trans identity

Happy Friday! Why not start your weekend off with a sampling of feminist news from around the web?

• Domestic and intimate-partner violence has led to 90 women's deaths since the massacre in Newtown, CT in December. Hey gun lobby, tell us again how firearms make people safer from violence? [Huffington Post]

• After a series of murders of transgender people in the city, the Washington D.C. Mayor's Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs announced a partnership with the U.S. Attorney's Office that will "enhance USAO’s ability to bring criminals to justice in cases where hate or bias might have been a factor in a crime committed against an individual from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community." [Autostraddle]

• Lilith Magazine—"Independent, Jewish, and Frankly Feminist"—has a snappy new site. [Lilith Magazine]

• Were you wondering what that weight-watching, wine-swilling scamp Bridget Jones has been up to lo these many years? If so, you're in luck come November, when Helen Fielding's new book hits the shelves. [GalleyCat]

• Tech entrepreneur Jason Calcanis responded to Jamelle Bouie's piece on how an "implicit network" affects the diversity of tech journalism with an obnoxiously escalating series of tweets that hit nearly every square on the How Not to Talk About Race bingo card. [Gawker]

• Lulu, a new app that allows users to exchange information about dateable men, is drawing ire from users of Reddit. Apparently creepshots of unsuspecting women and girls is cool, but reviewing men is "straight-up harassment." Let's just say they're both awful and leave it at that?

• Guess what, mothers over 35? Your decrepit old uteruses are the reason for growing rates of birth defects in European countries, according to a new study that definitely won't be used to scare the crap out of women who might want to delay childrearing. [Mommyish]

• In news that probably won't surprise anyone, Vanity Fair's annual Hollywood issue once again relegates actors of color to the lesser two-thirds of its gatefold cover. [Clutch]

• Famous ginger beanpole Anne of Green Gables has been recast as a sultry blond on the cover of a new edition of the young-adult classic. [BuzzFeed] What's next, book publishers, Pippi Longstocking with a razor-cut bob and a belly shirt?

Anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, and have a great weekend!

I'm skeptical of any awards given out so closely to the release of an honoree's film. It's an extra press release, another sound bite, and a little something for the likes of Entertainment Tonight, Extra!, and TMZ to shill. Yawn.

That said, it was worth following The Hollywood Reporter's extensive coverage of the Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award, presented to Cloud Atlas codirector Lana Wachowski.

After a hot few days, it's finally cooling down in Portland. Here's what we've ben reading.

• I believe I was born in the right body; transgender, yes, but there's nothing "wrong" with me. Thomas Page McBee thoughtfully tears down notions and media deptions of the "typical" trans narrative. [Salon]
• Odd Future's Syd The Kyd doesn't identify as a feminist, in fact, she even said that "extreme feminists" are annoying, but she believes in equal rights for all people. Sound familiar? Right, okay. We'll ask you again in five years, kiddo. [Mass Appeal]
• Racism is racism is racism. Off-hand racist comments and actions are a problem. Not calling them out is a bigger problem. Check yourself! [xoJane]
• This week in oppression and the Olympics: Are you kidding me? I just made history. And you’re focusing on my hair? This is the Olympics, not America's Next Top Model! The media's got an appetite for negative portrayal of black femininity, and a wholly unjustified bone to pick with Gabby Douglas. Ew. Stop. [Ms. Blog/Ebony]
• "Free birth control" isn't so "free," so stop calling it that. [Tiger Beardown]
• Want to be a good or better ally to people of color? Having some trouble? This is important, read it. [The Crunk Feminist Collective]
• Some rad folks from Autostraddle will be hosting a queer ladies speed dating at Strand in New York City on August 15th. And there's free wine. Wait, what? Yeah, free wine, cuties, and eighteen miles of books. Sounds like a dream. [Autostraddle]
• Queer and trans activist, author, and all around badass, Kate Bornstein is going to be at Powell's on Monday, August 13th supporting her latest book, A Queer and Pleasant Danger. You should go!
• Portland update: The 12th annual Portland Zine Symposium is happening on Saturday, August 11th and Sunday, August 12th at Refuge in SE Portland! We'll be there, so stop by our table!

What have you been reading, musing, raging, or raving about this week? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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?