Tuesday, November 6, 2012

julia update November 2012

hey folks! just a quick update about a flurry of upcoming events I have!

1) San Francisco reading Wednesday (tomorrow/today) November 7th.
2) “Our Art is Our Advocacy” panel at the Transgender Leadership Summit on Friday, November 9th.
3) presentation at Boston College on Tuesday November 13th.
4) SF Dyke March forum on AGE DIVERSITY AND GENDER FLUIDITY on November 15th.

Below are details about all these things:

1) San Francisco reading Wednesday (tomorrow/today) November 7th.

Many of you know about this event already, as I have been Tweeting and Facebooking about it. But for those who don't know, here are the details:

Making Feminist, Queer and Trans Movements More Genuinely Inclusive

Wednesday, November 7, 2012
7:00pm until 8:30pm
Making Feminist, Queer and Trans Movements More Genuinely Inclusive
https://www.facebook.com/events/433105406750508/permalink/437852916275757/

What: Mettaversity Live Speaking Series -formerly Metta Dance
When: Wednesday, November 7th – 7:00-8:30pm
Where: The Women’s Building (18th btwn Valencia/Guerrero)

Cost: $10 at the door (No one turned away for lack of funds)

Making Feminist, Queer and Trans Movements More Genuinely Inclusive

Women, and gender and sexual minorities, are all targeted by sexism—that is, double standards based on one’s sex, gender or sexuality. For many of us, our experiences dealing with sexism drive us to become involved in feminism and queer (i.e., LGBTQIA+) activism. We seek out like-minded people who share our goals to eliminate sex-, gender- and sexuality-based hierarchies, and together, we work hard to build new movements and communities with the intent that they will be safe and empowering for those of us who have been shut out of the straight, male-centric mainstream. And yet, somewhere along the way, despite our best intentions, the movements and communities that we create almost always end up marginalizing and excluding others who wish to participate.

In this event, Julia Serano (author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity) presents from excerpts of some of her newer essays and spoken word pieces focused on both critiquing this tendency toward exclusivity in feminist, queer and trans movements, and providing new ideas regarding how we might go about making more genuinely inclusive movements.

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2) “Our Art is Our Advocacy” panel at the Transgender Leadership Summit on Friday, November 9th.

For those going to this year's Transgender Leadership Summit in Berkeley, CA this upcoming weekend, come see this excellent panel:

7:20 pm – Plenary:  Our Art is Our Advocacy
Artists are important social activists because of their ability to reach all types of people across local and global communities. This plenary explores the work of popular transgender artists and how they utilize art to advocate for transgender visibility. Presenters:  Julia Serano (writer); Annie Danger (performance artist); Dana Morrigan (poet and comic); Kai M. Green (filmmaker); Tobi Hill-Meyer (filmmaker)

The entire conference schedule can be found here:
http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/events/leadershipsummit/summitschedule

3) presentation at Boston College on Tuesday November 13th.

Next week, Boston College is having a "Love Your Body Week," and I am giving a presentation on that theme on Tuesday, November 13, 2012, in Gasson 305. Those are the details I have, please come out!!!

4) SF Dyke March forum on AGE DIVERSITY AND GENDER FLUIDITY on November 15th.

This should be an interesting and relevant panel, and I'm happy to be a part of it. Here's the entire description:

AGE DIVERSITY AND GENDER FLUIDITY
A  FORUM SPONSORED BY THE SAN FRANCISCO DYKE MARCH
November 15, 2012  7-9 p.m.
GLBT History Museum
4127 18th St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
(between Castro & Collingwood Streets)

In its 20th year the San Francisco Dyke March is hosting a number of forums and events to celebrate the anniversary.  The theme for the year is “Dyke Space Continuum” reflecting the genesis of the Dyke March, its evolution, its revolution and the desire to embrace each and every "dyke" who makes up our community today.

Elana Dykewomon, Elena Escalera, Krys Freeman and Julia Serano will facilitate an open forum to trace the history of the “dyke space continuum,” defining the present state of gender politics and how it is related to/identified within different generations of LGBTQ individuals.

The Dyke March was founded by second-wave feminists with roots in the Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation, Anti-War, Anti-Racist and Anti-Imperialist Movements.  The initial premise of the Dyke March was to create a separate space for queer women.  Younger folks are often not aware of the history and events which have influenced the evolving continuum of any given community.  This is certainly mirrored in the microcosm of the Dyke March.  On the other hand, older dykes may not have personal interactions exposing them to new gender theories and the life experiences of younger dykes.

Beyond those general conditions associated with age and change, the widening of queer representations to include a greater spectrum of trans-identified or gender-nonconforming individuals creates some unique political and social divides.  In 1995 the Dyke March began redefining parameters, moving away from “woman-only space” and inviting all to participate with the exception of those who identify as men. (It should be noted that the S.F. Dyke March was/is consistently inclusive of Trans Women/MTF.) Although many welcomed the change, for others the reaction was mixed.  Some regret the loss of women-only space.  Others feel excluded and question whether there is unfair gender “policing.”

This panel seeks not to reconcile these groups outright, but to facilitate a conversation and head towards a place of understanding and progress in the 20th year of the SF Dyke March.

OK, that's it, hope you can come out to some of these! and remember:

here is my main website:
http://www.juliaserano.com

and I tweet fairly frequently:
http://twitter.com/#!/Juliaserano

for those interested in what I have to say when I have more than 140 characters to work with, I have a blog:
http://juliaserano.blogspot.com

I also post all my upcoming events and news on my aforementioned blog, and it also all automatically gets forwarded to my Facebook "writer" page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julia-Serano/277728205577201?ref=ts
so I encourage you to follow me ( and perhaps "like me") there!

that's it, best wishes! -julia

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