trans identity

Translady Fanzine is a fine art photographic periodical, that in its first issue, features high-gloss portraits of video and performance artist Zackary Drucker. Amos Mac, editor and founder of the trans male quarterly Original Plumbing, is both photographer and publisher. Photographs are taken from the collaborative series "Distance is Where the Heart Is/Home is Where You Hang Your Heart" documenting a visual memoir of Drucker's early life in locations shot in and around her family's home in Upstate New York. Drucker writes in TF: "How can we have fans if we don't exist? How do we know we exist without visual affirmation?"

Darnell Martin's I Like It Like That may push the boundaries of the Bechdel Test, but its insights into black Latina motherhood, sisterhood, and professional identity are fascinating, rare, and in need of recognition.

Robert Altman's Come Back to the Five and Dime offers a space to explore film characters' relationship to fandom and identity politics, as well as the relationship between actresses and male directors.

• Jos Truitt over at Feministing, looking at the recent events in Topeka, Kansas, reminds us how the police really don't care about sexual violence.
• Think Progress shakes it's head at a Fox News doctor suggesting that a transgender youth needs psychological evaluation.
• Racialicious asks "why do so many TV fans hate black woman characters?"
• Colorlines talks with Sundance fave director Dee Dee about her experiences of coming out.
• Jarrah at Gender Focus recaps the Geek Girl Con panel featuring the Harlem Globetrotters Dream Team of Anita Sarkeesian, Leah Wilson, Kristy Guevara Flanagan, and our own Kjerstin Johnson and Kelsey Wallace
• Tiger Beatdown goes ahead and calls out the call-out culture.
• Transgriot gives TMZ a lesson on style (and it has nothing to do with clothes).

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Chaz Bono's new memoir, Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man, co-written with Billie Fitzpatrick, brims with candid emotion. It covers his entire life so far, and as the title implies, it frequently comes back to Chaz's lifelong discomfort with being thought to be female and his gradual acceptance of himself as a trans guy. Unfortunately, it's also full of sexist statements about who men and women can be.

Links, links, links!

• Salon explores the implications of the fate of the Wonder Woman show described in Jennifer K. Stuller's podcast. (Spoiler alert: It's not going to air.)
• Muslimah Media Watch writes of Arab women and democracy.
• ColorLines speaks of CNN anchor Don Lemon's coming-out (good for him!) and their hopes that analysis of the intersection of racism and homophobia will go further.
• In the gross-but-perhaps-unsurprising file: ColorLines also discusses Ron Paul's stance against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Meanwhile, Mother Jones compiles his "15 Most Extreme Positions."
• In better news, Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen provides numbers indicating increasing support for QUILTBAG rights, even in conservative circles, for HuffPo.
• Liz of Our Turn proposes a Bechdel Test for politics.
• On AlterNet, Bitch contributor Brittany Shoot interviews Will Potter on his new book about the law's disproportionate punishments for environmental activists like himself.
• TransGriot shares author Janet Mock's "It Gets Better" video.
• Bitch contributor s.e. smith unpacks the victim-blaming media surrounding the leader of the International Monetary Fund's arrest for sexual assault on Tiger Beatdown.
• The divine Kate Harding blogs about this same IMF coverage, the media surrounding Schwarzenegger, and what it all implies about the USA's troubling confusion between consensual affairs and assault. (via AlterNet)
• AfterEllen relates Tegan and Sara member Sara Quin's response to rapper Tyler the Creator's misogyny and homophobia.
• Ms. speculates on why vibrators still aren't mainstream.
• Are you in NYC? Mark your calendar for next weekend's release party for Original Plumbing's Green Issue!

Et tu?

Time for a blog roundup!

• Former Bitch intern Katie Presley reviews Anuradha Roy’s novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing, on the Ms. blog.
• Bitch contributor Chally writes on representing representations of feminism, saying, "when feminism becomes about defending the identity rather than doing the work, that’s when we have a big problem."
• The Crunk Feminist Collective shares their post-Mother's Day musings.
• Bad Reputation compares retellings of The Little Mermaid.
• HuffPo reports on a pro-QUILTBAG church ad... and the "progressive" group that refuses to run it.
• Bitch contributor Sady Doyle discusses H.R. 3 and so-called pro-life Democrats at Global Comment.
• In better news, Mother Jones relates that the Navy will now perform same-sex marriages!
• Bitch contributor Jaclyn Friedman spoke at the Boston SlutWalk; check out the video and transcript of her speech!
• ColorLines praises the web series "The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl and Friends."
• Feministe's Clarisse Thorn names her "Central Sex-Positive Feminist Ideas."
• At Gay YA, Bitch contributor Everett Maroon talks about his goals as a trans writer. On his personal blog, he writes of Chaz Bono and the simplistic ways in which people talk about gender.
• AfterEllen takes on a subject near and dear to the hearts of many queer web addicts: lesbian shipping wars!
• Feminist polygamy? Katherine Butler explores the concept on AlterNet.
• xkcd had a recent win with an edition about female scientists. Feministing reprints the "Marie Curie" comic and talks about why it's right on target.
• Community star Ken Jeong is excerpted on Racialicious regarding Mother's Day and his wife's battle with breast cancer.
• The new Topside Press is looking for short fiction by and/or about transgender people! Read more at their homepage.
• Original Plumbing debuts the trailer for Nick Krieger's memoir, Nina Here Nor There: My Journey Beyond Gender.
• Garland unpacks Lady Gaga's "Judas" at Tiger Beatdown, including a phrase I never knew I always wanted in my life: "racy biblical slash fic."

Thoughts? What else have you been reading?

Stop. Link time. (It had to be said.)

• For RH Reality Check, Jaime Jenett bravely discusses her experiences as a non-biological lesbian parent of an ill child while enduring the daily hurt of Prop 8 stickers... and makes eloquent efforts to communicate with those who don't believe she deserves rights (reposted at AlterNet).
• Mother Jones offers advice on how to wade through media coverage of Osama bin Laden's death.
• Jane Laplain of Questioning Transphobia talks about trans* identity and the one-word-or-two-words question... and why it matters.
• ColorLines shares the Center for Reproductive Rights video "They're Coming for Roe."
• Shakesville provides an open thread on the results of Canada's election.
• Racialicious reports on the release of the book I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim, edited by Maria Ebrahimji and Zahra Suratwala, and featuring writing by Muslimah Media Watch editor Fatemeh Fakhraie.
• More feminist than Mulan? At Bitch Flicks, Whitney Mollenhauer takes notes on the film Tangled. Thoughts?
• Bitch contributor EvMaroon writes a letter to his future child about the United States of America's history and the death of bin Laden.
• At the Huffington Post, Stephanie Green praises the new adaptation of Jane Eyre. Have you seen it? What are your feelings?
• Jos from Feministing presents an anti-war poem from Palestinian and US-American poet and activist, Suheir Hammad.
• Monica at TransGriot reminds readers to make their nominations for the 2011 Black Weblog Awards by Saturday!
• Bitch contributor Jarrah Hodge comments on Twitter culture at Gender Focus.
• Ms. has a few suggestions on how to spend your Mother's Day weekend.
• And speaking of mothers, check out the Mama's Day campaign, celebrating immigrant, queer, poor, and single mothers by the Strong Families initiative. Watch their great video here!

Got comments or other pieces? Please share in the comments section!

Start your weekend off right: with compelling articles from around the web!

• Bitch contributor s.e. smith discusses asexuality on Tiger Beatdown.
• Katha Pollitt writes for The Nation about the DC Abortion Fund and the right's vendetta against Planned Parenthood. (via AlterNet)
• ColorLines shares three scholars' thoughts on fighting homophobia in hip-hop.
• Check out journalist Barbie Latza Nadeau's piece at The Daily Beast about reporting on sexism in Italy.
• In These Times interviews Sady Doyle, founder of Tiger Beatdown and Bitch contributor, about blogging and online activism.
• Jill at Feministe hopes everyone who celebrates had a happy feminist Passover.
• As the New York Times searches for a new columnist, Feministing has a plea: "Don't hire another white dude!"
• The Root interviews our recent Bitch High Five candidate Joycelyn Elders, who was forced to resign for saying sex ed should include information about masturbation.
• We're keeping our fingers crossed for the Uniting American Families Act, "a bill which would allow same-sex couples to sponsor their partners for legal residency in the U.S."
• 90s Woman praises Heather Corinna's book S.E.X.: The All-You-Need-To-Know Progressive Sexuality Guide to Get You Through High School and College. I'm personally a fan as well, and we have a copy in the Bitch Media Community Lending Library!
• One year after the BP oil spill, Ms. talks about the danger of the status quo as explored in Antonia Juhasz's new book about the disaster, Black Tide.
• Also at Ms., look at this profile of Bitch contributor Mandy Van Deven's, Joanne Smith's and Meghan Huppuch's group, Girls for Gender Equity, and book, Hey, Shorty! A Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment and Violence in Schools and on the Streets.
• Shakesville shares an excellent quote by Ms. Geena Davis about the power of gendered media images.
• Nick at Original Plumbing reflects powerfully on reconnecting with family members.
• At the ACLU blog, one rockin' woman recalls confronting a street harasser.
  
• Bad news: QUILTBAG-oriented site Queerty has "come to a close."

What have you been reading? Share away!

Time for a link exchange! Here's a glimpse into what we've been reading:

• Hopping mad about the misleadingly-named Independent Women's Forum's misinformation about the pay gap? Feministing tells it like it is.
• Also at Feministing, check out this report from the 2011 Civil Liberties and Public Policy Conference with video and quotes from the Transfeminisms panel.
• Bitch contributor Chally Kacelnik finishes her series in response to the question "Where are you from?" on Feministe.
• Shark-Fu at AngryBlackBitch powerfully responds to the streak of racist billboards attacking black women. (via Bitch Flicks)
• AfterEllen's Dorothy Snarker cheers on Sundance's acquisition of feminist favorite My So-Called Life!
• Bitch contributor Emily Manuel opines on what the term "pro-life" should actually mean at Tiger Beatdown.
• Speaking of Tiger Beatdown, their founder Sady Doyle (who is also a Bitch contributor) writes about convicted assaultant Jeffrey Gray, who was elected to office despite his crimes against women. (Trigger warning for domestic abuse and rape.)
• The Huffington Post reports on the discovery that middle and high schools in New Jersey were filtering QUILTBAG-related content from school computers. The filter is being removed thanks to the ACLU.
• Amanda Marcotte has a new recording up at RH Reality Check about the Slutwalk, the claim that "uterus" is a dirty word and more!
• Jill does a hilarious takedown of Dove soap's advertising on I Blame the Patriarchy.
• Ms.' blog interviews the women behind the feminist play The Panza [Spanish for "belly"] Monologues!
• In the WTF category, Queerty shares the U.K.'s new, but still bizarre and revealing, rules about gay men giving blood.
• ColorLines addresses the Grammy Awards' recent decision to cut some of their awards categories and how this may affect artists of color.
• The annual Austin queer music day party GayBiGayGay is releasing a book! That comes with a free CD of bands that play! Check it out or pre-order your copy today!
• Also check out the environmental documentary Vanishing of the Bees, likely headed to a theatre or classroom near you!