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Realness Is Overrated:
Rejecting the Requirement to Pass
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
What lies are people forced to tell in order to gain
acceptance as "real?" When someone passes -- as the
"right" gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability,
body type, health status, ethnicity -- or a member of
the dominant religion, political party,
social/educational institution, exercise trend,
fashion cult or sexual practice -- someone else fails.
How do we break the rules and make the tools to skewer
dominant cultural norms and open space for those in
the margins?
I'm looking for essays that explore and critique the
various systems of power seen (or not seen) in the act
of passing. I'm seeking not only scathing critiques
of passing into the mainstream, but also essays that
examine unconventional passings and standards for
inclusion in subcultures and cultures of resistance.
What does it take to pass as nonmonogamous, on the DL,
genderqueer, totally broke, spiritual, ghetto
fabulous, anti-capitalist, outside the beauty myth,
differently-abled or completely uninterested in
passing as anything? How healthy can a sick person
feel? What about passing as crazy in order to get
disability benefits, passing as Latino or Asian to
avoid being targeted as an Arab, or passing as a woman
in order to marry a man for citizenship (when you’ve
recently transitioned from female to male)?
I'm looking for essays that confront the perilous
intersections of identity, categorization and
community in order to challenge the very notion of
belonging. I'm especially interested in confronting
gender normativity within trans communities and racial
profiling by individuals already marginalized by race,
as well as rules of passing enforced by model minority
mythologies, class striving obsessions and cultural
appropriation scams.
Realness Is Overrated will make sure that nothing
escapes scrutiny. If we eliminate the requirement to
pass, what delicious and devastating opportunities for
transformation might we create?
Mattilda, a.k.a. Matt Bernstein Sycamore is the
editor, most recently, of That’s Revolting! Queer
Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (Soft Skull
2004) and the author of Pulling Taffy (Suspect
Thoughts 2003).
SPECIFICS:
*Submit non-fiction essays of up to 6,000 words. All
submissions must be typed and double-spaced, and sent
by mail only (no email submissions, but feel free to
contact me with queries, mattilda@sbcglobal.net).
Please include a short bio.
*The book will be published by Seal Press in 2007.
Contributors will be paid $60-100 per accepted work,
depending on the total number of essays included in
the anthology.
*Deadline is January 31, 2006 -- but the sooner, the
better.
*Send submissions to:
Realness Is Overrated
c/o Mattilda, a.k.a. Matt Bernstein Sycamore
P.O. Box 640047
San Francisco, CA 94164-0047
Mattilda, aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore
(415)440-1575
P.O. Box 640047
San Francisco, CA 94164-0047
www.mattbernsteinsycamore.com
The latest, out now on Soft Skull Press --
That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation
Howard Zinn says, "Startlingly bold and provocative."
Out now on Haworth Press --
Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving
"A gritty, provocative anthology that breaks all the rules about
political
correctness, gender and sex."
Laura Davis, Co-Author of The Courage to Heal
Read Pulling Taffy, out now from Suspect Thoughts Press!!
Edmund White says, "I have seen the future and it is Pulling Taffy."
Rejecting the Requirement to Pass
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
What lies are people forced to tell in order to gain
acceptance as "real?" When someone passes -- as the
"right" gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability,
body type, health status, ethnicity -- or a member of
the dominant religion, political party,
social/educational institution, exercise trend,
fashion cult or sexual practice -- someone else fails.
How do we break the rules and make the tools to skewer
dominant cultural norms and open space for those in
the margins?
I'm looking for essays that explore and critique the
various systems of power seen (or not seen) in the act
of passing. I'm seeking not only scathing critiques
of passing into the mainstream, but also essays that
examine unconventional passings and standards for
inclusion in subcultures and cultures of resistance.
What does it take to pass as nonmonogamous, on the DL,
genderqueer, totally broke, spiritual, ghetto
fabulous, anti-capitalist, outside the beauty myth,
differently-abled or completely uninterested in
passing as anything? How healthy can a sick person
feel? What about passing as crazy in order to get
disability benefits, passing as Latino or Asian to
avoid being targeted as an Arab, or passing as a woman
in order to marry a man for citizenship (when you’ve
recently transitioned from female to male)?
I'm looking for essays that confront the perilous
intersections of identity, categorization and
community in order to challenge the very notion of
belonging. I'm especially interested in confronting
gender normativity within trans communities and racial
profiling by individuals already marginalized by race,
as well as rules of passing enforced by model minority
mythologies, class striving obsessions and cultural
appropriation scams.
Realness Is Overrated will make sure that nothing
escapes scrutiny. If we eliminate the requirement to
pass, what delicious and devastating opportunities for
transformation might we create?
Mattilda, a.k.a. Matt Bernstein Sycamore is the
editor, most recently, of That’s Revolting! Queer
Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (Soft Skull
2004) and the author of Pulling Taffy (Suspect
Thoughts 2003).
SPECIFICS:
*Submit non-fiction essays of up to 6,000 words. All
submissions must be typed and double-spaced, and sent
by mail only (no email submissions, but feel free to
contact me with queries, mattilda@sbcglobal.net).
Please include a short bio.
*The book will be published by Seal Press in 2007.
Contributors will be paid $60-100 per accepted work,
depending on the total number of essays included in
the anthology.
*Deadline is January 31, 2006 -- but the sooner, the
better.
*Send submissions to:
Realness Is Overrated
c/o Mattilda, a.k.a. Matt Bernstein Sycamore
P.O. Box 640047
San Francisco, CA 94164-0047
Mattilda, aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore
(415)440-1575
P.O. Box 640047
San Francisco, CA 94164-0047
www.mattbernsteinsycamore.com
The latest, out now on Soft Skull Press --
That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation
Howard Zinn says, "Startlingly bold and provocative."
Out now on Haworth Press --
Dangerous Families: Queer Writing on Surviving
"A gritty, provocative anthology that breaks all the rules about
political
correctness, gender and sex."
Laura Davis, Co-Author of The Courage to Heal
Read Pulling Taffy, out now from Suspect Thoughts Press!!
Edmund White says, "I have seen the future and it is Pulling Taffy."