The Cat in the Hat and a Rant
A little while ago I was lying down on the futon and I took off my hat that I usally wear and had it upside down next to me. The cat came to sit next to me. She actually sat in my hat. She had her tail wrapped around her feet and everything. The cat in the hat. My partner tried to get a picture, but as soon as she moved the cat got up to take her still warm space.
Yesturday I was in the MCC eatting lunch and looking at the wall and I noticed the poster for the LGBTQA's pride week. I'd never seen it before (I not usually very good at noticing posters). On it is has the picture of what looks like a cis-gendered woman and a cis-gendered man. They both look like white supermodels and their heads are cut off in the picture, so you see the body of a white, young, thin, woman with wet long hair wearing a white bakini and a white, young, short haired, buff man wearing white swim trunks. They are white, they are college age, look middle or upper class, look genderstrait, and are supermodels. It looks like an add for MTV's springbreak.
This is for PRIDE WEEK. Pride Week is supposed to be about US being proud of ourselves. I don't see myself in this image. I don't see ANY of the queer people I know in this image. Where are the people of color? Where are the trannies, genderqueers, and gender variant folk? Where are the poor and working class queers? Where are the pieced and tatooed queers? Where are the queers of all other body sizes and types? Where are the highschool and middle school aged queers? Where are the middle aged and older queers? Where are the butches and dykes? Where are the fairies and fags? Where are the queer parents and their kids? Where are the leather and kinky folk? Where are the high femmes? Where are the poly people?
Recently I and another person had a talk with one of the LGBTQA staff members about what it means to be inclusive, focusing mostly on issues of race. The staff member was genuinely interested in learning. That is great, but if this poster is any sign, wanting and caring about being inclusive isn't enough. I don't know what the backgroung behind this poster is, and maybe there is some mittigating circumstance I don't know, but I still have to say this poster for me tippifies the unconscious exclusion that can happen in the queer community.
Yesturday I was in the MCC eatting lunch and looking at the wall and I noticed the poster for the LGBTQA's pride week. I'd never seen it before (I not usually very good at noticing posters). On it is has the picture of what looks like a cis-gendered woman and a cis-gendered man. They both look like white supermodels and their heads are cut off in the picture, so you see the body of a white, young, thin, woman with wet long hair wearing a white bakini and a white, young, short haired, buff man wearing white swim trunks. They are white, they are college age, look middle or upper class, look genderstrait, and are supermodels. It looks like an add for MTV's springbreak.
This is for PRIDE WEEK. Pride Week is supposed to be about US being proud of ourselves. I don't see myself in this image. I don't see ANY of the queer people I know in this image. Where are the people of color? Where are the trannies, genderqueers, and gender variant folk? Where are the poor and working class queers? Where are the pieced and tatooed queers? Where are the queers of all other body sizes and types? Where are the highschool and middle school aged queers? Where are the middle aged and older queers? Where are the butches and dykes? Where are the fairies and fags? Where are the queer parents and their kids? Where are the leather and kinky folk? Where are the high femmes? Where are the poly people?
Recently I and another person had a talk with one of the LGBTQA staff members about what it means to be inclusive, focusing mostly on issues of race. The staff member was genuinely interested in learning. That is great, but if this poster is any sign, wanting and caring about being inclusive isn't enough. I don't know what the backgroung behind this poster is, and maybe there is some mittigating circumstance I don't know, but I still have to say this poster for me tippifies the unconscious exclusion that can happen in the queer community.