly, patting
my shoulders again. Circles done. Now
alone. His accent is so thick that at frst I
hear cycles and new. Cycles done. New
alone. Aint that the truth, I think, No
choice there. Tis time I swallow successfully.
He takes out my needles and I turn my head
back towards the window before I stand.
Bye, Harvey, I say to the brownstone. At
issue four | 16
Mix Tape
by Marissa Castrigno
Soul crawls up out of her belly and brushes against her lips as it kisses the air around her they call
it singing. Is your mother part magnet?
Lessons:
Wednesday. Hurricane season lasts into November
Tursday. Like most people I am a candle with a wick
Friday. Holding hands right is like putting pop rocks and soda in your mouth at the same time
Saturday. Te image of her piano-keying someone elses fngers might have inspired the crumbled
folds of the human brain
Sunday. Time is a helix so you can see how close you really are to the way things used to be
Monday. Hips slung sideways laid out fat jigsaw puzzle pieces
Tuesday. Pray for next week. Say a prayer for her legs in tights; write it down on the back of a playbill
that kissed your eyes and chased away the brown bears gnawing at your innards
When she giggles it feels like watching a lightning storm in July. On a balcony. In Virginia. Her
penny-eyed smile is the color of my freckles. Meanwhile, my mouth is learning how to hold her
name and my ribcage turns into a subway turnstile (W 4th street).
She says You made me so nervous. She says Last year. She asks Could you tell?
I am thinking of not too hot not too cold just right.
I get a text message says I told my mom I have a crush on a girl named you. Shes makin me grin big
and quiet in the back seat of my parents car. Dad drives Mom sits shotgun and I smile with my head
against the window lookin at her face with my eyes closed:
Sof baby hairs curl over her forehead. Her breath runs hot against my ear and I hear her music
seeping into me and winter tries to get in but is stuck at the window ledge.
We drive over the long, lean bridge that snakes across the Hudson River. Tere are empty cranes
standing against the blue sky, unmoving, licking their lips as they taste cloud.
Edited by Stefania Gomez
issue four | 16 oliver suggests acupuncture | 15 issue four | 16
the front desk we make an appointment for
two weeks from Tuesday and I ask James why
he became an acupuncturist. He tells me he
came from China twenty years ago with his
wife and children. He was a pediatrician in
Fujian but didnt have the money to redo his
medical degree here completely. No trans-
lation, he says, pointing at the certifcates
on the wall behind him, New life now. Tis
one good, too. I nod and say thank you.
Stepping out into the sun 10 minutes
later, I think of the red glint of your hair in
bright light, how vividly it contrasts with the
pale of your face. A cab blares rap as it hangs
a lef, but I imagine I hear swing. Except
for the 1920s, you still wont dress up for
anything. I remember suspenders fat against
your chest and the day I laughed when I
found your sports bras on my side of the bed,
tied with ribbon and a bow. Now, although
it is silly and daytime, I tilt my head upwards
and search for the moon. I imagine I see it
but cannot make out its shape. I contem-
plate its cycles. I think of how we change.
the only pump we have is for you, and it
defnitely doesnt go on your feet. You know
what they say about shoe sizes though...
Tis is a trans joke and I hear
you roll your eyes and smirk.
Found em, you say, emerging from
the closet. You hold up white strappy
sandals that used to be yours.
Okay, beau, I say in acquiescence,
holding out my hand. You pull me up and
very epoch-inappropriately grab my ass. I
am not used to you being so hyper. I realize
that since you began your transition your
happiness has been a staircase heading
in the opposite direction of your voice. A
slow but never-ending ascension so far.
Tis is the answer I give people
when they ask what has changed
the most about Olivia. Ten I tell
them thats not your name.
30 minutes later, back on the ffh foor,
a small buzzer rings and James returns to
check on me. He places one hand on my
forehead and the other gently on my wrist.
I am still so far away I dont react at all.
Alone now, he says approvingly, patting
my shoulders again. Circles done. Now
alone. His accent is so thick that at frst I
hear cycles and new. Cycles done. New
alone. Aint that the truth, I think, No
choice there. Tis time I swallow successfully.
He takes out my needles and I turn my head
back towards the window before I stand.
Bye, Harvey, I say to the brownstone. At
issue four | 16
Mix Tape
by Marissa Castrigno
Soul crawls up out of her belly and brushes against her lips as it kisses the air around her they call
it singing. Is your mother part magnet?
Lessons:
Wednesday. Hurricane season lasts into November
Tursday. Like most people I am a candle with a wick
Friday. Holding hands right is like putting pop rocks and soda in your mouth at the same time
Saturday. Te image of her piano-keying someone elses fngers might have inspired the crumbled
folds of the human brain
Sunday. Time is a helix so you can see how close you really are to the way things used to be
Monday. Hips slung sideways laid out fat jigsaw puzzle pieces
Tuesday. Pray for next week. Say a prayer for her legs in tights; write it down on the back of a playbill
that kissed your eyes and chased away the brown bears gnawing at your innards
When she giggles it feels like watching a lightning storm in July. On a balcony. In Virginia. Her
penny-eyed smile is the color of my freckles. Meanwhile, my mouth is learning how to hold her
name and my ribcage turns into a subway turnstile (W 4th street).
She says You made me so nervous. She says Last year. She asks Could you tell?
I am thinking of not too hot not too cold just right.
I get a text message says I told my mom I have a crush on a girl named you. Shes makin me grin big
and quiet in the back seat of my parents car. Dad drives Mom sits shotgun and I smile with my head
against the window lookin at her face with my eyes closed:
Sof baby hairs curl over her forehead. Her breath runs hot against my ear and I hear her music
seeping into me and winter tries to get in but is stuck at the window ledge.
We drive over the long, lean bridge that snakes across the Hudson River. Tere are empty cranes
standing against the blue sky, unmoving, licking their lips as they taste cloud.
Mother of God, cast Putin out! A
political demonstration outside of one
of Moscows most famous cathedrals
made headlines for the all-female Russian
punk-rock band Pussy Riot in February
2013. Still a hot topic in world news today,
Pussy Riot has raised the question of
what it means to be a woman in Russia.
During my four months studying
abroad in St. Petersburg last fall, I grap-
pled with my understanding of the band
within the body of my own experiences,
trying to mentally dissect Pussy Riot
under the umbrella of what this question
means to me. Given my knowledge of the
group before arriving in Russia, I classifed
Pussy Riot as a distinctly feminist band,
linking them to a worldwide humani-
tarian cause and to activist celebrities,
like Madonna, who publicly endorsed the
women of the band as her fellow freedom
fghters.
1
Afer spending time in St.
Petersburg, however, I was lef perplexed
by the incompatibility of Russian culture
with Pussy Riot, a production somehow
rooted to this culture. A large part of
my confusion stems from the misrepre-
sentation of Pussy Riot by the Western
media. Regardless of how justifed
one deems the events surrounding the
women of the group, their position has
been made only more unfortunate by
The Women, the
Myth, the Legend
Misrepresentations of Pussy Riot in the Western Media
by Natasha Bluth
Cayla Lockwood Come Over
Mother of God, cast Putin out! A
political demonstration outside of one
of Moscows most famous cathedrals
made headlines for the all-female Russian
punk-rock band Pussy Riot in February
2013. Still a hot topic in world news today,
Pussy Riot has raised the question of
what it means to be a woman in Russia.
During my four months studying
abroad in St. Petersburg last fall, I grap-
pled with my understanding of the band
within the body of my own experiences,
trying to mentally dissect Pussy Riot
under the umbrella of what this question
means to me. Given my knowledge of the
group before arriving in Russia, I classifed
Pussy Riot as a distinctly feminist band,
linking them to a worldwide humani-
tarian cause and to activist celebrities,
like Madonna, who publicly endorsed the
women of the band as her fellow freedom
fghters.
1
Afer spending time in St.
Petersburg, however, I was lef perplexed
by the incompatibility of Russian culture
with Pussy Riot, a production somehow
rooted to this culture. A large part of
my confusion stems from the misrepre-
sentation of Pussy Riot by the Western
media. Regardless of how justifed
one deems the events surrounding the
women of the group, their position has
been made only more unfortunate by
The Women, the
Myth, the Legend
Misrepresentations of Pussy Riot in the Western Media
by Natasha Bluth
Cayla Lockwood Come Over
issue four | 20 the women, the myth, the legend | 19
with the group, their message and their
indictment. My conversation class was
routinely asked to discuss the news, and
our professor remained bafed at our
unrelenting fascination with the punk-
rock band. Te incongruity between
Western avenues of broadcasting,
drenched with the topic of Pussy Riot,
versus the dearth of Russian news about
the group is an eerie manifestation of
the dangers of self-assuming media.
Oversimplifcation has detracted from
the mission of Pussy Riot by confating
it with other humanitarian issues in
the global arena. Since their release in
December, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova
have been categorized as international
human rights campaigners, garnering
global support for their human rights
demonstration. Linked to other celeb-
rities, the voice of Pussy Riot has been
fattened to conform to the Western
perception of human rights activism.
Te month of their release, for example,
singer-songwriter Patti Smith dedicated
a song to Edward Snowden and Pussy
Riot, confounding and diminishing the
missions of both groups in a single sweep.
In February, the two women performed at
Amnesty Internationals beneft concert
in Brooklyn, and were introduced by
Madonna. Troughout their tour in the
U.S., Asia, and Europe, the women have
childhood favorite Cloudy with a Chance
of Meatballs, it faunted a revamped
title: Kitschy with a Chance of Deeply
Embedded Traditional Gender Norms.
Pussy Riots activist message is not
compatible with this ofcial Russian
discourse. Te consequences for the
group have therefore been severe. Afer
the demonstration in front of Moscows
Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a
21-month incarceration followed
for two of the main members, Maria
Alyokhina, 25, and Nadya Tolokon-
nikova, 24, incriminated for hooliganism
involving religious hatred. A third
member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30
was arrested soon afer. More recently,
during the Winter Olympics last March,
members of Pussy Riot spent fve days in
Sochi flming a new critique of Presi-
dent Vladimir Putin. Horsewhipped
by Cossacks, a Russian auxiliary police
force, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova
were arrested, along with eight others.
Tey were released several hours later.
Western media has appropriated the
group as an international human rights
cause, consequently barricading anyone
outside of Russia from Pussy Riots true
context. Having travelled from liberal
New England, what startled me most
about the Pussy Riot scandal was the
indiference of the Russians I interacted
wardrobes to ft the traditional molds of
male-defned beauty, and I confronted
a discomfort with homosexuality in
conversations with my Russian peers.
One day our female Russian professor
remarked that her American students
tend to agree that a beautiful woman
means a confdent woman. We could only
verify. Her subsequent laughter implied
that she, one of my most vivid examples
of an unmarried professional woman
in Russia, did not share this philosophy.
Similarly, in a group discussion, female
Russian university students asserted that
happiness means diferent things for men
and women; careers provided fulfllment
for men, while family and homemaking
irrefutably remained in the female realm
of gratifcation. In my mind, Russia drew
itself a picture book, but instead of my
the decontexualization and oversimpli-
fcation of their situation in the West.
I was able to more efectively ground
Pussy Riot in its Russian context as I
interacted with a new culture myself.
Afer about two months, I realized that
living in Russia as an American woman
was an almost routinized lesson on gender
studies. In class, feminism ofen resur-
faced as a topic of discussion. Before living
abroad, I had not consciously exerted
the feminist aspect of my identity on a
regular basis. But implanted into a new
sociopolitical culture, Russia provided
me with an unprecedented number of
opportunities to assert this facet of my
being, thrown aside in the majority of
my past experiences as undisputed status
quo. Over the semester, I witnessed the
way some Russian women modeled their
group as an international human
rights cause, consequently barricading
anyone outside of Russia from Pussy
Riots true context.
with the group, their message and their
indictment. My conversation class was
routinely asked to discuss the news, and
our professor remained bafed at our
unrelenting fascination with the punk-
rock band. Te incongruity between
Western avenues of broadcasting,
drenched with the topic of Pussy Riot,
versus the dearth of Russian news about
the group is an eerie manifestation of
the dangers of self-assuming media.
Oversimplifcation has detracted from
the mission of Pussy Riot by confating
it with other humanitarian issues in
the global arena. Since their release in
December, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova
have been categorized as international
human rights campaigners, garnering
global support for their human rights
demonstration. Linked to other celeb-
rities, the voice of Pussy Riot has been
fattened to conform to the Western
perception of human rights activism.
Te month of their release, for example,
singer-songwriter Patti Smith dedicated
a song to Edward Snowden and Pussy
Riot, confounding and diminishing the
missions of both groups in a single sweep.
In February, the two women performed at
Amnesty Internationals beneft concert
in Brooklyn, and were introduced by
Madonna. Troughout their tour in the
U.S., Asia, and Europe, the women have
childhood favorite Cloudy with a Chance
of Meatballs, it faunted a revamped
title: Kitschy with a Chance of Deeply
Embedded Traditional Gender Norms.
Pussy Riots activist message is not
compatible with this ofcial Russian
discourse. Te consequences for the
group have therefore been severe. Afer
the demonstration in front of Moscows
Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a
21-month incarceration followed
for two of the main members, Maria
Alyokhina, 25, and Nadya Tolokon-
nikova, 24, incriminated for hooliganism
involving religious hatred. A third
member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30
was arrested soon afer. More recently,
during the Winter Olympics last March,
members of Pussy Riot spent fve days in
Sochi flming a new critique of Presi-
dent Vladimir Putin. Horsewhipped
by Cossacks, a Russian auxiliary police
force, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova
were arrested, along with eight others.
Tey were released several hours later.
group as an international human rights
cause, consequently barricading anyone
outside of Russia from Pussy Riots true
context. Having travelled from liberal
New England, what startled me most
about the Pussy Riot scandal was the
indiference of the Russians I interacted
wardrobes to ft the traditional molds of
male-defned beauty, and I confronted
a discomfort with homosexuality in
conversations with my Russian peers.
One day our female Russian professor
remarked that her American students
tend to agree that a beautiful woman
means a confdent woman. We could only
verify. Her subsequent laughter implied
that she, one of my most vivid examples
of an unmarried professional woman
in Russia, did not share this philosophy.
Similarly, in a group discussion, female
Russian university students asserted that
happiness means diferent things for men
and women; careers provided fulfllment
for men, while family and homemaking
irrefutably remained in the female realm
of gratifcation. In my mind, Russia drew
itself a picture book, but instead of my
the decontexualization and oversimpli-
fcation of their situation in the West.
I was able to more efectively ground
Pussy Riot in its Russian context as I
interacted with a new culture myself.
Afer about two months, I realized that
living in Russia as an American woman
was an almost routinized lesson on gender
studies. In class, feminism ofen resur-
faced as a topic of discussion. Before living
abroad, I had not consciously exerted
the feminist aspect of my identity on a
regular basis. But implanted into a new
sociopolitical culture, Russia provided
me with an unprecedented number of
opportunities to assert this facet of my
being, thrown aside in the majority of
my past experiences as undisputed status
quo. Over the semester, I witnessed the
way some Russian women modeled their
group as an international human
rights cause, consequently barricading
anyone outside of Russia from Pussy
Riots true context.
Instead of delving into the nuances of
Pussy Riots message, a modern event in
Russias lengthy timeline of historical
dissidence, the group has been reduced to
an international cultural phenomenon.
Te celebrity Pussy Riot has won in
the global realm mutes the signifcance
of the group and distances them from
their mission. Like a brain drain, Pussy
Riot cannot revolutionize Russia if the
women are giving concerts abroad or
being endorsed by human rights groups.
Te gender censorship of the perestroika
era that stifed progressive impulses has
only continued to caricaturize activists in
Russia. It is possible that the provocative
images of the balaclava-adorned musi-
cian-activists and the deceptively chosen
quotes paint a skewed picture of Pussy
Riot, ignorantly redefning its mission in
lefist writing organization OBERIU
(Association for Real Art), active in
the 1920s and 1930s under Iosif Stalin.
Accused of literary hooliganism, the
organization was berated for violating
the dominant socialist realist frame-
work of expression at that time in the
Soviet Union, similar to Pussy Riots
anti-conservative approach today.
Diana Taylor, former superinten-
dent of the New York State Banking
Department claims that the issue of
Pussy Riots representation in the West
is one of transculturation. Tat it is, not
only one of meaning (what do symbols
mean in diferent contexts). It is also
one of political positioning and selec-
tion: which forms, symbols or aspects
of cultural identity become highlighted
or confrontational, when and why.
4

selective nature of the media. Within
Pussy Riots multifaceted body of
activism, lack of free speech (especially
in regards to protest leader and blogger
Alexei Navalny who was frst arrested
in 2011), poor prison conditions, and
intolerance towards LGBTQ people also
play a role, but remain subdued by the
forces of Western sensationalism. Pussy
Riots undertaking is more than feminist;
the women seek to move past a conser-
vative culture long established in the
country that stems from Soviet ideology.
Ofen lost in translation is the fact that
Pussy Riot is not anti-Christian, but
rather opposes the governments exten-
sive collaboration with the Orthodox
Church. More than any distinctly femi-
nist organization, Pussy Riot identifes
with the dissident movements prevalent
in the former Soviet Union, under-
lining their anti-conservative stance.
Part of the ongoing history of coun-
terculture in Russia, the group strives to
expose what they see as the dangers of
discriminatory memory that continue
to afect the country. [Even] though
it hasnt been very long, now people
are acting as if there never was any
Great Terror nor any attempts to resist
it, Alyokhina said, linking the mission
of Pussy Riot to that of earlier dissi-
dents who used art to reveal unpleasant
truths of the regime.
3
Charges against
Pussy Riot echo accusations against the
enraptured the non-Russian audiences of
Te Colbert Report and Te Times. Tey
have inspired a global solidarity campaign
on Facebook and an HBO documentary.
During the interview with Alokhina
and Tolokonnikova on Te Colbert Report,
which was fragmented by uproarious
laughter from the audience, Stephen
Colbert managed to comedically
minimize every viewpoint of the two
members. While he did not insert his own
opinion, he perpetuated the unproductive
direction of the Western media on the
issue with each response, a manifestation
of the disconnect between two cultures.
When Alyokhina explained, Putin is
about to pass a law against gay extremism,
Colbert asked, How bad has it gotten
[in Russia] with the anti-gay propa-
ganda? Can you go anywhere in Russia
without gay people turning you gay?
2
What is at stake in how the Western
world publicizes the events surrounding
Pussy Riot? Media, of course, has
a tendency to oversimplify, but the
representation of the band is more than
just distorted. Te group and their
stance have been plucked from their
sociopolitical context and exploited as
a feminist issue around the world. Te
Wests love afair with Pussy Riot fails
to recognize that perhaps Russia itself
is not prepared to accept the group.
Te difculty involved in pinpointing
Pussy Riots mission is a testament to the
The incongruity between Western
avenues of broadcasting, drenched
with the topic of Pussy Riot, versus
the dearth of Russian news about the
group is an eerie manifestation of the
dangers of self-assuming media.
Instead of delving into the nuances of
Pussy Riots message, a modern event in
Russias lengthy timeline of historical
dissidence, the group has been reduced to
an international cultural phenomenon.
Te celebrity Pussy Riot has won in
the global realm mutes the signifcance
of the group and distances them from
their mission. Like a brain drain, Pussy
Riot cannot revolutionize Russia if the
women are giving concerts abroad or
being endorsed by human rights groups.
Te gender censorship of the perestroika
era that stifed progressive impulses has
only continued to caricaturize activists in
Russia. It is possible that the provocative
images of the balaclava-adorned musi-
cian-activists and the deceptively chosen
quotes paint a skewed picture of Pussy
Riot, ignorantly redefning its mission in
lefist writing organization OBERIU
(Association for Real Art), active in
the 1920s and 1930s under Iosif Stalin.
Accused of literary hooliganism, the
organization was berated for violating
the dominant socialist realist frame-
work of expression at that time in the
Soviet Union, similar to Pussy Riots
anti-conservative approach today.
Diana Taylor, former superinten-
dent of the New York State Banking
Department claims that the issue of
Pussy Riots representation in the West
is one of transculturation. Tat it is, not
only one of meaning (what do symbols
mean in diferent contexts). It is also
one of political positioning and selec-
tion: which forms, symbols or aspects
of cultural identity become highlighted
or confrontational, when and why.
4

selective nature of the media. Within
Pussy Riots multifaceted body of
activism, lack of free speech (especially
in regards to protest leader and blogger
Alexei Navalny who was frst arrested
in 2011), poor prison conditions, and
intolerance towards LGBTQ people also
play a role, but remain subdued by the
forces of Western sensationalism. Pussy
Riots undertaking is more than feminist;
the women seek to move past a conser-
vative culture long established in the
country that stems from Soviet ideology.
Ofen lost in translation is the fact that
Pussy Riot is not anti-Christian, but
rather opposes the governments exten-
sive collaboration with the Orthodox
Church. More than any distinctly femi-
nist organization, Pussy Riot identifes
with the dissident movements prevalent
in the former Soviet Union, under-
lining their anti-conservative stance.
Part of the ongoing history of coun-
terculture in Russia, the group strives to
expose what they see as the dangers of
discriminatory memory that continue
to afect the country. [Even] though
it hasnt been very long, now people
are acting as if there never was any
Great Terror nor any attempts to resist
it, Alyokhina said, linking the mission
of Pussy Riot to that of earlier dissi-
dents who used art to reveal unpleasant
truths of the regime.
3
Charges against
Pussy Riot echo accusations against the
enraptured the non-Russian audiences of
Te Colbert Report and Te Times. Tey
have inspired a global solidarity campaign
on Facebook and an HBO documentary.
During the interview with Alokhina
and Tolokonnikova on Te Colbert Report,
which was fragmented by uproarious
laughter from the audience, Stephen
Colbert managed to comedically
minimize every viewpoint of the two
members. While he did not insert his own
opinion, he perpetuated the unproductive
direction of the Western media on the
issue with each response, a manifestation
of the disconnect between two cultures.
When Alyokhina explained, Putin is
about to pass a law against gay extremism,
Colbert asked, How bad has it gotten
[in Russia] with the anti-gay propa-
ganda? Can you go anywhere in Russia
without gay people turning you gay?
2
What is at stake in how the Western
world publicizes the events surrounding
Pussy Riot? Media, of course, has
a tendency to oversimplify, but the
representation of the band is more than
just distorted. Te group and their
stance have been plucked from their
sociopolitical context and exploited as
a feminist issue around the world. Te
Wests love afair with Pussy Riot fails
to recognize that perhaps Russia itself
is not prepared to accept the group.
Te difculty involved in pinpointing
Pussy Riots mission is a testament to the
The incongruity between Western
avenues of broadcasting, drenched
with the topic of Pussy Riot, versus
the dearth of Russian news about the
group is an eerie manifestation of the
dangers of self-assuming media.
surprise if the women, who rocketed
to stardom as a result of their political
imprisonment, see the contrived symbi-
otic relationship between their group
and the Western media as a boost to
their cause, whether this is accurate or
not. One concerning issue regarding
the media, as Marcus notes, is that it
rushes into print to keep up with events
[constituting] an early and provisional
edit.
7
Tis limitation of modern media
disseminates an incomplete account
of Pussy Riot to the Western public.
Te fact that Pussy Riot is a young
and attractive bastion of female activism
paints a pretty face for feminism one
that the Western world can appeal to
and that Western media can sell. Te
little dolls of Pussy Riot are excessively
genderized, visually contrasted to the
Western medias representation of Putin
as a symbol of ultimate masculinity.
Forbes magazine, for example, proclaimed
Putin the most powerful man in the
world in 2013, presenting an image that
fts snugly into a binary system, easily
accessible to many readers in the West.
Pussy Riot is a microcosmic lesson: as
an anti-conservative female collective,
the group will remain shackled to the
performative realm if the Western media
fails to contextualize the groups mission
in terms of Russian and Soviet history,
art, literature and political dissent.
Last September, during a 22-hour train
the global sphere. Just as Tolokonnikova
and Alyokhina claim that their release
from prison was a PR stunt by Putin to
garner support for the Winter Olympics,
their message has similarly been exploited,
and signifcant portions of their overall
cause have been stifed, following the
age-old axiom, all news is good news.
All news cannot be objectively good
if it deprives the public of an honest
story. As Sara Marcus of the LA Times
writes, the group has already succeeded
in dramatizing the very repression they
were seeking to expose.
5
In the same
Colbert Report interview, for example,
Tolokonnikova said, [Pussy Riot has]
diferent ideas about a bright future
and we dont want a shirtless man on a
horse leading us there, referencing the
widely circulated photographs of Putin
on horseback, but utilizing the rhetoric
of a male-dominated power structure,
which their mission strives to overcome.
6

Te next step is to actually rise above the
oppression they have attacked, now that
awareness has reverberated worldwide.
It is possible that their celebrity has
distorted the women themselves. Teir
words have been turned into slogans,
their videos gone viral on YouTube
AVAAZ.org, for instance, headlines its
petition, Free Pussy Riot, Free Russia.
Such a slogan is a dangerous reduction
of the complexity of the group within
its Russian context. It would not be a
Endnotes:
1. Reaney, Patricia,Madonna to Intro-
duce Pussy Riot duo at U.S. Amnesty
Concert. Reuters. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
2. Pussy Riot. Te Colbert Report. Comedy
Central. com. 4 Feb. 2014. Television.
3. Kan, Elianna, Pussy Riot: What Was
Lost (And Ignored) in Translation. Te Amer-
ican Reader. Web. 01 March 2014.
4. Ibid
5. Marcus, Sara, Words Will Break Cement Docu-
ments the Pussy Riot Revolution. Los Angeles Times,
Tribune Newspaper, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 01 March 2014.
7. Marcus, Words Will Break Cement
Documents the Pussy Riot Revolution.
ride from Volgograd to Moscow, I had the
pleasure of practicing my Russian with
Sergei, a 60-something provocateur who
told me Any non-Russian cannot and
will not ever understand what it means
to be Russian. With inferior linguistic
skills, I attempted to explain that in my
opinion, studying in a country allows one
to become more acquainted with a culture,
but Sergeis position wouldnt budge.
In that moment, I felt infuriated, but I
knew a semester spent in St. Petersburg
did not make me an expert on Russian
culture, and that the conceptual space
between me and Sergei remained wide.
His message is in part a consequence of
transculturation. As inhabitants of one
part of the globe, mutual understanding
will not triumph if we continue to
decontextualize and misrepresent issues
intentionally or due to simple naivet.
Pussy Riot not necessarily as an
activist group, but as a broader cultural
phenomenon calls our attention to
the medias sly ability to highlight and
conceal. Performances may have reached
a wider audience, but Pussy Riots punk
prayer is sung to and for Russia, not for
the entertainment of the Western world.
Edited by Jasmine Bala and
Anastasiya Gorodilova
surprise if the women, who rocketed
to stardom as a result of their political
imprisonment, see the contrived symbi-
otic relationship between their group
and the Western media as a boost to
their cause, whether this is accurate or
not. One concerning issue regarding
the media, as Marcus notes, is that it
rushes into print to keep up with events
[constituting] an early and provisional
edit.
7
Tis limitation of modern media
disseminates an incomplete account
of Pussy Riot to the Western public.
Te fact that Pussy Riot is a young
and attractive bastion of female activism
paints a pretty face for feminism one
that the Western world can appeal to
and that Western media can sell. Te
little dolls of Pussy Riot are excessively
genderized, visually contrasted to the
Western medias representation of Putin
as a symbol of ultimate masculinity.
Forbes magazine, for example, proclaimed
Putin the most powerful man in the
world in 2013, presenting an image that
fts snugly into a binary system, easily
accessible to many readers in the West.
Pussy Riot is a microcosmic lesson: as
an anti-conservative female collective,
the group will remain shackled to the
performative realm if the Western media
fails to contextualize the groups mission
in terms of Russian and Soviet history,
art, literature and political dissent.
Last September, during a 22-hour train
the global sphere. Just as Tolokonnikova
and Alyokhina claim that their release
from prison was a PR stunt by Putin to
garner support for the Winter Olympics,
their message has similarly been exploited,
and signifcant portions of their overall
cause have been stifed, following the
age-old axiom, all news is good news.
All news cannot be objectively good
if it deprives the public of an honest
story. As Sara Marcus of the LA Times
writes, the group has already succeeded
in dramatizing the very repression they
were seeking to expose.
5
In the same
Colbert Report interview, for example,
Tolokonnikova said, [Pussy Riot has]
diferent ideas about a bright future
and we dont want a shirtless man on a
horse leading us there, referencing the
widely circulated photographs of Putin
on horseback, but utilizing the rhetoric
of a male-dominated power structure,
which their mission strives to overcome.
6

Te next step is to actually rise above the
oppression they have attacked, now that
awareness has reverberated worldwide.
It is possible that their celebrity has
distorted the women themselves. Teir
words have been turned into slogans,
their videos gone viral on YouTube
AVAAZ.org, for instance, headlines its
petition, Free Pussy Riot, Free Russia.
Such a slogan is a dangerous reduction
of the complexity of the group within
its Russian context. It would not be a
Endnotes:
1. Reaney, Patricia,Madonna to Intro-
duce Pussy Riot duo at U.S. Amnesty
Concert. Reuters. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
3. Kan, Elianna, Pussy Riot: What Was
Lost (And Ignored) in Translation. Te Amer-
ican Reader. Web. 01 March 2014.
4. Ibid
5. Marcus, Sara, Words Will Break Cement Docu-
ments the Pussy Riot Revolution. Los Angeles Times,
Tribune Newspaper, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 01 March 2014.
7. Marcus, Words Will Break Cement
Documents the Pussy Riot Revolution.
ride from Volgograd to Moscow, I had the
pleasure of practicing my Russian with
Sergei, a 60-something provocateur who
told me Any non-Russian cannot and
will not ever understand what it means
to be Russian. With inferior linguistic
skills, I attempted to explain that in my
opinion, studying in a country allows one
to become more acquainted with a culture,
but Sergeis position wouldnt budge.
In that moment, I felt infuriated, but I
knew a semester spent in St. Petersburg
did not make me an expert on Russian
culture, and that the conceptual space
between me and Sergei remained wide.
His message is in part a consequence of
transculturation. As inhabitants of one
part of the globe, mutual understanding
will not triumph if we continue to
decontextualize and misrepresent issues
intentionally or due to simple naivet.
Pussy Riot not necessarily as an
activist group, but as a broader cultural
phenomenon calls our attention to
the medias sly ability to highlight and
conceal. Performances may have reached
a wider audience, but Pussy Riots punk
prayer is sung to and for Russia, not for
the entertainment of the Western world.
Anastasiya Gorodilova
Doreen Garner Pathological Grill
Nafs White (Photograph by Garca Sinclair) Rhombox
Doreen Garner Pathological Grill
Nafs White (Photograph by Garca Sinclair) Rhombox
lished partners impossible. Te choice of the
word model also indicates that these bodies
are available for hire, and for the pleasure of the
masculine gaze, as per the nature of the device.
Te models all appear as women, excluding and
eliding altogether sexual encounters for anyone
but those with penises who desire women. Te
way in which the RealTouch device connects
users creates bodies that are either exclusively
controlling and seeking pleasure or submissive
and with services to hire. Tis arrangement has
the potential to create an unequal playing feld,
further perpetuated by the devices inherent
gender biases. Because of these biases, the Real-
Touch platform is not intended for mutually
respectful sexual encounters. While the achieve-
ment of authentic touch is clearly the marketed
focus of RealTouch Interactive, it is the prod-
ucts reinforcement of dominant patriarchal and
heterosexual power structures through sight that
makes it most troubling.
3
With RealTouch, the actual interactions
between humans and digital devices are less
problematic than the context of the limited
human-to-human interaction allowed on the
platform. Tere are similar teledildonics that
provide a less polarizing interaction, such as
devices from LovePalz
4
and Kiiroo.
5
LovePalz
are marketed towards partners, particularly
those in long-distance relationships. Te
system consists of two devices, each linked to a
computer, which are then connected through
the Internet. LovePalz provides two models:
the Hera (intended for those with vulvas) and
the Zeus (intended for those with penises).
Tough they claim the diferent devices can be
and our own bodies, becomes highly relevant
when contextualized by explorations of sexuality
and intimacy. How have we designed our digital
sex devices and what are their consequences,
both intended and unintended?
An iconic example of teledildonics is the
RealTouch
1
and its more recent counterpart, the
RealTouch Interactive.
2
Designed specifcally
for users with penises, the RealTouch device is
reminiscent of a Fleshlight but hooks up to a
computer for video-synchronized stimulation.
A user can watch porn (but only videos with
pre-programmed signals for the device) to feel
an interactive experience that takes you beyond
sight and sound and puts you in the middle of
the action.
1
Te RealTouch Interactive builds
on the earlier version, allowing users to connect
with the companys live, online models to
experience what they call true internet sex.
2

Sexual experience with RealTouch is continu-
ally framed as true and real, setting up two
signifcant problematic delineations. First, it
constitutes a judgment as to which types of sex
can be considered true, excluding those that do
not fall within their bounds. Secondly, it rein-
forces the divide between what is real and what
is virtual in digital technologies, a rhetoric
that fashions some experiences as more authentic
and maintains a sharp distinction between the
human and machine worlds.
Te RealTouch models, available through
the website, use the corresponding JoyStick
to pass stimulation to the users RealTouch
device. However, aside from company models,
it appears impossible to purchase a JoyStick,
which makes use of the system by already estab-
From the birth of computing onwards, the
methods by which we interact with machines
have continued to evolve and accelerate. Bodies
and computers have communicated through
textual command lines, graphical user interfaces
and mice, touch screens, and now the beginnings
of gesture recognition. In computing and design,
the term human-computer interaction is used
to refer to the study and engineering of inter-
actions between human bodies and computers.
From an industry standpoint, improving
human-computer interactions means making the
interfaces between people and their technology
more intuitive and natural, creating technology
that blends seamlessly with our accustomed
environment. However, when technologies are
disguised, or too easy to use, we forget their
power. We lose track of how the logics and rheto-
rics of computing afect us.
Human-computer interaction is a site of
potential for knowledge on how bodies move
in the digital age, but only if we remember
that making a responsible interface does not
mean concealing or forgetting the materiality
of technology. One location to begin thinking
about our interactions is the intimacy of
humans and computers during sexual encoun-
ters. Teledildonic, or electronic sex toys that
utilize connections to computing devices for the
achievement of sexual pleasure, and other digital
sexual devices, are not what frst come to mind
when thinking about human-computer interac-
tion. However, analyzing how technology afects
our encounters with other people, other bodies,
Sexual Interfaces
Understanding Human-Computer Interactions
Through Digital Sex Devices
by Sylvia Tomayko-Peters
lished partners impossible. Te choice of the
word model also indicates that these bodies
are available for hire, and for the pleasure of the
masculine gaze, as per the nature of the device.
Te models all appear as women, excluding and
eliding altogether sexual encounters for anyone
but those with penises who desire women. Te
way in which the RealTouch device connects
users creates bodies that are either exclusively
controlling and seeking pleasure or submissive
and with services to hire. Tis arrangement has
the potential to create an unequal playing feld,
further perpetuated by the devices inherent
gender biases. Because of these biases, the Real-
Touch platform is not intended for mutually
respectful sexual encounters. While the achieve-
ment of authentic touch is clearly the marketed
focus of RealTouch Interactive, it is the prod-
ucts reinforcement of dominant patriarchal and
heterosexual power structures through sight that
makes it most troubling.
3
With RealTouch, the actual interactions
between humans and digital devices are less
problematic than the context of the limited
human-to-human interaction allowed on the
platform. Tere are similar teledildonics that
provide a less polarizing interaction, such as
devices from LovePalz
4
and Kiiroo.
5
LovePalz
are marketed towards partners, particularly
those in long-distance relationships. Te
system consists of two devices, each linked to a
computer, which are then connected through
the Internet. LovePalz provides two models:
the Hera (intended for those with vulvas) and
the Zeus (intended for those with penises).
Tough they claim the diferent devices can be
and our own bodies, becomes highly relevant
when contextualized by explorations of sexuality
and intimacy. How have we designed our digital
sex devices and what are their consequences,
both intended and unintended?
An iconic example of teledildonics is the
RealTouch
1
and its more recent counterpart, the
RealTouch Interactive.
2
Designed specifcally
for users with penises, the RealTouch device is
reminiscent of a Fleshlight but hooks up to a
computer for video-synchronized stimulation.
A user can watch porn (but only videos with
pre-programmed signals for the device) to feel
an interactive experience that takes you beyond
sight and sound and puts you in the middle of
the action.
1
Te RealTouch Interactive builds
on the earlier version, allowing users to connect
with the companys live, online models to
experience what they call true internet sex.
2

Sexual experience with RealTouch is continu-
ally framed as true and real, setting up two
signifcant problematic delineations. First, it
constitutes a judgment as to which types of sex
can be considered true, excluding those that do
not fall within their bounds. Secondly, it rein-
forces the divide between what is real and what
is virtual in digital technologies, a rhetoric
that fashions some experiences as more authentic
and maintains a sharp distinction between the
human and machine worlds.
Te RealTouch models, available through
the website, use the corresponding JoyStick
to pass stimulation to the users RealTouch
device. However, aside from company models,
it appears impossible to purchase a JoyStick,
which makes use of the system by already estab-
From the birth of computing onwards, the
methods by which we interact with machines
have continued to evolve and accelerate. Bodies
and computers have communicated through
textual command lines, graphical user interfaces
and mice, touch screens, and now the beginnings
of gesture recognition. In computing and design,
the term human-computer interaction is used
to refer to the study and engineering of inter-
actions between human bodies and computers.
From an industry standpoint, improving
human-computer interactions means making the
interfaces between people and their technology
more intuitive and natural, creating technology
that blends seamlessly with our accustomed
environment. However, when technologies are
disguised, or too easy to use, we forget their
power. We lose track of how the logics and rheto-
rics of computing afect us.
Human-computer interaction is a site of
potential for knowledge on how bodies move
in the digital age, but only if we remember
that making a responsible interface does not
mean concealing or forgetting the materiality
of technology. One location to begin thinking
about our interactions is the intimacy of
humans and computers during sexual encoun-
ters. Teledildonic, or electronic sex toys that
utilize connections to computing devices for the
achievement of sexual pleasure, and other digital
sexual devices, are not what frst come to mind
when thinking about human-computer interac-
tion. However, analyzing how technology afects
our encounters with other people, other bodies,
Sexual Interfaces
Understanding Human-Computer Interactions
Through Digital Sex Devices
by Sylvia Tomayko-Peters
issue four | 30 sexual interfaces | 29
Glance as a sex toy than the RealTouch, LovePalz,
or Kiiroo. As a piece of sofware, Glance deviates
from the expected patterns of sex toys. Because
Glance is about sight and not touch, it privileges
the visual experience and its subsequent efect
on moments, afect, and memory. While clips of
intimate moments are surely tied to physicality,
the type of information that Glance emphasizes
is not about the material body but its traces in
our minds (and our hard drives). Unlike other sex
toys and teledildonics, Glance is an app designed
to utilize a pre-existing platform; it is code, not
hardware. We can perhaps understand that sof-
ware is to hardware what sight is to touch; there is
the perception of the physical, but the experience
overall is intangible and elusive.
While visual information is the focus of
Glance, we yet again lose sight of the machine.
Glance wants you to see bodies, both your own
and others, not the device itself. Google Glass is
once: your own, and that of another person with
whom you are linked. Videos shot with Glance
have a limited length of ten seconds, are not
hosted anywhere, and are deleted afer fve
hours unless you save them yourself. Tink of
a cross between Skype and Snapchat.
12
While
there is no reason the app couldnt be used for
capturing any moment, such as the photos on
their Apple App Store page suggest, Glances
online marketing for the Glass-based applica-
tion makes it clear that the device is intended
for use in an intimate setting. According to the
developers website, the app is designed to help
users experience moments more beautifully, yet,
exactly how experiences are afected is what seems
most complex and potentially troubling about
Glance.
Rather than a substitution for genitalia, the
Glance glasses and app act as an extension for the
eyes. Tis may be why it it is more difcult to view
LovePalz as modern and stylish, with mini-
malist sensibilities, adding a touch of aesthetics
to your lifestyle.
10
Te objects themselves have
brushed aluminum fnishes, clean lines, and
smooth curves. Tey echo the sleek design of
other high-end technologies, from smartphones
and computers to microwaves and cars. While
the humanness of touch is emphasized on the
platforms, the visual realities of the devices exist
in opposition. Tere is a division between what
you see the machine and what you are
supposed to perceive that you feel a human
body. Perhaps these design choices and the
rhetoric of human touch are linked to a fear of
techno-intimacy.
Are we uncomfortable having sex with
machines or computers? Would we rather
imagine that a piece of technology cannot
mediate our sexual experiences? Paradoxically,
by making the device visually machinic, it
is easier to dismiss it as a tool and ignore it,
rather than acknowledge it as a sexual partner.
Accepting that the digital device is what is
touching us is key to a productive human-com-
puter interaction, but that means breaking down
the neat barrier between bodies and machines in
the most intimate of environments.
Digital devices also exist with a focus on
sight rather than touch as the location of sexual
pleasure. Not too long ago, there was signifcant
media hype surrounding the yet to be released
Google Glass app known as Glance (an iOS
version has already been released).
11
Glance
records a video and transmits the feed from
your device to that of another user. Te object
of the app is to see from two points of view at
used in every conceivable arrangement,
6
all
visual promotional material on their website
depicts or implies heterosexual sex. Another
device under development at the moment is
Kiiroo which, like LovePalz, has two models for
diferent genitalia. Rather than facilitating sex
between monogamous couples, Kiiroo is based
on a social networking platform with the goal
of connecting interested partners for any type
of sexual encounter. In the Kiiroo infomercial, a
voiceover tells us:
Technology has changed the way we commu-
nicate and interact. Smartphones and social media
platforms have brought us closer together hyper
social but at the same time increasingly less human
as we seem to have lost the touch in our interactions.
Being together is becoming a rarity. We are so close,
yet so far away.
7
Again, the focus is placed on physical touch,
specifcally on human touch. Kiiroo and other
similar devices masquerade behind the idea of
real human-to-human touch. By privileging
human-to-human sexual interaction, the
Kiiroo devices themselves are perceived as less
desirable, a substitute for human-to-human sex
that is assumed more to be authentic, natural,
and satisfying. Like the Turing machine, these
devices have come to be seen as imitators of the
human.
8
However, it is more useful, and truthful,
to see the devices as facilitators, relaying human
touch as machine touch, rather than to disguise
them behind the rhetoric of real and human
interaction.
Visually speaking, the designs of the tele-
dildonic devices are highly machinic. Kiiroo is
advertised as designer intimacy hardware
9
and
It is more useful, and truthful, to see
the devices as facilitators, relaying
human touch as machine touch,
rather than to disguise them behind
the rhetoric of real and human
interaction.
Glance as a sex toy than the RealTouch, LovePalz,
or Kiiroo. As a piece of sofware, Glance deviates
from the expected patterns of sex toys. Because
Glance is about sight and not touch, it privileges
the visual experience and its subsequent efect
on moments, afect, and memory. While clips of
intimate moments are surely tied to physicality,
the type of information that Glance emphasizes
is not about the material body but its traces in
our minds (and our hard drives). Unlike other sex
toys and teledildonics, Glance is an app designed
to utilize a pre-existing platform; it is code, not
hardware. We can perhaps understand that sof-
ware is to hardware what sight is to touch; there is
the perception of the physical, but the experience
overall is intangible and elusive.
While visual information is the focus of
Glance, we yet again lose sight of the machine.
Glance wants you to see bodies, both your own
and others, not the device itself. Google Glass is
once: your own, and that of another person with
whom you are linked. Videos shot with Glance
have a limited length of ten seconds, are not
hosted anywhere, and are deleted afer fve
hours unless you save them yourself. Tink of
a cross between Skype and Snapchat.
12
While
there is no reason the app couldnt be used for
capturing any moment, such as the photos on
their Apple App Store page suggest, Glances
online marketing for the Glass-based applica-
tion makes it clear that the device is intended
for use in an intimate setting. According to the
developers website, the app is designed to help
users experience moments more beautifully, yet,
exactly how experiences are afected is what seems
most complex and potentially troubling about
Glance.
Rather than a substitution for genitalia, the
Glance glasses and app act as an extension for the
eyes. Tis may be why it it is more difcult to view
LovePalz as modern and stylish, with mini-
malist sensibilities, adding a touch of aesthetics
to your lifestyle.
10
Te objects themselves have
brushed aluminum fnishes, clean lines, and
smooth curves. Tey echo the sleek design of
other high-end technologies, from smartphones
and computers to microwaves and cars. While
the humanness of touch is emphasized on the
platforms, the visual realities of the devices exist
in opposition. Tere is a division between what
you see the machine and what you are
supposed to perceive that you feel a human
body. Perhaps these design choices and the
rhetoric of human touch are linked to a fear of
techno-intimacy.
Are we uncomfortable having sex with
machines or computers? Would we rather
imagine that a piece of technology cannot
mediate our sexual experiences? Paradoxically,
by making the device visually machinic, it
is easier to dismiss it as a tool and ignore it,
rather than acknowledge it as a sexual partner.
Accepting that the digital device is what is
touching us is key to a productive human-com-
puter interaction, but that means breaking down
the neat barrier between bodies and machines in
the most intimate of environments.
Digital devices also exist with a focus on
sight rather than touch as the location of sexual
pleasure. Not too long ago, there was signifcant
media hype surrounding the yet to be released
Google Glass app known as Glance (an iOS
version has already been released).
11
Glance
records a video and transmits the feed from
your device to that of another user. Te object
of the app is to see from two points of view at
used in every conceivable arrangement,
6
all
visual promotional material on their website
depicts or implies heterosexual sex. Another
device under development at the moment is
Kiiroo which, like LovePalz, has two models for
diferent genitalia. Rather than facilitating sex
between monogamous couples, Kiiroo is based
on a social networking platform with the goal
of connecting interested partners for any type
of sexual encounter. In the Kiiroo infomercial, a
voiceover tells us:
Technology has changed the way we commu-
nicate and interact. Smartphones and social media
platforms have brought us closer together hyper
social but at the same time increasingly less human
as we seem to have lost the touch in our interactions.
Being together is becoming a rarity. We are so close,
yet so far away.
7
Again, the focus is placed on physical touch,
specifcally on human touch. Kiiroo and other
similar devices masquerade behind the idea of
real human-to-human touch. By privileging
human-to-human sexual interaction, the
Kiiroo devices themselves are perceived as less
desirable, a substitute for human-to-human sex
that is assumed more to be authentic, natural,
and satisfying. Like the Turing machine, these
devices have come to be seen as imitators of the
human.
8
However, it is more useful, and truthful,
to see the devices as facilitators, relaying human
touch as machine touch, rather than to disguise
them behind the rhetoric of real and human
interaction.
Visually speaking, the designs of the tele-
dildonic devices are highly machinic. Kiiroo is
advertised as designer intimacy hardware
9
and
It is more useful, and truthful, to see
the devices as facilitators, relaying
human touch as machine touch,
rather than to disguise them behind
the rhetoric of real and human
interaction.
the whole picture, it runs the risk of allowing
you to focus less on the interactions between
you and a partner and more on yourself.
Te Glance sofware is also designed to
have as little computer logic as possible.
Videos shot with Glance have a maximum
length of 10-seconds. Tis means that what
you see, both live and played back later, is not
a narrative but a snippet of time a moment.
Glance is all about moments, about recre-
ating the idea of human memory, ephemerality,
and digitized experience. In a similar gesture,
the videos are saved for only fve hours afer
they are captured. Glance videos disappear
if you dont work to save them. Presumably,
the app could take arbitrarily long videos
and save them indefnitely but it is not
programmed to do so. We are encouraged
to see spontaneous and temporary images as
reinforcing a moment, whereas the computer
logic of cataloging and saving is unnatural; it
does not beft intimate moments. Yet again, we
see the technological disguised under rhetoric
associated with the human.
While there are plenty of issues to discuss
concerning the design and use of digital
sexual devices, it isnt too hard to imagine the
possibility of alternative technologies that
could help us explore bodies in a productive,
healthy way. One example of a project which
shows potential for intimate body exploration
is Te Machine to Be Another, an experi-
mental platform created by BeAnotherLab,
which uses the Oculus Rif, a 3D, immersive,
virtual reality device made up of a headset
displaying stereoscopic video.
15
Te Machine
remediated through the lens of your glasses,
could be distracting no matter how long the
video clip. Glance is supposed to let users
experience both sides, in the same place and
thus see the whole picture.
14
Yet, we have to
ask, does seeing from multiple points of view
at the same time actually constitute seeing
the whole picture? If we presume that the
typical video feed you receive from a partner
will be of yourself, will this refected image
make you more self-conscious during sex, or
more confdent in your own sexuality? Does
it appeal to voyeurism, distancing the users
from their bodies and experience? It depends
on the person, of course, but the tendency to
be distracted when watching yourself move is
ofen overwhelming. Who hasnt stared at that
tiny image of themselves in the corner of the
screen while video chatting with someone else?
While Glances intention is to make you see
designed to be unobtrusive, to look like tools
we already wear on our faces. In fact, the devel-
opers state that the 10-second videos were
chosen because you cant enjoy the moment
when you are looking at the screen all the
time.
13
Te idea is to use Glance sparingly
to enhance particular moments but to not let
it get in the way. As sofware, Glance becomes
even more invisible. We only see the video it
provides us; we do not see the technological
process occurring underneath. When the
locus of experience shifs from touch to sight,
so does the site where the human body is
emphasized.
Yet, even viewing the body through Glance
seems awkward. Because of an attempt to
create a seamless interface, both the hardware
and sofware present a strange, confusing
visual experience. Wearing Glass during sex,
and simultaneously experiencing a moment
to Be Another is designed as a platform for
embodiment experience that BeAnotherLab
defnes as a neuroscience technique in which
users can feel themselves like if they were in a
diferent body.
16

In one installation with Te Machine to
Be Another platform, titled Gender Swap,
two users, one with a body assigned female
and the other with a body assigned male,* are
positioned in a room together, each wearing
a head-mounted display. Video is captured
from each headset and sent to the other user,
similar to the idea behind the exchange in
Glance. However, users experience only the
other persons body, not their own. In the
videos captured of the project, users explore
each others bodies, touching and looking. In
order to make the virtual reality experience
believable, both users have to constantly
agree on every movement they make, making
participation and consent part of the interface.
However, it must be noted that in Gender
Swap we see individuals who are presented
as legible subjects within a cisgender binary.
Nowhere in the literature or the video is this
visual dichotomy broken down or the difer-
ences between gender and anatomy addressed.
It is too easy for a viewer to assume that a
swap can exist only between the restrictive
contrast of female and male.
Te greatest potential of Gender Swap
stems from its ability to combine touch and
Accepting that the digital device
is what is touching us is key to a
productive human-computer
interaction, but that means breaking
down the neat barrier between
bodies and machines in the most
intimate of environments.
* Bluestockings uses the terms body assigned
female and body assigned male here because
anatomy is not inherently gendered.
the whole picture, it runs the risk of allowing
you to focus less on the interactions between
you and a partner and more on yourself.
Te Glance sofware is also designed to
have as little computer logic as possible.
Videos shot with Glance have a maximum
length of 10-seconds. Tis means that what
you see, both live and played back later, is not
a narrative but a snippet of time a moment.
Glance is all about moments, about recre-
ating the idea of human memory, ephemerality,
and digitized experience. In a similar gesture,
the videos are saved for only fve hours afer
they are captured. Glance videos disappear
if you dont work to save them. Presumably,
the app could take arbitrarily long videos
and save them indefnitely but it is not
programmed to do so. We are encouraged
to see spontaneous and temporary images as
reinforcing a moment, whereas the computer
logic of cataloging and saving is unnatural; it
does not beft intimate moments. Yet again, we
see the technological disguised under rhetoric
associated with the human.
While there are plenty of issues to discuss
concerning the design and use of digital
sexual devices, it isnt too hard to imagine the
possibility of alternative technologies that
could help us explore bodies in a productive,
healthy way. One example of a project which
shows potential for intimate body exploration
is Te Machine to Be Another, an experi-
mental platform created by BeAnotherLab,
which uses the Oculus Rif, a 3D, immersive,
virtual reality device made up of a headset
displaying stereoscopic video.
15
Te Machine
remediated through the lens of your glasses,
could be distracting no matter how long the
video clip. Glance is supposed to let users
experience both sides, in the same place and
thus see the whole picture.
14
Yet, we have to
ask, does seeing from multiple points of view
at the same time actually constitute seeing
the whole picture? If we presume that the
typical video feed you receive from a partner
will be of yourself, will this refected image
make you more self-conscious during sex, or
more confdent in your own sexuality? Does
it appeal to voyeurism, distancing the users
from their bodies and experience? It depends
on the person, of course, but the tendency to
be distracted when watching yourself move is
ofen overwhelming. Who hasnt stared at that
tiny image of themselves in the corner of the
screen while video chatting with someone else?
While Glances intention is to make you see
designed to be unobtrusive, to look like tools
we already wear on our faces. In fact, the devel-
opers state that the 10-second videos were
chosen because you cant enjoy the moment
when you are looking at the screen all the
time.
13
Te idea is to use Glance sparingly
to enhance particular moments but to not let
it get in the way. As sofware, Glance becomes
even more invisible. We only see the video it
provides us; we do not see the technological
process occurring underneath. When the
locus of experience shifs from touch to sight,
so does the site where the human body is
emphasized.
Yet, even viewing the body through Glance
seems awkward. Because of an attempt to
create a seamless interface, both the hardware
and sofware present a strange, confusing
visual experience. Wearing Glass during sex,
and simultaneously experiencing a moment
to Be Another is designed as a platform for
embodiment experience that BeAnotherLab
defnes as a neuroscience technique in which
users can feel themselves like if they were in a
diferent body.
16

In one installation with Te Machine to
Be Another platform, titled Gender Swap,
two users, one with a body assigned female
and the other with a body assigned male,* are
positioned in a room together, each wearing
a head-mounted display. Video is captured
from each headset and sent to the other user,
similar to the idea behind the exchange in
Glance. However, users experience only the
other persons body, not their own. In the
videos captured of the project, users explore
each others bodies, touching and looking. In
order to make the virtual reality experience
believable, both users have to constantly
agree on every movement they make, making
participation and consent part of the interface.
However, it must be noted that in Gender
Swap we see individuals who are presented
as legible subjects within a cisgender binary.
Nowhere in the literature or the video is this
visual dichotomy broken down or the difer-
ences between gender and anatomy addressed.
It is too easy for a viewer to assume that a
swap can exist only between the restrictive
contrast of female and male.
Te greatest potential of Gender Swap
stems from its ability to combine touch and
Accepting that the digital device
is what is touching us is key to a
productive human-computer
interaction, but that means breaking
down the neat barrier between
bodies and machines in the most
intimate of environments.
* Bluestockings uses the terms body assigned
female and body assigned male here because
anatomy is not inherently gendered.
a number of seconds (see http://www.snapchat.com/).
13. How We Designed Glance. Glance.
http://glanceapp.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/
how-we-designed-glance/.
14. Features. Glance. http://
www.glanceapp.info/#features.
15. Te Machine to Be Another. BeAnoth-
erLab. http://www.themachinetobeanother.org/.
16. Gender Swap Experiment with Te
Machine to Be Another. BeAnotherLab. http://
www.themachinetobeanother.org/?p=1025.
17. For those interested in further discussion
on the intersection of bodies, machines, and gender,
I recommend looking at Donna Haraways classic
essay A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and
Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century
as well as Jack Halberstams book How We Became
Posthuman (Te University of Chicago Press, 1999).
6. Features. LovePalz.com. https://
www.lovepalz.com/features.
7. Kiiroo IndieGoGo Infomercial.
YouTube. Kiiroo, Jan. 17, 2014. https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=RXXOfsHs070.
8. Alan Turing developed the idea that computers
could act as universal imitators, simulating the logic
of any other algorithm. Indeed, he suggested that
computers could learn to simulate human intelligence.
In one of his hypothetical experiments, a subject must
distinguish between a human and computer, when
presented with only typed responses to their ques-
tions. Here, Turing begins to blur the lines between
bodies and machines (see Turing, A. M. Computing
Machinery And Intelligence. Mind LIX.236 (1950):
433-60). Tose interested in the relationship between
Turings concept of imitation and gender, or bodies and
machinery, should look at Jack Halberstams article
Automating Gender: Postmodern Feminism in the
Age of the Intelligent Machine published in Feminist
Studies Vol. 17, No. 3 (Autumn, 1991): 439-460.
9. KIIROO: Te frst social platform
with an intimate touch. Indiegogo. http://
www.indiegogo.com/projects/kiiroo-the-frst-
social-platform-with-an-intimate-touch.
11. Glance see both views, seamlessly.
Glance. http://www.glanceapp.info/.
12. Skype is video chatting and instant messaging
sofware, allowing users to communicate textually,
verbally, and visually over long distances (see http://www.
skype.com/en/). Snapchat is a smartphone application
which lets users capture images using their phones camera
and send them as messages to others with the app. Photos
on Snapchat are, in theory, ephemeral and deleted afer
bodies. When are our interactions only products
of the devices we are using? When are they about
the bodies we inhabit or are connecting with?
Seeing all sides of human-computer interaction
is key. When our interfaces are seamless and our
machines are hidden, we have no idea how they
operate. We have no idea how they change our
experience of bodies, both human and machine,
culturally, and politically.
17
Human-computer
interaction does not need to be about making
interfaces invisible it needs to be about
creating a site where bodies and technology can
work and partner together, each aware of the
other.

Edited by Katie Harris
Endnotes:
1. RealTouch. Adult Entertainment Broad-
cast Network. http://www.realtouch.com/.
2. RealTouch Interactive (BETA). Adult
Entertainment Broadcast Network. http://
www.realtouchinteractive.com/.
3. Sight has long been a site of power strug-
gles for cultural theorists and psychoanalysis alike.
Introductory works on the structuring power of the
gaze include, Michel Foucaults Discipline and Punish:
Te Birth of the Prison (New York: Pantheon, 1977),
Franz Fanons Black Skin, White Masks (New York:
Grove Press, 1967), and Mary Ann Doanes Film
and the Masquerade: Teorising the Female Spec-
tator, (Screen 23.3-4, September/October, 1982).
4. LovePalz Connecting Lovers. Love-
Palz.com. https://www.lovepalz.com/.
5. Kiiroo: Te frst social platform with intimate
touch. Kiiroo Technologies. http://kiiroo.com/.
sight. While a user is touching their own body,
the virtual reality system is presenting them
with the image of another body, confusing
the brain into experiencing another body as
their own. Rather than privileging one type
of experience above the other, the platform
necessitates the integration of both physical
and visual body exploration in order for the
experiment to work. While there can be
problematic uses of the platform, the potential
to learn and explore is ever present. In addition,
Te Machine to Be Another is not just about
exploring the human body, it is also about how
individuals interact when their movements and
relations are channeled through a digital device.
While Te Machine to Be Another is still
attempting to present a relatively seamless inter-
action with the technology, it does not try to
disguise the virtual reality system as something
it is not. Even including machine in the name
of the system indicates that BeAnotherLab
acknowledges the importance of the digital in
the circuit of body exploration.
Understanding the ways in which we
currently interact with digital technologies is
essential for creating better interfaces. Intimacy
with technology can still feel strange, awkward
or troubling at times. Tere are undoubtedly
implicit structures and logics that shape the way
we interact with technology both on the
sofware and hardware levels and these will
shape the ways in which our sexual encounters
involving technology progress. Human-com-
puter interaction, on any level, could beneft
from analysis of the ways in which technology
afects our bodies and our perception of other
a number of seconds (see http://www.snapchat.com/).
13. How We Designed Glance. Glance.
http://glanceapp.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/
how-we-designed-glance/.
14. Features. Glance. http://
www.glanceapp.info/#features.
15. Te Machine to Be Another. BeAnoth-
erLab. http://www.themachinetobeanother.org/.
16. Gender Swap Experiment with Te
Machine to Be Another. BeAnotherLab. http://
www.themachinetobeanother.org/?p=1025.
17. For those interested in further discussion
on the intersection of bodies, machines, and gender,
I recommend looking at Donna Haraways classic
essay A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and
Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century
as well as Jack Halberstams book How We Became
Posthuman (Te University of Chicago Press, 1999).
7. Kiiroo IndieGoGo Infomercial.
YouTube. Kiiroo, Jan. 17, 2014. https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=RXXOfsHs070.
8. Alan Turing developed the idea that computers
could act as universal imitators, simulating the logic
of any other algorithm. Indeed, he suggested that
computers could learn to simulate human intelligence.
In one of his hypothetical experiments, a subject must
distinguish between a human and computer, when
presented with only typed responses to their ques-
tions. Here, Turing begins to blur the lines between
bodies and machines (see Turing, A. M. Computing
Machinery And Intelligence. Mind LIX.236 (1950):
433-60). Tose interested in the relationship between
Turings concept of imitation and gender, or bodies and
machinery, should look at Jack Halberstams article
Automating Gender: Postmodern Feminism in the
Age of the Intelligent Machine published in Feminist
Studies Vol. 17, No. 3 (Autumn, 1991): 439-460.
9. KIIROO: Te frst social platform
with an intimate touch. Indiegogo. http://
www.indiegogo.com/projects/kiiroo-the-frst-
social-platform-with-an-intimate-touch.
11. Glance see both views, seamlessly.
Glance. http://www.glanceapp.info/.
12. Skype is video chatting and instant messaging
sofware, allowing users to communicate textually,
verbally, and visually over long distances (see http://www.
skype.com/en/). Snapchat is a smartphone application
which lets users capture images using their phones camera
and send them as messages to others with the app. Photos
on Snapchat are, in theory, ephemeral and deleted afer
bodies. When are our interactions only products
of the devices we are using? When are they about
the bodies we inhabit or are connecting with?
Seeing all sides of human-computer interaction
is key. When our interfaces are seamless and our
machines are hidden, we have no idea how they
operate. We have no idea how they change our
experience of bodies, both human and machine,
culturally, and politically.
17
Human-computer
interaction does not need to be about making
interfaces invisible it needs to be about
creating a site where bodies and technology can
work and partner together, each aware of the
other.

Edited by Katie Harris
Endnotes:
1. RealTouch. Adult Entertainment Broad-
cast Network. http://www.realtouch.com/.
2. RealTouch Interactive (BETA). Adult
Entertainment Broadcast Network. http://
www.realtouchinteractive.com/.
3. Sight has long been a site of power strug-
gles for cultural theorists and psychoanalysis alike.
Introductory works on the structuring power of the
gaze include, Michel Foucaults Discipline and Punish:
Te Birth of the Prison (New York: Pantheon, 1977),
Franz Fanons Black Skin, White Masks (New York:
Grove Press, 1967), and Mary Ann Doanes Film
and the Masquerade: Teorising the Female Spec-
tator, (Screen 23.3-4, September/October, 1982).
4. LovePalz Connecting Lovers. Love-
Palz.com. https://www.lovepalz.com/.
5. Kiiroo: Te frst social platform with intimate
touch. Kiiroo Technologies. http://kiiroo.com/.
sight. While a user is touching their own body,
the virtual reality system is presenting them
with the image of another body, confusing
the brain into experiencing another body as
their own. Rather than privileging one type
of experience above the other, the platform
necessitates the integration of both physical
and visual body exploration in order for the
experiment to work. While there can be
problematic uses of the platform, the potential
to learn and explore is ever present. In addition,
Te Machine to Be Another is not just about
exploring the human body, it is also about how
individuals interact when their movements and
relations are channeled through a digital device.
While Te Machine to Be Another is still
attempting to present a relatively seamless inter-
action with the technology, it does not try to
disguise the virtual reality system as something
it is not. Even including machine in the name
of the system indicates that BeAnotherLab
acknowledges the importance of the digital in
the circuit of body exploration.
Understanding the ways in which we
currently interact with digital technologies is
essential for creating better interfaces. Intimacy
with technology can still feel strange, awkward
or troubling at times. Tere are undoubtedly
implicit structures and logics that shape the way
we interact with technology both on the
sofware and hardware levels and these will
shape the ways in which our sexual encounters
involving technology progress. Human-com-
puter interaction, on any level, could beneft
from analysis of the ways in which technology
afects our bodies and our perception of other
I have endless freedom to be turned on.
And the invisible labor of my imagina-
tion makes sure the glory of being alone is
never lonely.
Yet I am convinced that somehow,
since I do not desire genital intimacy with
others, I have never truly fucked. Repudi-
ating ciscentric PIV (penis in vagina) and
grappling with most forms of penetration,
except orally under certain conditions,
means for me the unmitigated physical
rawness of fucking is not a part of my life.
Penetration is a society-wide fxation
that curbs our erotic potential and strains
our sexual selves against our creative selves,
so I cant say I miss it. And certainly it is not
the only way to fuck.
I fuck myself all the time. But have I
fucked others? Or been fucked?
I dont know. I dont know if I ever
needed to.
Edited by Katarah Da Silva and
Katie Harris
In a perfect world it would simply
suggest an intense erotic interiority.
Ive had the power of having multiple
orgasms since a young age. Sex is my beloved,
my art, my ode. I eroticize the world and
what lies within: books, clichs, fngerprints,
a smiling photograph. I am in an erotic rela-
tionship with myself, but I love and need the
idea of others. I am a chronic masturbator,
clinging for inspiration to the dance of form.
I dont make up my sex, I masturbate
from life. I open my shirt and call out to
you. Like Hlne Cixouss Promethea you
come, full of breath, full of life, and fing
yourself at me.
I am not celibate or nonlibidoist or touch
avoidant or inherently sex-averse.
Te lines of my sexuality are not ruler
straight but queer like my needs. Needs
that are concentric, foating above the walls
of convention, as the voice of imagination
draws circles of jouissance around me,
allowing me to divide, to break free of my
subjectivity.
I let go of myself.
Full of fight, sensing unknown powers,
I desire more than orgasm, more than
satisfaction. I want a merging of worlds, of
the erotic, the mystical, the political. I want
metaphysical fulfllment from deep within.
So I reach for myself, extending a hand
into the night, going to the source. My
erotic life and its physical expressions
emerge like a liquid moon, internal, physi-
cally independent of human form, orbiting
a world afxed to my desire without fear or
reproach.
Is fucking a bad thing?
Its raw, basic, uneditedall good things.
It has a beautiful universal appeal. Anyone
can fuck. So I am told.
But can I? Tats another question. I
might have missed the fucking train when
I became true to myself and acknowledged
the perplexities of my sexuality.
Tese days, making discoveries long
delayed, I use a patchwork of terms
to describe myself: fuid, gray asexual,
pan-erotic queer. However, each term in
this shifing narrative of self-actualization
remains deeply fawed. Tey all lack the
power to declare anything ofcial. And I
have yet to fnd a community online or
IRL.
Te term that feels most authentic is
autoerotic. But it conjures up images of auto-
erotic asphyxiation, taking me far of course.
Fucking
by Michelle Marie
I have endless freedom to be turned on.
And the invisible labor of my imagina-
tion makes sure the glory of being alone is
never lonely.
Yet I am convinced that somehow,
since I do not desire genital intimacy with
others, I have never truly fucked. Repudi-
ating ciscentric PIV (penis in vagina) and
grappling with most forms of penetration,
except orally under certain conditions,
means for me the unmitigated physical
rawness of fucking is not a part of my life.
Penetration is a society-wide fxation
that curbs our erotic potential and strains
our sexual selves against our creative selves,
so I cant say I miss it. And certainly it is not
the only way to fuck.
I fuck myself all the time. But have I
fucked others? Or been fucked?
I dont know. I dont know if I ever
needed to.
Edited by Katarah Da Silva and
Katie Harris
In a perfect world it would simply
suggest an intense erotic interiority.
Ive had the power of having multiple
orgasms since a young age. Sex is my beloved,
my art, my ode. I eroticize the world and
what lies within: books, clichs, fngerprints,
a smiling photograph. I am in an erotic rela-
tionship with myself, but I love and need the
idea of others. I am a chronic masturbator,
clinging for inspiration to the dance of form.
I dont make up my sex, I masturbate
from life. I open my shirt and call out to
you. Like Hlne Cixouss Promethea you
come, full of breath, full of life, and fing
yourself at me.
I am not celibate or nonlibidoist or touch
avoidant or inherently sex-averse.
Te lines of my sexuality are not ruler
straight but queer like my needs. Needs
that are concentric, foating above the walls
of convention, as the voice of imagination
draws circles of jouissance around me,
allowing me to divide, to break free of my
subjectivity.
I let go of myself.
Full of fight, sensing unknown powers,
I desire more than orgasm, more than
satisfaction. I want a merging of worlds, of
the erotic, the mystical, the political. I want
metaphysical fulfllment from deep within.
So I reach for myself, extending a hand
into the night, going to the source. My
erotic life and its physical expressions
emerge like a liquid moon, internal, physi-
cally independent of human form, orbiting
a world afxed to my desire without fear or
reproach.
Is fucking a bad thing?
Its raw, basic, uneditedall good things.
It has a beautiful universal appeal. Anyone
can fuck. So I am told.
But can I? Tats another question. I
might have missed the fucking train when
I became true to myself and acknowledged
the perplexities of my sexuality.
Tese days, making discoveries long
delayed, I use a patchwork of terms
to describe myself: fuid, gray asexual,
pan-erotic queer. However, each term in
this shifing narrative of self-actualization
remains deeply fawed. Tey all lack the
power to declare anything ofcial. And I
have yet to fnd a community online or
IRL.
Te term that feels most authentic is
autoerotic. But it conjures up images of auto-
erotic asphyxiation, taking me far of course.
Fucking
by Michelle Marie
opposite page: Joseph C Saunders Stained Streets (zine excerpt)
this page: Christopher Tompson Ali-Yiayias 100th Birthday
opposite page: Joseph C Saunders Stained Streets (zine excerpt)
this page: Christopher Tompson Ali-Yiayias 100th Birthday
frst notice light-footedness swans neck spine
uncoiled over platinum grass
skin
silver-etched &cells

barely humming
because
stillness
star anise eyes
look how long
the silence

dreamlike sugared twine in teeth

a light-chalked meditative slip
anticipate
still

not stagnant
think to peel the rind with fngernails
imagined melt of glass
unmoving wind
a bottled glossary untied
to burn soap bubble blisters
on palms &palms
Pronounless
Love
Poem
by Lizzie Davis
frst notice light-footedness swans neck spine
uncoiled over platinum grass
skin
silver-etched &cells

barely humming
because
stillness
star anise eyes
look how long
the silence

dreamlike sugared twine in teeth

a light-chalked meditative slip
anticipate
still

not stagnant
think to peel the rind with fngernails
imagined melt of glass
unmoving wind
a bottled glossary untied
to burn soap bubble blisters
on palms &palms
Pronounless
Love
Poem
by Lizzie Davis
peoples selves and self-presentation relate to
gender and sexuality. Feminist descriptions
of gender and sexuality as systems through
which power and domination fow are also
bypassed by this simple graphic. Te image of
the Genderbread Person presents gender and
sexuality as neatly divided parts of personal
identity, rather than complicated, personal
and political categories that are always
implicated in systems of domination through
which power secures gendered privileges and
oppressions.
Te Genderbread fgure fails to relate
gender and sexuality to race. Te image shows
a yellow cookie fgure onto whom gender and
sexuality traits can be added. Although
anthropologist David Valentine asserts
that these categories may not be so neatly
separated. Writing about the development of
transgender identity, Valentine argues that
the distinction between gender and sexuality
is a relatively new concept that refects ideo-
logical work on the part of institutions such
as social service providers, gay rights advo-
cates, and public health organizations. When
sexual identity as discretely experienced parts
of personal identity, it ignores that those
categories do not always capture lived expe-
riences.
2
Te image locates gender in ones
mind and sex in ones genitals a reductive
representation of the complicated ways
In workshops about gender, sexuality, and
transgender issues, such as those on Browns
campus, the fgure of the Genderbread
Person is a well-known teaching diagram.
Te fgure diagrams a diversity of gender
and sexual identities, including gender
identity, gender expression, attracted
to, and biological sex, that supposedly
refect the many components of gender and
sexuality. Te image claims that gender isnt
binary nor either/or and attempts to open
up infnite possibilities for the personal
embodiment and expression of gender and
sexuality.
1
Te Genderbread Person is a
neoliberal expression of self that appears to
open possibilities for individual freedom; but
in fact, it erases racial and class diferences
and strips away power structures that inform
and confuse biological sex, gender identity,
gender expression, and sexual orientation. It
emphasizes the fuidity and multiplicity of
gender and sexuality; however, it makes no
efort to locate these elements in a schema of
power. By conceptually excluding systems of
domination, the image ofers up a vision of
an agential individual who can freely choose
their gender and sexuality. As a teaching
tool, this image cannot descriptively account
for many peoples lived experiences. Te
fundamental faw of the Genderbread Person
is its propagation of an unattainable ideology
of choice with respect to gender and sexuality
categories which are always infected with
the power and violence of white supremacist
capitalist heteropatriarchy.
Although the image attempts to divide
gender identity and gender expression
from sexual orientation and biological sex,
Choice, Neoliberalism, and
the Genderbread Person
by Darcy Pinkerton
peoples selves and self-presentation relate to
gender and sexuality. Feminist descriptions
of gender and sexuality as systems through
which power and domination fow are also
bypassed by this simple graphic. Te image of
sexuality as neatly divided parts of personal
identity, rather than complicated, personal
and political categories that are always
implicated in systems of domination through
which power secures gendered privileges and
oppressions.
Te Genderbread fgure fails to relate
gender and sexuality to race. Te image shows
a yellow cookie fgure onto whom gender and
sexuality traits can be added. Although
anthropologist David Valentine asserts
that these categories may not be so neatly
separated. Writing about the development of
transgender identity, Valentine argues that
the distinction between gender and sexuality
is a relatively new concept that refects ideo-
logical work on the part of institutions such
as social service providers, gay rights advo-
cates, and public health organizations. When
sexual identity as discretely experienced parts
of personal identity, it ignores that those
categories do not always capture lived expe-
riences.
2
Te image locates gender in ones
mind and sex in ones genitals a reductive
representation of the complicated ways
In workshops about gender, sexuality, and
transgender issues, such as those on Browns
campus, the fgure of the Genderbread
Person is a well-known teaching diagram.
Te fgure diagrams a diversity of gender
and sexual identities, including gender
identity, gender expression, attracted
to, and biological sex, that supposedly
refect the many components of gender and
sexuality. Te image claims that gender isnt
binary nor either/or and attempts to open
up infnite possibilities for the personal
embodiment and expression of gender and
sexuality.
1
Te Genderbread Person is a
neoliberal expression of self that appears to
open possibilities for individual freedom; but
in fact, it erases racial and class diferences
and strips away power structures that inform
and confuse biological sex, gender identity,
gender expression, and sexual orientation. It
emphasizes the fuidity and multiplicity of
gender and sexuality; however, it makes no
efort to locate these elements in a schema of
power. By conceptually excluding systems of
domination, the image ofers up a vision of
an agential individual who can freely choose
their gender and sexuality. As a teaching
tool, this image cannot descriptively account
for many peoples lived experiences. Te
fundamental faw of the Genderbread Person
is its propagation of an unattainable ideology
of choice with respect to gender and sexuality
categories which are always infected with
the power and violence of white supremacist
capitalist heteropatriarchy.
Although the image attempts to divide
gender identity and gender expression
from sexual orientation and biological sex,
Choice, Neoliberalism, and
the Genderbread Person
by Darcy Pinkerton
issue four | 44
choice, neoliberalism, and the genderbread person | 43
social disadvantage and discrimination, but,
in a more basic way, heteronormativity func-
tions to discourage people from identifying
themselves as gay. Te image of two arrows
progressing from no sexual attraction to
hetero and/or homosexuality does not refect
the way heterosexuality ofen functions.
By positioning asexual as a starting
point from which people assert other,
difering sexualities, the image equates
privileged identities with oppressed identities.
More gravely, it fails to relay how compulsory
heterosexuality creates heterosexuality as the
baseline from which other, non-heterosexual
identities emerge (including the identity of
asexual). Which is to say, people do not exist
as ungendered bodies who take up sexual and
romantic attractions devoid of social context;
heteropatriachy subsumes people into sets of
social relations and identity categories long
before they can be asserted diferently.
Representing gender and sexuality as
freely chosen, independent parts of iden-
tity is part of the neoliberal project of the
Genderbread Person. Te image tells readers
that they can build gender and sexuality for
themselves. Even the identities refected in
the image are only examples of infnite
possible plot and label combos that consti-
tute personal identity. Setting aside the fact
that subjectivity consists of much more than
graphs and labels, the idea that individuals
can choose their genders and sexualities
refects anthropologist Margot Weisss
defnition of neoliberalism as a form of
governmentality
7
that creates and authen-
both race and class are read from peoples
bodies and presentation, the Genderbread
Person is not obviously racialized. In framing
the infnite ways that the Genderbread
Person could defne ones gender and sexu-
ality, the image neutralizes the basic ways
that race (and/or class) inform the cookie
body and have an impact on its gender and
sexuality.
3
As many scholars of gender have
remarked, gender and sexuality as catego-
ries are informed by colonization and U.S.
empire.
4
For example, because systems of
imperialism, colonialism, and racism have
historically relied on feminizing depictions
of Asian men in comparison to white men,
gender is interpreted from the bodies of Asian
men diferently than from white mens bodies.
Tis racialized way that gender and sexuality
function is belied by the presentation of
choice in the Genderbread Person.
Te erasure of racial diference and rigid
separation of gender and sexuality both
depend on the asexual and ungendered base-
line of the Genderbread Person. Te image
frames gender and sexuality as emerging
from baselines of nothingness, using arrows
to explain ones potential progression from
agender to masculinity and/or femininity
and from no [sexual] attraction to attrac-
tion to men and/or women.
5
Many feminist
and queer theorists have discussed compul-
sory heterosexuality as the assumption of
straightness that gender-normative men
and women experience, arguing that being
straight or gay have diferential social pres-
sures and consequences.
6
Being gay entails
and sexuality are formed and negotiated. Te
success of the Genderbread Person relies
on the sentimental appeal of agency, which
creates positive sentiments around an illusion
of freedom and choice. Beyond its descriptive
failures, the image promotes an insidious
ideology of choice in the service of white
supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy. In
generating an asexual and ungendered agen-
tial person, the Genderbread Person produces
ideas of gender and sexuality as choice
without context, obfuscating the reality of
violence and domination.
Edited by Marina Golan-Vilella
and Shierly Mondianti
ticates subjects who understand themselves,
and their relationships to the world, in
terms of democratized markets. By framing
elements of identity such as sexual attraction
and gender expression on sliding scales, in a
colorful palate that proclaims infnite possi-
bilities, the Genderbread Person represents
a neoliberal celebration of free choice and
individual agency that deliberately avoids
considering systems of power.
Te concept of choice is central to the
emotional appeal of the Genderbread Person,
upon which the success of the images
ideological project relies. Te image of the
Genderbread Person generates positive but
false feelings of agency by representing gender
and sexuality as personal choices freely taken
up by ungendered, non-sexual, and unraced
bodies. By presenting gender and sexual
identities as separate, non-coerced choices
undertaken by bodies and selves devoid of
social context, the image elides the way race
informs and limits the potential expression
of gender and sexuality. It further creates a
framework of individual choice that cannot
take into account systems of domination such
as colonialism and sexism. Te rhetoric of
choice in the image functions on an ideolog-
ical level to prevent critical examination of
systems of domination that thus ensure their
continuation.
Te image of the Genderbread Person
represents people as fundamentally ungen-
dered and asexual beings who can progress
to any identity they freely choose, ignoring
the coercive social context in which gender
Endnotes:
1. Killerman, Sam. Te Genderbread Person v2.0. Its
Pronounced Metrosexual. 2012. https://itspronounced-
metrosexual.com/2012/03/the-genderbread-person-v2-0/
2. Valentine, David. Imagining Trans-
gender: An Ethnography of a Category. Durham,
N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007.
3. Killerman. Te Genderbread Person v2.0.
4. Schaefer, Felicity. Love and Empire: Cyber-
marriage and Citizenship across the Americas. New
York: New York University Perss, 2013. 13.
6. Rich, Adrienne. Compulsory Heterosexuality
and Lesbian Existence. Blood, Bread, and Poetry:
Selected Prose, 1979-1985. New York: Norton, 1986. 32.
7. Weiss, Margot. Techniques of Pleasure:
BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality. Durham,
N.C.: Duke University Press, 2011. 18.
issue four | 44
choice, neoliberalism, and the genderbread person | 43
social disadvantage and discrimination, but,
in a more basic way, heteronormativity func-
tions to discourage people from identifying
themselves as gay. Te image of two arrows
progressing from no sexual attraction to
hetero and/or homosexuality does not refect
the way heterosexuality ofen functions.
By positioning asexual as a starting
point from which people assert other,
difering sexualities, the image equates
privileged identities with oppressed identities.
More gravely, it fails to relay how compulsory
heterosexuality creates heterosexuality as the
baseline from which other, non-heterosexual
identities emerge (including the identity of
asexual). Which is to say, people do not exist
as ungendered bodies who take up sexual and
romantic attractions devoid of social context;
heteropatriachy subsumes people into sets of
social relations and identity categories long
before they can be asserted diferently.
Representing gender and sexuality as
freely chosen, independent parts of iden-
tity is part of the neoliberal project of the
Genderbread Person. Te image tells readers
that they can build gender and sexuality for
themselves. Even the identities refected in
the image are only examples of infnite
possible plot and label combos that consti-
tute personal identity. Setting aside the fact
that subjectivity consists of much more than
graphs and labels, the idea that individuals
can choose their genders and sexualities
refects anthropologist Margot Weisss
defnition of neoliberalism as a form of
governmentality
7
that creates and authen-
both race and class are read from peoples
bodies and presentation, the Genderbread
Person is not obviously racialized. In framing
the infnite ways that the Genderbread
Person could defne ones gender and sexu-
ality, the image neutralizes the basic ways
that race (and/or class) inform the cookie
body and have an impact on its gender and
sexuality.
3
As many scholars of gender have
remarked, gender and sexuality as catego-
ries are informed by colonization and U.S.
empire.
4
For example, because systems of
imperialism, colonialism, and racism have
historically relied on feminizing depictions
of Asian men in comparison to white men,
gender is interpreted from the bodies of Asian
men diferently than from white mens bodies.
Tis racialized way that gender and sexuality
function is belied by the presentation of
choice in the Genderbread Person.
Te erasure of racial diference and rigid
separation of gender and sexuality both
depend on the asexual and ungendered base-
line of the Genderbread Person. Te image
frames gender and sexuality as emerging
from baselines of nothingness, using arrows
to explain ones potential progression from
agender to masculinity and/or femininity
and from no [sexual] attraction to attrac-
tion to men and/or women.
5
Many feminist
and queer theorists have discussed compul-
sory heterosexuality as the assumption of
straightness that gender-normative men
and women experience, arguing that being
straight or gay have diferential social pres-
sures and consequences.
6
Being gay entails
and sexuality are formed and negotiated. Te
success of the Genderbread Person relies
on the sentimental appeal of agency, which
creates positive sentiments around an illusion
of freedom and choice. Beyond its descriptive
failures, the image promotes an insidious
ideology of choice in the service of white
supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy. In
generating an asexual and ungendered agen-
tial person, the Genderbread Person produces
ideas of gender and sexuality as choice
without context, obfuscating the reality of
violence and domination.
Edited by Marina Golan-Vilella
and Shierly Mondianti
ticates subjects who understand themselves,
and their relationships to the world, in
terms of democratized markets. By framing
elements of identity such as sexual attraction
and gender expression on sliding scales, in a
colorful palate that proclaims infnite possi-
bilities, the Genderbread Person represents
a neoliberal celebration of free choice and
individual agency that deliberately avoids
considering systems of power.
Te concept of choice is central to the
emotional appeal of the Genderbread Person,
upon which the success of the images
ideological project relies. Te image of the
Genderbread Person generates positive but
false feelings of agency by representing gender
and sexuality as personal choices freely taken
up by ungendered, non-sexual, and unraced
bodies. By presenting gender and sexual
identities as separate, non-coerced choices
undertaken by bodies and selves devoid of
social context, the image elides the way race
informs and limits the potential expression
of gender and sexuality. It further creates a
framework of individual choice that cannot
take into account systems of domination such
as colonialism and sexism. Te rhetoric of
choice in the image functions on an ideolog-
ical level to prevent critical examination of
systems of domination that thus ensure their
continuation.
Te image of the Genderbread Person
represents people as fundamentally ungen-
dered and asexual beings who can progress
to any identity they freely choose, ignoring
the coercive social context in which gender
Endnotes:
1. Killerman, Sam. Te Genderbread Person v2.0. Its
Pronounced Metrosexual. 2012. https://itspronounced-
metrosexual.com/2012/03/the-genderbread-person-v2-0/
2. Valentine, David. Imagining Trans-
gender: An Ethnography of a Category. Durham,
N.C.: Duke University Press, 2007.
4. Schaefer, Felicity. Love and Empire: Cyber-
marriage and Citizenship across the Americas. New
York: New York University Perss, 2013. 13.
6. Rich, Adrienne. Compulsory Heterosexuality
and Lesbian Existence. Blood, Bread, and Poetry:
Selected Prose, 1979-1985. New York: Norton, 1986. 32.
7. Weiss, Margot. Techniques of Pleasure:
BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality. Durham,
N.C.: Duke University Press, 2011. 18.
Black/African-American, female, 18-25.
It is only fair to the reader that I begin this
conversation with the demographics I have to
check of in every census, application, survey,
or questionnaire.
I am a young black woman in America.
I am not one of the three, two of the three,
but all of these three identities. Ofen times,
there is a tendency for black womens issues
to become a summarized subtopic in greater
conversations on race or gender. Perpetually
placed in the category of either/or in terms
of identity, the politics and history behind
being black and a woman in America is rarely
analyzed, nor appreciated by mainstream
media.
Before coming to Brown, my education
of feminism only underlined the impact of
white American women within the frst and
second waves. Never did we speak about the
impact that black feminism, specifcally black
women who were involved in Civil Rights
organizations, had in laying the foundation
of the Womens Liberation Movement. Even
still, I have little knowledge of what feminism
means out of the context of the American
narrative. Instead, like many other American
students, I had the high school experience of
having Betty Friedans Feminine Mystique
drilled into my head as the feminist canon.
Granted, Friedans work on describing
the problem that has no name was
groundbreaking to bringing the impact of
gender double standards into the mainstream.
However, this narrative is flled with only
testimonials of white female college graduates.
In essence, its impact further cemented in
history a restricted image of who dealt with
the problem: suburban, middle-class white
women.
Dont Take it Personally
Legitimizing Individual Narratives in Social Justice
By Kerlyne Jean-Baptiste
ments with editors of popular publications on
my campus about the lack of content written
about black women and how when anything
is written at all, it coming from a person who
doesnt even hold the identity. You know who
you are. Do better.
Ive had men approach me with the
pick-up line: I have a thing for women of
color. Over the summer, this was the last
sentence I heard right before I was groped
and thereafer almost raped.
At times, when I felt safe enough to
fnally delve into my past and speak on all
of this, Ive only gotten a reaction, in facial
expression and words, poor you. As if my
experiences of being fetishized doesnt relate
to a greater history of objectifcation and
dehumanization of the black female body. As
if my dealings with academia at Brown and
publications on this campus doesnt speak to
the greater silence mass media holds on black
womens issues.
It was once said to me that this silencing
of black women is even more dangerous than
the presence of conversations that propagate
social injustice. In my opinion, our society
balances on the deadly line between both:
absence in conversation and the presence of
one that belittles and distorts lived experi-
ences.
When a seven-year-old Quvenzhan
Wallis was called a cunt by a mass media
outlet and the only critique and backlash
came from black feminist blogs, it is more
than an isolated incident of inappropriate
humor. If of anything, it is a testament to the
And thats okay. I can begrudgingly accept
that. I cant change history. I cant change
the past. Racist frameworks did play into
the branding of the frst and second waves of
feminism, the members of which benefted
from this framework the most. Te Feminine
Mystique is a narrative of feminism worth
telling within academic circles. My issue here
is why in the third wave of feminism, the
movement that is heralded to be more inclu-
sive, we are still lacking in diverse personal
narratives legitimized in mainstream
academics, journalism, media, and even on
this campus?
Outside of Browns Africana Studies
Department, there are very few times where I
have been able to have a conversation on the
intersectionality of race and gender in the
classroom, with either my classmates or my
professors. Ive had a peer condescendingly
ask during class why the issue of race matters
in literature. Ive had a professor circle the
instances Ive written intersectionality in my
paper and ask me whether or not was a real
word. Microsof Word still has not acknowl-
edged it as one either. Despite the countless
times I have tried to Add it in my dictionary,
completed essays tend to end up looking like
a rough draf with incredibly poor grammar
and spelling.
Ive had white male students condescend-
ingly ask me at a pre-game what it means to
be a black woman in America, as if I could
speak to the experience of an entire race, and
then shut me down when I respond with my
personal experiences. Ive had multiple argu-
trigger warning: sexual assault
Black/African-American, female, 18-25.
It is only fair to the reader that I begin this
conversation with the demographics I have to
check of in every census, application, survey,
or questionnaire.
I am a young black woman in America.
I am not one of the three, two of the three,
but all of these three identities. Ofen times,
there is a tendency for black womens issues
to become a summarized subtopic in greater
conversations on race or gender. Perpetually
placed in the category of either/or in terms
of identity, the politics and history behind
being black and a woman in America is rarely
analyzed, nor appreciated by mainstream
media.
Before coming to Brown, my education
of feminism only underlined the impact of
white American women within the frst and
second waves. Never did we speak about the
impact that black feminism, specifcally black
women who were involved in Civil Rights
organizations, had in laying the foundation
of the Womens Liberation Movement. Even
still, I have little knowledge of what feminism
means out of the context of the American
narrative. Instead, like many other American
students, I had the high school experience of
having Betty Friedans Feminine Mystique
drilled into my head as the feminist canon.
Granted, Friedans work on describing
the problem that has no name was
groundbreaking to bringing the impact of
gender double standards into the mainstream.
However, this narrative is flled with only
testimonials of white female college graduates.
In essence, its impact further cemented in
history a restricted image of who dealt with
the problem: suburban, middle-class white
women.
Dont Take it Personally
Legitimizing Individual Narratives in Social Justice
By Kerlyne Jean-Baptiste
ments with editors of popular publications on
my campus about the lack of content written
about black women and how when anything
is written at all, it coming from a person who
doesnt even hold the identity. You know who
you are. Do better.
Ive had men approach me with the
pick-up line: I have a thing for women of
color. Over the summer, this was the last
sentence I heard right before I was groped
and thereafer almost raped.
At times, when I felt safe enough to
fnally delve into my past and speak on all
of this, Ive only gotten a reaction, in facial
expression and words, poor you. As if my
experiences of being fetishized doesnt relate
to a greater history of objectifcation and
dehumanization of the black female body. As
if my dealings with academia at Brown and
publications on this campus doesnt speak to
the greater silence mass media holds on black
womens issues.
It was once said to me that this silencing
of black women is even more dangerous than
the presence of conversations that propagate
social injustice. In my opinion, our society
balances on the deadly line between both:
absence in conversation and the presence of
one that belittles and distorts lived experi-
ences.
When a seven-year-old Quvenzhan
Wallis was called a cunt by a mass media
outlet and the only critique and backlash
came from black feminist blogs, it is more
than an isolated incident of inappropriate
humor. If of anything, it is a testament to the
And thats okay. I can begrudgingly accept
that. I cant change history. I cant change
the past. Racist frameworks did play into
the branding of the frst and second waves of
feminism, the members of which benefted
from this framework the most. Te Feminine
Mystique is a narrative of feminism worth
telling within academic circles. My issue here
is why in the third wave of feminism, the
movement that is heralded to be more inclu-
sive, we are still lacking in diverse personal
narratives legitimized in mainstream
academics, journalism, media, and even on
this campus?
Outside of Browns Africana Studies
Department, there are very few times where I
have been able to have a conversation on the
intersectionality of race and gender in the
classroom, with either my classmates or my
professors. Ive had a peer condescendingly
ask during class why the issue of race matters
in literature. Ive had a professor circle the
instances Ive written intersectionality in my
paper and ask me whether or not was a real
word. Microsof Word still has not acknowl-
edged it as one either. Despite the countless
times I have tried to Add it in my dictionary,
completed essays tend to end up looking like
a rough draf with incredibly poor grammar
and spelling.
Ive had white male students condescend-
ingly ask me at a pre-game what it means to
be a black woman in America, as if I could
speak to the experience of an entire race, and
then shut me down when I respond with my
personal experiences. Ive had multiple argu-
trigger warning: sexual assault
issue four | 48 dont take it personally | 47
women of the next generation will have to
face the same issues of having their stories
legitimized in conversations about social
justice and theory. I wonder if they too will
hope to God that their story clings on to
some level of consciousness held by non-black
women. Tat being a black girl doesnt feel so
dangerous all the time or so damn incompre-
hensive to the media or the academic felds
they inhabit. Tat they can have the freedom
of knowing and embracing that theyre not
alone. Its not only personal.
Editors Note: Te critique of the Feminine
Mystique as an articulation of white feminism
is drawn fom bell hooks second book, Feminist
Teory: From Margin to Center.
Radhika Rajan
larger narrative on medias hyper-sexualiza-
tion of black women, and the nonchalance
to not think twice of defaming a young
black body. No one would have dared to call
a fve-year-old Shirley Temple such a word
at the time of her child stardom. Hypothet-
ically, if Shirley Temple were to be called a
cunt, the type of media attention it would
garner, would bind it forever to the feminist
platform. When Lupita Nyongo confessed
to her deep-rooted feelings of self-hate as a
dark-skinned black woman during her Black
Women in Hollywood acceptance speech,
it is not exclusive to only her sentiments and
self-esteem. Her speech is a personal note of
colorism the social practices of prejudice
compounded with socioeconomic and legal
discrimination by which those with lighter
skin are treated more favorably than those
with darker skin.
My preconceived notions of the Brown
community were that I would no longer hear
the sigh under my classmates breaths when I
brought up my narrative and the other narra-
tives of race, class and gender. Tat I wouldnt
need to feel that my narrative is only legiti-
mized in a room of the Tird World Center
or in a blog post on Black Girl Dangerous.
Tat I could have the full autonomy to
embrace my identity beyond the pockets of
black feminism. Or have to constantly be
subjugated to explain what black feminism
is. Tat I could fnally fnd a space in my life
to fully embrace my skin, the darkness of my
skin, and the greater narrative it feeds into.
Sometimes, I wonder whether black
Kah Yangni Fall 2012
issue four | 48 dont take it personally | 47
women of the next generation will have to
face the same issues of having their stories
legitimized in conversations about social
justice and theory. I wonder if they too will
hope to God that their story clings on to
some level of consciousness held by non-black
women. Tat being a black girl doesnt feel so
dangerous all the time or so damn incompre-
hensive to the media or the academic felds
they inhabit. Tat they can have the freedom
of knowing and embracing that theyre not
alone. Its not only personal.
Editors Note: Te critique of the Feminine
Mystique as an articulation of white feminism
is drawn fom bell hooks second book, Feminist
Teory: From Margin to Center.
Radhika Rajan
larger narrative on medias hyper-sexualiza-
tion of black women, and the nonchalance
to not think twice of defaming a young
black body. No one would have dared to call
a fve-year-old Shirley Temple such a word
at the time of her child stardom. Hypothet-
ically, if Shirley Temple were to be called a
cunt, the type of media attention it would
garner, would bind it forever to the feminist
platform. When Lupita Nyongo confessed
to her deep-rooted feelings of self-hate as a
dark-skinned black woman during her Black
Women in Hollywood acceptance speech,
it is not exclusive to only her sentiments and
self-esteem. Her speech is a personal note of
colorism the social practices of prejudice
compounded with socioeconomic and legal
discrimination by which those with lighter
skin are treated more favorably than those
with darker skin.
My preconceived notions of the Brown
community were that I would no longer hear
the sigh under my classmates breaths when I
brought up my narrative and the other narra-
tives of race, class and gender. Tat I wouldnt
need to feel that my narrative is only legiti-
mized in a room of the Tird World Center
or in a blog post on Black Girl Dangerous.
Tat I could have the full autonomy to
embrace my identity beyond the pockets of
black feminism. Or have to constantly be
subjugated to explain what black feminism
is. Tat I could fnally fnd a space in my life
to fully embrace my skin, the darkness of my
skin, and the greater narrative it feeds into.
Sometimes, I wonder whether black
Kah Yangni Fall 2012
Mimi Ti Nguyen is an Associate Professor
of Gender and Womens Studies and Asian
American Studies at the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign as a Conrad Human-
ities Scholar. She is the author of Te Gif
of Freedom: War, Debt, and Other Refugee
Passages. Nguyen has also been involved in punk
and zine communities since the early 1990s. She
is responsible for organizing and distributing the
compilation zine Race Riot in the late 90s, and is
a collaborator in the POC Zine Project.
Sophia Seawell: How do you inhabit both
the spaces of the academy and activism, and
in particular, an activism grounded in the
politics of punk, given that these are ofen
constructed as dichotomous and antago-
nistic?
Mimi Nguyen: Te work that I do in the
academy on war and empire frst devel-
oped out of my politicization in punk. My
exposure to the idea of the United States
as a liberal empire though not then
described in those words happened when
I encountered the longest running punk
magazine Maximum Rockandroll in the
1990s and learned about the Ronald Reagan
administrations covert military operations
in Central America, waged in the name of
freedom. I hadnt put that together with
being a refugee from the US war in Viet
Nam until I encountered punk and radical
politics, which then informed my academic
work. At the same time, my academic work
has also shaped my zines, my punk writing. I
was a Gender and Womens Studies major as
Mimi Thi Nguyen
by Chanelle Adams, Ann Kremen, and Sophia Seawell
because the content of better more
obedient, more efcient, whatever runs
counter to what I want to teach. In my
feminist theories courses, I say, Yeah, I
just gave you assignments with deadlines!
But I also want to say to you, whats so
great about work? Why do we believe work
is supposed to be edifying? Should we
always have to be productive? Why do we
imagine work as something that gives us
dignity? What if its just wearing us down?
My history in punk totally informs these
attempts to practice other ways of being
in a classroom, and other ways of being a
professor.
an undergraduate, and what I learned in the
classroom defnitely informed my zines. So
Ive always understood my intellectual work
in punk and the academy as not necessarily
distinct.
Te disjuncture then comes when I
consider how we are encouraged to carry
ourselves in the academy. I feel a lot of
pressures to professionalize, and the
prescriptions for professionalization ofen
run counter to my way of being in the
world. I also struggle with the directive
that I am supposed to professionalize my
students. I dont hold with the idea that I
should train students to be better workers,
a conversation with
(Un)productivity in the Digital Age
Mimi Ti Nguyen is an Associate Professor
of Gender and Womens Studies and Asian
American Studies at the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign as a Conrad Human-
ities Scholar. She is the author of Te Gif
of Freedom: War, Debt, and Other Refugee
Passages. Nguyen has also been involved in punk
and zine communities since the early 1990s. She
is responsible for organizing and distributing the
compilation zine Race Riot in the late 90s, and is
a collaborator in the POC Zine Project.
Sophia Seawell: How do you inhabit both
the spaces of the academy and activism, and
in particular, an activism grounded in the
politics of punk, given that these are ofen
constructed as dichotomous and antago-
nistic?
Mimi Nguyen: Te work that I do in the
academy on war and empire frst devel-
oped out of my politicization in punk. My
exposure to the idea of the United States
as a liberal empire though not then
described in those words happened when
I encountered the longest running punk
magazine Maximum Rockandroll in the
1990s and learned about the Ronald Reagan
administrations covert military operations
in Central America, waged in the name of
freedom. I hadnt put that together with
being a refugee from the US war in Viet
Nam until I encountered punk and radical
politics, which then informed my academic
work. At the same time, my academic work
has also shaped my zines, my punk writing. I
was a Gender and Womens Studies major as
Mimi Thi Nguyen
by Chanelle Adams, Ann Kremen, and Sophia Seawell
because the content of better more
obedient, more efcient, whatever runs
counter to what I want to teach. In my
feminist theories courses, I say, Yeah, I
just gave you assignments with deadlines!
But I also want to say to you, whats so
great about work? Why do we believe work
is supposed to be edifying? Should we
always have to be productive? Why do we
imagine work as something that gives us
dignity? What if its just wearing us down?
My history in punk totally informs these
attempts to practice other ways of being
in a classroom, and other ways of being a
professor.
an undergraduate, and what I learned in the
classroom defnitely informed my zines. So
Ive always understood my intellectual work
in punk and the academy as not necessarily
distinct.
Te disjuncture then comes when I
consider how we are encouraged to carry
ourselves in the academy. I feel a lot of
pressures to professionalize, and the
prescriptions for professionalization ofen
run counter to my way of being in the
world. I also struggle with the directive
that I am supposed to professionalize my
students. I dont hold with the idea that I
should train students to be better workers,
a conversation with
(Un)productivity in the Digital Age
issue four | 52 (un)productivity in the digital age | 51
network for that? Did that network already
exist? Did you meet resistance initially?
MN: In the late 1980s and 1990s, there was
a semi-silence about race and racisms in punk
and punk-adjacent scenes. What anti-racist
discourses or practices circulated within punk
tended to boil down to Fuck Nazis, which
was a real problem in punk scenes at the time.
I know plenty of older punks who rumbled
with Nazi skinheads, and much respect to
them but I wanted more. While neo-Nazi
skins were absolutely present as threats, what
other conversations could we have about
say, swastikas as ironic racism or racist cool?
Or, about people of color or non-Western
peoples in histories of punk sounds, aesthetics,
politics?
Te impetus for Race Riot came when a
columnist at Maximum Rockandroll wrote
about his Asian fetish, suggesting that Asian
womens eyelids look like vulva, and that
their vulva might be also horizontal. It is
an old imperial joke there are all kinds
of imperial jokes about how racial, colonial
womens bodies are so inhuman that their
genitalia might refect this alien state. I wrote
a letter to Maximum, cussing and citing
postcolonial feminist theory. He then wrote a
lengthy column in response about how though
Im Asian, because Im an ugly feminist, he
wouldnt want to fuck me anyway. Tere was
a discussion at the magazine about whether
or not to publish this column because the
magazine had a policy no racism, no sexism,
no homophobia. But the coordinator and
SS: Are there frameworks or approaches
you got from punk that youve brought
with you to other spaces?
MN: What I got out of punk is an unwilling-
ness to accept what I am told is good as true
or obvious. Punk gave me words and gestures
for once inchoate feelings about the cluster of
promises that comprise what Lauren Berlant
calls a cruel optimism the state and capital
are on your side! Te ring on your fnger is a
sign of love and protection! So, if I am told,
Tis is what you should be doing, its for your
own good, my frst impulse is usually on
the inside these days Fuck you! And then
Why?
When I was thinking about the so-called
gif of freedom this notion that the United
States is invested in granting to others who
dont have it the gif of freedom I want to
know: How is this thing that so ofen arrives
in the form of waging war a gif? Why is this
the shape that freedom should necessarily
take? Tis skepticism defnitely informs
my feminist and queer politics as well. Why
should anti-violence campaigns rely on the
police or the prison to protect us? Why is the
present ceiling of LGBT politics marriage
rights? Why are these things given to us as
necessary social goods? And, what are they
doing beyond what they claim to do?
Chanelle Adams: Your zine Race Riot came
at a time when there were not race discus-
sions happening in the punk scene. How
did you go about organizing support and a
MN: While these concerns are not part of
my scholarship, I have thought about these
questions a lot. New technologies have
produced expectations that we now have
more democratic access to more knowledge,
and that we must accommodate ourselves to
an accelerated sense of time. But I am wary
of this internalization of capitals rhythms
for continuous consumption and open-
ended production. I hate feeling obliged to
produce a post or tweet on a timetable. It
makes me anxious. Tere is value in being
about to respond quickly to an object or
event, of course, but I also want to hold out
for other forms of temporal consciousness,
including untimeliness and contemplation
of deep structures, sitting with an object over
time to consider how it changes you, how the
encounter with it changes the nature of your
inquiry.
SS: Te digital is such a generative space
for building connections and communities,
yet, at the same time, it is characterized
by its speed and ephemerality, and it can
ofen be unsafe. In what ways do you see
the logics of digital media and the Internet
afecting the way that communities orga-
nized around social justice form online?
MN: We live in a moment during which we
have internalized surveillance and security
cultures to such a degree that perhaps we
also assume others can be rendered into
units of knowable data their avatars, their
tweets or their posts. But I would want to
founder of the magazine decided that this
column qualifed as satire, and so it was
acceptable.
It was really infuriating for me to be
19 years old, totally invested in punk and
politics, to be attacked under the guise of
racist cool in the punk magazine. I was like,
Fuck it, Im quitting punk. But I fgured
I should do something, to leave something
behind as a practice and as a document, to
reach other punks of color who might feel
as isolated as I did in the afermath. Tere
wasnt yet a broader discussion about race
or about people of color in punk, and we
didnt have the Internet at the time in the
way that we do now! I sent postcards out
to other punks, to the few people of color
I knew in punk, to hand out at shows. It
was all word of mouth, plus a massive
physical fyer campaign. Te relative ease
with which punks and especially queer
punks, punks of color, feminist punks
can fnd each other online, and share
histories, photographs, music, and more,
was just not possible when I made the frst
Race Riot.
CA: Since youve been active in the
POC zine community for years, how
do you think about the transformation
from material forms like zines to digital
ones like blogs and Twitter? How do
you respond to pressure to immediately
respond through social media platforms?
Do you fnd it hard to take the time to
have a contemplative feminism?
network for that? Did that network already
exist? Did you meet resistance initially?
MN: In the late 1980s and 1990s, there was
a semi-silence about race and racisms in punk
and punk-adjacent scenes. What anti-racist
discourses or practices circulated within punk
tended to boil down to Fuck Nazis, which
was a real problem in punk scenes at the time.
I know plenty of older punks who rumbled
with Nazi skinheads, and much respect to
them but I wanted more. While neo-Nazi
skins were absolutely present as threats, what
other conversations could we have about
say, swastikas as ironic racism or racist cool?
Or, about people of color or non-Western
peoples in histories of punk sounds, aesthetics,
politics?
Te impetus for Race Riot came when a
columnist at Maximum Rockandroll wrote
about his Asian fetish, suggesting that Asian
womens eyelids look like vulva, and that
their vulva might be also horizontal. It is
an old imperial joke there are all kinds
of imperial jokes about how racial, colonial
womens bodies are so inhuman that their
genitalia might refect this alien state. I wrote
a letter to Maximum, cussing and citing
postcolonial feminist theory. He then wrote a
lengthy column in response about how though
Im Asian, because Im an ugly feminist, he
wouldnt want to fuck me anyway. Tere was
a discussion at the magazine about whether
or not to publish this column because the
magazine had a policy no racism, no sexism,
no homophobia. But the coordinator and
SS: Are there frameworks or approaches
you got from punk that youve brought
with you to other spaces?
MN: What I got out of punk is an unwilling-
ness to accept what I am told is good as true
or obvious. Punk gave me words and gestures
for once inchoate feelings about the cluster of
promises that comprise what Lauren Berlant
calls a cruel optimism the state and capital
are on your side! Te ring on your fnger is a
sign of love and protection! So, if I am told,
Tis is what you should be doing, its for your
own good, my frst impulse is usually on
the inside these days Fuck you! And then
Why?
When I was thinking about the so-called
gif of freedom this notion that the United
States is invested in granting to others who
dont have it the gif of freedom I want to
know: How is this thing that so ofen arrives
in the form of waging war a gif? Why is this
the shape that freedom should necessarily
take? Tis skepticism defnitely informs
my feminist and queer politics as well. Why
should anti-violence campaigns rely on the
police or the prison to protect us? Why is the
present ceiling of LGBT politics marriage
rights? Why are these things given to us as
necessary social goods? And, what are they
doing beyond what they claim to do?
Chanelle Adams: Your zine Race Riot came
at a time when there were not race discus-
sions happening in the punk scene. How
did you go about organizing support and a
MN: While these concerns are not part of
my scholarship, I have thought about these
questions a lot. New technologies have
produced expectations that we now have
more democratic access to more knowledge,
and that we must accommodate ourselves to
an accelerated sense of time. But I am wary
of this internalization of capitals rhythms
for continuous consumption and open-
ended production. I hate feeling obliged to
produce a post or tweet on a timetable. It
makes me anxious. Tere is value in being
about to respond quickly to an object or
event, of course, but I also want to hold out
for other forms of temporal consciousness,
including untimeliness and contemplation
of deep structures, sitting with an object over
time to consider how it changes you, how the
encounter with it changes the nature of your
inquiry.
SS: Te digital is such a generative space
for building connections and communities,
yet, at the same time, it is characterized
by its speed and ephemerality, and it can
ofen be unsafe. In what ways do you see
the logics of digital media and the Internet
afecting the way that communities orga-
nized around social justice form online?
MN: We live in a moment during which we
have internalized surveillance and security
cultures to such a degree that perhaps we
also assume others can be rendered into
units of knowable data their avatars, their
tweets or their posts. But I would want to
founder of the magazine decided that this
column qualifed as satire, and so it was
acceptable.
It was really infuriating for me to be
19 years old, totally invested in punk and
politics, to be attacked under the guise of
racist cool in the punk magazine. I was like,
Fuck it, Im quitting punk. But I fgured
I should do something, to leave something
behind as a practice and as a document, to
reach other punks of color who might feel
as isolated as I did in the afermath. Tere
wasnt yet a broader discussion about race
or about people of color in punk, and we
didnt have the Internet at the time in the
way that we do now! I sent postcards out
to other punks, to the few people of color
I knew in punk, to hand out at shows. It
was all word of mouth, plus a massive
physical fyer campaign. Te relative ease
with which punks and especially queer
punks, punks of color, feminist punks
can fnd each other online, and share
histories, photographs, music, and more,
was just not possible when I made the frst
Race Riot.
CA: Since youve been active in the
POC zine community for years, how
do you think about the transformation
from material forms like zines to digital
ones like blogs and Twitter? How do
you respond to pressure to immediately
respond through social media platforms?
Do you fnd it hard to take the time to
have a contemplative feminism?
MN: In considering self-care, I would challenge
the ideas that work is good for us, that we be
productive or measure other persons and things
by their usefulness to us, and that we engage in
constant calculation about value. What might
constitute radical self-care under conditions of
neoliberal capital? which is a very predatory
capital that, as Lauren Berlant puts it so well,
aims to wear our bodies out and commit us
(diferentially, of course) to slow death. Maybe
it means refusing to be productive, useful,
transparent, accountable in computational or
compensatory forms, or even valuable according
to prevailing measures. Such refusals could
inform self-care like maybe I just want to sit
by this beach, and it doesnt have to be made
meaningful as a revolutionary act! but also
a more unpredictable, imperfect politics under
contemporary conditions of power and knowl-
edge that aim to render each of us as knowable
bits of data.
Tats why I am making zines again, because
these shape a diferent relationship for me
to creative and intellectual labor. I am not
compensated for my labor-time, I dont receive
quantifable forms of recognition in terms
of numbers in circulation or for professional
promotion. Tats why the Race Riot zines are
still the best things Ive ever made. No matter
how numerous the copies or readers are, its
impact is unquantifable, discontinuous, and
untrackable.
MN: Corporate and creative-speak now
converge through a language about originality
and intellectual property: each individuals
capacity for creativity can and should be
encouraged in order to create intellectual
properties for a corporation or institutional
entity. Our claims to originality and intel-
lectual property are commodifed as forms of
labor that we voluntarily donate and circulate
as user-generated content for multibil-
lion-dollar corporate platforms such as
Twitter, which are meanwhile accumulating
and privatizing massive political and fnancial
capital. Consider Twitter or Google in San
Francisco, and the acceleration of evictions
displacing the racialized poor and the eviscer-
ation of social services in the city as a direct
consequence of its powers.
Can we or should we separate Twitters
emergence through these structures of global
capital and racial violence from the platforms
claims to facilitate a true public sphere, to
embed democratic principles of inclusion,
participation, and identifcation into its
code which frankly is a decades-old claim
for digital media! and then again from our
usages of that platform? What happens to the
even more marginal, the obscure, the slow, the
incommunicable, and the unproductive under
such metrics of relevance?
CA: What are ways that we can continue to
exist within the system but also subvert it in
a way that is useful to ourselves, sustaining
ourselves and providing self-care?
freedom recognition and validation comes in
the quantifable, trackable form of likes, favor-
ites, reblogs, and retweets. Te more we produce,
the more we circulate, the more recognition we
receive, and that recognition becomes translated
as approximating justice. It is impact, absolutely.
But what does it mean to measure impact and
infuence through these viral measures, which
collapse quantifable recognition with evidence
of political movement? Is community the conse-
quence of success on the market?
Ann Kremen: You mentioned forms of
recognition coming as retweets, reblogs, or
likes. How do these ways of measuring
impact change the way that organizing is
conceptualized? What changes do you see in
the language being used, even within social
justice movements, to describe processes and
successes?
push against the premise that a stranger is
knowable from their observable data. How do
we recognize evidence of being a person under
neoliberal capital? Do you exist in the absence
of a selfe, or a tweet? What about all the
commitments and histories you cant account
for solely through the digitized self? I am not
at all saying selfes and tweets are bad, but I
am saying that these are the conditions under
which we fnd ourselves complicit and even
locate pleasure in our surveillance, and
in surveying others, and upon which access
to capital, love and other forms of sociality
increasingly depend.
Our surveillance apparatus and the
security state also depend on our becoming
trackable entities. Tis runs deep, so that even
on social justice Tumblr or Twitter which
are ofen platforms through which margin-
alized persons might articulate a desire for
What does it mean to measure
impact and influence through
these viral measures, which
collapse quantifable recognition
with evidence of political
movement?
MN: In considering self-care, I would challenge
the ideas that work is good for us, that we be
productive or measure other persons and things
by their usefulness to us, and that we engage in
constant calculation about value. What might
constitute radical self-care under conditions of
neoliberal capital? which is a very predatory
capital that, as Lauren Berlant puts it so well,
aims to wear our bodies out and commit us
(diferentially, of course) to slow death. Maybe
it means refusing to be productive, useful,
transparent, accountable in computational or
compensatory forms, or even valuable according
to prevailing measures. Such refusals could
inform self-care like maybe I just want to sit
by this beach, and it doesnt have to be made
meaningful as a revolutionary act! but also
a more unpredictable, imperfect politics under
contemporary conditions of power and knowl-
edge that aim to render each of us as knowable
bits of data.
Tats why I am making zines again, because
these shape a diferent relationship for me
to creative and intellectual labor. I am not
compensated for my labor-time, I dont receive
quantifable forms of recognition in terms
of numbers in circulation or for professional
promotion. Tats why the Race Riot zines are
still the best things Ive ever made. No matter
how numerous the copies or readers are, its
impact is unquantifable, discontinuous, and
untrackable.
MN: Corporate and creative-speak now
converge through a language about originality
and intellectual property: each individuals
capacity for creativity can and should be
encouraged in order to create intellectual
properties for a corporation or institutional
entity. Our claims to originality and intel-
lectual property are commodifed as forms of
labor that we voluntarily donate and circulate
as user-generated content for multibil-
lion-dollar corporate platforms such as
Twitter, which are meanwhile accumulating
and privatizing massive political and fnancial
capital. Consider Twitter or Google in San
Francisco, and the acceleration of evictions
displacing the racialized poor and the eviscer-
ation of social services in the city as a direct
consequence of its powers.
Can we or should we separate Twitters
emergence through these structures of global
capital and racial violence from the platforms
claims to facilitate a true public sphere, to
embed democratic principles of inclusion,
participation, and identifcation into its
code which frankly is a decades-old claim
for digital media! and then again from our
usages of that platform? What happens to the
even more marginal, the obscure, the slow, the
incommunicable, and the unproductive under
such metrics of relevance?
CA: What are ways that we can continue to
exist within the system but also subvert it in
a way that is useful to ourselves, sustaining
ourselves and providing self-care?
freedom recognition and validation comes in
the quantifable, trackable form of likes, favor-
ites, reblogs, and retweets. Te more we produce,
the more we circulate, the more recognition we
receive, and that recognition becomes translated
as approximating justice. It is impact, absolutely.
But what does it mean to measure impact and
infuence through these viral measures, which
collapse quantifable recognition with evidence
of political movement? Is community the conse-
quence of success on the market?
Ann Kremen: You mentioned forms of
recognition coming as retweets, reblogs, or
likes. How do these ways of measuring
impact change the way that organizing is
conceptualized? What changes do you see in
the language being used, even within social
justice movements, to describe processes and
successes?
push against the premise that a stranger is
knowable from their observable data. How do
we recognize evidence of being a person under
neoliberal capital? Do you exist in the absence
of a selfe, or a tweet? What about all the
commitments and histories you cant account
for solely through the digitized self? I am not
at all saying selfes and tweets are bad, but I
am saying that these are the conditions under
which we fnd ourselves complicit and even
locate pleasure in our surveillance, and
in surveying others, and upon which access
to capital, love and other forms of sociality
increasingly depend.
Our surveillance apparatus and the
security state also depend on our becoming
trackable entities. Tis runs deep, so that even
on social justice Tumblr or Twitter which
are ofen platforms through which margin-
alized persons might articulate a desire for
What does it mean to measure
impact and influence through
these viral measures, which
collapse quantifable recognition
with evidence of political
movement?
Kerri King All the Kings Birds
Feminist epistemology seeks to provide
ways of creating new possibilities and new
realities it does not seek to present a
simple defned answer, but instead to pose
more, perhaps better, questions. Mobi-
lizing feminist epistemologies alongside
intellectual property laws permits serious
investigation of current conceptions of
the United States legal system, and, more
specifcally, concepts of ownership and
property rights. A feminist theoretical
framework deeply challenges intellectual
property regulations and laws by inter-
rogating established concepts of what
constitutes an idea and its origin. It opens
the space to ask: What is knowledge? And
how can we regulate it?
Te American legal tradition, especially
in intellectual property, privileges the
inventor, the individual. What is excluded
from this system is the recognition of
communally constructed knowledge.
Currently there is no recourse within the
American legal framework to protect by
law such communally produced knowledge.
If invention is inspired by a community
experience such as a dinner party, or by
collectively determined solutions to a
catastrophe or trauma, how can we explain
that a single person can hold a monopoly on
the manifestation of that idea?
By using feminist epistemological tools
and perspectives to discuss the challenges
and rewards of applying a feminist critique
Imagining Feminist
Intellectual Property
by Tatum Lindsay
Kerri King All the Kings Birds
Feminist epistemology seeks to provide
ways of creating new possibilities and new
realities it does not seek to present a
simple defned answer, but instead to pose
more, perhaps better, questions. Mobi-
lizing feminist epistemologies alongside
intellectual property laws permits serious
investigation of current conceptions of
the United States legal system, and, more
specifcally, concepts of ownership and
property rights. A feminist theoretical
framework deeply challenges intellectual
property regulations and laws by inter-
rogating established concepts of what
constitutes an idea and its origin. It opens
the space to ask: What is knowledge? And
how can we regulate it?
Te American legal tradition, especially
in intellectual property, privileges the
inventor, the individual. What is excluded
from this system is the recognition of
communally constructed knowledge.
Currently there is no recourse within the
American legal framework to protect by
law such communally produced knowledge.
If invention is inspired by a community
experience such as a dinner party, or by
collectively determined solutions to a
catastrophe or trauma, how can we explain
that a single person can hold a monopoly on
the manifestation of that idea?
By using feminist epistemological tools
and perspectives to discuss the challenges
and rewards of applying a feminist critique
Imagining Feminist
Intellectual Property
by Tatum Lindsay
completely and directly deconstructs the
notion that products of the mind can and
should be regulated, protected, bought,
disputed, and commodifed. By privileging
no ones intellectual property, we can efec-
tively privilege all intellectual properties.
Creative artists, who work outside of the
realm of dominant power frameworks (read
as: straight white male), can rarely obtain
rights to their works because the current
legal system does not provide a means for
them to do so. Only recently has the labor of
choreography been deemed copyrightable in
the United States. In contrast, circuit boards,
sofware, and pharmaceutical drugs are not
only copyrightable and patentable but have
historically been protected to the fullest
extent to the law. Unfortunately, many
people have consistently been excluded from
the processes and protections of intellectual
property at every stage: from creating and
registering, to commodifying works and
collecting royalties on them. Dissolving
intellectual property laws and protections
would be one way to privilege all forms of
creative knowledges.
Te second vision seeks to eliminate
royalties to intellectual property holders.
Eliminating royalties and specifc protec-
tions to individuals challenges the logics
behind intellectual property laws, redefning
the structuring logic for participation in a
system that privileges a white, masculine
construction of global economics: capitalism
and exploitation. Intellectual property laws
attempt to stimulate a robust capitalistic
of intellectual property, I propose four new
possible felds of vision:
1) An elimination of intellectual prop-
erty laws altogether,
2) A set of intellectual property laws
that will eliminate royalties and specifc
protections to individuals, but not the
law itself,
3) An ideological shif in the law that
would allow communal and afective
knowledges to be aforded equal protec-
tions,
4) A quota system that would ensure
that all people are equally represented
as owners of intellectual property in the
world.
It goes without saying that the outright
eradication of intellectual property laws
would cause drastic changes. Its subsequent
disassociation with the current economic
system in the United States, a capitalistic
system that relies on individual property,
would be greatly altered. For example,
pharmaceutical companies, which hold
many patents in the United States, would
no longer hold exclusive rights to those
products and would inevitably cause many
brand-name drug prices to plummet. Tis
would perhaps enforce the appropriate
compensation of indigenous communities
upon which much pharmaceutical knowl-
edge is based.
Feminists should be interested in
considering such an eradication because it
imagining feminist intellectual property | 57 issue four | 58
proposes that actual lived experience is an
important site of knowledge production. To
expand on her initial formulation, one could
imagine a world in which feelings, traumas,
biographies, oral histories, and social events
are perceived as valid sites of knowledge
production. Collins transformative work on
feminist epistemological thought challenges
the construction of intellectual property
laws by questioning the underlying authority
and origin of ownership: who has the rights
to ownership? Where does ownership come
from? Does it have to be written? Published?
In a society that was built on patriarchal
values and privileges patriarchal construc-
tions of the law, feminist epistemologies like
Collins seek to dismantle the ways through
which knowledge (and intellectual property)
is produced and regulated.
Cultural intellectual property, a topic
that has been widely written about in
feminist communities, exemplifes our
current legal systems inability to privilege
group or communal knowledges. Cultural
capital produced by a culture or an ethnic
group, such as fables or parables, traditional
crafs, canning, and moonshine recipes are
all examples of what a feminist epistemology
investigates. It asks how these cultural
productions and interpretations of knowl-
edge (therefore intellectual property) have
been appropriated. How were they created?
Do cultures want to have rights to commu-
nally produced work(s)? How can we know?
Te rainbow fag, for example, has
represented the LGBTQ community since
free-market by providing a competitive
marketplace. Tey incentivize creativity, not
as an ends in itself, but instead as a means
to make proft by giving creators rights to
the products of their creativity. Intellec-
tual property laws also ensure, and seek to
expand, public access to creative products in
a competitive marketplace.
Trough intellectual property laws,
Americans participate in the process
through which they gain acceptance to the
system of neoliberal capitalism. Eliminating
both royalties and the individual as patent
or copyright holder opens the possibility
for new cultural attitudes to emerge. For
example, current intellectual property laws
do not have the ability to efectively deal
with sites of knowledge production. Wiki-
pedia may have solved their intellectual
property problem with Creative Commons
licensing, but what structures are in place
for everyone else to protect collective
knowledges and experiences? Can marginal-
ized groups successfully protect their works
within our current legal system? It is hard
to say.
Te third idea that I suggest is to work
within the existing framework of the law
and re-write these laws to include provi-
sions for group-based work. Provisions
in the current law allowing groups to
have joint-authorship do exist, but these
provisions are not the form of protection
that a feminist epistemological framework
seeks. Patricia Hill Collins, an inspiration
behind feminist standpoint epistemology,
completely and directly deconstructs the
notion that products of the mind can and
should be regulated, protected, bought,
disputed, and commodifed. By privileging
no ones intellectual property, we can efec-
tively privilege all intellectual properties.
Creative artists, who work outside of the
realm of dominant power frameworks (read
as: straight white male), can rarely obtain
rights to their works because the current
legal system does not provide a means for
them to do so. Only recently has the labor of
choreography been deemed copyrightable in
the United States. In contrast, circuit boards,
sofware, and pharmaceutical drugs are not
only copyrightable and patentable but have
historically been protected to the fullest
extent to the law. Unfortunately, many
people have consistently been excluded from
the processes and protections of intellectual
property at every stage: from creating and
registering, to commodifying works and
collecting royalties on them. Dissolving
intellectual property laws and protections
would be one way to privilege all forms of
creative knowledges.
Te second vision seeks to eliminate
royalties to intellectual property holders.
Eliminating royalties and specifc protec-
tions to individuals challenges the logics
behind intellectual property laws, redefning
the structuring logic for participation in a
system that privileges a white, masculine
construction of global economics: capitalism
and exploitation. Intellectual property laws
attempt to stimulate a robust capitalistic
of intellectual property, I propose four new
possible felds of vision:
1) An elimination of intellectual prop-
erty laws altogether,
2) A set of intellectual property laws
that will eliminate royalties and specifc
protections to individuals, but not the
law itself,
3) An ideological shif in the law that
would allow communal and afective
knowledges to be aforded equal protec-
tions,
4) A quota system that would ensure
that all people are equally represented
as owners of intellectual property in the
world.
It goes without saying that the outright
eradication of intellectual property laws
would cause drastic changes. Its subsequent
disassociation with the current economic
system in the United States, a capitalistic
system that relies on individual property,
would be greatly altered. For example,
pharmaceutical companies, which hold
many patents in the United States, would
no longer hold exclusive rights to those
products and would inevitably cause many
brand-name drug prices to plummet. Tis
would perhaps enforce the appropriate
compensation of indigenous communities
upon which much pharmaceutical knowl-
edge is based.
Feminists should be interested in
considering such an eradication because it
imagining feminist intellectual property | 57 issue four | 58
proposes that actual lived experience is an
important site of knowledge production. To
expand on her initial formulation, one could
imagine a world in which feelings, traumas,
biographies, oral histories, and social events
are perceived as valid sites of knowledge
production. Collins transformative work on
feminist epistemological thought challenges
the construction of intellectual property
laws by questioning the underlying authority
and origin of ownership: who has the rights
to ownership? Where does ownership come
from? Does it have to be written? Published?
In a society that was built on patriarchal
values and privileges patriarchal construc-
tions of the law, feminist epistemologies like
Collins seek to dismantle the ways through
which knowledge (and intellectual property)
is produced and regulated.
Cultural intellectual property, a topic
that has been widely written about in
feminist communities, exemplifes our
current legal systems inability to privilege
group or communal knowledges. Cultural
capital produced by a culture or an ethnic
group, such as fables or parables, traditional
crafs, canning, and moonshine recipes are
all examples of what a feminist epistemology
investigates. It asks how these cultural
productions and interpretations of knowl-
edge (therefore intellectual property) have
been appropriated. How were they created?
Do cultures want to have rights to commu-
nally produced work(s)? How can we know?
Te rainbow fag, for example, has
represented the LGBTQ community since
free-market by providing a competitive
marketplace. Tey incentivize creativity, not
as an ends in itself, but instead as a means
to make proft by giving creators rights to
the products of their creativity. Intellec-
tual property laws also ensure, and seek to
expand, public access to creative products in
a competitive marketplace.
Trough intellectual property laws,
Americans participate in the process
through which they gain acceptance to the
system of neoliberal capitalism. Eliminating
both royalties and the individual as patent
or copyright holder opens the possibility
for new cultural attitudes to emerge. For
example, current intellectual property laws
do not have the ability to efectively deal
with sites of knowledge production. Wiki-
pedia may have solved their intellectual
property problem with Creative Commons
licensing, but what structures are in place
for everyone else to protect collective
knowledges and experiences? Can marginal-
ized groups successfully protect their works
within our current legal system? It is hard
to say.
Te third idea that I suggest is to work
within the existing framework of the law
and re-write these laws to include provi-
sions for group-based work. Provisions
in the current law allowing groups to
have joint-authorship do exist, but these
provisions are not the form of protection
that a feminist epistemological framework
seeks. Patricia Hill Collins, an inspiration
behind feminist standpoint epistemology,
issue four | 60 imagining feminist intellectual property | 59
more female registrants of intellectual
property does not necessitate a feminist
vision of intellectual property law, but it is
an important starting point. When women
become the center of intellectual property
(and not just a simple majority of registrants),
the traditional male power structures
established by our Founding Fathers are
challenged. Te nomination of Michelle
K. Lee to Deputy Director of the United
States Patent and Trademark Ofce, the
ofce that regulates and manages all patent
and trademark registrations in the United
States, is a step in the right direction, but is
representation in leadership the only way to
fulfll this feminist fantasy?
A feminist framework can provide new
avenues to reimagine intellectual property
law. By drawing from the intersectional
vision of the feminist movement, one can
begin to conceive of many diverse inter-
pretations of intellectual property. I have
provided a limited number of solutions, but
I want to also point out that there is no one
right feminist way. Hopefully, intellectual
property law in the United States will adapt
to address these issues related to the complex
process of naming, regulating, and judging
what constitutes knowledge in the 21
st
century.

Edited by Marina Golan-Vilella and
Shierly Mondiati
the 1978 assassination of San Franciscos
frst openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk.
Originally designed by Gilbert Baker in
1978, the fag has gained substantial status as
the trademark, so to speak, of the LGBTQ
community and it was used to commem-
orate Milk in the 1979 Pride Parade. Te
International Congress of Flag Makers now
recognizes the fag. Although the commu-
nity has not trademarked this image, could
they? Even among those who may share
similar histories and may identify with a
group, such as the LGTBQ community,
there will always be individuals who may
not feel as closely aligned with a community
or movement, which will ostensibly confict
with the goals of communally produced
intellectual properties.
Te fourth, and last, vision for a feminist
future in intellectual property is to establish
quotas for all people to be equally repre-
sented in patent, copyright, and trademark
registration. While this idea is impractical
and defes the theoretical underpinnings of
Constitutional law in the United States, it
could point to a long-term solution. Tis
vision would allow for everyone to be
recognized as productive and contributing
members of the creative economy.
Tere is no time like the present to begin
thinking of new ways to protect or produce
intellectual rights legislation. While
women have made signifcant advances
in the sciences and in creative arts, they
are still underrepresented as registrants of
patents and copyrighted works. Pursuing
Mother Mirror
by Tyler Vile
Do you see through my stubble?
Do you forgive my
eyebrows? Te shaking
hands that paint my eyelids
arent here today.
Ive been drinking with the frat boys,
covering rusted crutch cufs
with duct tape, and not making
as many excuses afer I pass out at
5 a.m.
I never cut my wrists,
I was smarter than to
give my teachers, doctors,
physical therapists, and
friends a peek at the color
of my blood.
I was falling on the bus,
sputtering in class, walked in
with a red handprint on my face.
I was happy when my zits were
bleeding, who gives a shit about
acne medication?
trigger warning: self-harm
issue four | 60 imagining feminist intellectual property | 59
more female registrants of intellectual
property does not necessitate a feminist
vision of intellectual property law, but it is
an important starting point. When women
become the center of intellectual property
(and not just a simple majority of registrants),
the traditional male power structures
established by our Founding Fathers are
challenged. Te nomination of Michelle
K. Lee to Deputy Director of the United
States Patent and Trademark Ofce, the
ofce that regulates and manages all patent
and trademark registrations in the United
States, is a step in the right direction, but is
representation in leadership the only way to
fulfll this feminist fantasy?
A feminist framework can provide new
avenues to reimagine intellectual property
law. By drawing from the intersectional
vision of the feminist movement, one can
begin to conceive of many diverse inter-
pretations of intellectual property. I have
provided a limited number of solutions, but
I want to also point out that there is no one
right feminist way. Hopefully, intellectual
property law in the United States will adapt
to address these issues related to the complex
process of naming, regulating, and judging
what constitutes knowledge in the 21
st
century.

Edited by Marina Golan-Vilella and
Shierly Mondiati
the 1978 assassination of San Franciscos
frst openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk.
Originally designed by Gilbert Baker in
1978, the fag has gained substantial status as
the trademark, so to speak, of the LGBTQ
community and it was used to commem-
orate Milk in the 1979 Pride Parade. Te
International Congress of Flag Makers now
recognizes the fag. Although the commu-
nity has not trademarked this image, could
they? Even among those who may share
similar histories and may identify with a
group, such as the LGTBQ community,
there will always be individuals who may
not feel as closely aligned with a community
or movement, which will ostensibly confict
with the goals of communally produced
intellectual properties.
Te fourth, and last, vision for a feminist
future in intellectual property is to establish
quotas for all people to be equally repre-
sented in patent, copyright, and trademark
registration. While this idea is impractical
and defes the theoretical underpinnings of
Constitutional law in the United States, it
could point to a long-term solution. Tis
vision would allow for everyone to be
recognized as productive and contributing
members of the creative economy.
Tere is no time like the present to begin
thinking of new ways to protect or produce
intellectual rights legislation. While
women have made signifcant advances
in the sciences and in creative arts, they
are still underrepresented as registrants of
patents and copyrighted works. Pursuing
Mother Mirror
by Tyler Vile
Do you see through my stubble?
Do you forgive my
eyebrows? Te shaking
hands that paint my eyelids
arent here today.
Ive been drinking with the frat boys,
covering rusted crutch cufs
with duct tape, and not making
as many excuses afer I pass out at
5 a.m.
I never cut my wrists,
I was smarter than to
give my teachers, doctors,
physical therapists, and
friends a peek at the color
of my blood.
I was falling on the bus,
sputtering in class, walked in
with a red handprint on my face.
I was happy when my zits were
bleeding, who gives a shit about
acne medication?
trigger warning: self-harm
March 13
It begins here for me, at the El Paso Interna-
tional Airport. But it begins 13 miles and 118
years away for Julio Martnez, the father of the
mother of my father (read: great-grandfather)
in 1896 and the Segundo Barrio of El Paso. All
I know about Julio is on his gravestone: June 9,
1890-December 16, 1960. CA Pvt Co G 163 Inf 41
Div WWI.
One day, a year and a half ago, I woke up, sat
up, and told my boyfriend I wanted to break up:
Im just a corpse now, dont you see? Im a skeleton,
a shadow of who I once was. And Im fading fast.
Barely anyone can see me now, and soon enough,
no one will see me. Tis began the night before,
when I confessed I would rather fade out of exis-
tence than be an outline of what I once was. Te
next day, I silenced a new confession: there was no
what I once was. I had already been a shadow
an outline of a human but with no substance all
my life.
March 14
When I was nine, my family spent a day on
Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. We walked
down Massachusetts Avenue NW, passing over
ffy embassies. My father told me embassies did
not abide by American laws so being on embassy
property was like being in a diferent country.
My younger sister and I turned this into a game,
jumping from the sidewalk to each embassys
driveway and then back to the sidewalk. Each
time, my father exclaimed: Now, youve been
in Greece! or Japan, Estonia, and so on. Ten
Somewhere on the
Border
by Kate Holguin
people with their feet in two countries, Mexico
and the United States, who did not completely
belong to either one. Tey are, literally translated,
people on the border. Some see fronterizos as part
Mexican and part American, a system of two sides
forever in opposition, but they do not have this
kind of dual identity. Rather, fronterizos build a
hybrid identity. Tey are their own kind simulta-
neously wholly Mexican and wholly American.
Tey are fuent in both Spanish and English, and
because of this, fuent in both nations. Fronter-
izos are unclassifable so both nations reject their
hybridity: it is either la Patria or the land of the
free; there is no land de los libres.
March 15
Te only way a Mexican could enter El Pasos
grand Hotel Cortez in the 1940s was in a service
position or as part of a mariachi band sent to
entertain guests. A photograph of one such
mariachi band still hangs in the hotels lobby
today. I study the charro suits and china dresses in
the photograph while my father tells me that the
only time my grandmother Rebecca returned to
El Paso was in 1942, the same year this photo was
taken. She spent her wedding night here, a luxury
that was possible only because of her fair skin and
my grandfathers rank in the Air Force.
I always tell people my mothers parents raised
me. Tey lived with us in Los Angeles, and though
they came to America nearly sixty years ago, they
never learned English and do not know much
about America outside of who is President. In
the house that I grew up in, I lead a sort of dual
life. Outside of the house and upstairs, where our
nuclear family of four resided, my life was fully
I planted one foot in an embassy driveway and
the other on the sidewalk. I asked my dad what it
meant if half of me was on embassy property and
half of me was on the sidewalk. It means youre in
two countries at the same time, he said. I asked if
that was even possible and he said sure, but I didnt
believe it.
I look over the U.S./Mexico border wall in
El Paso to the other side, to the Mexican city of
Jurez in the state of Chihuahua, where thousands
of jacales are scattered across the Sierra Madres,
all uniform in shape and size but distinguished
by their varying bright green and blue and pink
paint jobs. On the face of one mountain, theres
an enormous message painted in white for all of
Jurez and El Paso: La Biblia es la verdad. Lala.
Between 1890 and 1925, an infow of Mexican
refugees and political exiles turned El Paso into
the center of la Revolucin. By 1896, Mexicans
accounted for 60 percent of the citys population.
Te same year six-year-old Julio Martnez ran
with his family from their ancestral home of San
Alto in Zacatecas through the northern Mexican
mountains and deserts to El Paso. Tey settled in
Segundo Barrio and Julio set out to make his life
there. In 1915, he married Josefna Alonzo from
Jalisco, who gave birth to their only child, Rebecca,
in 1918. By this time, Julio was a successful
businessman in the Segundo Barrio, owning and
operating a general goods store, a cantina, and
(probably unbeknownst to his wife) a brothel.
El Paso is efectively segregated. Chihuahuita
and Segundo Barrio, adjacent and closest to the
border, are neighborhoods exclusively populated
by people with roots in Mexico. From here in the
1890s spawned the frst fonterizos, a group of
March 13
It begins here for me, at the El Paso Interna-
tional Airport. But it begins 13 miles and 118
years away for Julio Martnez, the father of the
mother of my father (read: great-grandfather)
in 1896 and the Segundo Barrio of El Paso. All
I know about Julio is on his gravestone: June 9,
1890-December 16, 1960. CA Pvt Co G 163 Inf 41
Div WWI.
One day, a year and a half ago, I woke up, sat
up, and told my boyfriend I wanted to break up:
Im just a corpse now, dont you see? Im a skeleton,
a shadow of who I once was. And Im fading fast.
Barely anyone can see me now, and soon enough,
no one will see me. Tis began the night before,
when I confessed I would rather fade out of exis-
tence than be an outline of what I once was. Te
next day, I silenced a new confession: there was no
what I once was. I had already been a shadow
an outline of a human but with no substance all
my life.
March 14
When I was nine, my family spent a day on
Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. We walked
down Massachusetts Avenue NW, passing over
ffy embassies. My father told me embassies did
not abide by American laws so being on embassy
property was like being in a diferent country.
My younger sister and I turned this into a game,
jumping from the sidewalk to each embassys
driveway and then back to the sidewalk. Each
time, my father exclaimed: Now, youve been
in Greece! or Japan, Estonia, and so on. Ten
Somewhere on the
Border
by Kate Holguin
people with their feet in two countries, Mexico
and the United States, who did not completely
belong to either one. Tey are, literally translated,
people on the border. Some see fronterizos as part
Mexican and part American, a system of two sides
forever in opposition, but they do not have this
kind of dual identity. Rather, fronterizos build a
hybrid identity. Tey are their own kind simulta-
neously wholly Mexican and wholly American.
Tey are fuent in both Spanish and English, and
because of this, fuent in both nations. Fronter-
izos are unclassifable so both nations reject their
hybridity: it is either la Patria or the land of the
free; there is no land de los libres.
March 15
Te only way a Mexican could enter El Pasos
grand Hotel Cortez in the 1940s was in a service
position or as part of a mariachi band sent to
entertain guests. A photograph of one such
mariachi band still hangs in the hotels lobby
today. I study the charro suits and china dresses in
the photograph while my father tells me that the
only time my grandmother Rebecca returned to
El Paso was in 1942, the same year this photo was
taken. She spent her wedding night here, a luxury
that was possible only because of her fair skin and
my grandfathers rank in the Air Force.
I always tell people my mothers parents raised
me. Tey lived with us in Los Angeles, and though
they came to America nearly sixty years ago, they
never learned English and do not know much
about America outside of who is President. In
the house that I grew up in, I lead a sort of dual
life. Outside of the house and upstairs, where our
nuclear family of four resided, my life was fully
I planted one foot in an embassy driveway and
the other on the sidewalk. I asked my dad what it
meant if half of me was on embassy property and
half of me was on the sidewalk. It means youre in
two countries at the same time, he said. I asked if
that was even possible and he said sure, but I didnt
believe it.
I look over the U.S./Mexico border wall in
El Paso to the other side, to the Mexican city of
Jurez in the state of Chihuahua, where thousands
of jacales are scattered across the Sierra Madres,
all uniform in shape and size but distinguished
by their varying bright green and blue and pink
paint jobs. On the face of one mountain, theres
an enormous message painted in white for all of
Jurez and El Paso: La Biblia es la verdad. Lala.
Between 1890 and 1925, an infow of Mexican
refugees and political exiles turned El Paso into
the center of la Revolucin. By 1896, Mexicans
accounted for 60 percent of the citys population.
Te same year six-year-old Julio Martnez ran
with his family from their ancestral home of San
Alto in Zacatecas through the northern Mexican
mountains and deserts to El Paso. Tey settled in
Segundo Barrio and Julio set out to make his life
there. In 1915, he married Josefna Alonzo from
Jalisco, who gave birth to their only child, Rebecca,
in 1918. By this time, Julio was a successful
businessman in the Segundo Barrio, owning and
operating a general goods store, a cantina, and
(probably unbeknownst to his wife) a brothel.
El Paso is efectively segregated. Chihuahuita
and Segundo Barrio, adjacent and closest to the
border, are neighborhoods exclusively populated
by people with roots in Mexico. From here in the
1890s spawned the frst fonterizos, a group of
issue four | 64 somewhere on the border | 63
America: English, private school, In N Out, AOL,
Kim Kardashian, Disneyland. Downstairs with
my grandparents, though, it was Mexico: Spanish,
Sabado Gigante, Cantifas, a constant debate over
buying norteo four tortillas vs. corn tortillas del
sur, buuelos para la Navidad. Mexico downstairs
and America upstairs, my father called it.
In the fall of 1917, Julio lef Segundo Barrio,
consumed by the seemingly never-ending Revolu-
cin, to serve in the United States military in World
War I in exchange for American citizenship. He
returned in 1919 to an embittered, xenophobic
El Paso. For decades, Mexicans had crossed freely
between El Paso and Jurez, but now the U.S. built
bathhouses, where dirty Mexican immigrants
were taken through a de-lousing process. Hydro-
cyanic acid, more commonly known as Zyklon B,
was used to disinfect the immigrants clothes and
shoes.
As angry Mexican-hating mobs roamed the
El Paso streets of 1922, Julio attempted to enroll
his young daughter Rebecca at El Pasos white
elementary school, in order to avoid the separate,
underfunded and overcrowded Mexican prep
school. He went before the El Paso school board,
emphasizing the American-ness of the Martnez
family: their citizenship, fuency in English, fair skin
and European features. He had no luck, not surpris-
ingly, since all fve elected members of the school
board were also Ku Klux Klan members. At best,
they might have seen him as an uppity Mexican
and at worst, as their next potential lynching victim.
March 16
We returned to the Hotel Cortez lobby for a
second visit. Tis time, my father adds that my
her husband was in full military uniform.
Life on the border could not be lef behind,
but it was muted. It was muted in 1961 when my
father was ordered not to tell neighbors about his
Spanish-speaking parents or his grandparents
origins their welcoming all-white neighborhood
might not be so welcoming to those truths. It was
muted in 1968 when my father, unsure of whether
he should (or could?) tell his frst girlfriend that his
last name was not quite Spanish, said nothing. It is
muted as I smile and laugh and tell everyone youre
probably right.
My last stop in El Paso is for la misa at the
Sagrado Corazn de Jess church, where Julio
and Josefna were married and where Rebecca
was baptized. Julio would be furious with me, his
great-granddaughter, returning to the Segundo
Barrio. Afer trying to leave the border, Julians
eforts to destroy Julio were in vain; three genera-
tions of Martnezes later, we still live on the border.
I am still somewhat lost in this border life, but I am
not out here alone. Maybe well all keep smiling
and laughing and saying youre probably right as
were made to be outlines without real agency, real
substance. But our substance is only muted, not
erased. Someone will always tell us how Mexicano
we are or how Americano we are not, because to see
us as a duality is to see us made of two fragments
that can be picked apart. We are unclassifable and
because of that we are rejected, but we are not skele-
tons we are hybrids. And our hybridity is constant
because it is not two parts but a single, indestructible
unit. Fronterizo is our substance, is my substance,
and it is the whole of it.
Edited by Maru Pabn and Tanya Singh
grandmother spent her wedding night alone. My
grandfather disappeared afer the ceremony, presum-
ably in Jurez drinking and consummating instead
with Chihuahuan prostitutes.
One day, a year ago, I was lying naked in bed
with my boyfriend and he laughs and tells me that
my nipples are the only Mexican part of me because
they are pretty large and fairly dark in comparison
to my small, pale breasts. To him this only Mexican
part of me is not really me; its just a funny little
quirk of mine. I smile and laugh, and tell him he
is probably right. All my life, people have seemed
to enjoy telling me exactly what parts of me are
Mexican and they do this, I think, because all I do is
smile and laugh and tell them they are probably right.
I always thought it is easier this way because even
though it is not 1922, it is still the same story of feet
in two countries and everyone trying to calculate
how much I dont belong in either.
Julio, Josefna, and Rebecca lef El Paso in 1923,
settling in Southern California. Julio took a job
with a construction company. With the money he
earned, he invested in new businesses, a gas station
and a cantina. Rebecca, with her unaccented English
and fair skin, entered the local white elementary
school. Julio became Julian and forced Josefna
to go by Josephine (a source of extreme tension
between them for the rest of their lives). Spanish was
forbidden both in and outside of the house. Julio
told everyone Martnez was a Spanish last name and
everyone thought them Spaniards. Julio thought
if he lef El Paso, he lef life on the border. But this
is afrming the consequent. Life on the border
continued for Rebecca at the Hotel Cortez in 1942
and then in Nebraska in 1955, where Rebecca and
her family were only served in restaurants because
Julio Martnez with extended family in his Segundo
Barrio grocery store, c. 1917.
issue four | 64 somewhere on the border | 63
America: English, private school, In N Out, AOL,
Kim Kardashian, Disneyland. Downstairs with
my grandparents, though, it was Mexico: Spanish,
Sabado Gigante, Cantifas, a constant debate over
buying norteo four tortillas vs. corn tortillas del
sur, buuelos para la Navidad. Mexico downstairs
and America upstairs, my father called it.
In the fall of 1917, Julio lef Segundo Barrio,
consumed by the seemingly never-ending Revolu-
cin, to serve in the United States military in World
War I in exchange for American citizenship. He
returned in 1919 to an embittered, xenophobic
El Paso. For decades, Mexicans had crossed freely
between El Paso and Jurez, but now the U.S. built
bathhouses, where dirty Mexican immigrants
were taken through a de-lousing process. Hydro-
cyanic acid, more commonly known as Zyklon B,
was used to disinfect the immigrants clothes and
shoes.
As angry Mexican-hating mobs roamed the
El Paso streets of 1922, Julio attempted to enroll
his young daughter Rebecca at El Pasos white
elementary school, in order to avoid the separate,
underfunded and overcrowded Mexican prep
school. He went before the El Paso school board,
emphasizing the American-ness of the Martnez
family: their citizenship, fuency in English, fair skin
and European features. He had no luck, not surpris-
ingly, since all fve elected members of the school
board were also Ku Klux Klan members. At best,
they might have seen him as an uppity Mexican
and at worst, as their next potential lynching victim.
March 16
We returned to the Hotel Cortez lobby for a
second visit. Tis time, my father adds that my
her husband was in full military uniform.
Life on the border could not be lef behind,
but it was muted. It was muted in 1961 when my
father was ordered not to tell neighbors about his
Spanish-speaking parents or his grandparents
origins their welcoming all-white neighborhood
might not be so welcoming to those truths. It was
muted in 1968 when my father, unsure of whether
he should (or could?) tell his frst girlfriend that his
last name was not quite Spanish, said nothing. It is
muted as I smile and laugh and tell everyone youre
probably right.
My last stop in El Paso is for la misa at the
Sagrado Corazn de Jess church, where Julio
and Josefna were married and where Rebecca
was baptized. Julio would be furious with me, his
great-granddaughter, returning to the Segundo
Barrio. Afer trying to leave the border, Julians
eforts to destroy Julio were in vain; three genera-
tions of Martnezes later, we still live on the border.
I am still somewhat lost in this border life, but I am
not out here alone. Maybe well all keep smiling
and laughing and saying youre probably right as
were made to be outlines without real agency, real
substance. But our substance is only muted, not
erased. Someone will always tell us how Mexicano
we are or how Americano we are not, because to see
us as a duality is to see us made of two fragments
that can be picked apart. We are unclassifable and
because of that we are rejected, but we are not skele-
tons we are hybrids. And our hybridity is constant
because it is not two parts but a single, indestructible
unit. Fronterizo is our substance, is my substance,
and it is the whole of it.
Edited by Maru Pabn and Tanya Singh
grandmother spent her wedding night alone. My
grandfather disappeared afer the ceremony, presum-
ably in Jurez drinking and consummating instead
with Chihuahuan prostitutes.
One day, a year ago, I was lying naked in bed
with my boyfriend and he laughs and tells me that
my nipples are the only Mexican part of me because
they are pretty large and fairly dark in comparison
to my small, pale breasts. To him this only Mexican
part of me is not really me; its just a funny little
quirk of mine. I smile and laugh, and tell him he
is probably right. All my life, people have seemed
to enjoy telling me exactly what parts of me are
Mexican and they do this, I think, because all I do is
smile and laugh and tell them they are probably right.
I always thought it is easier this way because even
though it is not 1922, it is still the same story of feet
in two countries and everyone trying to calculate
how much I dont belong in either.
Julio, Josefna, and Rebecca lef El Paso in 1923,
settling in Southern California. Julio took a job
with a construction company. With the money he
earned, he invested in new businesses, a gas station
and a cantina. Rebecca, with her unaccented English
and fair skin, entered the local white elementary
school. Julio became Julian and forced Josefna
to go by Josephine (a source of extreme tension
between them for the rest of their lives). Spanish was
forbidden both in and outside of the house. Julio
told everyone Martnez was a Spanish last name and
everyone thought them Spaniards. Julio thought
if he lef El Paso, he lef life on the border. But this
is afrming the consequent. Life on the border
continued for Rebecca at the Hotel Cortez in 1942
and then in Nebraska in 1955, where Rebecca and
her family were only served in restaurants because
Julio Martnez with extended family in his Segundo
Barrio grocery store, c. 1917.
Nirupama Rao is Indias former
Ambassador to the United States. Starting
in January 2014, Rao will be spending
one year at Brown University, as a Meera
and Vikram Gandhi Fellow at the Watson
Institute for International Studies. She will
be conducting research on the relationship
between India and China. Prior to her
assignment as Ambassador, Rao held the
post of foreign secretary, the highest position
in Indias foreign services department. She is
the second woman to have ever held the post.
Rao is also the author of a collection of poetry
entitled Rain Rising. Rao spoke to Jasmine
Bala, Bluestockings Magazines Interna-
tional editor.
Jasmine Bala: Tell us a little about your
background and where you come from.
Nirupama Rao: I was born into the matri-
lineal Nair community in Kerala. Kerala
is a state that has always encouraged
womens education and womens rights. It
is a stand-out state in India that I consider
a trailblazer when it comes to the role of
women in Indian society. Since my father was
an army ofcer, I grew up all over the country.
We were not always Kerala centred, but lived
in many cities such as Bangalore, Lucknow
and Wellington. I went to Bangalore for
undergraduate studies and to Aurangabad for
my graduate studies.
The Frontier Heroine
an Interview with Indias Leading Lady,
Nirupama Rao
by Jasmine Bala
Jenna Marsh Series 6
Nirupama Rao is Indias former
Ambassador to the United States. Starting
in January 2014, Rao will be spending
one year at Brown University, as a Meera
and Vikram Gandhi Fellow at the Watson
Institute for International Studies. She will
be conducting research on the relationship
between India and China. Prior to her
assignment as Ambassador, Rao held the
post of foreign secretary, the highest position
in Indias foreign services department. She is
the second woman to have ever held the post.
Rao is also the author of a collection of poetry
entitled Rain Rising. Rao spoke to Jasmine
Bala, Bluestockings Magazines Interna-
tional editor.
Jasmine Bala: Tell us a little about your
background and where you come from.
Nirupama Rao: I was born into the matri-
lineal Nair community in Kerala. Kerala
is a state that has always encouraged
womens education and womens rights. It
is a stand-out state in India that I consider
a trailblazer when it comes to the role of
women in Indian society. Since my father was
an army ofcer, I grew up all over the country.
We were not always Kerala centred, but lived
in many cities such as Bangalore, Lucknow
and Wellington. I went to Bangalore for
undergraduate studies and to Aurangabad for
my graduate studies.
The Frontier Heroine
an Interview with Indias Leading Lady,
Nirupama Rao
by Jasmine Bala
Jenna Marsh Series 6
issue four | 68 the frontier heroine | 67
Secretary, the highest post in the foreign
services of India, from 2009 to 2011. Tat,
for me, in many ways was the pinnacle of my
career as a diplomat for India.
JB: What did your work as foreign secre-
tary entail?
NR: I was handling relations with Indias
neighbors, including China, Pakistan, Nepal,
Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and
Bhutan. I handled multi-lateral issues, such
as Indias ongoing efort to be a permanent
member of the Security Council of the
United Nations, climate change, disarma-
ment and relations with the p5 countries
*
,
including the United States. To me that
represented the best job one could dream of
having as a foreign services ofcer.
JB: You have also written a book on poetry
entitled Rain Rising. How did you take up
poetry?
NR: I have always loved language and words.
I was a student of literature. Unfortunately,
my professional commitments lef me with
little time to pursue my poetic inclinations.
My poems talk about the mosaic of my
experiences as a woman, the places Ive been
to, and the people Ive met along my journey.
I enjoyed writing my book of poetry and Im
looking to publish a second one!
JB: Youve come a long way from being a
student in India to taking charge as Indian
ambassador to the United States. How did
you reach where you are today?
NR: Afer my studies, I took the civil service
examinations to join the foreign services,
which I had wanted to do since I was twelve
years old. I always wanted to be a diplomat.
I joined the foreign services when I was 22
and it really is the only career I have ever
known. I studied English Literature, History
and Sociology in college, but I grew into a
diplomat with the training and exposure I
received working in foreign capitals all over
the world.
I started my career in Vienna, Austria and
also spent a few years in Sri Lanka. Afer that
I served as ambassador to China, the only
Indian woman who has held that post so far. I
was the spokesperson of the foreign ministry,
also the only woman who has held that post.
And I was Indias ambassador to the United
States until last November. I was Foreign
world. Tere will have to be radical changes
in the manner in which men are conditioned
to accept women in the workplace. Tat will
change with education and with democratic
debate.
JB: How do you see the future of women in
civil services and politics?
NR: I see the need and the opportunity for
more representation for women. India needs
adequate representation of women, not only
in these two felds, but also in other felds
such as medicine, engineering and legal
services. When it comes to politics, women
can make a big diference in parliament when
laws are being framed. If you have a consoli-
dated, visible and united presence of women,
it could really help ameliorate female-cen-
tered causes such as gender violence in society.
We need to remove discrimination against
women everywhere. Te struggle has just
begun.
JB: How do you think adequate representa-
tion for women can be brought about?
NR: Representation has to involve receptivity
on the part of men in society. Within families
themselves, women must be encouraged to
be educated and to become articulate citizens
of the country. Tis can only be enabled if
there is an environment that recognizes that
womens rights are human rights.
JB: Is there anything about your experi-
ence that can be conveyed through poetry
but not through prose?
NR: I believe poetry is very expressive. Poetry
enables you to invoke images from your imag-
ination that no other form of writing enables
you to do. Poetry has always had a special
appeal to me.
JB: In your work in the foreign services,
you were given many positions that have
not traditionally been held by women in
India. What do you think is the biggest
challenge that women face and how can it
be overcome?
NR: Tere are very entrenched attitudes
in society about women and about the role
they can play given their aptitudes and
their capacity to fulfll responsibility. Tis
situation is global and isnt endemic to one
country, or to one society. Trough history,
women have been repeatedly asked prove
their ability.
India is a very tradition-bound society,
binding women to serving their families.
However, with the advent of independence
and the opening of India to the rest of the
world, more women are able to access educa-
tion and enter the workplace. Television and
movies help amplify the visibility of women
and show that they can excel in any feld of
their choosing. Tat has proven to be a force
multiplier. We still have violence against
women and women still face risks in the open
* Refers to the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council U.S.A., Russia, China, U.K., France, and Germany
issue four | 68 the frontier heroine | 67
Secretary, the highest post in the foreign
services of India, from 2009 to 2011. Tat,
for me, in many ways was the pinnacle of my
career as a diplomat for India.
JB: What did your work as foreign secre-
tary entail?
NR: I was handling relations with Indias
neighbors, including China, Pakistan, Nepal,
Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and
Bhutan. I handled multi-lateral issues, such
as Indias ongoing efort to be a permanent
member of the Security Council of the
United Nations, climate change, disarma-
ment and relations with the p5 countries
*
,
including the United States. To me that
represented the best job one could dream of
having as a foreign services ofcer.
JB: You have also written a book on poetry
entitled Rain Rising. How did you take up
poetry?
NR: I have always loved language and words.
I was a student of literature. Unfortunately,
my professional commitments lef me with
little time to pursue my poetic inclinations.
My poems talk about the mosaic of my
experiences as a woman, the places Ive been
to, and the people Ive met along my journey.
I enjoyed writing my book of poetry and Im
looking to publish a second one!
JB: Youve come a long way from being a
student in India to taking charge as Indian
ambassador to the United States. How did
you reach where you are today?
NR: Afer my studies, I took the civil service
examinations to join the foreign services,
which I had wanted to do since I was twelve
years old. I always wanted to be a diplomat.
I joined the foreign services when I was 22
and it really is the only career I have ever
known. I studied English Literature, History
and Sociology in college, but I grew into a
diplomat with the training and exposure I
received working in foreign capitals all over
the world.
I started my career in Vienna, Austria and
also spent a few years in Sri Lanka. Afer that
I served as ambassador to China, the only
Indian woman who has held that post so far. I
was the spokesperson of the foreign ministry,
also the only woman who has held that post.
And I was Indias ambassador to the United
States until last November. I was Foreign
world. Tere will have to be radical changes
in the manner in which men are conditioned
to accept women in the workplace. Tat will
change with education and with democratic
debate.
JB: How do you see the future of women in
civil services and politics?
NR: I see the need and the opportunity for
more representation for women. India needs
adequate representation of women, not only
in these two felds, but also in other felds
such as medicine, engineering and legal
services. When it comes to politics, women
can make a big diference in parliament when
laws are being framed. If you have a consoli-
dated, visible and united presence of women,
it could really help ameliorate female-cen-
tered causes such as gender violence in society.
We need to remove discrimination against
women everywhere. Te struggle has just
begun.
JB: How do you think adequate representa-
tion for women can be brought about?
NR: Representation has to involve receptivity
on the part of men in society. Within families
themselves, women must be encouraged to
be educated and to become articulate citizens
of the country. Tis can only be enabled if
there is an environment that recognizes that
womens rights are human rights.
JB: Is there anything about your experi-
ence that can be conveyed through poetry
but not through prose?
NR: I believe poetry is very expressive. Poetry
enables you to invoke images from your imag-
ination that no other form of writing enables
you to do. Poetry has always had a special
appeal to me.
JB: In your work in the foreign services,
you were given many positions that have
not traditionally been held by women in
India. What do you think is the biggest
challenge that women face and how can it
be overcome?
NR: Tere are very entrenched attitudes
in society about women and about the role
they can play given their aptitudes and
their capacity to fulfll responsibility. Tis
situation is global and isnt endemic to one
country, or to one society. Trough history,
women have been repeatedly asked prove
their ability.
India is a very tradition-bound society,
binding women to serving their families.
However, with the advent of independence
and the opening of India to the rest of the
world, more women are able to access educa-
tion and enter the workplace. Television and
movies help amplify the visibility of women
and show that they can excel in any feld of
their choosing. Tat has proven to be a force
multiplier. We still have violence against
women and women still face risks in the open
* Refers to the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council U.S.A., Russia, China, U.K., France, and Germany
Te Carefree Black Girl (CFBG) is in
its most simple defnition, a user-produced
and circulated portraiture of black women
being happy. Tis concept and practice
has roots in Tumblr
1
and has been written
about on Refnery29
2
as well as on Jezebel.
3

Tese images depict black women smiling
or laughing, ofen in natural settings such
as felds, woods, or bodies of water. CFBGs
ofen depict women with natural hair, as
these images stem from an embrace of the
eclectic and convey a hippie aesthetic with
head wraps and beads. Tey sometimes
feature women with multicolored hair and
non-traditional sartorial choices such as
suits or mismatched prints. Many times they
The Radical
Performance
of the Carefree
Black Girl
by Patricia Ekpo
issue four | 70
Photo Credit: Harpers Bazaar. Julia Noni. via http://mydamnblog.com/
Te Carefree Black Girl (CFBG) is in
its most simple defnition, a user-produced
and circulated portraiture of black women
being happy. Tis concept and practice
has roots in Tumblr
1
and has been written
about on Refnery29
2
as well as on Jezebel.
3

Tese images depict black women smiling
or laughing, ofen in natural settings such
as felds, woods, or bodies of water. CFBGs
ofen depict women with natural hair, as
these images stem from an embrace of the
eclectic and convey a hippie aesthetic with
head wraps and beads. Tey sometimes
feature women with multicolored hair and
non-traditional sartorial choices such as
suits or mismatched prints. Many times they
The Radical
Performance
of the Carefree
Black Girl
by Patricia Ekpo
issue four | 70
Photo Credit: Harpers Bazaar. Julia Noni. via http://mydamnblog.com/
issue four | 72
the radical performance of the carefree black girl | 71
manifest in the form of selfes showcasing
new hair and beauty choices, but are more
ofen pictures of black women doing leisurely
activities such as riding bikes, dancing in the
street, or lying happily in bed. An important
aspect of the Carefree Black Girl is uncho-
reographed, unmitigated, exuberant motion.
Sometimes these movements may appear
languid, but they are always full of life. Te
key here is freedom: freedom of expression,
emotion, and presentation.
When discussing CFBGs, its important
to acknowledge the historical underpin-
nings of this phenomenon. Much has been
written on the phenomenon of the selfe
4

and recently about how young womens
use of selfes challenge traditional beauty
standards.
5
Tough the Carefree Black Girl
stems from this tradition of self-produced
and circulated images, the idea is also
couched in a specifc kind of black womens
history. It is a direct and public rebuttal of
traditional stereotypes and caricatures of
black women as constantly angry, unusually
aggressive, and always strong.
Te use of the identifer of girl in the
CFGB rather than woman suggests that
black women can and do exist in states of
childlike happiness and joy. It does the work
of combating historically rooted images
and perceptions of black girls as never truly
being able to be children because of auto-
mated roles as laborers, servicewomen, and
Mammies. Te CFBG is a burgeoning trope
that combats these pervasive narratives of
black women in the media.
Te image of the CFBG revels in the
complexity and multiplicity of black
womens experiences and identities, but
notably not for the edifcation of others.
Tese images are intimately self-referential,
and it is clear that they exist most impor-
tantly for black women to see themselves as
happy, whole (at least having fun), carefree
(but not careless), and simply, just to see
themselves. Te importance of the visibility
of diferent possibilities of the self in media
and in the world in general cannot be
overstated.
6
To see someone in a wide range
of emotional states who looks similar to
yourself and traverses the world in a way that
you do is a deeply humanizing experience.
At the same time, the Carefree Black
Girl is more than just image and represen-
tation, but also a practiced and embodied
performance. As with many modes of visual
production via social media, such as selfes
or mirror pics, the CFBG ofen involves the
performative act of taking or posing for a
picture. Te selfes most ofen involve hair,
makeup, or styling choices that the subject
sees as deviating from normative images of
black women. I have encountered Carefree
Black Girl images that feature naturally
or un-naturally textured hair that is dyed
purple, or pink, CFBGs with braids or locs
past their waists, or with springy teenie
weenie afros. Tese stylistic choices as well
as the labeling of them as carefree by other
black women involve a performance of self
that is both created and fantastically imag-
ined. Images of CFBGs frequently include
via http://carefreeblackgirls.tumblr.com/
issue four | 72
the radical performance of the carefree black girl | 71
manifest in the form of selfes showcasing
new hair and beauty choices, but are more
ofen pictures of black women doing leisurely
activities such as riding bikes, dancing in the
street, or lying happily in bed. An important
aspect of the Carefree Black Girl is uncho-
reographed, unmitigated, exuberant motion.
Sometimes these movements may appear
languid, but they are always full of life. Te
key here is freedom: freedom of expression,
emotion, and presentation.
When discussing CFBGs, its important
to acknowledge the historical underpin-
nings of this phenomenon. Much has been
written on the phenomenon of the selfe
4

and recently about how young womens
use of selfes challenge traditional beauty
standards.
5
Tough the Carefree Black Girl
stems from this tradition of self-produced
and circulated images, the idea is also
couched in a specifc kind of black womens
history. It is a direct and public rebuttal of
traditional stereotypes and caricatures of
black women as constantly angry, unusually
aggressive, and always strong.
Te use of the identifer of girl in the
CFGB rather than woman suggests that
black women can and do exist in states of
childlike happiness and joy. It does the work
of combating historically rooted images
and perceptions of black girls as never truly
being able to be children because of auto-
mated roles as laborers, servicewomen, and
Mammies. Te CFBG is a burgeoning trope
that combats these pervasive narratives of
black women in the media.
Te image of the CFBG revels in the
complexity and multiplicity of black
womens experiences and identities, but
notably not for the edifcation of others.
Tese images are intimately self-referential,
and it is clear that they exist most impor-
tantly for black women to see themselves as
happy, whole (at least having fun), carefree
(but not careless), and simply, just to see
themselves. Te importance of the visibility
of diferent possibilities of the self in media
and in the world in general cannot be
overstated.
6
To see someone in a wide range
of emotional states who looks similar to
yourself and traverses the world in a way that
you do is a deeply humanizing experience.
At the same time, the Carefree Black
Girl is more than just image and represen-
tation, but also a practiced and embodied
performance. As with many modes of visual
production via social media, such as selfes
or mirror pics, the CFBG ofen involves the
performative act of taking or posing for a
picture. Te selfes most ofen involve hair,
makeup, or styling choices that the subject
sees as deviating from normative images of
black women. I have encountered Carefree
Black Girl images that feature naturally
or un-naturally textured hair that is dyed
purple, or pink, CFBGs with braids or locs
past their waists, or with springy teenie
weenie afros. Tese stylistic choices as well
as the labeling of them as carefree by other
black women involve a performance of self
that is both created and fantastically imag-
ined. Images of CFBGs frequently include
the radical performance of the carefree black girl | 73 issue four | 74
those of singer Solange Knowles, Janelle
Mone, and various black models in outfts
and poses that communicate their comfort
with their bodies and their happiness being
themselves.
When a black woman labels an image of
herself or another black woman as #carefree
it is not merely a comment on an image that
could be described as looking cheerful, but a
radical act of owning the state of being and
becoming free. She is enacting, reenacting,
and embodying an afective state that was
never supposed to be hers.
Queer scholars such as Jos Muoz have
argued that aesthetic productions play an
important role in imagining hope for the
future of marginalized populations. Te
circulation and production of images of
Carefree Black Girls creates an inhabitable
present that looks towards a future in which
black women are recognized as fully human
by society as a whole.
Edited by Kyle Albert
Endnotes:
1. Carefree Black Girl. http://carefreeblackgirls.
tumblr.com.
2. Johns, Jamala. Who Exactly Is Te Carefree Black
Girl? Refnery29. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
3. Crosley, Hillary. So, Whats Tis Carefree Black
Girl Ting All About? Jezebel. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
4. Day, Elizabeth. How Selfes Became A Global
Phenomenon. Te Observer. Web. 14 July 2013.
5. Bennett, Jessica. With Some Selfes, the Uglier the
Better. New York Times. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.
6. Such as the importance of the new line of stock
images by Getty Images Lean In Collection featur-
ing more than 2,500 photos of female leadership in
contemporary work and life.
the radical performance of the carefree black girl | 73 issue four | 74
those of singer Solange Knowles, Janelle
Mone, and various black models in outfts
and poses that communicate their comfort
with their bodies and their happiness being
themselves.
When a black woman labels an image of
herself or another black woman as #carefree
it is not merely a comment on an image that
could be described as looking cheerful, but a
radical act of owning the state of being and
becoming free. She is enacting, reenacting,
and embodying an afective state that was
never supposed to be hers.
Queer scholars such as Jos Muoz have
argued that aesthetic productions play an
important role in imagining hope for the
future of marginalized populations. Te
circulation and production of images of
Carefree Black Girls creates an inhabitable
present that looks towards a future in which
black women are recognized as fully human
by society as a whole.
Edited by Kyle Albert
Endnotes:
1. Carefree Black Girl. http://carefreeblackgirls.
tumblr.com.
2. Johns, Jamala. Who Exactly Is Te Carefree Black
Girl? Refnery29. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
3. Crosley, Hillary. So, Whats Tis Carefree Black
Girl Ting All About? Jezebel. Web. 31 Jan. 2014.
4. Day, Elizabeth. How Selfes Became A Global
Phenomenon. Te Observer. Web. 14 July 2013.
5. Bennett, Jessica. With Some Selfes, the Uglier the
Better. New York Times. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.
6. Such as the importance of the new line of stock
images by Getty Images Lean In Collection featur-
ing more than 2,500 photos of female leadership in
contemporary work and life.
Elements of a hip teen girl wasteland
culture saturate the Tumblr dashboards of
many young millennials. Images of disin-
terested-looking models posing in trendy
ensembles, accompanied by quippy and
biting quotes, promote a blas attitude in
conjunction with a carefree yet curated
style. Common posts contain glittery GIFs
that fash not my problem or I tolerate
you beside photos of young, dark-lipsticked
women who seem to embody these senti-
ments. However, some bloggers tread into
darker, more problematic territory when their
posts include pastel odes to teen suicide la
Te Virgin Suicides, satirical quotes pasted
on images of so-called celebrity breakdowns,
and context-less stills from flms such as Girl,
Interrupted. Tese blogs combine fashion,
celebrity worship, and the concept of the
breakdown into a social media phenomenon
that callously builds on structures already
promoting the practice of mentalism; that is,
discrimination against people who have or are
perceived to have mental health conditions.
Te perpetuation of this aesthetic on Tumblr
reveals societys underlying preoccupation
with romanticizing and rubbernecking the
visible manifestations of severe psychiatric
episodes.
On Crazy and Mentalist Semantics
Te word crazy is ofen used without
Mentalism and Mad
Romanticism
by Abby McHugh
communicating ones thoughts in a political
speech and has nothing to do with the expe-
riences or actual symptoms of schizophrenia.
In a 2012 article reviewing Nicki Minajs
album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,
journalist Spencer Kornhaber writes, Nicki
Minaj isnt crazy, but she acts like she is
When rapping, she caterwauls from valley-
girl scof to Count Chocula bellow. When
singing, she veers from competent croon to
a purposefully incompetent karaoke warble.
But Minajs new album is getting labeled
bipolar and schizophrenic for none of
these reasons. Yes, she, as usual, feigns crazy,
but the really disconcerting thing is the
breadth of the record.
2
By comparing the
elements of a Nicki Minaj album to these
disorders and thus attempting to line up her
singing styles to certain kinds of perceived
symptomatic highs and lows, the description
only perpetuates ignorance on what these
conditions involve. A person with bipolar
disorder doesnt fip moods from moment
to moment, nor do they solely experience
intense emotion. Tis review draws on meta-
phoric conclusions between the imagined or
exaggerated symptoms of these conditions.
Misguided semantics only underscore the
lack of knowledge and sensitivity around
mental health conditions in the media and in
public discourse at large.
Obsession with Celebrity Breakdowns
Employing the word crazy truly enters
mentalist territory when one uses it to char-
acterize someone struggling with a mental
health condition. Te words break and
harmful intent. For example, in Britney
Spearss popular song You Drive Me Crazy,
she sings of her experience as a 90s love-
struck teen. In Crazy in Love, Jay-Z raps
about his feelings for Beyonc, describing
what friends say about his behavior: Crazy
and deranged/Tey cant fgure him out/
Tey like hey is he insane. Jay-Z speaks to
feelings of losing control, feelings he hopes
his listeners will empathize with. However,
deranged and insane are historically
loaded words, heralding from a time when
the mentally ill were treated worse than
criminals. Tey also do not correlate with
the experiences he describes. Te fact that he
equates deranged and insane with the
comparatively inconsequential act of falling
in love refects one way that frmly rooted
cultural ideas of crazy can be repackaged
and made acceptable in some contexts while
used as a tool of oppression in others.
Tumblr users or popular culture fgures
are not the only ones guilty of these seman-
tics. Besides using words like crazy, psycho,
or basket case to describe both those who
experience mental health conditions and
those who do not, public fgures and news
sources use diagnostic labels such as bipolar
or schizophrenic in discussions that have
nothing to do with medical issues. Tese
diagnoses are never used in a positive way.
In 2010, Senator Lindsey Graham referred
to President Obamas State of the Union
address as a little schizophrenic at times. He
went on to urge the President to be more
consistent in his tone.
1
Here, schizophrenic
describes an erratic way of forming and
Elements of a hip teen girl wasteland
culture saturate the Tumblr dashboards of
many young millennials. Images of disin-
terested-looking models posing in trendy
ensembles, accompanied by quippy and
biting quotes, promote a blas attitude in
conjunction with a carefree yet curated
style. Common posts contain glittery GIFs
that fash not my problem or I tolerate
you beside photos of young, dark-lipsticked
women who seem to embody these senti-
ments. However, some bloggers tread into
darker, more problematic territory when their
posts include pastel odes to teen suicide la
Te Virgin Suicides, satirical quotes pasted
on images of so-called celebrity breakdowns,
and context-less stills from flms such as Girl,
Interrupted. Tese blogs combine fashion,
celebrity worship, and the concept of the
breakdown into a social media phenomenon
that callously builds on structures already
promoting the practice of mentalism; that is,
discrimination against people who have or are
perceived to have mental health conditions.
Te perpetuation of this aesthetic on Tumblr
reveals societys underlying preoccupation
with romanticizing and rubbernecking the
visible manifestations of severe psychiatric
episodes.
On Crazy and Mentalist Semantics
Te word crazy is ofen used without
Mentalism and Mad
Romanticism
by Abby McHugh
communicating ones thoughts in a political
speech and has nothing to do with the expe-
riences or actual symptoms of schizophrenia.
In a 2012 article reviewing Nicki Minajs
album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,
journalist Spencer Kornhaber writes, Nicki
Minaj isnt crazy, but she acts like she is
When rapping, she caterwauls from valley-
girl scof to Count Chocula bellow. When
singing, she veers from competent croon to
a purposefully incompetent karaoke warble.
But Minajs new album is getting labeled
bipolar and schizophrenic for none of
these reasons. Yes, she, as usual, feigns crazy,
but the really disconcerting thing is the
breadth of the record.
2
By comparing the
elements of a Nicki Minaj album to these
disorders and thus attempting to line up her
singing styles to certain kinds of perceived
symptomatic highs and lows, the description
only perpetuates ignorance on what these
conditions involve. A person with bipolar
disorder doesnt fip moods from moment
to moment, nor do they solely experience
intense emotion. Tis review draws on meta-
phoric conclusions between the imagined or
exaggerated symptoms of these conditions.
Misguided semantics only underscore the
lack of knowledge and sensitivity around
mental health conditions in the media and in
public discourse at large.
Obsession with Celebrity Breakdowns
Employing the word crazy truly enters
mentalist territory when one uses it to char-
acterize someone struggling with a mental
health condition. Te words break and
harmful intent. For example, in Britney
Spearss popular song You Drive Me Crazy,
she sings of her experience as a 90s love-
struck teen. In Crazy in Love, Jay-Z raps
about his feelings for Beyonc, describing
what friends say about his behavior: Crazy
and deranged/Tey cant fgure him out/
Tey like hey is he insane. Jay-Z speaks to
feelings of losing control, feelings he hopes
his listeners will empathize with. However,
deranged and insane are historically
loaded words, heralding from a time when
the mentally ill were treated worse than
criminals. Tey also do not correlate with
the experiences he describes. Te fact that he
equates deranged and insane with the
comparatively inconsequential act of falling
in love refects one way that frmly rooted
cultural ideas of crazy can be repackaged
and made acceptable in some contexts while
used as a tool of oppression in others.
Tumblr users or popular culture fgures
are not the only ones guilty of these seman-
tics. Besides using words like crazy, psycho,
or basket case to describe both those who
experience mental health conditions and
those who do not, public fgures and news
sources use diagnostic labels such as bipolar
or schizophrenic in discussions that have
nothing to do with medical issues. Tese
diagnoses are never used in a positive way.
In 2010, Senator Lindsey Graham referred
to President Obamas State of the Union
address as a little schizophrenic at times. He
went on to urge the President to be more
consistent in his tone.
1
Here, schizophrenic
describes an erratic way of forming and
issue four | 78
forms of collages, photos, or kitsch. Sharing
images of t-shirts, iPhone cases, and art
prints which depict human beings in the
throes of a mental health struggle reafrms a
societal acceptability to gawk and jest about
symptomatic manifestations. By gossiping
and posting, individuals mock the severe
real-life struggles experienced by millions of
Americans.
mentalism and mad romanticism | 77
breakdown will be employed here for ease of
use, though they are extremely problematic
terms. Just because one experiences a severe
psychiatric period does not mean a person
breaks down, and does not refect on a
persons strength or wholeness in any way.
Britney Spearss highly visibleand
summarily mockedmental issues surfaced
on and of between 2006 and 2008. She
went to rehab several times and, in January
2008, Spears was placed on a 5150 psychiatric
hold. A 5150 is a California state involuntary
hold stating that the ofcer, member of the
attending staf, or professional person has
probable cause to believe that the person is, as
a result of mental disorder, a danger to others,
or to himself or herself, or gravely disabled.
3

Using crazy to mock a person experiencing
a severe mental health condition (such as one
that requires a 5150 hold) serves as a sanist
slur.
Stories that rabidly report on celebrities
mental conditions are rampant throughout
the media, and ofen become part of the
stars public image. Many articles mentioning
Catherine Zeta-Jones point out her bipolar
diagnosis, even when it is not relevant to the
articles content. Tumblr posts aesthetically
rebrand the stories of younger starlets and
images of celebrity breakdown darlings,
such as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and
Amanda Bynes. All of these celebrities have
experienced various kinds of in-patient
psychiatric treatment for issues including
substance abuse, bipolar disorder, and
schizophrenia. Tey are represented online in
A few examples include:
Bynes was diagnosed as having symptoms of
bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Tumblr
users pounced on the opportunity to create
images idolizing Byness struggle as a piece
of apathetic kitschy tableau. Users continue
to reblog these images today, well afer her
diagnosis.
Folks at Society6 call this an art print. All
of these celebrities have experienced various
kinds of in-patient psychiatric treatment
for issues including substance abuse, bipolar
disorder, and schizophrenia.
via http://bloodymel.tumblr.com/
via http://fuckyeahcrazyamandabynes.tumblr.com/
via http://Society6.com
issue four | 78
forms of collages, photos, or kitsch. Sharing
images of t-shirts, iPhone cases, and art
prints which depict human beings in the
throes of a mental health struggle reafrms a
societal acceptability to gawk and jest about
symptomatic manifestations. By gossiping
and posting, individuals mock the severe
real-life struggles experienced by millions of
Americans.
mentalism and mad romanticism | 77
breakdown will be employed here for ease of
use, though they are extremely problematic
terms. Just because one experiences a severe
psychiatric period does not mean a person
breaks down, and does not refect on a
persons strength or wholeness in any way.
Britney Spearss highly visibleand
summarily mockedmental issues surfaced
on and of between 2006 and 2008. She
went to rehab several times and, in January
2008, Spears was placed on a 5150 psychiatric
hold. A 5150 is a California state involuntary
hold stating that the ofcer, member of the
attending staf, or professional person has
probable cause to believe that the person is, as
a result of mental disorder, a danger to others,
or to himself or herself, or gravely disabled.
3

Using crazy to mock a person experiencing
a severe mental health condition (such as one
that requires a 5150 hold) serves as a sanist
slur.
Stories that rabidly report on celebrities
mental conditions are rampant throughout
the media, and ofen become part of the
stars public image. Many articles mentioning
Catherine Zeta-Jones point out her bipolar
diagnosis, even when it is not relevant to the
articles content. Tumblr posts aesthetically
rebrand the stories of younger starlets and
images of celebrity breakdown darlings,
such as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and
Amanda Bynes. All of these celebrities have
experienced various kinds of in-patient
psychiatric treatment for issues including
substance abuse, bipolar disorder, and
schizophrenia. Tey are represented online in
A few examples include:
Bynes was diagnosed as having symptoms of
bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Tumblr
users pounced on the opportunity to create
images idolizing Byness struggle as a piece
of apathetic kitschy tableau. Users continue
to reblog these images today, well afer her
diagnosis.
Folks at Society6 call this an art print. All
of these celebrities have experienced various
kinds of in-patient psychiatric treatment
for issues including substance abuse, bipolar
disorder, and schizophrenia.
via http://bloodymel.tumblr.com/
via http://fuckyeahcrazyamandabynes.tumblr.com/
via http://Society6.com
issue four | 80 mentalism and mad romanticism | 79
In combing through sites like Tumblr or
even various news sources, I found it more
difcult to locate images and discussions
of mental health conditions and women of
color. Why is there an absence or erasure
of the mental health struggles of women
of color? Could the visibility of white
celebrities issues, despite being examples of
mentalist oppression, also suggest a degree
of privilege? Tese white, wealthy women
could aford expensive care and the ability
to take time of from work, a luxury most
people who struggle with their mental health
cannot aford.
Romanticizing Hospitalization and Suicide
Te popular treatment of psychiatric
hospitalization has become aestheticized,
and the patients have been reduced to stock
characters and caricatures. Tumblr images
idolize the fallen starlet, the misunderstood
grunge girl, and any number of troubled
female teen/twenty-something tropes (and
these being generally straight, white, cis
women). One such example comes from a
Tumblr account titled Teen Suicide Super-
star (teensuicide.tumblr.com). Accounts
such as this one focus on certain aesthetics
associated with individuals with mental
health conditions as they appear in paparazzi
photos and flm stills from movies and novels
like Te Virgin Suicides, or Girl, Interrupted.
A post from thestylecult.tumblr.com
references the bracelets that a character from
Te Virgin Suicides wears over bandages
from self-inficted harm. Te caption to the
Tese posts and stories promote the
cultural commodifcation of people with
mental health conditions, especially when
those suferers are women. In a society
where gawking at people with mental health
conditions is a widespread phenomenon
that many do not view as problematic, these
stories sell magazines and kitsch, or attract
viewers to blogs. Here mentalism and sexism
intersect and play on the essentialist notion
of female-identifed people as being naturally
prone to more extreme emotional behaviors.
Te concept that irritability and delusional
behavior stems from ones gender identifca-
tion reinforces gender binaries, and suggests
that femininity itself is a kind of illness.
Examining the intersectionality of
sexism and mentalism through the example
of celebrity breakdowns is complicated
further when one turns to male celebrities.
Nineteen-year-old singer Justin Bieber was
recently charged with drunk driving; a
toxicology report revealed a mix of alcohol
and prescription drugs in his system.
4

Many talk show hosts and newscasters have
mocked his behavior, saying, boys will be
boys.
5
Biebers behavior suggests potential
issues with substance abuse, but fgures in
the media brush away the severity of these
concerns. In discounting the possibility of
substance abuse issues, the media in this
example characterizes male substance abuse
as a non-event that both demonstrates the
harsher scrutiny that female celebrities
receive and invalidates male experiences of
mental illness.
post reads: Here are some totez rad DIY
bracelets inspired by Te Virgin Suicides, one
of my favorite movies of all time. Its pretty
self-explanatory, just some basic preschooler
beadwork. Teyre super 90z and youll be
looking kewl when youre rocking a piece of
Cecelia Lisbons accessory collection.
By focusing on the cuteness of these
troubled, bejeweled virgins, Tumblr posters
situate themselves outside of the reality of
suicide. In 2013 in the U.S., 38,364 people
committed suicide, and 713,000 people went
to the emergency room for self-inficted
injury.
6
In focusing on the grunge aesthetic
of characters played by Winona Ryder and
Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted, visible
efects brought on by a mental health condi-
tion are painted as a form of style.
In this flm still of Jolie posted on Tumblr,
the hashtags beautiful, grunge, crazy, and
pale sum up a superfcial view of a mental
health condition, punctuated by mentalist
linguistics.
Tese examples illuminate the dearth of
knowledge amongst a general public that
both admonishes behaviors associated with
mental health conditions and idolizes them
as a foundation for a #beautiful or #grunge
look. Furthermore, by focusing on young
white waifs and celebrities experiencing
psychosis, we never fully explore the rampant
nature of mentalism in our society, nor how
mentalism interacts with other forms of
oppression.
via http://rainydayspecial.tumblr.com/
via http://thestylecult.tumblr.com/
In combing through sites like Tumblr or
even various news sources, I found it more
difcult to locate images and discussions
of mental health conditions and women of
color. Why is there an absence or erasure
of the mental health struggles of women
of color? Could the visibility of white
celebrities issues, despite being examples of
mentalist oppression, also suggest a degree
of privilege? Tese white, wealthy women
could aford expensive care and the ability
to take time of from work, a luxury most
people who struggle with their mental health
cannot aford.
Romanticizing Hospitalization and Suicide
Te popular treatment of psychiatric
hospitalization has become aestheticized,
and the patients have been reduced to stock
characters and caricatures. Tumblr images
idolize the fallen starlet, the misunderstood
grunge girl, and any number of troubled
female teen/twenty-something tropes (and
these being generally straight, white, cis
women). One such example comes from a
Tumblr account titled Teen Suicide Super-
star (teensuicide.tumblr.com). Accounts
such as this one focus on certain aesthetics
associated with individuals with mental
health conditions as they appear in paparazzi
photos and flm stills from movies and novels
like Te Virgin Suicides, or Girl, Interrupted.
A post from thestylecult.tumblr.com
references the bracelets that a character from
Te Virgin Suicides wears over bandages
from self-inficted harm. Te caption to the
Tese posts and stories promote the
cultural commodifcation of people with
mental health conditions, especially when
those suferers are women. In a society
where gawking at people with mental health
conditions is a widespread phenomenon
that many do not view as problematic, these
stories sell magazines and kitsch, or attract
viewers to blogs. Here mentalism and sexism
intersect and play on the essentialist notion
of female-identifed people as being naturally
prone to more extreme emotional behaviors.
Te concept that irritability and delusional
behavior stems from ones gender identifca-
tion reinforces gender binaries, and suggests
that femininity itself is a kind of illness.
Examining the intersectionality of
sexism and mentalism through the example
of celebrity breakdowns is complicated
further when one turns to male celebrities.
Nineteen-year-old singer Justin Bieber was
recently charged with drunk driving; a
toxicology report revealed a mix of alcohol
and prescription drugs in his system.
4

Many talk show hosts and newscasters have
mocked his behavior, saying, boys will be
boys.
5
Biebers behavior suggests potential
issues with substance abuse, but fgures in
the media brush away the severity of these
concerns. In discounting the possibility of
substance abuse issues, the media in this
example characterizes male substance abuse
as a non-event that both demonstrates the
harsher scrutiny that female celebrities
receive and invalidates male experiences of
mental illness.
post reads: Here are some totez rad DIY
bracelets inspired by Te Virgin Suicides, one
of my favorite movies of all time. Its pretty
self-explanatory, just some basic preschooler
beadwork. Teyre super 90z and youll be
looking kewl when youre rocking a piece of
Cecelia Lisbons accessory collection.
By focusing on the cuteness of these
troubled, bejeweled virgins, Tumblr posters
situate themselves outside of the reality of
suicide. In 2013 in the U.S., 38,364 people
committed suicide, and 713,000 people went
to the emergency room for self-inficted
injury.
6
In focusing on the grunge aesthetic
of characters played by Winona Ryder and
Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted, visible
efects brought on by a mental health condi-
tion are painted as a form of style.
In this flm still of Jolie posted on Tumblr,
the hashtags beautiful, grunge, crazy, and
pale sum up a superfcial view of a mental
health condition, punctuated by mentalist
linguistics.
Tese examples illuminate the dearth of
knowledge amongst a general public that
both admonishes behaviors associated with
mental health conditions and idolizes them
as a foundation for a #beautiful or #grunge
look. Furthermore, by focusing on young
white waifs and celebrities experiencing
psychosis, we never fully explore the rampant
nature of mentalism in our society, nor how
mentalism interacts with other forms of
oppression.
via http://rainydayspecial.tumblr.com/
via http://thestylecult.tumblr.com/
aesthetics of what we think people with
mental conditions look like instead of who
they are, the intersecting identities they hold,
and the real experiences they have.
Edited by Mollie Forman and Malana
Krongelb
Endnotes:
1. Goldsmith, Brian. Political Players: Sen. Graham
Sees A Schizophrenic State of the Union. TeAt-
lantic. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
2. Kornhaber, Spencer. Did Nicki Minaj Just Kill
the Album? Te Atlantic. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.
3. Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code 5325; 9 C.C.R. 865.2
4. Deerwester, Jayme. Justin Biebers Mounting
Legal Problems Could Endanger Travel. Free
Detroit Press. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.
5. Cooper, Anderson. Justin Biebers Latest Legal
Trouble. CNN.com. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
6. Suicide and Self-Inficted Injury. Cdc.gov. Web.
30 May 2013.
Moving Forward
Perhaps these posts reveal a yearning for
cultural catharsis. Or perhaps bloggers feel
completely disconnected from the conditions
and experiences their posts portray. Some
users may be employing romanticism as a
strategy for working through their own
experiences. Whatever the case may be, this
reverence for a sarcastic grunge-girl culture
both romanticizes and subtly mocks lived
experiences of severe mental health condi-
tions. Tis trend demonstrates entrenched
sanist or mentalist attitudes in a mass society
abound with insensitivity, stereotypes, and
ignorance regarding people with mental
health conditions. Tese attitudes leave little
room for the public to examine sociopolitical
structures of mentalist oppression in conver-
sation with those who experience them.
Not all discussions of mental health
on Tumblr (or the internet at large) are
detrimental. Blogs and message boards can
facilitate empowering conversations, opening
up dialogue among those with mental health
conditions, as well as the community at
large, on how to better address this stigma.
However, when we gawk at, laugh at, or
even glamorize experiences of mental health
struggles, we perpetuate stereotypes, essen-
tialize people according to their diagnoses
and other social identities, and move away
from discussing true experiences of living
with mental health conditions. We cannot
begin to move forward in dismantling
mentalism as a form of structural oppres-
sion if we continue to dwell on the outer
Tere is a diference between bodies. Tere is a change or a divergence. Math
had always made me feel helplessly insufcient. I found it too inaccessible. It
seemed like a mysterious mystical way to fnd the diference between two
states of being.
A Brief Explanation for the Relevancy of Blonde Hair:

My hair used to be a true honey blonde when we were young. When I frst
sensed your crush.
I recall that in middle school all of the cool girls got their hair highlighted
and bleached blonde, painting warm summer evenings, two pieced string
bikinis that never ft, lip smackers cherry vanilla chapstick, and boys boys
boys into their hair. IMPOSTER, I thought. Teir hair is darker than mine,
Vacancies and
Other Celestial
Ponderings
by Emma Ruddock
aesthetics of what we think people with
mental conditions look like instead of who
they are, the intersecting identities they hold,
and the real experiences they have.
Edited by Mollie Forman and Malana
Krongelb
Endnotes:
1. Goldsmith, Brian. Political Players: Sen. Graham
Sees A Schizophrenic State of the Union. TeAt-
lantic. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
2. Kornhaber, Spencer. Did Nicki Minaj Just Kill
the Album? Te Atlantic. Web. 04 Apr. 2012.
3. Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code 5325; 9 C.C.R. 865.2
4. Deerwester, Jayme. Justin Biebers Mounting
Legal Problems Could Endanger Travel. Free
Detroit Press. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.
5. Cooper, Anderson. Justin Biebers Latest Legal
Trouble. CNN.com. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
6. Suicide and Self-Inficted Injury. Cdc.gov. Web.
30 May 2013.
Moving Forward
Perhaps these posts reveal a yearning for
cultural catharsis. Or perhaps bloggers feel
completely disconnected from the conditions
and experiences their posts portray. Some
users may be employing romanticism as a
strategy for working through their own
experiences. Whatever the case may be, this
reverence for a sarcastic grunge-girl culture
both romanticizes and subtly mocks lived
experiences of severe mental health condi-
tions. Tis trend demonstrates entrenched
sanist or mentalist attitudes in a mass society
abound with insensitivity, stereotypes, and
ignorance regarding people with mental
health conditions. Tese attitudes leave little
room for the public to examine sociopolitical
structures of mentalist oppression in conver-
sation with those who experience them.
Not all discussions of mental health
on Tumblr (or the internet at large) are
detrimental. Blogs and message boards can
facilitate empowering conversations, opening
up dialogue among those with mental health
conditions, as well as the community at
large, on how to better address this stigma.
However, when we gawk at, laugh at, or
even glamorize experiences of mental health
struggles, we perpetuate stereotypes, essen-
tialize people according to their diagnoses
and other social identities, and move away
from discussing true experiences of living
with mental health conditions. We cannot
begin to move forward in dismantling
mentalism as a form of structural oppres-
sion if we continue to dwell on the outer
Tere is a diference between bodies. Tere is a change or a divergence. Math
had always made me feel helplessly insufcient. I found it too inaccessible. It
seemed like a mysterious mystical way to fnd the diference between two
states of being.
A Brief Explanation for the Relevancy of Blonde Hair:

My hair used to be a true honey blonde when we were young. When I frst
sensed your crush.
I recall that in middle school all of the cool girls got their hair highlighted
and bleached blonde, painting warm summer evenings, two pieced string
bikinis that never ft, lip smackers cherry vanilla chapstick, and boys boys
boys into their hair. IMPOSTER, I thought. Teir hair is darker than mine,
Vacancies and
Other Celestial
Ponderings
by Emma Ruddock
issue four | 84 vacancies and other celestial ponderings | 83
which was now a dirty blonde. Your hair is plain and girl-like. It is sandy knees
and lunch packed by mom. Your hair is hands dug deep into the dewy grass
and into the clay that stretches across each suburban yard. Your hair is legs
locked together like two wooden chopsticks before the waiter snaps them
apart, and rubs them together, shedding of the tiny splinters that cling to the
sides.
Ten my hair turned brown and curly.
I recently decided, however, that I should have blonde hair again. First it was
rusty orange, then a lemon yellow, and then even paler. Now it is a silvery
white. Two hundred dollars later, I feel sick. I feel as if I have betrayed my
thirteen-year-old self.
For the following two weeks afer I bleached my hair, I could smell the sweet
burning scent of peroxide in the thick
s t e a m o f t h e s h o w e r .
Small molecules of water adhering to the glass shower door in a way that I
could see my own faint distorted refection in the damp sheen.
I feared the peroxide would collect on my skin and strip it of its natural
pigments.
Te window has a shimmery smear of condensation in the upper right hand

corner, looking out on the space between two buildings. Wasted space. Each
droplet glows like a gemstone adhered to the glass. Its a picture instead of a
change of the physical state of gas to liquid. Tere is a warm breath that must
be clouding the window, or maybe the collective breath of the entire room
clouds
the space in between two buildings.
Te dictionary states that, condensation commonly occurs when a vapor is
cooled and/or compressed to its saturation limit when the molecular density
in the gas phase reaches its maximal threshold. Tis is interesting because
I am fairly certain my breath on your forearm did the same. I tried not to
kiss you because you did not want me to, but I was actually pressed so closely
against you that I couldnt move my head, my silvery blonde strands brushing
your chin. No longer appealing. I was positioned in such a way that I had
slipped in between that space. Lips against your skin, I breathed the conden-
sation.
Outer space, or simply space, is the void that exists between celestial bodiesIt
is not completely empty, but consists of a vacuum owing to the low density of
particles.
When we were young we used to play a game. I would clench my hands into
two fsts and line them up side by side. Next I would press them together as
hard and as frmly as I could and you would count for sixty seconds. Afer the
time was up I would slowly drag my fsts away from each other. It felt as if they
were latched together by some phantom celestial force outside of my body.
I felt this way. By separating into a space we could form some impossible void
that, owing to a tired vacancy, would snap us back together with even more
force.
You can also play this game in reverse. Have your friend clamp your two hands
together, and then try to pry them apart for sixty seconds. When your friend
releases your hands the opposite will happen. Your fsts feel like two giant
wrong-sided magnets. It will feel like the two poles of the earth, or the gravi-
tational pull of the moon, or the centrifugal spin of the planet is pulling you
apart. It will feel as if you cannot bring these two bodies back together.
issue four | 84 vacancies and other celestial ponderings | 83

which was now a dirty blonde. Your hair is plain and girl-like. It is sandy knees
and lunch packed by mom. Your hair is hands dug deep into the dewy grass
and into the clay that stretches across each suburban yard. Your hair is legs
locked together like two wooden chopsticks before the waiter snaps them
apart, and rubs them together, shedding of the tiny splinters that cling to the
sides.
Ten my hair turned brown and curly.
I recently decided, however, that I should have blonde hair again. First it was
rusty orange, then a lemon yellow, and then even paler. Now it is a silvery
white. Two hundred dollars later, I feel sick. I feel as if I have betrayed my
thirteen-year-old self.
For the following two weeks afer I bleached my hair, I could smell the sweet
burning scent of peroxide in the thick
s t e a m o f t h e s h o w e r .
Small molecules of water adhering to the glass shower door in a way that I
could see my own faint distorted refection in the damp sheen.
I feared the peroxide would collect on my skin and strip it of its natural
pigments.
Te window has a shimmery smear of condensation in the upper right hand

corner, looking out on the space between two buildings. Wasted space. Each
droplet glows like a gemstone adhered to the glass. Its a picture instead of a
change of the physical state of gas to liquid. Tere is a warm breath that must
be clouding the window, or maybe the collective breath of the entire room
clouds
the space in between two buildings.
Te dictionary states that, condensation commonly occurs when a vapor is
cooled and/or compressed to its saturation limit when the molecular density
in the gas phase reaches its maximal threshold. Tis is interesting because
I am fairly certain my breath on your forearm did the same. I tried not to
kiss you because you did not want me to, but I was actually pressed so closely
against you that I couldnt move my head, my silvery blonde strands brushing
your chin. No longer appealing. I was positioned in such a way that I had
slipped in between that space. Lips against your skin, I breathed the conden-
sation.
Outer space, or simply space, is the void that exists between celestial bodiesIt
is not completely empty, but consists of a vacuum owing to the low density of
particles.
When we were young we used to play a game. I would clench my hands into
two fsts and line them up side by side. Next I would press them together as
hard and as frmly as I could and you would count for sixty seconds. Afer the
time was up I would slowly drag my fsts away from each other. It felt as if they
were latched together by some phantom celestial force outside of my body.
I felt this way. By separating into a space we could form some impossible void
that, owing to a tired vacancy, would snap us back together with even more
force.
You can also play this game in reverse. Have your friend clamp your two hands
together, and then try to pry them apart for sixty seconds. When your friend
releases your hands the opposite will happen. Your fsts feel like two giant
wrong-sided magnets. It will feel like the two poles of the earth, or the gravi-
tational pull of the moon, or the centrifugal spin of the planet is pulling you
apart. It will feel as if you cannot bring these two bodies back together.
issue four | 86
vacancies and other celestial ponderings | 85
Syzygy is the only word in the English language with three ys. Tere are
several defnitions:
1. Te conjunction of two organisms without loss of identity. Te
separation between the organisms might be imperceptible. Any one of the
segments of an arm composed of two joints so closely united that the line
of union is obliterated on the outer, though visible on the inner, side.
I fnd the italicized part to be particularly interesting. It suggests that the seam
between individual organisms can be invisible externally. But if you were to
turn us inside out we would be composed of an infnite amount of fssures and
divides belying our continuity.
2. Conjunction and opposition of two heavenly bodies, or either of the
points at which these take place, especially in the case of the moon with
the sun (new and full moon).
Similarly, this suggests that there will always be a reverse and opposing force
to a union between two separate things. Two separate bodies.
If two bodies are nearly inseparable; if there exists a vacuum between the
wasted space; if they are woven together by the feeting existence of trans-
parent skin and rigid bone; if they exist in relation to each other by means of
incremental changethen draw me this line of separation.
I have been told before that I lack sufcient boundaries, that I cannot tell
where I end and where someone else begins. I have been reminded that we do
not partake in the same icy deep spring of thoughts buried beneath the earth
from which I extract and construct my conscious self.
But perhaps we all lack these boundaries; some of us are just more interested
in the bodily vessel and that fallible space in between than others.
You think that I cannot possibly understand this space because we have not
shared all experiences. But I know the feeling of claustrophobia.
We are these creatures dressed in clothing.

You are a strange body.
A simple reordering of a phrase can create a chasm between two people. I

overheard a conversation between two people about the phrase I love you,
but and but, I love you. Tat simple conjunction, that three letter word
can dissolve the earth between two people. Neither means I love you. One is a
revision and the other is a plea. How can a three-letter word move bodies?
Two years before, you exhaled the stars into the hollow of the night. Tey were
not beautiful or sparkling or existential or older than the earth. Tey were just
a sign that you were still breathing, clouding the navy dome of the sky with
your magnetic glowing sadness.
I wish I could say that I saw this, unfurling outside on the lawn in front of
the lazy housing complex, curled against the humming rasping soil. Instead
it was viewed from the narrow skylight in the ceiling of your bedroom, with
worn white sheets so tight that we were bound together. I stayed, not because
I could not extricate myself from the small space lef between two unmoving
bodies. I stayed because I feared that if I lef, the stars would be extinguished.
I feared that if I lef, you would gasp the night sky right back into your
trembling lungs and I would be lef with no stars to guide me back out of that
empty house.
I know I lef, but I do not recall how.

issue four | 86
Syzygy is the only word in the English language with three ys. Tere are
several defnitions:
1. Te conjunction of two organisms without loss of identity. Te
separation between the organisms might be imperceptible. Any one of the
segments of an arm composed of two joints so closely united that the line
of union is obliterated on the outer, though visible on the inner, side.
I fnd the italicized part to be particularly interesting. It suggests that the seam
between individual organisms can be invisible externally. But if you were to
turn us inside out we would be composed of an infnite amount of fssures and
divides belying our continuity.
2. Conjunction and opposition of two heavenly bodies, or either of the
points at which these take place, especially in the case of the moon with
the sun (new and full moon).
Similarly, this suggests that there will always be a reverse and opposing force
to a union between two separate things. Two separate bodies.
If two bodies are nearly inseparable; if there exists a vacuum between the
wasted space; if they are woven together by the feeting existence of trans-
parent skin and rigid bone; if they exist in relation to each other by means of
incremental changethen draw me this line of separation.
I have been told before that I lack sufcient boundaries, that I cannot tell
where I end and where someone else begins. I have been reminded that we do
not partake in the same icy deep spring of thoughts buried beneath the earth
from which I extract and construct my conscious self.
But perhaps we all lack these boundaries; some of us are just more interested
in the bodily vessel and that fallible space in between than others.
You think that I cannot possibly understand this space because we have not
shared all experiences. But I know the feeling of claustrophobia.
We are these creatures dressed in clothing.

You are a strange body.
A simple reordering of a phrase can create a chasm between two people. I

overheard a conversation between two people about the phrase I love you,
but and but, I love you. Tat simple conjunction, that three letter word
can dissolve the earth between two people. Neither means I love you. One is a
revision and the other is a plea. How can a three-letter word move bodies?
Two years before, you exhaled the stars into the hollow of the night. Tey were
not beautiful or sparkling or existential or older than the earth. Tey were just
a sign that you were still breathing, clouding the navy dome of the sky with
your magnetic glowing sadness.
I wish I could say that I saw this, unfurling outside on the lawn in front of
the lazy housing complex, curled against the humming rasping soil. Instead
it was viewed from the narrow skylight in the ceiling of your bedroom, with
worn white sheets so tight that we were bound together. I stayed, not because
I could not extricate myself from the small space lef between two unmoving
bodies. I stayed because I feared that if I lef, the stars would be extinguished.
I feared that if I lef, you would gasp the night sky right back into your
trembling lungs and I would be lef with no stars to guide me back out of that
empty house.
I know I lef, but I do not recall how.

issue four | 88
Hannah Fyfe Selfe 03
To the blonde haired girl: did you emerge gasping for air, breathing in but never
breathing out? Did you rake your hands, clawed hands, through the stagnant space,
piercing the circles and circles: lashing through into the night?
blonde blonde
blonde blonde
You cant see blonde
in the dark.
We stuck our hands into the stainless steel industrial dishwashing station. I wanted to
take each of your hands in mine and then pin them to your sides. I wanted to yank your
small frame onto the foor and stack on top of you, the heaviness of the stars and the
moon, beneath the bitter well of thoughts that are carefully stored in boxes in my base-
ment. Lie face down on the ground. I want to see the rise and fall from above this time,
from my towheaded perch. I would stay to give you company, but only until I could
dispose of the tangled trail of space that hovers between us, only until I could dispose of
that part of my self.
Tere is a space between two solid buildings where time condenses. A separation. A
sliver of vacancy.
Yet, on more than one occasion, I have wondered if you and I are not the same person.
Perhaps the body is nothing more or less than a feshy frame or a feeble static boundary
that lies in between everything else.

issue four | 88
Hannah Fyfe Selfe 03
To the blonde haired girl: did you emerge gasping for air, breathing in but never
breathing out? Did you rake your hands, clawed hands, through the stagnant space,
piercing the circles and circles: lashing through into the night?
blonde blonde
blonde blonde
You cant see blonde
in the dark.
We stuck our hands into the stainless steel industrial dishwashing station. I wanted to
take each of your hands in mine and then pin them to your sides. I wanted to yank your
small frame onto the foor and stack on top of you, the heaviness of the stars and the
moon, beneath the bitter well of thoughts that are carefully stored in boxes in my base-
ment. Lie face down on the ground. I want to see the rise and fall from above this time,
from my towheaded perch. I would stay to give you company, but only until I could
dispose of the tangled trail of space that hovers between us, only until I could dispose of
that part of my self.
Tere is a space between two solid buildings where time condenses. A separation. A
sliver of vacancy.
Yet, on more than one occasion, I have wondered if you and I are not the same person.
Perhaps the body is nothing more or less than a feshy frame or a feeble static boundary
that lies in between everything else.

Jodi Goodnough 36,835
Garca Sinclair Untitled
Jodi Goodnough 36,835
Garca Sinclair Untitled
Kat Knutsen One of Many Queens
Camila Pacheco-Fores Latinidad
Kat Knutsen One of Many Queens
Camila Pacheco-Fores Latinidad
this page: Tom Deininger Lovely Sushi Rat
opposite page: Goldie Poblador Fall of Icarus
this page: Tom Deininger Lovely Sushi Rat
opposite page: Goldie Poblador Fall of Icarus
Cheyenne Sophia Untitled
Claudia Norton Hand Fan
Cheyenne Sophia Untitled
Claudia Norton Hand Fan
bluestockings | 97
Marcela Sierzega Birds in Flight
mag.com
contact us at bluestockingsmagazine@gmail.com
bluestockings | 97
Marcela Sierzega Birds in Flight
mag.com
contact us at bluestockingsmagazine@gmail.com
visionary feminism is a wise and loving politics. -bell hooks feminism is a
collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defning, establishing, and
defending equal political, economic, and social rights for everyone. if you have
some power than your job is to empower someone else. -toni morrison femi-
nism challenges dominant narratives. the idea that we all need to subscribe to the
same theoretical understandings of history is marginalizing. we all have our own
truths and histories to live. -krysta williams and erin konsmo feminism recog-
nizes that the personal is political. when I write I am trying to express my way of
being in the world. -zadie smith feminism defnes justice as the end of racism,
cissexism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism and other forms of oppression. it is not
our differences that divide us. it is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate
those differences. -audre lorde feminism is respecting people of all genders,
races, and sexualities as human beings. without an emotional, heartfelt grappling
with the source of our own oppression, without naming the enemy within ourselves
and outside of us, no authentic, non-hierarchical connection among oppressed
groups can take place. -cherrie moraga feminism seeks to destabilize the status
quo. without community, there is no liberation. -audre lorde feminism is
a continuous conversation. our ultimate objective in learning about anything
are going to fall through the cracks. -kimberl crenshaw feminism is both an
intellectual framework and a political movement. why am I compelled to write?
because the writing saves me from this complacency I fear. -gloria anzalda
feminism validates the inclusion of lived experience and emotion within the theo-
retical. the revolution against injustice needs creativity. without creativity, we
can not revolt. -nawal el saadawi feminism is a creative and generative process.
friends of
Brown University Queer Alliance
Feminists @ Brown
Findy and Watermyn Co-ops
Te Pembroke Center
Sarah Doyle Womens Center
Yellow Peril Gallery
Ana Cecilia Alvarez
Todd Baker
Rhonda Beck-Edwards
Ivan Bernier
Amara Berry
P. Butler
Tony Castrigno
Kristy Choi
Bridget Ferrill
Joan Gilbert
Andrew Gutterman
David Gutterman
Nicole Hasslinger
Barrett Hazeltine
Amy LaCount
Leopold Lambert
bluestockings is made possible in part by grants from the Brown University Creative Arts Council and Gener-
ation Progress. Te Creative Arts Council supports undergraduate or graduate student projects involved in the
study, critique, or production of the creative arts. Generation Progress provides funding, training, and resources
to a diverse network of print, online, and broadcast media on college campuses across the county.
Joann Owen Coy
Louise Pitt
Anna Reed
Alison Scott
Te Seawell Family
Robert Self
Te Shack Sackler Family
Kirsten Tys van den Audenaerde
Tuong Vy Nguyen
And our anonymous donors
friends of
Feminists @ Brown
Te Pembroke Center
Ana Cecilia Alvarez
Todd Baker
Rhonda Beck-Edwards
Ivan Bernier
Amara Berry
P. Butler
Tony Castrigno
Kristy Choi
Bridget Ferrill
Joan Gilbert
Andrew Gutterman
David Gutterman
Nicole Hasslinger
Barrett Hazeltine
Amy LaCount
Leopold Lambert
Joann Owen Coy
Louise Pitt
Anna Reed
Alison Scott
Te Seawell Family
Robert Self
Tuong Vy Nguyen
friends of
Feminists @ Brown
Te Pembroke Center
Ana Cecilia Alvarez
Todd Baker
Rhonda Beck-Edwards
Ivan Bernier
Amara Berry
P. Butler
Tony Castrigno
Kristy Choi
Bridget Ferrill
Joan Gilbert
Andrew Gutterman
David Gutterman
Nicole Hasslinger
Barrett Hazeltine
Amy LaCount
Leopold Lambert
Joann Owen Coy
Louise Pitt
Anna Reed
Alison Scott
Te Seawell Family
Robert Self
Tuong Vy Nguyen

Bluestockings Issue 4

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Bluestockings Issue 4

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

visionary feminism is a wise and loving politics.

-bell hooks feminism is

A Brief Explanation for the Relevancy of Blonde Hair:

A Brief Explanation for the Relevancy of Blonde Hair:

Te window has a shimmery smear of condensation in the upper right hand

issue four | 84 vacancies and other celestial ponderings | 83

Te window has a shimmery smear of condensation in the upper right hand

We are these creatures dressed in clothing.

A simple reordering of a phrase can create a chasm between two people. I

We are these creatures dressed in clothing.

A simple reordering of a phrase can create a chasm between two people. I

Edited by Melanie Abeygunawardana

Edited by Melanie Abeygunawardana

Вам также может понравиться