Julia Serano's Blog, page 17
June 7, 2012
The Biggest Quake: New thinking on the San Francisco AIDS epidemic
So here we are again, at the start of another Pride month! I wanted to let folks know about an awesome spoken word event that I will be taking part in next week:
The Biggest Quake: New thinking on the San Francisco AIDS epidemic
This is an amazing show curated by one of my favorite writers/performers, Kirk Read. It is a multigenerational perspective on HIV and the AIDS epidemic.
performers (besides me) are: Mark ABRAMSON, Justin CHIN, Brontez PURNELL, Carol QUEEN, Kirk READ, K.M. SOEHNLEIN, Ed WOLF
ALL SHOWS FREE! JUNE 14-15-16, 7pm New material in every show
Metropolitan Community Church, 150 Eureka near 18th
a quick blurb about the show:
The Biggest Quake brings together eight San Francisco artists with varied backgrounds in writing, performance art, music, public health, science and AIDS activism. In preparation for these three evenings, the eight artists created brand new essays and performance works in collaboration with one another. The location, Metropolitan Community Church, was ground zero for hundreds of memorial services during the peak of the AIDS years. The work promises to be funny, touching, harrowing, historical and controversial. The variety of voices here creates a dialogue that goes across generational, gender, and cultural lines.
Here is a video trailer for the show:
http://vimeo.com/42527187
Here is the Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/440235436000941
Here is the National Queer Arts Festival site for the show:
http://queerculturalcenter.org/NQAF/performance/the-biggest-quake/
All of the sorted details for the show can be found at the bottom of this message.
I will be doing different pieces at each show. So come early and often if you can! and once again, all shows are FREE!!!
....................................
more details:
The Biggest Quake brings together eight San Francisco artists with varied backgrounds in writing, performance art, music, public health, science and AIDS activism. Topics will include barebacking, pre-exposure (PrEP) HIV medications for HIV-negative people, crystal meth, the missing generations of trans women, being newly infected, helping people commit suicide in the 1980s and getting arrested with ACT UP. A rich brew. WE PROMISE there will be no cliches about being HIV positive and thriving and no one will tell you that men who bareback have low self esteem. In preparation for these three evenings, the eight artists created brand new essays and performance works in collaboration with one another. The location, Metropolitan Community Church, was ground zero for many hundreds of memorial services during the peak of the AIDS years. The work promises to be funny, touching, harrowing, historical and controversial. The artists spent hours having conversations as a group and individually, deepening their shared understanding of the AIDS epidemic. The variety of voices here creates a dialogue that goes across generational, gender, and experiential lines. The purpose of this project is to generate new stories and thinking about AIDS that is not mediated by public health messaging or non-profit politics. We aim to spark a resurgence of artists making work about the epidemic, in terms of history, where we are now, and the future imaginary.
The Biggest Quake was made possible in part by a grant from The Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund supported by generous grants from the William Flora Hewlett Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation. Additional support was provided by The Queer Cultural Center, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the California Arts Council and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.
Artist bios:
Mark Abramson was a Midwestern farm boy who joined the great gay migration to San Francisco in the 1970s. His writing has appeared in the gay press as far back as Christopher Street, Fag Rag, Gay Sunshine and Mouth of the Dragon. Like the central character in his best-selling "Beach Reading" series, Mark Abramson grew up in Minnesota and worked as a waiter in the Castro, but Mark is better known as a bartender and co-producer of “Men Behind Bars,” an annual AIDS benefit and the huge dance parties on San Francisco piers called "Pier Pressure" and "High Tea.”
Justin Chin’s third book of poetry, Gutted, received the Publishing Triangle's 2007 Thom Gunn Award for Poetry, and was a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards, and the Assoc. for Asian American Studies Book Awards. His other books of poetry are Bite Hard, and Harmless Medicine, a 2002 Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Awards finalist. He is also the author of three collections of essays: Burden of Ashes, Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes & Pranks, and Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms; and most recently, the short story collection, 98 Wounds.
Brontez Purnell is a zinester, writer, dancer and musician, who now lives in California. Brontez was originally from Triana, Alabama, then moving to Huntsville, Alabama, and then to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he released Schlepp Fanzine while still living at home. He then relocated on his own to Oakland, California, where he released his next zine, Fag School. He is also the mastermind behind the band The Younger Lovers and is an ex-member of queer electro band Gravy Train!!!! Brontez has written for various publications, including the on-line edition of Jigsaw, and has also written a column called “She’s Over It” for Maximum Rock ‘N’ Roll. He has read his work at Lit Quake in San Francisco. He is currently working on his first novella "Johnny, Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger? (Diary of an American Waiter Bored at Work).
Carol Queen has a PhD in sexology; she calls herself a "cultural sexologist" because her earlier academic degree is in sociology: while she addresses individual issues, her overarching interest is in cultural impacts (gender, shame, access to education, etc.) on sexuality. Queen has worked at Good Vibrations (www.goodvibes.com), the woman-founded sexuality company based in San Francisco that turned 35 years old this year, since 1990. She serves as Staff Sexologist and Chief Cultural Officer. She is also the founding director (with her partner Robert Morgan Lawrence) of the Center for Sex & Culture, a non-profit sex ed and arts center San Francisco (www.sexandculture.org), and is a frequent lecturer at colleges and community-based organizations. Her dozen books include a Lambda Literary Award winner, PoMoSexuals, and Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture, which are used as texts in some college classes. She blogs at the Good Vibes Magazine, the Boston Dig, and at SFGate's City Brights bloggers page. For more: carolqueen.com.
Kirk Read (curator) is the author of the coming out memoir “How I Learned to Snap” and created the solo shows “This is the Thing” and “Computer Face.” He has toured with the Queen’s English, Sister Spit and twice with the Sex Workers Art Show. He is passionate about the intersection of art and public health. Over the years he has produced over 250 nights of performance and literature, including events addressing crystal meth, barebacking, computer addiction, sex work and HIV/AIDS from the perspective of artists and writers who create work from lived experience. He helped organize the Gay Men’s Sex Summit and the first two national Gay Men’s Health Summits in Boulder. He worked as a phlebotomist and HIV counselor at St. James Infirmary, San Francisco’s free clinic for sex workers. At St. James, he also started a support group for male sex workers. He cohosted the long running queer open mic K’vetsh with Tara Jepsen and cohosts Smack Dab with Larry-bob Roberts, a queer open mic on third Wednesdays at Magnet. He started Army of Lovers, an organization that curates queer art events. He started Formerly Known As, a festival of male sex worker performance, now in its fourth year. He believes in the power of art to shape and guide social movements.
Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, performer, and activist. Julia is the author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (Seal Press, 2007), a collection of personal essays that reveal how misogyny frames popular assumptions about femininity and shapes many of the myths and misconceptions people have about transsexual women. Her other writings have appeared in anthologies (including Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation and Word Warriors: 30 Leaders in the Women’s Spoken Word Movement) and in feminist, queer, pop culture and literary magazines and websites such as Bitch Magazine, AlterNet.org, Out, Feministing.com, make/shift and Clamor. In recent years, Julia has gained notoriety in transgender, queer, and feminist circles for her unique insights into gender, and her writings have been used as teaching materials in queer and gender studies courses across North America.
K.M. Soehnlein is the author of three novels: The World of Normal Boys, winner of the Lambda Award for Gay Men’s Fiction; its sequel, Robin and Ruby; and You Can Say You Knew Me When. His fiction has been translated into Czech, Italian and Chinese. He's currently working on a novel set in New York City in the late 1980s and early ’90s, against the backdrop of the AIDS activist protest movement. His writing is included in the anthologies Who’s Yer Daddy? Gay Writers Celebrate Their Mentors and Forerunners; Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys; and Love, Castro Street. He has written for The Village Voice, Out, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7 and other publications. He was born in New York, grew up in New Jersey and has lived in San Francisco since the early ’90s. He teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco. He lives with his husband, Kevin Clarke, in SoMa. http://kmsoehnlein.com
Ed Wolf has been working continuously in the HIV/AIDS epidemic since 1983, as chronicled in the award-winning documentary “We Were Here." He has developed HIV-related curriculum and trainings for a large number of national and international organizations and institutions, including the California State Office of AIDS, the Shanti Project of San Francisco, UCSF AIDS Health Project and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles. He's facilitated trainings for counselors working in clinical trials in Lima, Peru as well as South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. His stories and articles have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Christopher Street, the James White Review and Prentice Hall’s Discovering Literature. Ed has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and was awarded the HIV National Educator of Year Award from the body.com.
The Biggest Quake: New thinking on the San Francisco AIDS epidemic
This is an amazing show curated by one of my favorite writers/performers, Kirk Read. It is a multigenerational perspective on HIV and the AIDS epidemic.
performers (besides me) are: Mark ABRAMSON, Justin CHIN, Brontez PURNELL, Carol QUEEN, Kirk READ, K.M. SOEHNLEIN, Ed WOLF
ALL SHOWS FREE! JUNE 14-15-16, 7pm New material in every show
Metropolitan Community Church, 150 Eureka near 18th
a quick blurb about the show:
The Biggest Quake brings together eight San Francisco artists with varied backgrounds in writing, performance art, music, public health, science and AIDS activism. In preparation for these three evenings, the eight artists created brand new essays and performance works in collaboration with one another. The location, Metropolitan Community Church, was ground zero for hundreds of memorial services during the peak of the AIDS years. The work promises to be funny, touching, harrowing, historical and controversial. The variety of voices here creates a dialogue that goes across generational, gender, and cultural lines.
Here is a video trailer for the show:
http://vimeo.com/42527187
Here is the Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/440235436000941
Here is the National Queer Arts Festival site for the show:
http://queerculturalcenter.org/NQAF/performance/the-biggest-quake/
All of the sorted details for the show can be found at the bottom of this message.
I will be doing different pieces at each show. So come early and often if you can! and once again, all shows are FREE!!!
....................................
more details:
The Biggest Quake brings together eight San Francisco artists with varied backgrounds in writing, performance art, music, public health, science and AIDS activism. Topics will include barebacking, pre-exposure (PrEP) HIV medications for HIV-negative people, crystal meth, the missing generations of trans women, being newly infected, helping people commit suicide in the 1980s and getting arrested with ACT UP. A rich brew. WE PROMISE there will be no cliches about being HIV positive and thriving and no one will tell you that men who bareback have low self esteem. In preparation for these three evenings, the eight artists created brand new essays and performance works in collaboration with one another. The location, Metropolitan Community Church, was ground zero for many hundreds of memorial services during the peak of the AIDS years. The work promises to be funny, touching, harrowing, historical and controversial. The artists spent hours having conversations as a group and individually, deepening their shared understanding of the AIDS epidemic. The variety of voices here creates a dialogue that goes across generational, gender, and experiential lines. The purpose of this project is to generate new stories and thinking about AIDS that is not mediated by public health messaging or non-profit politics. We aim to spark a resurgence of artists making work about the epidemic, in terms of history, where we are now, and the future imaginary.
The Biggest Quake was made possible in part by a grant from The Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund supported by generous grants from the William Flora Hewlett Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation. Additional support was provided by The Queer Cultural Center, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the California Arts Council and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.
Artist bios:
Mark Abramson was a Midwestern farm boy who joined the great gay migration to San Francisco in the 1970s. His writing has appeared in the gay press as far back as Christopher Street, Fag Rag, Gay Sunshine and Mouth of the Dragon. Like the central character in his best-selling "Beach Reading" series, Mark Abramson grew up in Minnesota and worked as a waiter in the Castro, but Mark is better known as a bartender and co-producer of “Men Behind Bars,” an annual AIDS benefit and the huge dance parties on San Francisco piers called "Pier Pressure" and "High Tea.”
Justin Chin’s third book of poetry, Gutted, received the Publishing Triangle's 2007 Thom Gunn Award for Poetry, and was a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards, and the Assoc. for Asian American Studies Book Awards. His other books of poetry are Bite Hard, and Harmless Medicine, a 2002 Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Awards finalist. He is also the author of three collections of essays: Burden of Ashes, Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes & Pranks, and Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms; and most recently, the short story collection, 98 Wounds.
Brontez Purnell is a zinester, writer, dancer and musician, who now lives in California. Brontez was originally from Triana, Alabama, then moving to Huntsville, Alabama, and then to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he released Schlepp Fanzine while still living at home. He then relocated on his own to Oakland, California, where he released his next zine, Fag School. He is also the mastermind behind the band The Younger Lovers and is an ex-member of queer electro band Gravy Train!!!! Brontez has written for various publications, including the on-line edition of Jigsaw, and has also written a column called “She’s Over It” for Maximum Rock ‘N’ Roll. He has read his work at Lit Quake in San Francisco. He is currently working on his first novella "Johnny, Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger? (Diary of an American Waiter Bored at Work).
Carol Queen has a PhD in sexology; she calls herself a "cultural sexologist" because her earlier academic degree is in sociology: while she addresses individual issues, her overarching interest is in cultural impacts (gender, shame, access to education, etc.) on sexuality. Queen has worked at Good Vibrations (www.goodvibes.com), the woman-founded sexuality company based in San Francisco that turned 35 years old this year, since 1990. She serves as Staff Sexologist and Chief Cultural Officer. She is also the founding director (with her partner Robert Morgan Lawrence) of the Center for Sex & Culture, a non-profit sex ed and arts center San Francisco (www.sexandculture.org), and is a frequent lecturer at colleges and community-based organizations. Her dozen books include a Lambda Literary Award winner, PoMoSexuals, and Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture, which are used as texts in some college classes. She blogs at the Good Vibes Magazine, the Boston Dig, and at SFGate's City Brights bloggers page. For more: carolqueen.com.
Kirk Read (curator) is the author of the coming out memoir “How I Learned to Snap” and created the solo shows “This is the Thing” and “Computer Face.” He has toured with the Queen’s English, Sister Spit and twice with the Sex Workers Art Show. He is passionate about the intersection of art and public health. Over the years he has produced over 250 nights of performance and literature, including events addressing crystal meth, barebacking, computer addiction, sex work and HIV/AIDS from the perspective of artists and writers who create work from lived experience. He helped organize the Gay Men’s Sex Summit and the first two national Gay Men’s Health Summits in Boulder. He worked as a phlebotomist and HIV counselor at St. James Infirmary, San Francisco’s free clinic for sex workers. At St. James, he also started a support group for male sex workers. He cohosted the long running queer open mic K’vetsh with Tara Jepsen and cohosts Smack Dab with Larry-bob Roberts, a queer open mic on third Wednesdays at Magnet. He started Army of Lovers, an organization that curates queer art events. He started Formerly Known As, a festival of male sex worker performance, now in its fourth year. He believes in the power of art to shape and guide social movements.
Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, performer, and activist. Julia is the author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (Seal Press, 2007), a collection of personal essays that reveal how misogyny frames popular assumptions about femininity and shapes many of the myths and misconceptions people have about transsexual women. Her other writings have appeared in anthologies (including Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation and Word Warriors: 30 Leaders in the Women’s Spoken Word Movement) and in feminist, queer, pop culture and literary magazines and websites such as Bitch Magazine, AlterNet.org, Out, Feministing.com, make/shift and Clamor. In recent years, Julia has gained notoriety in transgender, queer, and feminist circles for her unique insights into gender, and her writings have been used as teaching materials in queer and gender studies courses across North America.
K.M. Soehnlein is the author of three novels: The World of Normal Boys, winner of the Lambda Award for Gay Men’s Fiction; its sequel, Robin and Ruby; and You Can Say You Knew Me When. His fiction has been translated into Czech, Italian and Chinese. He's currently working on a novel set in New York City in the late 1980s and early ’90s, against the backdrop of the AIDS activist protest movement. His writing is included in the anthologies Who’s Yer Daddy? Gay Writers Celebrate Their Mentors and Forerunners; Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys; and Love, Castro Street. He has written for The Village Voice, Out, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7 and other publications. He was born in New York, grew up in New Jersey and has lived in San Francisco since the early ’90s. He teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco. He lives with his husband, Kevin Clarke, in SoMa. http://kmsoehnlein.com
Ed Wolf has been working continuously in the HIV/AIDS epidemic since 1983, as chronicled in the award-winning documentary “We Were Here." He has developed HIV-related curriculum and trainings for a large number of national and international organizations and institutions, including the California State Office of AIDS, the Shanti Project of San Francisco, UCSF AIDS Health Project and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles. He's facilitated trainings for counselors working in clinical trials in Lima, Peru as well as South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. His stories and articles have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Christopher Street, the James White Review and Prentice Hall’s Discovering Literature. Ed has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and was awarded the HIV National Educator of Year Award from the body.com.
May 30, 2012
Laura Jane Grace and coming out as trans in the public eye
So about once every year or two, somebody comes out as trans in a rather high profile way. Two years ago it was Chaz Bono. Before that there was Christine Daniels, Susan Stanton, and others before them. When this happens, I usually experience a mix of emotions.
Lots of trans folks celebrate the visibility that comes with these high profile coming outs, and how it can humanize us in the eyes of the world. In my case, when I came out to my family as a trans woman in 2002, they took it really hard. But a year later, when Jenny Boylan appeared on Oprah, my Mom rushed out to buy her book. While my Mom had come to accept who I was before then, the fact that another trans woman was on Oprah (a show she watched every day) really normalized the whole experience for her. Rather than me being the only trans person she knew, my Mom got to see that there were others like me out there in the world.
While visibility is important, these high profile coming outs sometimes do have their downsides. Sometimes the coverage can be overly sensationalistic. But even worse, the media's fascination with coming outs and physical transitions tend to create a situation where folks who have not been involved with the trans community very long suddenly become our spokespeople, whereas activists who are very knowledgeable about trans issues, and who have been fighting for trans rights for years, couldn't get five minutes with the media no matter how hard they might try. Sometimes, these high profile trans folks do a pretty good job of representing the community, but other times it can lead to disastrous politics.
The third emotion I feel is empathy/sympathy. It's hard to come out as trans, no matter who you are. It's hard to do all that explaining, and reacting to the various reactions (which for me, ranged from friends congratulating me, to friends never speaking to me again, as well as every imaginable response between those two extremes). But to do all that in the public eye, with even more people watching you, judging you, that must be especially hard.
So a couple weeks ago, when I heard that the lead singer/guitarist/songwriter for the band Against Me! recently came out as a trans woman, and is now going by the name Laura Jane Grace, I felt this usual mix of emotions. I hadn't heard of her or her band before (no offense meant by that, it's just that the last six years I've been listening to jazz more so that rock/pop music). So I had a rather generic reaction - in my mind, I wished her the best, and hoped that her high profile coming out would be one more small step toward public understanding and acceptance of trans people.
But then @eastsidekate on Twitter informed me that the Rolling Stone article in which Laura Jane Grace comes out mentions that Grace read my book Whipping Girl . (Funny, I always used to dream of being mentioned in Rolling Stone magazine. But as a musician, not as a trans author. Life is strange...)
So of course, like any person who hears such news, I went out to my local newsstand to buy Rolling Stone. And I read the article. It was typical mainstream fare: Lots of talk about medical/transitioning procedures, and language choices that bothered me. I wish they referred to Grace with female pronouns rather than male ones (although that could have been Grace's choice, as she was not yet presenting female at the time of the interview). And seriously Rolling Stone, in 2012, do you still need to trot out a "transgender expert" from the Kinsey Institute to tell us that "one in 30,000 men is clinically diagnosed as being transgender." Really. Are we still using those ancient statistics? According to that statistic, there are only 5,000 trans women living in the US right now. I personally have probably met well over 1,000 trans women in my life simply by being an activist and attending trans conferences over the years. Seriously, there is no chance that I've met over 20% of all trans women in the US!!!
Having said all that, the article could have been far worse. At least Rolling Stone handled this better than their article about Lana Wachowski (which I refuse to link to because it was *so* bad). Interestingly, the Wachowski article was called "The Mystery of Larry Wachowski" and Grace's article is called "The Secret Life of Tom Gabel." Apparently, we transsexuals are an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, and surrounded by Rolling Stone editors who are fond of mystifying us.
Aside from annoyances about how it was written, the article brought up a lot for me personally. I have heard a countless trans people's stories before, and I find myself identifying with some elements of their lives, but not other parts. But Grace's story really brought a lot of memories racing back to me, mostly because, like Grace, I was a lead singer/guitarist/songwriter for an indie rock band at the time that I transitioned.
My band was called Bitesize. We were not nearly as big as Against Me! mind you. But we were a fixture in the local SF Bay Area music scene from 1998-2005, and we toured up and down the West coast quite a few times. KEXP in Seattle used to play songs from our second album "Sophomore Slump" quite a bit, so we had a number of fans up there too. And we received some college radio airplay elsewhere. But that's about it, we never made it to the next level of touring nationally or getting much recognition beyond the West coast.
The Rolling Stone article discusses a number of Against Me! lyrics that strongly hinted that Grace might be transgender, even though most people did not pick up on it. That very much resonated with me. Music was my main creative outlet back then, and one of the ways that I expressed my trans-ness was through songwriting. One of the first Bitesize songs was called "I Forgot My Mantra," and it was basically about being a crossdresser (how I saw myself at the time). The chorus was a single line: "I'm a hermaphrodite, but that's beside the point." (For the record, I was not trying to claim an intersex identity with that line - I didn't even know what intersex was back then. I was just trying to express that I saw myself as both female and male at the time.)
Another Bitesize song, called "Switch Hitter," was an embellished sort-of-true-ish story about how I first decided to change my sex at my little league's All-Star game. The chorus of the song was: "A year from now I'll be the center of attention/After I have had my sex change operation." It was so empowering for me to get up on stage and belt out those lines. And as Grace mentions about some of her lyrics in the article, I thought I was completely outing myself as trans with that line, but nobody else seemed to connect the dots.
The first two songs on our second album were also trans-themed: "Surprise Ending" was about a trans women who accidentally runs into the bully who picked on her as a child. And "Understudy" (which is my favorite Bitesize song) is about a transgender teenage thespian who gets to play the role of Ophelia in a Catholic boy's school rendition of Hamlet.
Anyway, when I did eventually come out as trans (btw, in writing this, I found that my original coming out letter is still up on the Bitesize website), it was a fairly public coming out, as our band was very well known in the local music scene. There wasn't really a precedent for it at the time. Back then, there were a few trans-fronted bands scattered across the country, but they were all (as far as I could gather) bands where the front person was out as trans from the get-go, rather than one where the person transitioned mid-stream. So I really didn't know how people would react.
It turns out that things went mostly well. Part of it was probably because we were a part of an indie-pop scene that was the farthest thing from macho imaginable - most of the bands we played with were mixed genders, and many bands had openly queer (albeit not trans) members. We were punk-pop-ish enough that sometimes we would play on more punk rock bills. I know that some folks from that scene were somewhat less accepting of my transition. Our drummer Steve used to be more involved in that scene, and he said that people would occasionally come up to him and say something like "Dude, what the fuck is up with your guitarist?" in a really negative way. And then they'd seem taken aback when Steve would reply "Well Julie's really happy now and we all love and support her." That apparently neutralized them. In any case, I'm sure that people who were bothered by me being trans usually talked shit behind my back, not to my face.
Another thing that Grace's article reminded me about was coming out to my bandmates. From the start pretty much, my bandmates knew that I was trans. Well, initially they knew that I considered myself to be a crossdresser. Then as I began learning more, I started calling myself transgender. I personally made the decision to transition about 2 weeks before we began recording our second album "Sophomore Slump." Recording a record is super stressful, and I didn't want to add any unforeseen tension to the mix, so I decided not to tell them until recording was complete. The first band practice that we had after finishing the record, Leslie and Steve came in talking about recording and the potential song order of the album. And I said, "Hey guys, I have something serious that I want to talk about." They paused, and Steve kind of jokingly said, “What is it? Are you going to have a sex change?” And I just said, “Um...yeah.” Leslie and Steve were both super supportive, and that made the public aspects of my transition far easier knowing that they both had my back.
Anyway, I hope things go similarly well for Grace. It is ten years later, and there is certainly way more trans awareness in the mainstream now than when I transitioned, so that bodes well for her. But I also know that her transition is *way* more high profile than mine ever was - mine was largely confined to Bay Area music and artist circles, and hers is taking place in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. In any case, I personally found that coming out as trans was very much an exercise in learning how not to give a fuck about what anybody else thinks about me. Obviously, none of us is capable of completely letting go of other people's opinions about us. But learning how to be generally unconcerned with other people's thoughts, assumptions and negative comments regarding me being trans was a huge life lesson for me, one that has allowed me to be more self-confident and remain true to myself in countless areas outside of my gender. I would like to think that this same life lesson (which many trans folks eventually learn) might be helpful no matter how public one's transition is.
May 2, 2012
Justice for Brandy
So a few days ago, a trans woman of color was murdered in my neighborhood, just a few blocks from my apartment. There has been scant media coverage about this, so some of us are trying to get the word out. Please help pass this news around. And if you know any media folks, please encourage them to cover the story. Here are all the links to this story that I am currently aware of. If you have additional ones, please post them in the comments section. Thanks! -j.
p.s., if you "tweet" about this, please use the hashtag: #JusticeforBrandy
http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/05/brandy-martell-killed-in-oakland.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/30/1087705/-Transgender-woman-murdered-in-Oakland-Nobody-Cares-
https://www.facebook.com/notes/holly-fogleboch/murder-in-oakland/10150775138911132
http://www.care2.com/causes/another-transgender-murder-is-anyone-paying-attention.html
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2012/04/transgender_woman_murdered_oakland.php
p.s., if you "tweet" about this, please use the hashtag: #JusticeforBrandy
http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/05/brandy-martell-killed-in-oakland.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/30/1087705/-Transgender-woman-murdered-in-Oakland-Nobody-Cares-
https://www.facebook.com/notes/holly-fogleboch/murder-in-oakland/10150775138911132
http://www.care2.com/causes/another-transgender-murder-is-anyone-paying-attention.html
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2012/04/transgender_woman_murdered_oakland.php
April 19, 2012
my Ms. Magazine blog article on Trans Feminism
So some of you may already be aware of this, but yesterday my article "Trans Feminism: There’s No Conundrum About It" appeared on Ms. Magazine's blog. It is my rebuttal to a previous article on trans feminism that they published last month.
If you're interested, you can check out the aforementioned link...enjoy! -j.
If you're interested, you can check out the aforementioned link...enjoy! -j.
April 18, 2012
julia update April 2012!
in this julia update:
1) Girl Talk 2012 videos!
2) upcoming San Francisco shows!
.....................
Hi all, here's what's new in my world:
1) Girl Talk 2012 videos!
as promised, we (co-curators of Girl Talk) have made videos of this year's Girl Talk: A Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue show available for all to view! Here is the link to all the videos:
http://vimeo.com/markmcbethprojects/videos/search:girl talk/
The videos are not yet tagged, but you can tell which performer it will be based on the picture associated with the link. Here is the link to the video of my two pieces:
http://vimeo.com/39522510
enjoy!
P.S. full video of Girl Talk 2011 is also available on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL6C0BC77CA710AB76
2) upcoming San Francisco shows
--So tomorrow (Thursday, April 19), I will be reading at a benefit for my favorite Bay Area book store, Modern Times. And it will take place at one of my favorite Bay Area venues, El Rio. Here are the details from the Modern Times website:
40 Years of Radical Writing, Rabble Rousing, and Romancing Your Brain
A party with and for Modern Times at El Rio
- Thursday, April 19
- 6-9 PM
- El Rio: 3158 Mission Street
- $5-15, NOTA
We've been moving and shaking since our relocation from Valencia to 24th St. Now that the dust has settled, we want a party, and we want you to join us! Featuring stories of San Francisco by some of our favorite San Franciscans: Daphne Gottlieb, Erick Lyle, Chris Carlsson, Marge Nelson, and more TBA, with drink specials, prizes, food, and surprises. Proceeds go to the development of a new event/teaching space, expanded programming, and community engagement.
--and an advance heads up: on June 14, 15 and 16th I will be participating in a an amazing show called "The Biggest Quake". The show is curated by one of my favorite writers/performers, Kirk Read, and it examines the AIDS epidemic from an intergenerational perspective, both from people who lived through it as adults and people who did not. The cast is amazing - I'll send out all the details as the show draws closer, but I wanted to let people know so they can mark it on their "Pride month" calendars.
That's it for now. And remember, between updates, you can always check out:
my main website:
http://www.juliaserano.com
and I tweet regularly (@juliaserano):
http://twitter.com/#!/Juliaserano
for those interested in what I have to say when I have more than 140 characters to work with, there's my blog:
http://juliaserano.blogspot.com
I also post all my upcoming events and news on my aforementioned blog, and it also all automatically gets forwarded to my Facebook "writer" page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julia-Serano/277728205577201?ref=ts
so I encourage you to follow me (and perhaps "like me") there!
Best wishes, -julia
1) Girl Talk 2012 videos!
2) upcoming San Francisco shows!
.....................
Hi all, here's what's new in my world:
1) Girl Talk 2012 videos!
as promised, we (co-curators of Girl Talk) have made videos of this year's Girl Talk: A Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue show available for all to view! Here is the link to all the videos:
http://vimeo.com/markmcbethprojects/videos/search:girl talk/
The videos are not yet tagged, but you can tell which performer it will be based on the picture associated with the link. Here is the link to the video of my two pieces:
http://vimeo.com/39522510
enjoy!
P.S. full video of Girl Talk 2011 is also available on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL6C0BC77CA710AB76
2) upcoming San Francisco shows
--So tomorrow (Thursday, April 19), I will be reading at a benefit for my favorite Bay Area book store, Modern Times. And it will take place at one of my favorite Bay Area venues, El Rio. Here are the details from the Modern Times website:
40 Years of Radical Writing, Rabble Rousing, and Romancing Your Brain
A party with and for Modern Times at El Rio
- Thursday, April 19
- 6-9 PM
- El Rio: 3158 Mission Street
- $5-15, NOTA
We've been moving and shaking since our relocation from Valencia to 24th St. Now that the dust has settled, we want a party, and we want you to join us! Featuring stories of San Francisco by some of our favorite San Franciscans: Daphne Gottlieb, Erick Lyle, Chris Carlsson, Marge Nelson, and more TBA, with drink specials, prizes, food, and surprises. Proceeds go to the development of a new event/teaching space, expanded programming, and community engagement.
--and an advance heads up: on June 14, 15 and 16th I will be participating in a an amazing show called "The Biggest Quake". The show is curated by one of my favorite writers/performers, Kirk Read, and it examines the AIDS epidemic from an intergenerational perspective, both from people who lived through it as adults and people who did not. The cast is amazing - I'll send out all the details as the show draws closer, but I wanted to let people know so they can mark it on their "Pride month" calendars.
That's it for now. And remember, between updates, you can always check out:
my main website:
http://www.juliaserano.com
and I tweet regularly (@juliaserano):
http://twitter.com/#!/Juliaserano
for those interested in what I have to say when I have more than 140 characters to work with, there's my blog:
http://juliaserano.blogspot.com
I also post all my upcoming events and news on my aforementioned blog, and it also all automatically gets forwarded to my Facebook "writer" page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julia-Serano/277728205577201?ref=ts
so I encourage you to follow me (and perhaps "like me") there!
Best wishes, -julia
April 3, 2012
Trans-misogyny primer
I am often asked to explain trans-misogyny to people. While I've written extensively about trans-misogyny in Whipping Girl and other places, I sometimes find it difficult to sum up the concept in a few short words. This is especially true when explaining the concept to people who are relatively unaware about trans issues and experiences. Such people are often stuck in the mindset of viewing trans women as "men", and as a result, they have a hard time wrapping their brains around how misogyny might impact trans women's lives.
So these days, when people ask me about trans-misogyny, I often forward them a primer on the subject that I wrote for the 2009 Women, Action, & the Media (WAM) conference (specifically for a panel called "In/Out of Focus, Broadening a Feminist Lens: Gender, Non-Conformity and the Media"). It is a one-page handout that provides a brief introduction to trans-misogyny. It is far from complete, mind you - while it highlights the ways misogyny exacerbates transphobia, it does not delve into how transphobia can exacerbate misogyny, nor does it discuss how transphobia and misogyny also intersect with other forms of oppression. But, it is decent intro to the topic.
Since I have found this primer to be useful for novice audiences and individuals, I have decided to make it publicly available for others who may be interested:
Trans-misogyny primer. by Julia Serano (PDF format)
If others wish to use this primer for their workshops/classes/activism/etc., I am fine with that, provided that they do not alter it in any way, and that I am properly credited.
For those who are interested in this trans-misogyny primer, but do not wish to download the PDF, the text of the primer can be found below.
Hope people find this helpful! -julia
+++++++++++++++++
Trans-misogyny primer
by Julia Serano
The words transgender and gender-variant are typically used as catch-all terms to denote all people who defy cultural ideals, expectations, assumptions, and norms regarding gender. While all people who fall under the transgender umbrella potentially face social stigma for transgressing gender norms, those on the male-to-female (MTF) or trans female/feminine (TF) spectrum generally receive the overwhelming majority of societal fascination, consternation and demonization. In contrast, those on the female-to-male (FTM) or trans male/masculine (TM) spectrum have until very recently remained largely invisible and under-theorized. This disparity in attention suggests that individuals on the trans female/feminine spectrum are culturally marked, not for failing to conform to gender norms per se, but because of the specific direction of their gender transgression - that is, because of their feminine gender expression and/or their female gender identities. Thus, the marginalization of trans female/feminine spectrum people is not merely a result of transphobia, but is better described as trans-misogyny.
Trans-misogyny is steeped in the assumption that femaleness and femininity are inferior to, and exist primarily for the benefit of, maleness and masculinity. This phenomenon manifests itself in numerous ways:
-- Studies have shown that feminine boys are viewed far more negatively, and brought in for psychotherapy far more often, than masculine girls.
-- Psychiatric diagnoses directed against the transgender population often either focus solely on trans female/feminine individuals, or are written in such a way that trans female/feminine people are more easily and frequently pathologized than their trans male/masculine counterparts.
-- The majority of violence committed against gender-variant individuals targets individuals on the trans female/feminine spectrum.
-- In the media, jokes and demeaning depictions of gender-variant people primarily focus on trans female/feminine spectrum people. Often in these cases, it is their desire to be female and/or feminine that is especially ridiculed. While trans male/masculine individuals are often subjects of derision, their desire to be male and/or masculine is generally not ridiculed - to do so would bring the supposed supremacy of maleness/masculinity into question.
Perhaps the most visible example of trans-misogyny is the way in which trans women and others on the trans female/feminine spectrum are routinely sexualized in the media, within psychological, social science and feminist discourses, and in society at large. For example, the media not only regularly depict trans women's bodies and experiences in a titillating and lurid fashion, but they also sexualize trans women's motives for transitioning - e.g., by portraying them as either sex workers, sexual deceivers who prey on unsuspecting heterosexual men, or as male "perverts" who transition to female in order to fulfill some kind of bizarre sexual fantasy. While trans men may face a certain degree of media objectification, their motives for transitioning are not typically sexualized in the same manner. If anything, those who project ulterior motives onto trans men generally presume that they transition in order to obtain male privilege rather than for sexual reasons. Thus, the presumption that trans women (but not trans men) are sexually motivated in their transitions appears to reflect the cultural assumption that a woman's power and worth stems primarily from her ability to be sexualized by others.
for more about trans-misogyny, see Serano, J. (2007) Whipping girl: A transsexual woman on sexism and the scapegoating of femininity. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
So these days, when people ask me about trans-misogyny, I often forward them a primer on the subject that I wrote for the 2009 Women, Action, & the Media (WAM) conference (specifically for a panel called "In/Out of Focus, Broadening a Feminist Lens: Gender, Non-Conformity and the Media"). It is a one-page handout that provides a brief introduction to trans-misogyny. It is far from complete, mind you - while it highlights the ways misogyny exacerbates transphobia, it does not delve into how transphobia can exacerbate misogyny, nor does it discuss how transphobia and misogyny also intersect with other forms of oppression. But, it is decent intro to the topic.
Since I have found this primer to be useful for novice audiences and individuals, I have decided to make it publicly available for others who may be interested:
Trans-misogyny primer. by Julia Serano (PDF format)
If others wish to use this primer for their workshops/classes/activism/etc., I am fine with that, provided that they do not alter it in any way, and that I am properly credited.
For those who are interested in this trans-misogyny primer, but do not wish to download the PDF, the text of the primer can be found below.
Hope people find this helpful! -julia
+++++++++++++++++
Trans-misogyny primer
by Julia Serano
The words transgender and gender-variant are typically used as catch-all terms to denote all people who defy cultural ideals, expectations, assumptions, and norms regarding gender. While all people who fall under the transgender umbrella potentially face social stigma for transgressing gender norms, those on the male-to-female (MTF) or trans female/feminine (TF) spectrum generally receive the overwhelming majority of societal fascination, consternation and demonization. In contrast, those on the female-to-male (FTM) or trans male/masculine (TM) spectrum have until very recently remained largely invisible and under-theorized. This disparity in attention suggests that individuals on the trans female/feminine spectrum are culturally marked, not for failing to conform to gender norms per se, but because of the specific direction of their gender transgression - that is, because of their feminine gender expression and/or their female gender identities. Thus, the marginalization of trans female/feminine spectrum people is not merely a result of transphobia, but is better described as trans-misogyny.
Trans-misogyny is steeped in the assumption that femaleness and femininity are inferior to, and exist primarily for the benefit of, maleness and masculinity. This phenomenon manifests itself in numerous ways:
-- Studies have shown that feminine boys are viewed far more negatively, and brought in for psychotherapy far more often, than masculine girls.
-- Psychiatric diagnoses directed against the transgender population often either focus solely on trans female/feminine individuals, or are written in such a way that trans female/feminine people are more easily and frequently pathologized than their trans male/masculine counterparts.
-- The majority of violence committed against gender-variant individuals targets individuals on the trans female/feminine spectrum.
-- In the media, jokes and demeaning depictions of gender-variant people primarily focus on trans female/feminine spectrum people. Often in these cases, it is their desire to be female and/or feminine that is especially ridiculed. While trans male/masculine individuals are often subjects of derision, their desire to be male and/or masculine is generally not ridiculed - to do so would bring the supposed supremacy of maleness/masculinity into question.
Perhaps the most visible example of trans-misogyny is the way in which trans women and others on the trans female/feminine spectrum are routinely sexualized in the media, within psychological, social science and feminist discourses, and in society at large. For example, the media not only regularly depict trans women's bodies and experiences in a titillating and lurid fashion, but they also sexualize trans women's motives for transitioning - e.g., by portraying them as either sex workers, sexual deceivers who prey on unsuspecting heterosexual men, or as male "perverts" who transition to female in order to fulfill some kind of bizarre sexual fantasy. While trans men may face a certain degree of media objectification, their motives for transitioning are not typically sexualized in the same manner. If anything, those who project ulterior motives onto trans men generally presume that they transition in order to obtain male privilege rather than for sexual reasons. Thus, the presumption that trans women (but not trans men) are sexually motivated in their transitions appears to reflect the cultural assumption that a woman's power and worth stems primarily from her ability to be sexualized by others.
for more about trans-misogyny, see Serano, J. (2007) Whipping girl: A transsexual woman on sexism and the scapegoating of femininity. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
March 31, 2012
Julia @ Southern Oregon University!
So on April 5th I will be speaking at Southern Oregon University on the topic of Intersections of Feminism, Queer and Trans Politics. A Facebook invite for the event can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/348937678481830/
For those who eschew Facebook, here is the pertinent info:
Thursday, April 5 at 7:00pm
at Meese Auditorium @ SOU
Refreshments will be provided!
For more information, call 541-552-8329.
If you require accommodations, please call Casey at 541-552-6222.
Presented by the Queer Resource Center and the Gender and Sexuality Union.
Sponsored by the Women's Resource Center, the College of Arts and Sciences, SOPride, EPIC, The Gender Sexuality and Women's Studies Program, the Multicultural Resource Center and Res Life.
hope some of you can make it!!
Best wishes, -julia
https://www.facebook.com/events/348937678481830/
For those who eschew Facebook, here is the pertinent info:
Thursday, April 5 at 7:00pm
at Meese Auditorium @ SOU
Refreshments will be provided!
For more information, call 541-552-8329.
If you require accommodations, please call Casey at 541-552-6222.
Presented by the Queer Resource Center and the Gender and Sexuality Union.
Sponsored by the Women's Resource Center, the College of Arts and Sciences, SOPride, EPIC, The Gender Sexuality and Women's Studies Program, the Multicultural Resource Center and Res Life.
hope some of you can make it!!
Best wishes, -julia
March 25, 2012
Come to the "Girl Talk" pre-show mixer Thursday @ 6pm!
Hey "Girl Talk: A Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue" ticket holders:
We (the co-curators of Girl Talk) are throwing a mixer just before the show! There will be food and drink, plus music provided by the amazing DJ CPI! There will be a merch table where you can check out (and perhaps even procure) books, CDs, zines, etc., by Girl Talk cast members. But most importantly, this will be a chance for those of us who are committed to fostering community between queer trans women and queer cis women to meet one another, chat, and have a bit of fun before the event begins!
The mixer takes place at 6pm (one hour before the show begins) in the lobby just outside of the Rainbow Room. In other words, just show up to the event an hour early, and we'll be there having a blast!
btw, please *spread the news about this mixer*! It wasn't mentioned in the initial promotion for the show, so if you know you know anyone else who is also attending Girl Talk, be sure to encourage them to come out early for the mixer!
Hope you can make it!
-Gina de Vries, Julia Serano & Elena Rose
show details:
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
7:00pm - 10:00pm
mixer @ 6pm!!!
San Francisco LGBT Community Center - Rainbow Room
1800 Market Street between Octavia & Laguna
Advance tickets have sold out. A limited number of tickets will be available the day of the show - $12-$20 sliding scale; no one turned away for lack of funds.
We (the co-curators of Girl Talk) are throwing a mixer just before the show! There will be food and drink, plus music provided by the amazing DJ CPI! There will be a merch table where you can check out (and perhaps even procure) books, CDs, zines, etc., by Girl Talk cast members. But most importantly, this will be a chance for those of us who are committed to fostering community between queer trans women and queer cis women to meet one another, chat, and have a bit of fun before the event begins!
The mixer takes place at 6pm (one hour before the show begins) in the lobby just outside of the Rainbow Room. In other words, just show up to the event an hour early, and we'll be there having a blast!
btw, please *spread the news about this mixer*! It wasn't mentioned in the initial promotion for the show, so if you know you know anyone else who is also attending Girl Talk, be sure to encourage them to come out early for the mixer!
Hope you can make it!
-Gina de Vries, Julia Serano & Elena Rose
show details:
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
7:00pm - 10:00pm
mixer @ 6pm!!!
San Francisco LGBT Community Center - Rainbow Room
1800 Market Street between Octavia & Laguna
Advance tickets have sold out. A limited number of tickets will be available the day of the show - $12-$20 sliding scale; no one turned away for lack of funds.
March 10, 2012
Girl Talk tickets selling like hotcakes!!!
Hey folks, a quick reminder to purchase your tickets for Girl Talk 2012: a Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue *as soon as possible*, as over half the advance tickets are already sold! Every year the show has sold out, so we highly advise you to get your tickets right away - all of the show info (including a link to purchase advance tickets) can be found below...
Hope you can make it! -julia
.......................
Girl Talk: A Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
7:00pm - 10:00pm
San Francisco LGBT Community Center - Rainbow Room
1800 Market Street between Octavia & Laguna
Tickets: $12-$20 (no one turned away)
curated by Gina de Vries, Elena Rose and Julia Serano
cast includes: Charlie Anders, Dominika Bednarska, Gina de Vries, DavEnd, Thea Hillman, Nomy Lamm, Emily Manuel, Elena Rose (aka Little Light), Julia Serano and Jos Truitt.
here are some links:
Facebook invite:
https://www.facebook.com/events/21756...
QCC website:
http://queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/...
my blog:
http://juliaserano.blogspot.com/2012/...
purchase advance tickets from Brown Paper Tickets:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/even...
show description:
Queer cisgender women and queer transgender women are allies, friends, support systems, lovers, and partners to each other. Trans and cis women are allies to each other every day - from activism that includes everything from Take Back the Night to Camp Trans; to supporting each other in having "othered" bodies in a world that is obsessed with idealized body types; to loving, having sex, and building family with each other in a world that wants us to disappear.
Girl Talk is an annual spoken word show fostering and promoting dialogue about these relationships. Trans and cis women will read about their relationships of all kinds - sexual and romantic, chosen and blood family, friendships, support networks, activist alliances. Join us for a night of stories about sex, bodies, feminism, activism, challenging exclusion in masculine-centric dyke spaces, dating and breaking up, finding each other, and finding love and family.
full video of Girl Talk 2011 is available on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL6...
a link to an mp3 of Girl Talk 2009 can be found here:
http://juliaserano.blogspot.com/2011/...
Hope you can make it! -julia
.......................
Girl Talk: A Trans & Cis Woman Dialogue
Thursday, March 29th, 2012
7:00pm - 10:00pm
San Francisco LGBT Community Center - Rainbow Room
1800 Market Street between Octavia & Laguna
Tickets: $12-$20 (no one turned away)
curated by Gina de Vries, Elena Rose and Julia Serano
cast includes: Charlie Anders, Dominika Bednarska, Gina de Vries, DavEnd, Thea Hillman, Nomy Lamm, Emily Manuel, Elena Rose (aka Little Light), Julia Serano and Jos Truitt.
here are some links:
Facebook invite:
https://www.facebook.com/events/21756...
QCC website:
http://queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/...
my blog:
http://juliaserano.blogspot.com/2012/...
purchase advance tickets from Brown Paper Tickets:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/even...
show description:
Queer cisgender women and queer transgender women are allies, friends, support systems, lovers, and partners to each other. Trans and cis women are allies to each other every day - from activism that includes everything from Take Back the Night to Camp Trans; to supporting each other in having "othered" bodies in a world that is obsessed with idealized body types; to loving, having sex, and building family with each other in a world that wants us to disappear.
Girl Talk is an annual spoken word show fostering and promoting dialogue about these relationships. Trans and cis women will read about their relationships of all kinds - sexual and romantic, chosen and blood family, friendships, support networks, activist alliances. Join us for a night of stories about sex, bodies, feminism, activism, challenging exclusion in masculine-centric dyke spaces, dating and breaking up, finding each other, and finding love and family.
full video of Girl Talk 2011 is available on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL6...
a link to an mp3 of Girl Talk 2009 can be found here:
http://juliaserano.blogspot.com/2011/...
February 16, 2012
ways to pass time when you have pneumonia...
sleep.
eat, or not eat. (mostly the latter.)
fondly reminisce about oxygen.
make up lots jokes along the lines of "Oh my god I can *not* believe that I fucking have pneumonia. how the fuck did this happen!"
stop for a minute to catch my breath.
unleash cunning trans woman sense of humor when chest-xray-technician repeatedly asks me: "so you're absolutely sure your not pregnant, right?"
recall how, as a young child, I thought that the medical condition pneumonia and the chemical ammonia were somehow interrelated.
fondly reminisce about deep breaths.
come to appreciate the shorter, shallow breaths, because that's all the world is offering me now.
pretend that I am exploring a new planet that is much like earth in many ways, except that it has 20% less oxygen.
get used to having all of my laughter quickly devolve into coughing.
marvel at the seemingly infinite amount of phlegm that I am capable of coughing up in the course of a day.
watch news stories about how Rick Santorum has become GOP presidential frontrunner, and realize that my shortness in breath is not due to panic attack, but to my stupid pneumonia.
make more silly jokes and bad puns about pneumonia. that which does not kill us should at least make us giggle a little bit.
did I mention stopping for a minute to catch my breath?
eat, or not eat. (mostly the latter.)
fondly reminisce about oxygen.
make up lots jokes along the lines of "Oh my god I can *not* believe that I fucking have pneumonia. how the fuck did this happen!"
stop for a minute to catch my breath.
unleash cunning trans woman sense of humor when chest-xray-technician repeatedly asks me: "so you're absolutely sure your not pregnant, right?"
recall how, as a young child, I thought that the medical condition pneumonia and the chemical ammonia were somehow interrelated.
fondly reminisce about deep breaths.
come to appreciate the shorter, shallow breaths, because that's all the world is offering me now.
pretend that I am exploring a new planet that is much like earth in many ways, except that it has 20% less oxygen.
get used to having all of my laughter quickly devolve into coughing.
marvel at the seemingly infinite amount of phlegm that I am capable of coughing up in the course of a day.
watch news stories about how Rick Santorum has become GOP presidential frontrunner, and realize that my shortness in breath is not due to panic attack, but to my stupid pneumonia.
make more silly jokes and bad puns about pneumonia. that which does not kill us should at least make us giggle a little bit.
did I mention stopping for a minute to catch my breath?
