Inclusion and Exclusion on the Gender Binary

I confess I've never wanted to attend the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. I thought about it briefly once and then learned there were group showers--I haven't had to deal with that experience since high school gym class and I was not about to sign up for it again. So this is from an outsider's perspective.

Apparently someone has a petition going to call for a musician boycott of the festival because the event is not trans-inclusive. The organizers are adamant that the festival is intentionally a space for "women born women."

I find this interesting for several reasons and there are several issues all tangled up:

Freedom of association (and not just as related to Congress)
On the one hand, I think people should be free to associate with whomever they like. Personally, if integration had required me to go to school with hostile people--or (say what?) send my precious child into such an environment--it would not have happened.  I have no desire to give my time, energy, or money to anyone who doesn't appreciate my humanity. There's a fiercely proud slice of my personality that believes that any space that doesn't welcome me, doesn't deserve me.

Freedom of speech (and not just as related to Congress)
At the same time, people should also be free to boycott or protest their exclusion, as they like. Particularly in cases when perhaps simply raising awareness of an issue would change how it's viewed. Until I read the organizer's letter on the topic, I hadn't known that trans women weren't considered "womyn" and part of the target audience of the festival.

"Women born women" as a Gender Identity
This idea is new to me. My gut reaction is that I was not born a woman, I was born female and I matured into my womanhood. Odd label aside, I'm not sure I'd consider this a "unique gender identity." And this is perhaps because these days I find myself in more spaces where the distinction is more likely to be femme/stud and not woman/man. So I now tend to think of gender expression as a huge component of gender identity and then I falter at how to read "women born women" other than as a way to tell trans women they are not "really" women who belong in women's spaces. Indeed many of the comments I read seemed very much related to the typical concerns that get trotted out in discussion of who gets to use what restroom.

Call it what it is
I wonder why the organization don't just rename the festival. Instead of saying it in footnotes (or actually: having the discussion in facebook pages outside of the main one), why not just call the festival Michigan Female-born Womyn's Music Festival? Then they could simply point to the sign and redirect those women who thought, as women, they might be long at the gathering. This would clarify: unless you were born with a vagina, this isn't your space. And then maybe supporters could stop attacking self-identified women,  calling them "men" and "he" and "him," simply because they want to participate in a so-called "women's event."

Privilege
I don't necessary have the highest levels of privilege and power in this society. But I am very aware of the privilege that comes with being cis-gendered/gender-conforming or whatever you want to call being born with a vagina and identifying as a "woman." Here's just a few:

• No one has ever challenged my right to use the women's bathroom
• I never had to think about when/if to reveal to anyone what genitalia I was born with or what genitalia I had. Or worry what would happen if they found out without my telling them.
• No one (okay, no reasonable person) will consider my not conforming to feminine ideals/stereotypes as valid reason to consider me not a woman.
• I can be rude/aggressive/just mean and no one is going to take that as proof that I'm not really a woman and am just proving my stored "male privilege."
• New revelations of about what genitalia I have now/had a birth is not going to lead to the loss of my housing or employment.

Here's a long list of privileges.

While I think, as I wrote, that people are free to associate with whomever they like, if we want to be conscious and connected, it is important for us to think about we are excluding and why--particularly in cases in which we are in the position of power and privilege (however unusual that may feel for us).

Murder music, community demands, venue changes

The Majestic Theater, in the face of community pressure, canceled a Buju Banton concert that was to held tomorrow. The Zainea family (owners of the Majestic complex) claimed to not have known that Banton has used his music to advocate violence against gay people. They reported trying to get out of the contract for a month and finally deciding to break it and accept the financial consequences.

Instead Wednesday, September 30th, Affirmations, Transgender Detroit, and Triangle Foundationan are hosting an LGBT Awareness concert at the Magic Stick (part of the Majestic: 4120-4140 Woodward Avenue in Detroit) at 8pm. Confirmed performers volunteering for the event include Ami Mattison, Andrea Wilson, The Big Pink Black, Chantel & Youth Montage, Cheryl Strebel, Coup Detroit, Jocelyn B “B----” of the Blues, Leslie Thompson, Steffie & the Dirty Virgins.

Meanwhile, an Ann Arbor venue has decided to hold a Banton concert. Protesting outside the Blind Pig at 208 S. First Street is an option if you happen to be in Ann Arbor Wednesday night.

Disturbing

I just was reading a few news items before getting ready for work and I came across a Reuters article entitled " Obama more successful on terrorism-security adviser." The blurb accompanying the link was:

WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The United States is having more success fighting terrorism under President Barack Obama partly because of his "radically different" approach to foreign policy, National security adviser Jim Jones said on Monday."

How disturbing I found the article goes beyond from how wrong I find it for a "reporter" to lead with a quote from a government instead of giving us facts. Instead of engaging in fact-finding and analysis, the mainstream media has become accustomed to telling us "X said this" and "Y said that," giving the impression that each have equal weight. That is not objectivity, that is laziness. So we have what National Security Advisor Jim Jones thinks and what Cheney thinks. One particularly surreal paragraph:

Jones did not, however, counter Cheney's argument that Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to investigate suspected CIA prisoner abuses could have a chilling effect on the work of the intelligence agency.

WHAT???

1. This is not a debate between the administration and Cheney. The man, who had more power than a vp should have in the first place, is now out of office--how is it that what he thinks still makes news?
   
2. There needs to be a chilling effect on the "work" of an intelligence agency that tortures human beings. Credible intelligence does not come from torture; we should not strive to be people who value life so little; and abusing people does nothing to convince them we are human as they are and really gives terrorists an excellent bit of propaganda.

Jones's definition of "success" in "fighting terrorism" is captured by "We are seeing results that indicate more captures, more deaths of radical leaders." Given our history, I'm wondering what kind of evidence and what kind of judicial process is in place before we carry out these executions.

On a related note, Mohammed Jawad--an Afghani teenager who had been held in Guantanamo for seven years without any evidence to make a case against him--was released last week. His confession was thrown out by a military judge who ruled that he confessed because interrogators threatened to kill him and his family if he did not. Definitely there needs to be a "chilling effect."

Missionaries

I attract missionaries. I don't know what it is about me. Maybe my eyes say that I am open to their proselytizing. Maybe I look like I am searching for a path. Or maybe they try to convert everyone.

I have been approached by Protestant Christian missionaries, Muslim missionaries, a Rastafarian missionary, a Quaker missionary, and even an atheist missionary. I find this really interesting. Protestant missionaries are, without any doubt, the ones I encounter the vast majority of the time. I have been approached at bus stops with "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior?" more than once. The single Rasta missionary was on a lovely Ghanaian beach. I must say that he was much more interesting during our first conversation just after he finished performing some acrobatics along the ocean's edge. The second discussion he was preaching at me about various evils that didn't seem so evil to me and I kept getting distracted by his bloodshot eyes. I met my most memorable Muslim missionary as I was walking through a souk (an outdoor marketplace; I love markets). I was somehow drawn into a very long discussion about religion, particularly he wanted to convince me of the general wrongness with thinking it was possible for God to have a child. The only thing that finally saved me was the call to prayer. Given what I knew about the American Society of Friends, I would not have expected a Quaker to try to convert me, but life is interesting that way. The Quaker is tied with the atheist for the most unpleasant attempted conversion experience.

One: why are these people so convinced that they are right? Two: why do they want to intrude on something so personal? I suppose I am also convinced that I am correct. Could this post be considered missionary work?

Here's what I believe: I believe that as spiritual beings having a physical experience, it is rarely (if ever) possible for us to grasp the Divine. The metaphor that applies here is the story of the six blind men who went in search of an elephant so that they could learn what it was by direct observation. However, instead of any of them exploring the entire elephant, each concentrated on a single part (no doubt due to the elephant's limited cooperation for this exercise). As such, the one who had grabbed an ear emphatically declared the elephant to be like a fan; the one who had felt the trunk insisted it was similar to a water spout; another who had explored a leg was convinced the elephant was something like a pillar, etc. In most versions of this story, the different observers become highly agitated with each other, sometimes resulting in a physical fight. Occasionally an outsider is there to explain to them that each of them is right, although not quite entirely.

That story highlights the limitations of perception (and raises the question: why is it so important that others be convinced that we are right? This will have to be different, much later post, as I do not have any well-developed theories on that and am guilty of having become highly offended when someone did not recognize that I was right). It also explains why, if I have the time, I listen intently to the missionaries. I believe that, even if I am unlikely to accept the whole of their belief system, I am likely to find something that resonates with me and can be incorporated into my approach to life. Now some would warn me that this is a dangerous path (oopsie!), yet I consider my reasoning and intuition two of my most important gifts and use them as such.

I know some people believe that we should avoid talking about politics and religion. I disagree and worry that then there would be little else to talk about and we might fall into even more discussions about reality t.v. or whether our co-workers need girdles. Besides sometimes--many times--these discussions can be enriching. One Sunday I was waiting for a bus when someone else who was waiting asked if I had been to church. I was not in the mood to be preached at that morning, I really wasn't. But I answered anyway and we had an interesting discussion. He officially considered himself "a student," not belonging to any particular religion, but sought to understand as much as he could, having friends and going to the services of several faiths. Just last week I was in a meandering conversation that included an explanation that baby showers were not religious celebrations, why Easter is a higher religious holiday than Christmas (actually this one maybe I should have stayed away from...as someone who was raised Christian, but does not practice) the two different Eids, and the reasons behind and the limitations to having more than one wife under Islam.

The State Health Care Reform "Action"

I rode by a group of folks waving signs on Woodward in Birmingham yesterday. We were turning a corner so I only saw one end of it, but I did see a few signs: one railing against "Obamacare", one that read "Healthcare for All," and one that pleaded for HR676 (the House bill that would enact single payer and that no one seems to be taking seriously) to be brought into the debate. I hadn't heard about any planned rally and I was already late to somewhere so I didn't get a chance to learn anything more until this morning.

There was an article on the rally in the Detroit News and an account from Detroit Mark in the Huffington Post. Detroit News blogger MakoYamakura to exception to Detroit Mark's characterization of those in the northern suburbs as "white conservatives [...] moved their businesses and families up in the upper counties to escape the diversity of Detroit. You know, bigots. Not everyone but an impressive sample, I'd be willing to bet." Interestingly there was a couple on the bus with me discussing the rally who, based on their experiences growing up there, felt that just by the nature of their conservatism, Oakland County residents were practically obligated to oppose anything proposed by any Democrat.

In his piece, Detroit Mark pointed out some of the signs for the anti-health care side. There are those that just list things that are just wrong, complete with supposed citations from the bill (FactCheck.org has is a good resource: look at Seven Falsehoods about Health Care). The other sign that he pointed out that I want to mention is one of Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a Hitler mustache. When similar depictions of Obama started cropping up a while back, I was completely mystified, but then someone forwarded a piece entitled "Stuff White People Like: Comparing People to Hitler" to a mailing list. I now get it: this just means that they don't agree with something and they think it's very, very bad.

Last week I signed an internet petition to support (and keep honest) the 60-plus House Democrats who have pledged to only support a health care reform bill that includes a public option. Below is a clilp of Rachel Maddow interviewing Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake.com. Perhaps ironic given my below comment about another interviewer, I really enjoyed watching how tickled Maddow is about Progressive Democrats with a spine.



Listening to NPR the other day, I really enjoyed Steve Inskeep's interview with Angela Braley, CEO of health care insurance company giant Wellpoint. I normally "tsk, tsk" during his interviews because he generally laughs so much that I feel more like I'm listening to a morning show instead of news. But he actually asked serious questions (such as "What do you get for those millions of dollars that you spend lobbying?"):