sundries

[rm]

First, Annie Le. I've spent a lot of time in New Haven in general and at Yale in particular. From fairly early on it seemed fairly clear that this was not one of those random New Haven crimes, and yet, even as recently as yesterday, articles about Le are telling us that she was street smart and "aware of crime in a college town" and "knew how to protect herself."

1. I hate reporting that explains to us why a woman is or is not to blame for her rape and/or murder. A WOMAN IS NOT TO BLAME FOR HER RAPE AND OR MURDER.

2. Annie Le was not the victim of random crime by a stranger. Walking with a group or any of the shit they tell women to do (because our risk is our fault, fuck you very much), would not have protected Annie Le. She was a researcher, doing her research, and she was most likely killed by one of her peers. When the facts come out, will anyone be surprised if she was killed by a male colleague who was angry that her impending marriage made her unavailable to him?

Second, Caster Semenya is now under close supervision lest she commit suicide. Fuck you world and fuck you Internets. In this whole debacle Semenya has been subject to, in no particular order: racism, misogyny, other people's tall-poppy hostility, the medicalization of gender and identity, society's acceptance of public ownership of private female bodies, and about twenty other things I'm too angry to list right now. Most importantly, she's been subjected to other people's cruelty, and all for really, one simple fucking reason: because she's really goddamn good at something, better, in fact, than most of us will ever be at anything. If you have ever cut someone down for talent or success, take a second and check yourself. Around here, I'm going to assume you all are not assholes on the gender front, but just in case, let me say it again: either gender, any gender, gender status, gendered pronouns: don't ever use them as an insult -- not for yourself, not for anyone else. It's hard; our society teaches us to do this; I struggle with it. But seriously, we can all work on that.

Third, Patrick Swayze died. He was talented as fuck, and gracious, fierce and ordinary in the face of illness. Instead of having an '80s kitsch celebration, learn from that.

Fourth, Crystal Lee Sutton died, and if you don't know who that is, you should follow the link.

Fifth, are we actually asking whether or not the Obama witch-doctor image is racist? CAN WE SOMEHOW NOT TELL? Yes, folks, it's fucking racist!

Now, moving along... I've just found out I have to go to Europe for three days in November. OMG WITH THE TRAVEL ALL THE TIME.

Patty and I are having dinner with some of her colleagues tonight. Yay.

More as it comes.

Comments

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

CAN WE JUST LET PEOPLE'S GENITALIA BE THEIR OWN DAMN BUSINESS?

I wish I thought it could be that simple.

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

How can we let people's genitalia be simply and only their own business when people are only allowed to compete in sports as a man or as a woman?

How can we when people are only allowed to participate in marriage if the couple is recognized as "a man and a woman"?

How can we when there's no recognized place in society for people who aren't simply and totally either male or female?

Some of these things are fixable, in theory at least. I'm not sure about the sports one, though. So long as we don't make all sports competitions unisex (and there's lots of reasonable reasons to have men and women compete separately in most sports), we have to have rules to determine who can compete in which events.

And it's pretty obvious that we need much better rules to govern how people implement those rules.

Ms. Semenya's story is sad on so many levels. She probably intended to have children, most people do. Now she finds she cannot, that she is not what she thought she was, in the rudest and most public possible way. And I heard she was raised Catholic, and I've always heard that African Catholics are very conservative about gender roles compared to American Catholics (which I know full well from personal experience are quite conservative, and uncomfortable with the idea of transgender and intersex people). I don't know about other cultural issues, but I doubt she will ever be totally accepted as a woman (or as a man), no matter where she goes or what she chooses to do next, unless she lets "Caster Semenya" totally vanish and starts a new life under a new name somewhere that no one watches news videos. (Like that exists, so even if she changes her name, how much hope will she have that no one will recognize her much-photographed face?)

How could the doctors agree to tell anyone the results before telling her?