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miniar · 8 months

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"No politics." and "No religion." rules are Massive Red Flags.

These rules are common in a lot of places that are intended for discussing specific things like your personal disability and relationship to it, or your personal queerness and your relationship to it, or your hobby, be it trains or cross-stitching, and more often than not, this rule creates an unsafe environment for marginalized peoples.

These rules are especially common on US based forums and chat servers, but they're found all over the world.

The problem with these rules should be obvious, but in case you've missed it; Everything is Politics.

Everything in your life is affected by how your country and the world around you are governed. From the price of your tap water to whether or not your postal service works. From whether something is purchasable locally to if it can even be imported or not. From whether you've got a safe place to live to whether or not you can legally drive your car.

Every single moment of every single day of your life is affected by the rules and regulations that exist around you. The fact that you can read this right now is because I live somewhere where my access to the internet and freedom of speech allow me to write this, and where you either have access and freedom to read, or you've found a workaround that lets you get away with accessing and reading what your government has forbidden.

EVERYTHING! Every Damned Thing is affected directly and indirectly at all times by politics.

And everything you do and say anywhere outside of your own personal bubble where not a single soul can hear you is both political and shaped by your politics.

It can be so minuscule and so mundane and normal that it's effectively irrelevant, but every last one of you has some idea, vague as it may be, of what kind of world you long to live in. And not only that, every last one of you, even if that too may seem vague and mundane, is shaped to some degree by the world you Do live in.

Religion, for better or worse (mostly the latter in most cases), is intricately interwoven into the world in much the same way. Even heathens like me are prone to exclaim "Jesus Christ!" or "God Damn It!" when the occasion calls for shouting expletives and throwing your hands up in frustration.

Much of western European and US culture is so steeped in cultural christianity that people treat the idea of going to church for a concert as an entirely secular and non-religious thing, even when that concert is a team of church choirs singing songs from Jesus Christ Superstar to mention a real life example.

So when these rules are set and implemented, they don't actually mean what they say on the packaging, and they're consistently enforced in a way that is based in conflict avoidance first and foremost.

And here's the thing that happens, and while exceptions may exist I have never seen one: - Someone makes a post or writes a comment or shares an image that contains dogwhistles or other forms of fascist propaganda, without using the words that people associate with specific political parties. - Someone else, often times the very target of the fascism in question or at the least a semi-aware ally, responds by calling out the problem with the post or comment or image, calling it out by name. - The rule of no-politics is invoked and the person responding is scolded for either making it political, or failing to keep their criticism of the politics a private matter with either the fascist or the mods.

That's the sequence of events I've watched unfold, and been a part of, too many times to count, and the results are a testing ground for dogwhistles where a fascist feels welcome and protected.

Their politics are never challenged because you're not allowed to talk politics.

They get to feed you tropes and dogwhistles all day long, as long as they don't say the quiet part out loud, and if anyone challenges them, the mods and rules are used in their favor.

Any environment that tells me "No Politics!" and/or "No Religion!" is an environment that tells me that this is a place where I'm forbidden from speaking up for myself when the fascist start implying, polite as can be, that perhaps the world would be better of if people like me were simply not allowed to exist.

Or at the absolutely very least, it tells me this is a place run by people who have forgotten that they live in a world and that pretending otherwise won't make that a political fact.

#no politics #no religion #red flags #fascism #everything is political

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fandomshatelgbtqpeople · 5 years

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On Ariana Grande @ Manchester Pride

So I’m sure y’all have seen this news, and if anyone has just heard about it and doesn’t know what’s going down...

So pretty much, at Manchester Pride in the UK, tickets for the Manchester Live, which is the event for which Ariana will be performing, are 70 pound sterling (or about 92 USD). And that’s just the base, not counting that apparently ‘second release’ tickets and such will be more than that.

On top of this, this main event of Manchester Pride will be 18+ only.

The problems with this? Let’s take a look.

1. People who are under 18 won’t be able to attend. There has been a LONG and hard-fought battle to get LGBT+ content on television, especially primetime TV, because people think that LGBT+ content is inherently sexual and NSFW in nature. By having an 18+ event be the main event of this Pride, they are both feeding into that and creating a space not welcome for younger LGBT+ folks. Speaking as someone under 21 in the US, there is a HUGE issue already of there not being any spaces for LGBT+ teens that aren’t: parties, bars, clubs, etc. that have age limits. It’s incredibly difficult and hard to meet other LGBT+ teens aside from the internet (which can be dangerous) and this is incredibly isolating. I’m going to guess most bars & clubs in the UK are mainly for over 18, and even if for everyone will have alcohol present. So where’s the support for our most vulnerable family? Who is thinking of the children? The teens who want to go, maybe this is the first year they are able to go? Maybe they need a huge event like this to get word on resources and learn more about themselves? Or even still, what about LGBT+ PARENTS who want to bring their children? Originally the TicketMaster T&C said that 17 & under can be admitted w/ a parent, and now the website says 18+ only.

2. The price is absolutely deplorable. 70 pounds, truly, Manchester? This feeds into an argument I saw a while back: there truly are no places you can exist or attend for free. There are already so few places, really only certain parks and libraries, where you can go without any money and just exist. This is absolutely isolating to any LGBT+ folks who are low-income (or again: parents who need to pay for themselves and also their children, if they don’t want to or can’t find a baby sitter). Pride started as a PROTEST, not a party. Manchester Pride should be doing way more to find sponsors to cover the event costs, with an optional donation to charity from people at the gates. Offer free tickets online to help with crowd control, but 70 really?

3. Ariana is not a “gay icon”. She absolutely should not be welcome in our community. She has queer baited in her song “thank u, next” and in the music video for “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored”. Not to mention, anyone that so blatantly appropriates minority’s cultures for bank doesn’t deserve to be a “gay icon”: the LGBT+ community includes all racial & ethnic minorities and we need to do more to support those intersections of identity. By saying she’s welcome at Pride, that she’s an icon- that’s erasing the pain she’s caused to ethnic/racial minorities and by extent queer poc. Ariana really shouldn’t be given the same term that other (actually decent) gay icons, such as Judy Garland and Donna Summer, have been given. 4. There are other big-name musicians who actually are LGBT+ to give support. Halsey, Troye Sivan, Hayley Kiyoko, Brendon Urie, Kehlani, Sia, etc. These are all HUGE names in the music industry right now, and would have drawn just as big a crowd as Ariana Grande. Of course, most if not all of these musicians have had their own controversies- I’m not trying to say any of these folks are perfect. But they’re at least LGBT+ options, many of whom are listed are actually POC (unlike Ariana). This would give more support to musicians who actually should be at Pride and are more representative of the communities who need that representation and support. Why not give that whopping 250,000 pounds check to someone in your own community, Manchester Pride?

5. Ariana is a huge name and she will draw unwanted people to the concert. There have already been posts on Twitter and elsewhere either by people themselves or by people who have overheard others saying that they are homophobic but will go to Pride for Ariana to have a “cheap” way to see her. Fans of her who are not friendly to LGBT+ people will definitely be going. This may not be all of the people buying tickets, but that doesn’t change the fact that because they got such a huge name for a musician, a safe space for LGBT people will be THAT much less safe. I saw some posts from much older members of the LGBT+ community saying that “well, whatever. We’ve been facing homophobia our entire lives.” But do y’all not get it? At the one place that’s supposed to be for celebrating our lives and protesting against homophobes? Do you truly want there to be that much more hatred in what should be a safe and supportive environment? Again, this loops back to my point about younger LGBT+ folks not feeling welcome: just because a 50 year old, wealthy, white person who has the resources to find community and the experience to handle the emotions of facing homophobia doesn’t have a problem with homophobes potentially being at pride, that doesn’t mean a 17 year old who maybe can’t escape a homophobic home and is still young and new to the world, still emotional and easily vulnerable, can handle that level of pain. Besides, NO ONE should have to face that pain. - Mod S 6. Ariana is racist. She’s done blackface here she is literally darker than a Black woman look below the cut for the evidence if you haven’t seen it yet. Ariana has also culturally appropriated. Manchester is a very diverse area. According to the statistics here http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/manchester-population/ and as we all know the LGBT+ community is usually less white than the rest of population.

- Mod M

Ariana’s natural skin color

[Image description: Ariana Grande in two headshot photographs for Nickelodeon. In both photographs, she is smiling. She has the signature dark, maroon-red hair of her character Cat from Victorious and has pale skin.]

Ariana’s blackface

[Image description: Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj standing side-by-side on a stage and singing. Ariana’s skin color is darker than Nicki Minaj, a black woman.]

Manchester Demographics

The City of Manchester has the highest proportion of non-white people of any district in Greater Manchester. The 2011 census found the racial and ethnic composition of Manchester was:

White: 66.7% (59.3% White British, 2.4% White Irish, 0.1% Irish Traveller or g-slur, 4.9% other white) (note: the official census uses the g-slur grouped with Irish Traveler, likely referring to just this group and not Romani people)

Mixed race: 4.7% (1.8% white and black Caribbean, 0.9% white and black African, 1.0% white and Asian, 1.0% other mixed race)

Asian: 17.1% (8.5% Pakistani, 2.7% Chinese, 2.3% Indian, 1.3% Bangladeshi, 2.3% other Asian)

Black: 8.6% (5.1% African, 1.6% other black)

1.9% Arab 1.2% other ethnicity

#ariana grande #manchester pride #mod s #mod m

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noahfence1d · 5 years

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Queer people who took time coming to terms with our identities know the dance of avoiding definitive terms and labels. We know what it can look like when someone is a baby queer in waiting; we certainly understand what it’s like trying to figure out how to exist both authentically and safely in the world, calculating the risks of being your true self, and why that waiting period exists—and, for some, never really ends. This process of coming to terms and coming out, however, poses different challenges and has specific implications when you’re a celebrity. Some celebrities—especially those with teen fanbases, like Shawn Mendes or Taylor Swift—are no strangers to being pinned as queer icons because of their presentation, language, or even the friendships they have, despite not being out as queer. However, figures like Mendes or Swift are known for vehemently pushing away from any narrative defining them explicitly queer. Other celebrities, like Harry Styles, have strongly leaned into queerness—or at the very least, embraced being coded as queer.

Look up “Harry Styles queer” on Google and you’ll get a range of headlines from “We need to talk about why Harry Styles is a lesbian icon” to “Harry Style’s New Music Video is Extremely Bisexual.” Styles often dons floral suits and a more stereotypically feminine demeanor alongside lyrics like ones from his song “Medicine,” which are unmistakably bisexual: “The boys and the girls are here/ I mess around with him/ And I’m okay with it.” Recently, Styles announced a tour with artists similarly dubbed queer icons, Jenny Lewis and King Princess, a musical setup that seems like it was made in heaven for queer fans. On his new Saturday Night Live appearance, Styles played a sexually ambiguous character in the Sara Lee sketch, referencing being thirsty for men, almost locking in his “brand” of queerness yet again. In October 2019, Styles’s single “Lights Up” was also deemed a bisexual anthem by certain members of the queer community, especially as the corresponding music video shows a nearly naked Styles surrounded by people of all genders who are touching and carressing his body.

In a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, he explained why he often dons rainbow flags on stage at his concerts and why he’s been so vocal about supporting queer people. “Everyone in that room is on the same page and everyone knows what I stand for. I’m not saying I understand how it feels. I’m just trying to say, ‘I see you.’” At this point, Styles isn’t new to curiosity surrounding his sexuality. Throughout his time with One Direction, rumors about his sexuality swirled, as he had a close relationship with bandmate Louis Tomlinson. The relationship became a hot topic, and one hugely obsessed over in fan and fanfiction communities. In a 2017 interview with The Sun, while discussing the way that celebrity sexuality is constantly questioned, he said, “It’s weird for me—everyone should just be who they want to be. It’s tough to justify somebody having to answer to someone else about stuff like that … I don’t feel like it’s something I’ve ever felt like I have to explain about myself.” At his final show for his tour in Glasgow in 2018, Styles announced onstage, “We’re all a little bit gay.”

For much of his career, it’s almost seemed like his fanbase is rooting for his queerness. One reason that online communities seem to be so obsessed with queer-adjacent celebrities like Styles is that they normalize queerness, making it feel more accessible. “If they were to come out, it would be a huge benefit to LGBTQ visibility in the media, and a lot of people in the LGBTQ community would love to have a celebrity of that stature on ‘their’ side,” Ash, a bisexual woman, told me. But Styles doesn’t actually claim queerness just because many fans, queer and otherwise, have hoped that he’ll one day do so explicitly. “Can straight people be queer?” asked a 2016 Vice article about the impact of the term’s increasingly broad application. The fact is that cis, straight people can’t be queer—so what does that mean when queer communities tout artists like Styles or Swift as part of our culture?

At some points in history, having these kinds of allies for the community who are not queer themselves, like Lil’ Kim, who has advocated for gay men and against homophobia in the rap community since the early 2000s, has been monumental. Queer audiences of yesteryears also gravitated toward performers like Dolly Parton who didn’t have to be queer themselves because they were accepting and loving toward all, and used their platform to normalize and uplift the queer communities that have celebrated them. In this day and age, however, expectations of performers have heightened. Unlike other celebrities dubbed “queer icons” who happen to be straight, including Madonna, Janet Jackson, or Parton, the fanbases of artists like Styles’s skew younger. And younger audiences don’t just want performers who see and welcome them. They want performers who are them—artists who understand the queer experience because they are queer, and they’re here to reflect audiences back to themselves.

So why the critique if there are seemingly so many positives to any representation or acceptance? It’s not that Styles, or any celebrity or public figure for that matter, owes us any information about their sexualities. On one hand, simply by existing in such a public manner, these celebrities offer a sliver of hope that there might be someone just like us navigating the world of queerness and identity. Celebrities like Styles or Swift—who has made use of queer aesthetics herself, and whose friendship with model Karlie Kloss has been the subject of rumors—remind us of who we were when we navigated our queerness more subtly before we were ready to explicitly tell someone close to us, or our resident queer community. Entertainers like Jackson or Parton became queer icons because they embraced queer fans during a closeted time, and perhaps it felt okay to have acceptance without representation. It was clear the performers weren’t trying to be queer. On the other hand, with Styles or Swift, the lines are blurred, and it’s unclear whether they’re trying to say they’re one of us or merely accept queer fans while borrowing from the culture to fit in and create a brand.

“I think it’s important for white queer folks to interrogate the whiteness of their queer idols, and work to understand why they feel more inclined to celebrate the visible queerness of one artist over another.”

There’s often a concern that celebrities are co-opting queerness as a marketing ploy. With the long history of queerbaiting (using the possibility of or undertones of queerness to gain favorability with queer people) in popular culture, there’s a certain level of disingenuousness to letting the bait and switch go on with minimal critique. The kind of support and lauding that celebrities like Styles receive for more playful expression and experimentation is not always present for queer people of color like Syd (formerly of The Internet), Alok Vaid-Menon, or Big Freedia. When she sees mostly white, thin, able-bodied figures with “queer energy” centered as icons in the queer community as opposed to queer people of color, Olivia Zayas Ryan, a queer woman, wonders why. “If you’re showing up for a pretty white boy in a tutu, where are you when Black and brown queer folks are vilified, ridiculed, and worse?” she told me. “If you are excited and feel seen when queer aesthetics are in the mainstream, what are you doing to honor, protect, and recognize the folks who created them? I think it’s important for white queer folks to interrogate the whiteness of their queer idols, and work to understand why they feel more inclined to celebrate the visible queerness of one artist over another.”

Conversation around both queerbaiting and our curiosity about celebrity queerness is an ongoing and complicated one. For example, there are theorists who have posited that Kurt Cobain was a closeted trans woman. “Many transgender women see themselves in his shaggy hair, his penchant for nail polish and dresses, and his struggles with depression,” Gillian Branstetter, a transgender advocate and writer, told me. Cobain’s fascination with pregnancy (“In Utero”) and his distaste for masculinity (“In Bloom”), as well as his partner Courtney Love’s references to having a more fluid lover (“He had ribbons in his hair/ And lipstick was everywhere/ You look good in my dress”) stoked this interest in his sexuality and presentation. “It sounds very familiar to trans women whose own relationship with masculinity and femininity was often expressed in coded ways before they came out,” says Branstetter. Styles, who like Cobain shows disinterest in conforming to a traditionally masculine rock-star presentation, seems to spark the same interest in fans from the queer community.

With our investment in Styles or other celebrities who are likely straight but exude “queer energy,” it feels as if we’re looking for a mirror of ourselves, seeking to claim the most popular public figures as our own, and in turn feel more normal and accepted. Perhaps our obsession with artists like Styles comes down to the excitement of feeling visible—but what do fans of potentially straight queer icons like Styles actually want? Can we thread the needle between feeling seen and normalized in our queerness while also feeling the imbalance between Styles’s privilege and the most marginalized people in the queer community’s lived experiences? Ultimately, it’s queer fans who get to decide if Styles’s kind of allyship and solidarity with the queer community is enough, or if it’s begun to give off the all-too-familiar stink of disingenuous baiting.

#did I write this?#Harry Styles #queerbaiting discourse #he's going to have to shit or get off the pot at some point

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pinarworks · 5 years

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Back to its Owners: Queering of Istiklal Avenue İstanbul is a true metropole in all senses of the term. It was the capital of three mega empires: Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman; it’s no doubt a city for which a lot of blood was spilt. It’s the the ultimate destination for all internal migration, and a major hub for external immigrants too. Twentieth-century Anatolian folklore even claims that “the earth and rocks are golden.’’ It’s the symbol of the Turkish Dream, the place “to make it”. From students who come to study at universities to labourers who come to earn a living, or people simply looking for a better future. Built upon culture over culture, İstanbul is a Pandora’s box with many stories to spill. And like every megacity, it has been sculpted, altered and transformed by the people inheriting it and their ideologies; ideologies which are as effective as chisels in giving shape to not only thoughts and behaviour but to buildings, districts, parks and streets. One of the most frequently altered districts of the city is Beyoğlu and its befittingly named İstiklal Avenue. İstiklal means “liberation” in Turkish, a direct reference to the İstiklal War (War of Independence) which marked the end of Allied occupation and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The previous names of the avenue were Cadde-i Kebir and Rue de Pera, the latter reflecting the increasing European domination over the city in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Like I said before, this is how streets are sculpted. In this modern Turkey, İstiklal was planned as a tourist centre and a locus for social life with cafes, bars, movie theatres and concert venues. It has been largely successful at being home to a very mixed crowd: students, artists, lovers and of course tourists who hope snap an orientalist miniature of the country in one convenient stroll. Today, İstiklal Avenue is still very popular but with a twist. AKPs quarter of a century long tenure over the city asserted that it will reclaim public spaces for conservative inhabitants of İstanbul who were excluded by the secular elite. In many cases this reclamation was done by police brutality, the intensification of neoliberal policies and a never-ending cycle of gentrification. İstiklal Street has long been among the flagship projects of AKP in the cultural war between two ideologies. It also became the ground zero of AKP’s strict security measures taken after the Gezi Protests of 2013 and the reaction against the failed coup attempt of 2016. There are still special police forces walking around with guns, extra security checks scattered along and military vehicles parked at certain points or just driving at large. The street is now closed to any march or protest including Pride, March 8 Women’s Night Walk, Mayday and the Saturday Mothers sit-in. These repressive measures, combined with the ongoing gentrification and the renewed tax regulations for businesses, encouraged certain residents to relocate to the “still secular’’ Kadıköy district on the Asian side. It’s important to examine the secular part of the country’s cultural, psychological and emotional investment in Istiklal. Losing it to AKP also means losing it to “invaders”, this belief is often vocalised through racist statements against resident Syrians and Arab tourists. Since modernism is pro-West and anti-Middle-East, in secular Turkey, the changing demographics of the street is alarming for that group. Granted, certain AKP policies made it difficult for small businesses to survive here, not to mention the permanent presence of the police after the 2014-2017 bombings. But the expression “Istiklal is over’’ İstiklal bitti is now so commonly used that it has effectively become a proverb. These complaints function as dog-whistle terms to conceal anti-Arab/anti-Afghan/anti-refugee sentiments. The racialised Islamophobia which is deeply attached to this narrative is one of the principal reasons for the white Turk exodus to Kadıköy. The visibility of the Syrian community aroused the indignation of the Turkish “progressive” left during the new year celebrations. Most of these leftist communities were so ill-informed that they referred to Syria’s independence flag as the “FSA flag”. The recent outburst of racism following the election of opposition CHP mayor İmamoğlu has also rung alarm bells about a culture of racism among Turkey’s secular elites. But you see, there are many layers to a city. Most of the time it is communities who get the least credit that carry most of the burden in giving life to a neighbourhood. Secular middle-class consumers scooped the cream and the crust of the avenue while subaltern communities laboured daily to infuse it with a unique spirit. In the case of Istiklal, this is the queer population, the workers at the bars, immigrants from other cities or countries who moved here for survival in the truest sense of the word. It is these vulnerable groups who paid the heaviest price for gentrification, the increased police presence and the neoliberal reconstruction of the district. In fact, these people live through all the consequences of the ideological ping pong while the privileged found other places to gentrify and transform according to their taste. Beyoğlu has always been a key district for the LGBTQI+ community since the late ’80s. In contrast with the conservatism of rural areas, for many queer immigrants, these spaces offered the chance of being invisible from the judging gaze of small towns. Though never fully safe, Beyoğlu has been a survival space for these communities. It’s functioned as a home for them, and the many “firsts’’ of the community happened here. First clubs, first protests, first organizations and the very first pride march took place here. There was always an undercurrent of a counter-movement which though invisible, actually prepared İstiklal Caddesi for what it is today; a street famous for its ‘’diverse/colourful’’ voices. If you can walk in a swimsuit on the streets today without much of a shock from the people, you owe it to this community. So it’s only predictable, once the middle-class consumers of Beyoğlu moved to Kadıköy to continue having fun and gentrifying the hell out of the place, we see the real transformers in action. The recent blooming of various queer parties and other events organized in venues previously considered “heterosexual’’, the increase in the number of gender non-conforming DJs playing at straight places as well as the new queer venues and bars opening in the “mainstream’’ parts of the district, reveal how much this city owes to them. Without the efforts and the stubborn existence of this community, Beyoğlu might have been buried as the centre of diversity and would have long transformed into a tourist-only, shopping centre. The censorship, bans and all that pressure, is of course hard on these communities who have to constantly find ways of surviving in the city. But as one of the most politically aware and active communities of Istanbul, the LGBTQI+ community is all about creativity when it comes to surviving. Pride March has been officially banned here since 2015 and it’s unclear if it will ever be legal again. But even this decision was countered with an act of political creativity when the Pride committee released a press statement in 2016, declaring that they are “now spreading/disbanding’’ to every little corner of the city. Nowadays they are percolating into once all-straight places, through music and parties. Of course, queer spaces have existed in Beyoğlu since the beginning but their entrance into the mainstream without having to blend in or keeping a low profile, is relatively new. Once, the queer community had to hang out in zones they had carved out for themselves to keep safe. Now we have openly queer bars, right in the centre of the city where every gender is welcome as long as there is respect and no discrimination. Şahika Teras, for instance, is run by a trans woman named Üzüm Derin Solak and is located at Nevizade, the hotspot of Beyoğlu’s nightlife, hosting two of the oldest and most loved bars of Beyoğlu for the indie/electronic music lovers, punks and dance-heads: Peyote and Gizli Bahçe. Then there’s Ziba, a bar which is known for its queer heavy audience. Located at the same street with Ziba, Anahit Sahne a live venue that hosts regular queer parties led by DJ collective Queerwaves and a very popular drag lip-sync show called Dudakların Cengi. A trans woman DJ, Şevval Kılıç who has been DJing for a long time in various events and bars around İstanbul, tells me that behind this increasing visibility of queer people and places in İstiklal Street is the fact that “the privileged have left for Kadıköy and so the district is once again left to its original inhabitants: Queers’’. Along with Kurdish bars and street musicians, all these people came here to seek refuge from their native towns, to make like-minded friends and create communities. Beyoğlu is characterized with entertainment and tourism by every administration, but there has always been a backdrop to this “stage’’. Back streets of Beyoğlu as its famously represented in Turkish movies, mainstream media and the common narrative of the mainstream politics, is an underground that hosts underdogs. A “ degenerate’’ world, full of “freaks” such as transvestites, prostitutes, beggars, refugees. A stereotyping of “the dark side of the city’’: a dark side for sure, for the ones who can’t see. “Cities are unpredictable’’ says writer Teju Cole in his book Open City; “Once you give up insisting on stereotypes, you can really start to see’’. Seeing beyond one’s sight is often difficult especially in project-streets like İstiklal which are designed to hide the unwanted with either a secular Western facade or AKP’s money-drawing-shopping-star-project-district. In both cases, the real makers of the city are sacrificed in the name of formal, structural change. Like sweeping “waste’’ under the rug, both regulations only tend to polish the surface of the city, and those who are uncomfortable by these changes but are privileged enough to relocate are able to leave it without giving up much of a fight. Similar to Julia Kristeva’s abject concept, the unwanted, the disgusting, the primitive, all those who don’t fit in the perfectly designed, functioning body of the dominant culture; here in the form of İstiklal Street, are repressed. But they always come back, because they are the real transformers of the city. They resist regulations and push comfort zones until they have to transform and extend beyond stereotyping. And what is resistance, if not this? http://www.mangalmedia.net/english//back-to-its-owners-queering-of-istiklal-avenue

originally published in Spex.de in German https://spex.de/istiklal-caddesi-in-istanbul-14-kilometer-ideologie/

#beyoğlu #lgbtiq #queering

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writeforsoreeyes · 5 years

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transreading - What Makes You Beautiful

[image description: cover of What Makes You Beautiful by Bridget Liang. Off-center portrait of an east Asian teen wearing a blue button-up shirt, eye makeup, and lipstick.]

Note: like last month, this is book in which the POV character realizes they are trans over the course of the story. While the character is “Logan” for the first part of the story, she begins using the name Veronica in the final act. Midway through, while still working out her gender, Veronica asks her friends to use they/them pronouns for her. The story doesn’t have a moment in which she updates her pronouns, but I’ve made the assumption that she would ultimately go with she/her by the book’s end.

Veronica will never be the perfect half-Chinese son, but her mother and father are in denial. Despite her parents’ misgivings, Veronica switches to an arts high school to pursue singing. She quickly makes friends with several queer kids at the school. With new freedom to explore her identity, she slowly begins to realize that while she likes guys, she herself is not a guy.

What Makes You Beautiful is a really quick read. It’s short in length, with a straight-forward plot that pulls the reader along. While there are some darker moments (particularly instances of racism, homophobia, and so on), it’s by and large a sweet book -- and even downright cheesy at times. If you’re looking for a pleasant read to pass an afternoon or a flight, What Makes You Beautiful fits the bill.

There is a lot packed into this little book though, despite its brevity. The cast is highly diverse in terms of sexuality, gender, ethnicity, religion, and more. With so many different identities in play, the author gets to explore a lot of different topics naturally in the story.

For example, Veronica has doubts about being a trans girl because she fears she’s falling into the stereotype of Asian men being submissive. Veronica and her friends come into conflict with their voice teacher because all the winter concert songs are Christmas songs. One of her friends discloses that it was difficult to get his gender identity respected because of his autism. And so on and so forth. These many intersections of identity reflect the complexities of the real world and make What Makes You Beautiful stand out from similar trans coming out narratives.

There are moments, however, that might come across as over the top and strain readers’ suspension of belief. For instance, when Veronica’s father drops her off at school on the second day, he sees her visibly queer friends waiting for her and shouts at them, “Kids like you are ruining this great country!” It’s a really erratic burst of violent homophobia from someone who is otherwise portrayed as more your run-of-the-mill “I’m not bigoted!” casual bigot.

My belief was also strained by how quickly the character relationships developed. Veronica is pretty much folded into an existing friend group her very first day of school, in addition to making friends outside the group.

It’s true that friendships generally move faster with kids than adults, but I couldn’t help but raise a skeptical eyebrow when Veronica thought “I feel safe nestled between these two boys” and earnestly saying “I never had friends like you two before” within 24 hours of meeting them. Arguably, Veronica is starved for friendship since it seems she didn’t have any at her previous school. But since she was bullied, I’d expect her to be more wary.

I appreciated how well the love interest was handled. Kyle hangs around with the queer kids but is straight himself. He initially isn’t especially romantically or sexually attracted to Veronica. However, as her true gender becomes more apparent and she begins experimenting with presentation, his feelings spark. Later, he’s frank with her that this made him question his sexuality, but it doesn’t come across as an “Oh, god, am I gay??????” panic. It’s also refreshing that the guy who is indisputably the hottest in the book is Asian, since Asian men in media are so often classed as less than sexually desirable.

Reading What Makes You Beautiful was kind of nostalgic to me. I also attended an arts high school, so I remember the unique energy of being surrounded by people who are all into the same craft as you. My high school also had a reputation as the “gay school,” though students weren’t nearly as openly queer -- and the teachers weren’t nearly as queer-friendly -- as at Veronica’s school. Perhaps though my school today is more like Veronica’s than the school I remember; a lot has changed in the last decade.

To wrap up, I recommend What Makes You Beautiful if you are looking for a trans coming out narrative where the main character has a really supportive friend group (as well as the mentorship of a trans adult.) If you relate to the “It was obvious to other people, but I didn’t notice until it was pointed out” sort of trans experience, you’ll likely find a lot to relate to here.

And, of course, there is always a need for more racially diverse trans books -- What Makes You Beautiful is a very welcome addition. If you’re looking for more QPOC YA books similar to this one, I’d personally recommend Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann (female Black asexual main character, male Asian straight love interest) and This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kheryn Callender (male Black bisexual main character, male Latino gay hard of hearing love interest).

#what makes you beautiful #bridget liang #trans books #transgender books #transreading

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