Beast of Times

See it. It was as if someone took one of our class discussions, put everyone in animal costumes and added lights and music.

Adelina Anthony and D'Lo are the only two actors in, what is essentially, an ensemble character performance. Opening with Adelina and D'Lo as the pets of a lesbian couple in Berkely, it follows their personal journeys through the current political climate. Adelina's primary character is a kitten who is spayed before she has a chance to fully develop a sexual identity. D'Lo plays a blind dog who travels to "The Trial of the Century" (guess what that is.) The narrative breaks between those storylines with the testimony of other animals at the trial.

The performance was incredibly funny (see it for nothing other than Adelina's kitten riding the back of a tortoise on a skateboard to "Ridin' Dirty") and incredibly powerful. For me, the most difficult scene to watch was Adelina's kitten's soul memory recall, in which she recounts the hidden sexual violence inflicted upon women in the last 100 years. After, Adelina collapsed on the stage, coughing out tears, and I realized that I had gone from laughing myself into stitches to trying not to throw up and crying. Its through these emotional ambushes that The Beast of Times deconstructs issues of gender, race, privilege and sexuality.

I don't want to give too much away, so I'll leave it here, but if you need a diversion or a date idea - go!

What Night Brings - Lingering Memories

Upon reading What Night Brings, written by Carla Trujillo, a lot of past experiences and lingering memories began to shed light once more. Through connecting the many themes within the novel to Gloria Anzaldua's book; Borderlands, La Frontera: The New Mestiza, I began to understand the importance of writing about our past traumas in order to rebel and combat our shadow beast. Through undergoing the process of eventually gaining that Mestiza Consciousness we so often seek, I've decided to write about the memories, the pain and the triggers that What Night Brings has sprouted. That being said, I share with you my lingering sentiments. I share the connections made with my mothers' agency and my own, living in an abusive household and the strength that has now been rooted in my existence. In addition, I connect this abuse to the capability of a mujer to regain her sexual agency regardless of the harm that was inflicted upon her due to abuse and violence. I stand in solidarity with those of you who have had similar experiences in an abusive household, one that is commonly rooted in the deeply entrenched machismo and patriarchy our parents may have been forced to deal with. Con amor y ternura.

I Moan Like My Mother

In the crevices of my soul, I find my mother. I find the womyn I aspire to become. My mother is one that has struggled through nearly every obstacle as a womyn; abuse, discrimination, sexism, pain and trauma. I am sorry for the pain he has caused you. I am sorry for the many times your father hit you, and I am most sorry that those hands that once caressed you, the hands of my father, have had the power to scar you.

I moan like my mother because her pain is mine. In the crevices of my soul, I feel her in me, because her strength is one I have learned to embody. I look back at my childhood and remember the way he hit us, and later asked for forgiveness. I look back at the times when she laid her body in front of us, to protect us from him and thus took his slaps and the bruises that were intended to be ours. The man he loves, the man he lives for.

I moan like my mother because just as she has taken ownership of her body, her worth and her existence, I will take ownership of mine. Through the bruises on her body and soul, she has enabled the healing of my own. I moan like my mother because I am a sexual being and will never let another man dictate my own worth, just as my mother moaned and groaned and cried to validate her own, I will do the same. I moan like my mother because I love foolishly, but no longer foolish enough to let another man hurt me.

Third Space Theory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh-ikrnYu9g


One of my Chicana/o studies TA said that this is a good video to watch which defines third space. I am interested on what you all think. Applying both of Emma Pérez's articles for this week, What do you all think about this video and his definition of third space?


Something to think about...

Because violence has been present in the literature that we have been discussing, I wanted to share this fundraiser video for a feature length film in which Adelina Anthonoy has taken a stage performance onto the screen. "It's one of the first feature length films to break silence on same-sex domestic violence and to begin to examine how our childhood traumas shape us as lovers."

chekal@!

http://igg.me/p/417075

Blood Stained Hands ...Sor Juana

Dearest Juana, she reread la Condesa’s letter, you have no idea how I ache to see you, what I would give to be close to you again and touch your ink-stained hands and look into the dark inkwells of your eyes to read the words that you pen no longer writes to me” (Gaspar de Alba, 379).

                                

After checking out the Clothesline Project last week. I saw this shirt and thought about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz right away. I also thought about the Professor’s book, Sor Juana’s Second Dream. This shirt seems to represent Sor Juana after she was deprived from writing. This shirt made me think about how her uncle molested her and I thought that it represented her well. Some of the phrases on this shirt are words she would have told her uncle. I really wish the shirt was a different color. In the Clothesline Project the shirts colors represent the different categories of survivors and the yellow represents survivors of dating/domestic violence. So I wish it would have been another color. Unfortunately, I didn’t think the Clothesline Project had shirt colors to represent the different types of violence in Sor Juana’s life so the closest shirt color that would fit her from the categories of the Clothesline Project would probably be purple which represents survivors of gender/ sexuality-based sexual violence (keeping the context of Sor Juana’s Second Dream).

            I added the quote to this picture because I think that her “ink stained hands” made me think of her blood stained signature—“Sor Juana: la peor que hubó/la peor de todas.” Also, because I felt the quote represented the picture since I feel that is how Sor Juana felt after she read the Condesa’s words. After having to give up her right to be with the person she loved and then having to give up her love for writing I think that she symbolically felt a knife to her heart. ..This shirt is so powerful! 

About the Gilda Stories,

in reference to when 

we discussed the essence of "family" 

                                                          within their

'coven' (for lack

of knowing what they would rather be 

referred to/as...

perhaps "family")

An        e     way

We didn't get to discuss how "family"

is used in queer communities!

                                       i.e.         **studying at the library**    

                                  gay boi:"hey you know what? I've been really diggin that cute boi over there that                                                              works on the third floor, but

i just dont know if he's gay."

                              young lesbian: "oh that one dude? oh yea, he's family."

Two lesbians, mid-twenties, sitting at a cafe in Oakland on Piedmont Ave

"oh man, did you see that chick that just walked in? I'd be so down

to go ask for her number, but it be embarrassing if she wasn't family."

"nah man, look at that beanie! i say you go for it." 

I think its important to note

that the reference to family in both

the LGBT and Vampire communities 

is a queer reality!

as immortals, reproduction is imposible

for it takes a living heart beat to 

maintain 

                              the one 

growing 

                   inside

the womb.

And vampires just ain't got a heart beat.

Many LGBT (and all those in that very wide spectrum to which i don't know all the letters to) community members

decide not to have children

and so create a family of friendship

of trust

caranala/os from another mother

perhaps from my

 other mother

There is a very deep rooted ceremony 

in recognizing that 

both parties are searching for a place to belong

and so 

     

they/we give birth to one another 

through the gifts of love

that they/we bestow

upon each other

CLOTHESLINE PROJECT Extra Credit Paper

I first found out about the Clothesline Project when I was attending my local community college. I was part of the Feminist Club and helped organize the event by making sign up sheets and gathering information from volunteers on campus but I didn’t participate in the actual process of hanging the shirts nor did I make a shirt myself. I couldn’t participate further because I was busy with my job, but subconsciously I think I was avoiding being surrounded by reminders of such horrific events that happen to people. I try my best to compartmentalize my emotions when I'm on campus.

I saw the shirts for the Clothesline Project being hung earlier this week on campus at UCLA, and I had to pass by the shirts on my way to class everyday this week. When I pass by I look straight ahead and avoid reading what’s written on those shirts because the idea of all these people who are hurt by violence makes my heart ache so much that I wouldn’t be able to compose myself in public if I took the time to read what’s written on the shirts. But for the sake of extra credit I decided to walk by the clotheslines to take a look at some of the shirts.

The themes were recurring: loss of voice, loss of self, loss of dignity, and loss of power through another person’s domination. What struck me the most though was the concurring message of all the shirts that the perpetrators were always men; it’s the men who are committing these horrific acts against women. Even the shirts that didn’t have a “he” pronoun to point out that a man committed the treachery most people assume that it’s always the woman who is a victim of a man. I tried searching for a shirt that indicated that a woman violated a man, or even a man violating another man, but couldn’t find any. It certainly happens, men are violated too in this world (I’ve sure been told some terrible personal stories from my male friends who have been raped) but where are the shirts made by men? I went on The Clothesline Project website online and of course I had stoopidly forgotten that this was a project started to address the issue of “violence against women” (as the website states). Ohhhhkay that’s why I didn’t see any shirts made by men!

Violence against women is one of the most talked about social issues today and it’s certainly relieving to hear about all these new projects, organizations, movements happening to support equality and dignity for women in this patriarchal world! But what about the men? Why don’t we talk extensively about how masculinity affects men? How it constrains and limits men from reaching their full potential? Or rather, why aren’t men speaking up about this? Even if there were a Clothesline Project for men who have been victims of violence would men participate?

Before today’s class I was in my Gender 185 Sex and Money course and we were speaking about how masculinity affects men in harmful ways, and again I notice that most of the people in the classroom were females talking about this issue and how the few men in the class rarely participate in discussions. I would love to see more men come forward to speak about their issues. I would love to see a society where we are accepting of the idea that men too are affected negatively by patriarchy, so that men can feel safe about sharing their vulnerability. Like I said, it’s so wonderful to see that discrimination against women is starting to be taken as a very serious topic that needs attention and resolution but women can’t tackle this problem on their own. Men need to see how patriarchy also harms men and stand up with women to make spiritual and social progress.

The divine masculine has been perverted into patriarchy and I think it’s finally time that men take on the courage to rebel against this atrocity that has been going on for too long.

On a side note… Quote of the moment: "If the 19th century was about ending slavery, and the 20th century was about ending totalitarianism, the 21st century is about ending the pervasive discrimination and degradation of women and fulfilling their full rights." –Hillary Rodham Clinton

And also, check out this article about sex trafficked boys The Forgotten Many: Sex-Trafficked Boys:

http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/social-justice-sex-trafficking-boys/

-Stephanie