this morning, in front of the Yankee Clipper diner… an older white man in t-shirt, shorts, sneakers, socks… standing beside his car… i take him to be waiting for the diner to open… unexpectedly, he says good morning and asks me how i am doing… he is not the sort of man i expected to exchange pleasantries with me… he looks conservative… i am wearing a sleeveless gray knit maxi dress… necklace, bracelets, and dark red lipstick… i am pleased with the way he seems to accept me as i am… i wish him a good morning and move on with a smile…
These characters – #Heracles, Perseus, Jason, Theseus – were often subtly, or unsubtly, co-opted to offer models of #male-virtue for their young readers. The females were frequently relegated to the background as defenceless virgins, vicious monsters, or grotesque old women.’
—Jennifer-Higgie
–The-Other-Side
are there women super heroes that do not embody the male-virtue warrior archetype?… can we center a woman super hero who does not default to violence to save the world?… would Mother Teresa be such a woman?… Frances Perkins?… others?… must heroism always involve violent acts?…
from my most recent substack post…
masculine and feminine are a complimentary whole in yinyang fashion… yinyang philosophy maintains… when masculine and feminine energies get out of balance, disaster is imminent… white, christian, patriarchal masculinity dominates the present moment… i don’t know if we can rebalanced before the point of disaster… we must try…
Have I mentioned how much I love wearing lipstick? Of all the things I do to feel feminine, this is hands down the most potent. When I am not wearing lipstick, I miss it in a visceral way.
This dress came today and it’s amazing! From the compostable/recyclable packaging it came in, to the quality construction of the garment, to the way it fit me, to the reasonable price of all that! I will be buying more from Everlane.
Total score!
As I spend more time openly presenting in a feminine way, I realize that it is exactly that. Adopting and adapting feminine signals to my body. It’s perhaps less about wanting to be a woman, as it is about claiming the right to present my masculine body femininely if that aligns better with how i feel.
… it’s hard to express this as fully as i feel it, but i love my feminine self… i love wearing feminine clothes… i love wearing jewelry… i love wearing lipstick… i love the way all of it makes me feel…
New addition to my bracelet collection…
It’s a little delicate for me but my plan is to get a few of them…
It’s been difficult to find bracelets that fit my male sized wrists. Always a joy to find one that does.
A long form post from last year pointing towards my entry into trans-feminine space. 6 months later I buy my first lipstick.
I am one of those few people who actually enjoys homemaking. Certainly, I am one of that even rarer species, a cisgender man who actually enjoys housework. Vacuuming and tidying up is rewarding to me because it makes order out of chaos on a weekly basis. Folding laundry is a mindfulness practice as far as I am concerned. Cooking is a spiritual practice of deep devotion, and feeding someone a profound act of love. Doing it daily is a devotional practice of love.
Today’s look…
Every day I make a selfie or 2 or 3 of my look. I found the beaded headband at France Luxe. Lipstick Clinique Bamboo Pink.
When the soul wants to experience something she throws out an image in front of her and steps into it.
–Meister Eckhart
Every day I assemble a selection of images of women as inspiration for my feminine within. The above is a screen shot of search results returned By Deviant art for “fashion photography.”
I have been struggling with writing any kind of long form post about my journey into trans-feminine space. So, instead, I will focus on micro posts. Maybe they will build into something.
The Woman I Want/To Be :: Essays On Attention Paid
In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir makes a compelling case that gender is a social construct. The social landscape we are raised in has a profound effect on what womanhood and manhood are conceived to be and how we conceive of ourselves as men and women.
The Woman I Want/To Be :: Essays On Attention Paid
> I have read more than a few books written by women about the experience of being woman. Caliban and the Witch, by Silvia Federici; Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo; Catcalling by Soho Lee; Girlhood by Melissa Febos; The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir; Down Girl, by Kate Manne; Radical Homemakers, by Shannon Hayes.
The Woman I Want/To Be :: Essays On Attention Paid
> I have been photographing women’s clothing displays in shop widows for years. I am in love with womanhood. I am in love with womanhood in two ways. First, and dominantly, I am in love with womanhood in the way you would expect my male lizard brain to be. I am in love with womanhood as a receptive place where my sexual longings can come to repose.
Becoming a woman: The gender theories of Simone de Beauvoir - Rewriting The Rules
One is not born, but rather one becomes, a woman.
—Simone de Beauvoir
Here she is arguing, from autobiographical experience and from the available evidence at the time, that the things associated with womenhood (such as being passive, concerned with appearance, childlike and in need of protection, and wanting to care for others) are imposed upon women by society rather than being innate characteristics they are born with.
2022-10-10
What caught my attention…
In Times Square and Sunset Strip, “American Gurl” Subverts Femininity… as i have stated before, i have an interest in all things feminine…
In contrast to a “singular idea,” the artists in “American Gurl” offer myriad depictions of women in America. Ayanna Dozier’s “Softer” (2020) critiques the societal demands that African-American women “soften” themselves, specifically through their appearance. Christine Yuan’s “Hoyeon as the International Woman of Mystery” (2022), originally commissioned by Vogue, casts Korean model and _Squid Game_ star Jung Ho-Yeon as an Irma Vep-style vamp who remakes herself for international (read American) consumption. “iGurl” (2022) by Sarah Nicole François is a disturbing digital vision of endless surgical enhancements in search of bodily perfection. “Can we keep up with the aesthetic pushed onto us?” questions Ahmed. “Can these surgeries actually work on us as fast as we can change ourselves online?” Other participating artists include Christelle de Castro, Kasey Elise Walker, Kitty Ca$h, and Leila Jarman.
Art Writing as an Extension of Life
As an arts writer, I am always envious when I find that someone has articulated not only art theory itself, but the way it is a natural part of life for someone who takes joy in the consideration of art. Chris Kraus did this brilliantly in _I Love Dick_(Semiotext(e), 1997); Morgan Meis does this with equal (and completely different) brilliance in _The Drunken Silenus_ (Slant Books, 2020). Randall manages this feat, as the title suggests, by contemplating 12 female artists who are important to her life.
With analysis that is either deeply intuitive or directly informed by personal experience or encounters, Randall presents the life of an artist as both subject and narrator. _Artists in My Life_dissolves the fourth wall between artist, art object, and viewer, offering a welcome approach to arts writing as an extension of how artists live.
The US Could Get Its First National LGBTQ+ History Museum… i only wonder how it will get through congress with so much anit-LGBTQ+ sentiment among conservatives…
A national museum dedicated to American LGBTQ+ history and culture could be coming to Washington, DC. United States Representative Mark Pocan introduced a bill on September 29 to establish the National Museum of American LGBTQ+ History and Culture, potentially as part of Washington, DC’s Smithsonian Institutions. Pocan is a Wisconsin Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus.
The bill establishes an eight-person committee to conduct research into the potential museum, including how much its collection would cost and whether it should in fact be part of the Smithsonian. If the bill passes, the committee will have 18 months before presenting their findings to the House of Representatives, who will then vote on a second bill to establish the museum.
Nevada GOP Secretary of State Candidate Promises to Make Trump President in 2024
At a rally for Nevada Republican candidates on Saturday, Republican nominee for secretary of state Jim Marchant promised that he and his fellow GOP nominees, if elected next month, would reinstall Donald Trump in the White House in 2024.
“We’re gonna fix the whole country and President Trump is gonna be president again,” Marchant promised as Trump stood beside him.
Judge Blocks State Abortion Ban As Attempt “To Completely Eliminate The Rights of Ohio Women”…
… who thought Gilead couldn’t happen…
According to affidavits submitted in the lawsuit, two additional minors who suffered sexual assault also had to leave the state for abortions. Cancer patients and other women with severe complications were also denied abortions. The Ohio Capital Journal summarized the evidence last month:
- The descriptions include those of three women who threatened suicide. They also include two women with cancer who couldn’t terminate their pregnancies and also couldn’t get cancer treatment while they were pregnant.
- Another three examples were of women whose fetuses had severe abnormalities or other conditions that made a successful pregnancy impossible. Even so, they couldn’t get abortions in Ohio.
- And in three cases, debilitating vomiting was caused by pregnancy—so bad in one case that a woman couldn’t get off the clinic floor. But neither could these women get abortions in Ohio, the affidavits said.
In 2020, the National Constitution Center sponsored a constitution-drafting project in which it named three groups to produce their own revised versions of the Constitution: a conservative team, a libertarian team, and a progressive one—each composed of prominent academics and other experts on constitutional law issues. The exercised revealed some important points of agreement between the three teams (even though they also predictably differed on other issues). This year, NCC reconvened the three teams and asked them to come up with a list of constitutional amendments they could jointly agree on.
… and these were…
- Term limits for Supreme Court justices
- Making impeachment easier (would actually make starting impeachment harder, convicting easier)
- Legislative Veto (wherein the legislature could veto executive action)
- Eliminating the requirement that the president be a natural-born citizen
- Making the Constitution easier to amend in the future
… most make sense on the face of it… the rest make sense upon reading the explanations…
October 07, 2022
Heather Cox Richardson, October 06, 2022
Trump’s continuing insistence that he won the 2020 election, and the Republican Party’s embrace of that lie despite the fact that Biden won by more than 7 million votes in the popular vote and by 306 to 232 in the Electoral College, says that they will never again consider the election of a Democrat legitimate.
“If you care about democracy and you care about the survival of our republic, then you need to understand—we all have to understand—that we cannot give people power who have told us that they will not honor elections,” Cheney said.
… the next two elections will be determinative about which way the country is going… democracy or authoritarianism… conservatives, don’t believe in democracy, haven’t believed in democracy for some time now… why?… because conservatism in this country is presently focused on the preservation of the power of the mostly white patriarchy and they can’t preserve their power if elections are free and fair… they are in desperate survival mode where any means justifies the end… thus, scandals like those of Herschel Walker, which would have taken down any politician just 10 years ago are no longer disqualifying… there is an absolute abasement in this desperation… the trouble is, it may prevail…
Want Lipstick That Actually Lasts? Rouge Dior Forever is the Answer
… i have a deep love of the feminine and what is more feminine than lipstick, or more important to lipstick than it be lasting?…
- Who should use it? Anyone who wants intense, pigment-rich matte lipstick that actually stays where it’s supposed to – there are no smears, smudges or fading here
- How long until I love it? Probably 16 hours after you first put it on, as one application promises to last that long
- How planet-/people-friendly is it? As part of Dior Beauty’s Responsible Formulation Charter, the brand aims to source all ingredients in the most socially and environmentally responsible way possible
- How do I use it? Make sure your lips are primed and moisturised with a good balm, then add a slick of Rouge Dior Forever and leave to dry for three minutes
They were the first to colonize the Earth. They will inherit it long after we are gone as a species. And when we go as individuals, it is they who return our borrowed stardust to the universe, feasting on our mortal flesh to turn it into oak and blackbird, grass and grasshopper. Fungi are the mightiest kingdom of life, and the least understood by our science, and the most everlasting. Without them, this planet would not be a world. Like everything vast and various, they shimmer with metaphors for life itself.
Viruses Are More Like Cone Snails Than Hijackers
… as i read this article, there is this growing sense of interconnectedness… that all things are connected to all other things and that the universe can only be understood as an incredibly wondrous tapestry of matter and energy and a byproduct, life… we can’t understand the parts without some comprehension of the whole… and we can never think that anything can be understood in isolation…
Viruses, like cone snails, evolve to be more like what sustains them. It is an uncomfortable form of relatedness, this predatory metabolic convergence, but it cannot be denied that it generates amazing patterns of likeness across biological kingdoms without everything having to be descended from the same line of direct genetic inheritance.
Even if something has evolved to get away from its mimic, it holds the imprint of that entity’s influence in its difference, like a shadow.
Immersing Yourself in the Works of Gustav Klimt #art #gustav-klimt #exhibitions
In the unlikely setting of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank in Manhattan, seeping into the ceilings, floors, walls, and recesses of the hall, projections of Gustav Klimt’s paintings are now set on an hour-long loop. Built between 1909 and 1912, the bank’s interior retains many of its original decorative elements, which include elegant glass panels, patterned limestone carvings, and brass detailing. Contrary to what its facade seems to convey about what happens inside — mysterious and important affairs of the economy and the state — people inside are huddled and seated in clusters on the ground and on chairs in darkness, hushed and sedated by a carousing Johann Strauss waltz.
Wrightwood 659 Hosts Exhibitions on the “First Homosexuals” and Michiko Itatani
Roberto Montenegro, “Retrato de un anticuario o Retrato de Chucho Reyes y autorretrato” (detail) (1926), oil on canvas, 102.5 x 102.5 cm, Colección Pérez Simón, Mexico
The First Homosexuals: Global Depictions of a New Identity, 1869-1930 starts with the year 1869, when the word “homosexual” was first coined in Europe, inaugurating the idea of same-sex desire as the basis for a new identity category. More than 100 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and film clips from public and private collections around the world are on view, including works that have never before been allowed to travel outside their respective countries. This groundbreaking exhibition is the first multi-medium survey of early, determinedly queer art that explored what the “first homosexuals” understood themselves to be — and how the dominant culture, in turn, understood them. This is part one of a two-part exhibition (the second is planned for 2025 and will feature 250 masterworks) developed by a team of 23 international scholars led by distinguished art historian Jonathan D. Katz with associate curator Johnny Willis.
French author Annie Ernaux has won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature
Annie Ernaux is the author of some twenty works of fiction and memoir, winner of the Prix Renaudot for _A Man’s Place_, and of the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize for her body of work, and recently the winner of the International Strega Prize and the French-American Translation Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for The Years.
Annie Ernaux on the “Infinite Lack” in Our Search for Love
Anyway, what does this sign really mean, the phone call from the Latin Quarter? That he’s thinking of me? But in what way? There’s nothing more impossible to imagine than the desire, the emotion, of the Other. And yet, only that is beautiful. All I dream of is this perfection, without yet being sure of attaining it—of being the “last woman,” the one who erases all the others, with her attentiveness, her skilled knowledge of his body: the “sublime affair.”
Tucker Carlson and the Crisis of Masculinity
… as a man, i balk a little at what this article informs me of, but there are some astonishing statistics backing it up… maybe we have reached the matriarchal age after all… if the men don’t blow the place up because the planet without men in charge isn’t worth living on anyway…
Girls are now outperforming boys at nearly every level of education. They earn 60 percent of bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and comprise 70 percent of high school valedictorians. Women are also dominating many workplaces. Women today hold a majority of the nation’s jobs, including 51.4 percent of managerial and professional jobs—up from 26.1 percent in 1980. They make up 54 percent of all accountants and hold about half of all banking and insurance jobs. As for men, they are dropping out at alarming rates. More prime age males are out of the b force today than during the Great Depression.
20220420.09
(Maria Popova?) Oak-hopping in New Orleans, September 2020. (Photograph: Milène Lichtwarck.)
… about two books, Women in Trees, More Women in Trees, by Jochen Rains… a rare photograph of herself climbing through an oak tree… the subject of the books is a collection of photographs of women in trees… they are vintage and come from a time when it might have seemed unladylike to appear in trees… climbing trees is how so many children gain freedom from a world that is increasingly straightjacketing them… a freeing and adventurous thing to do in the confines of societal expectations, their neighborhoods, their schools… MP treats the act as a feminist gesture full of symbolism… from climbing trees to climbing corporate ladders is but the distance of a generation or two…