Also general sexual-health benefits of yoga.
Via BuzzFeed. Click through for article.
Also:
Curious why the Buddha is laughing all the time in some representations? It is because he’s been having an eternal orgasm ever since he became enlightened, which explains the permanent goofy grin on his face—at least according to one theory, says Morris.
(via operation-orgasm)
ETA: This post has been updated at 2pm PST to reflect new information regarding the veracity of The Publisher’s Weekly piece.
Once upon a time I lived in New York City and worked at a literary agency where I read a lot of query letters and manuscript submissions. Most of them sucked. We even made a Query Letter Drinking Game to quantify and celebrate the myriad of ways in which a manuscript was capable of sucking.
Consequently, there were lots of reasons to reject a proposal or request a complete overhaul. But “too gay” was never one of them.
So, I was surprised to read in Publisher’s Weekly about two YA novelists (Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith) who’d been told by a prospective agent that s/he’d take on their manuscript “on the condition that we make the gay character straight, or else remove his viewpoint and all references to his sexual orientation.”
Brown and Smith were, unsurprisingly, unimpressed with the offer:
Rachel replied, “Making a gay character straight is a line in the sand which I will not cross. That is a moral issue. I work with teenagers, and some of them are gay. They never get to read fantasy novels where people like them are the heroes, and that’s not right.”
The agent suggested that perhaps, if the book was very popular and sequels were demanded, Yuki could be revealed to be gay in later books, when readers were already invested in the series.
We knew this was a pie-in-the-sky offer—who knew if there would even be sequels?—and didn’t solve the moral issue. When you refuse to allow major characters in YA novels to be gay, you are telling gay teenagers that they are so utterly horrible that people like them can’t even be allowed to exist in fiction.
The authors go on to say that this was not an isolated incident, that other agents had similar reactions.
Any gay person working in media or entertainment might wonder what all the fuss is about — the fact that People With Money don’t think they can sell Our Gay Art is simply a fundamental truth of the creative industries we work in. Your lesbian screenplay remains far more likely to find support on Kickstarter than at The William Morris Agency and gay actors are still told that remaining closeted is necessary to advance their career. As a freelance writer, I got a taste of the journalism industry’s inherent fear of queer content and as CEO of a lesbian website, I’ve ingested an all-you-can eat Old Country Buffet of that ish.
But we expect more from books, don’t we? Due to a number of factors including low overhead, books have always been where minority groups have a voice — they may be hard to find, but they’re out there. Movies need millions of viewers to earn out, books can get by on mere tens of thousands.
Furthermore, Young Adult fiction, generally defined as fiction written for or marketed towards kids between the ages of 12 and 20, is notorious for pushing the boundaries of social acceptability and tackling controversial issues like cutting, drug abuse, incest, teen pregnancy and, of course, homosexuality.
In 1982, young budding lesbians were treated to Nancy Garden‘s oft-censored legendary lesbian YA novel Annie on my Mind, which featured not only a physical and emotional lesbian relationship between two teenage girls, but also a happy ending. It took twenty more years for a primetime television series to feature its first lesbian high school character – Evan Rachel Wood as Jessie on Once and Again. Presently it’s remarkably easy to find a gay teenager on television – Degrassi, Glee, Pretty Little Liars, Skins, 90210 – but that’s a very very recent phenomenon. In fact, the legendary Chuck Bass was gay in the Gossip Girl books and from what I’ve heard of the show, that element of his character never made the full transition from page to stage.
Needless to say, Smith & Brown’s case seems out of step with visible industry trends and my own anecdotal experiences.
I talked to Foundry Media Literary Agent Stephen Barbara, who represents leading YA authors including Lauren Oliver and Lisa Graff, about the PW piece. He pointed out: “It is actually quite fascinating to see the YA world attacked as a stronghold of mainstream conformity when only recently,Megan Cox Gurdon in the Wall Street Journal famously (or infamously) decried YA novels as “So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things.”
Of course, there’s a difference between controversial material and diversity (although LGBT characters are lucky enough to come up in conversations about both) to which Barbara posits: “Are the same editors who publish such edgy material also systematically forcing their authors to make their characters white, straight, and non-disabled? It’s a good question, perhaps more asserted than proved, and it would be interesting if someone were to find an objective way to answer it.”
Pointing out that it’s difficult to draw conclusions from a piece that’s “anecdotal rather than statistics-based,” Barbara told me: ”If there is systemic effort to make all YA “straight white,” we should see it reflected in the books published each year. Yet the same article at PW links to a page with a long list of major authors with LGBTQ characters and themes in their novels, and the comments section of the page is full of supportive stories from agents and writers who, encouragingly, have sold or are selling books which do not fit a ‘straight white mold.’”
Malinda Lo, award-winning YA novelist and co-founder of the Diversity in YA blog, didn’t have any trouble selling her lesbian YA novel, Ash, a lesbian take on the Cinderella story: “Commercial publishing in the United States is so gay-friendly it’s practically Gay Utopia. I mean, children’s book editors are, frankly, notoriously liberal! (Or else, open secret, they’re gay!) And they live and work in New York City, which is second only to San Francisco in Gay Utopicness.”
But to see how typical or atypical her experience was, Lo did some number-crunching after reading the Publisher’s Weekly post, and what she found wasn’t great or terrible.
Lo’s graph of the LGBT YA novels published every year from 1969 ’til 2011:
(Sidenote: Due to the two-year publishing cycle, the 2010 downturn is almost certainly a result of the 2008 economic crash)
However, Lo points out that relative to the entire YA market (and its ambiguous numbers), LGBT YA still accounts for less than 1% of the marketplace. To be fair, the percentage of Young Adults identifying as LGBT is probably not much higher.
Literary Agent Cameron McClure of the Donald Maas Literary Agency represents LGBT material by authors including me, John Pitts, Brian Francis Slattery and Elizabeth Sims. She says that “in the adult world, selling gay and lesbians hasn’t been an issue for me. I have an urban fantasy series that features a sword wielding lesbian blacksmith, and a few SFF [Science Fiction/Fantasy] novels that have male gay protagonists, and an old lesbian crime series.”
Brown & Smith’s YA novel was a Sci-Fi/Fantasy post-apocalyptic novel, and McClure notes that at least for adults, “the SFF genre is generally more open to this material than mainstream publishing.”
It’s clear that book publishing is not inherently an unfriendly space, but perhaps it’s just as susceptible to market pressures as other forms of media. Ultimately, it would be irresponsible and counterintuitive for an agent to take on a book s/he knew s/he was unable to sell.
As McClure points out: “YA publishers do have legitimate sales reasons for not publishing books with LGBTQ characters. Agents know this, and know that finding a publisher for this material is harder, and the economy sucks, and everyone just wants to eat and be able to buy shit, so sure, there are going to be agents and other “gatekeepers” who don’t want to bother with this material. Because it will be harder to sell and will sell for less money.”
McClure added that this is true for any minority character, not just LGBTQs. As described in How To Make YA Fiction More Diverse, from The Atlantic Monthly: ”Conventional wisdom assumes that white kids won’t pick up a book that has a picture of a person of color on the cover, and there have been controversial incidents of YA covers being “whitewashed” in recent years.”
The LGBTQ minority has some specific challenges, too — many libraries/bookstores won’t stock LGBT YA books, and when much of your target audience is hiding their identity from friends & family, it’s hard to pave a direct route to their wallets or nightstands.
VIA HTTP://SERIALCUNT.TUMBLR.COM/
Brown & Smith‘s story has now been picked up by tons of LGBT websites as well as The Guardian UK. Needless to say, the story has now made its way to the desk of the unnamed agency in question.
Joanna Stampfel-Volpe works at Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation, and says the experience described in the PW piece is “completely untrue... we never asked that the authors change any LGBTQ character to a straight character.” (I recommend you read her entire post explaining what happened, as well as this post from another agent who passed on the manuscript in question for reasons unrelated to sexual orientation.)
She goes on to say:
One of our agents is being used as a springboard for these authors to gain attention for their project. She is being exploited. But even worse, by basing their entire article on untruths, these authors have exploited the topic. By doing that, they’ve chipped away at the validity of the resulting conversation.
And it’s a conversation that should be had.
So let’s continue this conversation, and let’s base it on the truth, which is:
There are not enough mainstream books that depict characters of diverse race, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and physical and/or mental disabilities.Regardless of veracity, the conversation has indeed begun, and perhaps there’s still time for it to be redirected. Gay teens are more visible on television than ever before, and a large reason for that is how vocal the LGBT community has been about needing that representation. Can we make the same change for LGBT literature? I think we can.
I predict, based on nothing besides my own psychic instincts, we’re going to see the numbers of LGBT-identifying high schoolers skyrocket over the next five years and this is a huge opportunity for the LGBT YA market.
Despite Lo’s conclusion that only 25% of LGBT YA books were about girls, I’ve personally found tracking down lesbian themes in YA fiction relatively easy, and there are several websites dedicated to the genre, including Daisy Porter‘s Queer YA and Lee Wind‘s I’m Here, I’m Queer, What the Hell Do I Read? which was very useful for Laneia and I when we put together our two-part series on lesbian young adult fiction for this website.
In another reaction piece to the Brown & Smith debacle, gay YA author Scott Tracey suggests:
If you want more books with LGBT content, buy the ones that are already out there. Show publishers that there’s profit to be made by investing in these books.
I’d add to that to seek out especially books with female protagonists or lead characters. Although we’ve done several features on LGBT YA books already, I’m going to make a concerted effort to amp up that coverage on this website, especially YA novels featuring women of color.
So, all you young adults and appreciators of young adult fiction — buy that shit! Brittany/Santana fan-fic is not the only way to get your literary lesbian on. Here’s a starter list:
Young Adult Fiction
+ Annie on My Mind, by Nancy Garden
+ Keeping You a Secret, by Julie Anne Peters
+ Down to the Bone, by Mayra Lazara Dole
+ Gravel Queen, by Tea Benduhn
+ Empress of the World, by Sara Ryan
+ Ash, by Malinda Lo
+ Pages for You: A Novel, by Sylvia Brownrigg
+ Girl Walking Backwards, by Bett WilliamsHappy reading!
Kim and Khloe Kardashian say that their late father, Robert Kardashian, once hired a professiona makeup artist to give them beauty tips. Kim explains: “He said, ‘My daughters are going to start to wear makeup and I want you guys to look at least presentable,’ which I thought was really cool.” She adds: “We’ve turned out to be the biggest trannies because of it.” Khloe chimes in: “We joke and say we are like trannies because we love hair and makeup.”
I usually love shopping. Unfortunately, jean shopping makes everyone feel out of shape and poor. To combat this, I’ve laid out a fool-proof plan for shopping for jeans without softly sobbing to yourself in the dressing room.
1. Take inventory
Try on every pair of jeans you currently own with a top and shoes you would actually wear with it. For example, I try on my super tight jeggings with a plaid button-down and black ankle boots, but I try on my nice wide-leg jeans with a work blouse and heels. For each pair of jeans, write down the brand, size and style, and your feelings about them. Is the waist too tight and low? Do you wish the bottoms were skinnier? Now, this part is hard, but THROW OUT THE JEANS YOU’RE NOT WEARING ANYMORE. That means any pair you haven’t worn in six months. The exception to this rule is a pair that fits in the waist, hips and butt, but are too short or too long. Those can be cut into shorts. Look for any common themes on your list. Maybe you wish every pair of jeans came up higher in the waist. Maybe you love all your flares but hate all your skinny jeans. Whatever it is, identify cuts, washes and brands that you like/dislike and write them down.2. Price it Out
Take a deep breath — the truth is that below about $110, the cost of jeans usually reflects the quality of the denim, stitching and fit. (Above $110, that is a ridiculous price.) I suggest you plan on spending no less than $50 per pair. This might be more than you’re used to paying, but a good pair of jeans can last well over twice as long as a crappy pair (which will save you money). If $50 is truly more than you can possibly afford, continue to shop like this is your minimum, but know that you’ll only be able to buy when it’s on sale.
Get Online
Now that you’ve done some deep yoga breathing to accept the cost of jeans, you have just a little more research to do. Go on a site like shopstyle.com that has clothing from lots of different stores in one place. Search for your price range and the style/color you want. This will give you an idea of what stores have what you’re looking for. Now, get out a tape measure and proceed directly to their sizing guide. Compare your measurements to the men’s, women’s and kid’s sizing guide regardless of your gender or age — figure out objectively what will fit you best. If you’re small, kid’s clothes are usually way cheaper, so you might get lucky with stores that make high quality kid’s clothing.3. Go Shopping
First, make sure there isn’t a big sale coming up the day after you were planning on shopping. This happens to me approximately 1.5 times per month and it’s awful every time.Wear your favorite pair of jeans and don’t forget your notebook. Bring someone who will sit and watch you try on jeans for hours without being negative. This is probably your mom or pet rabbit. If no such person exists, go alone. Whatever you do, do not bring someone with you who will comment about how much jeans should cost. This will just cause you to spend more or less than you really want to. Don’t bring your girlfriend.
Once in the store, ask a sales associate for help, and be specific! For example, ask, “Do you have anything like the ‘Always Skinny’ jeans except with a slightly higher waistband and skinnier at the bottom in a women’s size 28 or 6?” Try on every pair in the store and sit, jump, dance like Justin Bieber and show your mom/rabbit. Remember when I said wear your favorite jeans? Compare to these. You should like the jeans you’re trying on so much that you’re slightly disappointed by your old ones.
Once you’re truly in love with a pair, if the price is right, buy them on the spot. If you’re short on cash or feeling dangerous, ask the attendant if they’re going on sale any time soon. If she says no, ask about a student discount (someone will have an I.D.), a discount for getting a credit card and sign up for the store’s email list. I guarantee within a week you’ll receive an email announcing an online sale or promotional code. When you finally have them home, wear them out once with the tags still on. Congratulations, you just bought jeans without crying!
The Ability to Walk and Read at the Same Time: Belle, Beauty and the Beast
For weeks after I saw Belle pull this off, Belle with her kicky apron and sensible ponytail, I practiced walking to school with a Babysitters’ Club book in front of my face. There were some skinned knees. I tripped into a shrub or six. But years later, it’s all been worth it, because it sure does make the walk from my apartment to Coffee Bean feel shorter. I guess. Still, even the sight of me reading while walking has never inspired a dude who owns a castle to beg the favor of my company for margaritas at Chili’s or whatever.Capable of Kicking Some Serious Ass: Mulan, Mulan
I have watched every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at least twice. Sometimes three times, depending on whether or not Angel wore a shirt that week, but mostly because I was leaning how to fight off legions of the undead. Apparently “the ability to defend me in the event of a vampiric apocalypse” is not a quality most guys are looking for in their ladyfriends, though, but someday the joke will be on them.Being Able to Carry a Tune
The hallmark of every Disney Princess is a voice that acts as a magnetic beacon towards your vagina. Despite my brilliant song stylings on karaoke night, the Bartender Of My Heart remains stubbornly married. (Note to self: Next time, maybe try something besides “Before He Cheats.”)Having Glorious Waves of Red Hair: Ariel, The Little Mermaid
Once, this almost worked. I was walking through a parking structure when a speeding car came screeching around the corner and nearly tagged me. I jumped out of the way, rolled my ankle, and spent some time writhing on the concrete in unholy agony. When the driver got out of the car to make sure he hadn’t killed anybody, and once I stopped whimpering, he asked “Do you have dinner plans? ‘Cause I’m a sucker for a redhead.” Unfortunately, since his car did not transform into a 1985 DeLorean and carry him back to a time before he almost killed me, I decided it would be more satisfying to curse him out than eat free chicken marsala. But not all hope is lost! I’m sure that somewhere out there, this exact scene is the meet-cute in a screenplay earmarked for Anne Hathaway and Ashton Kutcher.Raised in a Single-Parent Home: Interestingly, all of them except Sleeping Beauty.
The only long-term effect of being raised by my dad is that I’m still incapable of shaving my legs without injuring myself. Possibly this makes me more attractive to Edward Scissorhands.Extensive Experience in Customer Service: Tiana, The Princess and the Frog
During the 2007-08 WGA strike, I worked in a Harry Potter store. I sold wands, quills, and jelly-beans in a multitude of disgusting flavors. I sorted people into Houses. I said things like “we should really order some cuter fake severed heads, these are creepy.” I endured hundreds of jokes about being a redhead named Molly, so between that and the Ricky Bobby incident, I dyed it back to brown. If there was any justice in the world, my reward at the end of this would have been everlasting love with Darren Criss, the Prince Naveen of Harry Potter fandom. Instead I got the official souvenir tee shirt of the Quidditch World Cup.Being Kind to Small Animals
If you show me pictures of your dog on your iPhone, I will absolutely pretend to be interested.
Editors’ Note: Guest blogger Jeremy Redlien is the author/creator of the blog Queering the Closet and holds a B.S. in Philosophy, with a minor in Mathematics from SUNY Oneonta.
After reading the Bilerico Project’s list of the Top 20 Most Important LGBT Figures in History by Adam Polaski, I thought that it would be a good idea to create an entirely different sort of list. Rather then focusing on individuals, I decided to focus on the accomplishments of queer (or likely queer) individuals that had a positive or significant impact on human history.
Thus, I give you:
The Top 20 Things That Owe Their Existence to Queers (or at least a hearty thanks)
20 - Copernicus’s Model of the Solar System
Queer to thank: Georg Joachim Rheticus
Nicolaus Copernicus developed the heliocentric model of the solar system which still happens to be viewed as true today, despite the best efforts of the Flat Earth Society. In any case, Copernicicus’s work could have been lost, if it had not been for the efforts of George Joachim Rheticus. Copernican scholar Edward Rosen posited, “Is it going too far to claim that without Rheticus, no Copernicus, without Copernicus, no moving Earth; and without geodynamic astonomy, no modern science?” In 1551, Rheticus was accused of trying to seduce a 17 year old male, which resulted in Rheticus being exiled from Leipzig for 101 years
19 - Sexuality of the Human Male, Sexuality of the Human Female, Coming of Age in Samoa,Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
Queers to thank: Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Mead
Combined the above works led directly to what is referred to as the Sexual Revolution, a cultural phenomenon whose fallouts are still being felt today. It probably should not come as much of a shock that both of these individuals were bisexual. Kinsey experimented with sexual relationships with both sexes. Mead herself was married three times and letters published after her death revealed that she had an intimate relationship with Rhoda Metraux.
18 - The British Broadcasting Corporation
Queer to thank: John Reith, 1st Baron Reith
John Reith played a critical role in the formation of the BBC, so much the term Reithian became a word, describing his particular management style. The BBC model that Reith pionered - based around his summary of what the BBC’s mission should be, Inform, Educate, Entertain - also influenced other broadcast organizations such as PBS.
Reith himself was intimately involved with a man named Charlie Bowser, the depth and intimacy of the relationship which was revealed in Reith’s diaries when they were analysed by Ian McIntyre.
17 - Keynesian Economics
Queer to Thank: John Maynard Keynes
Keynesian Economics, first presented in the 1936 book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes, has profoundly influenced economic theory ever since. Keynesian Economics was the reason for the controversial stimulus plans backed by President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.
Keynes was always open about his sexuality and the numerous affairs he had with men.
16 - Peanuts, Soybeans, Pecans & Sweet Potatoes
Queer to thank: George Washington Carver
Here is an exercise for anybody reading this list. Go to your fridge or any cabinet in your house. Pick an item at random. Chances are, the item you are now holding, would not exist in it’s current form if it were not for the work of George Washington Carver, a black man born in 1864 Missouri. Carver is credited with developing hundreds of uses for peanuts, soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes. He also developed or popularized uses for such products as diverse as shaving cream, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonaise, meat tenderizer, shoe polish, talcum powder, cosmetics, and synthetic rubber.
By promoting peanuts, soybeans, pecan trees, and sweet potatoes as alternative crops, Carver helped save agriculture in the south, as these products restored soil nutrients lost thanks to cotton farming, which monopolized farmland at the time.
Carver is thought to have been intimate with Austin W. Curtis, Jr.
15 - Eradication of Tuberculosis
Queer to thank: Alan L. Hart
In the early Twentieth Century, tuberculosis was the number one killer in the Unites States. Today, less then 10 percent of the U.S. population typically test positive for the disease and for those that are found to be infected, the chances of survival are dramatically better than they were 100 years ago. This can be attributed in part to the efforts of Alan L. Hart, who innovated numerous ways of detecting and treating the disease. Early detection methods pionered by Hart, such as using x-ray screenings, also helped prevent the disease from infecting more patients since doctors could quarantine those individuals found to have tuberculosis. His efforts are credited with helping to contain TB and therefore saving thousands of lives.
Born Alberta Lucille Hart, Alan L. Hart was among the first female to male transsexuals to have a hysterectomy and gonadectomy performed in the United States.
14 - Abolition of Slavery (United States)
Queer to thank: Abraham Lincoln
Honorable Mentions: Susan B. Anthony, Alexander HamiltonAlthough slavery would not be abolished entirely in the Unites States until the passage of the 13th Amendment, it was Abraham Lincoln who first wrote the Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves on a large scale. Without the Emancipation Proclamation or Lincoln’s leadership during the Amercan Civil War, the North could have lost and slavery would probably have continued in the Confederacy.
Lincoln wrote one of the earliest explicit gay themed poems in American literature and shared a bed with Captain David V. Derickson, who was the head of his guards.
Other notable queers involved in the abolishment were suffragette Susan B. Anthony and Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton even used Britain’s support for slavery as one reason for the colonies seceding from Great Britain.
13 - Woman’s Suffrage
Queer to Thank: Susan B. Anthony
Honorable Mentions, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, Nancy Cook, Jane Addams, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Charley Parkhurst, Eva Gore-BoothSusan B. Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, one of the earliest organizations dedicated to woman’s rights in the United States. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton originally wrote the original draft of what would eventually become the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reads as follows:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation
Other notable members of the suffrage movement include Anthony’s lover, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, as well as Nancy Cook, who became the intimate of Eleanore Roosevelt.
Trivia: It is thought that Charley Parkhurst was possibly the first biological female to vote in the United States. Parkhurst was stagecoach driver in California and after his death in 1879, it was discovered that Parkurst was not biologically male.
12 - The Napoleonic Code
Queer to thank: Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès
Honorable Mention: Napoleon BonaparteThe Napoleonic Code was written by Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, who was open about his sexuality and preference for men. The Napoleonic Code is one of the most influential documents of the modern era. Napoleon biographer Robert Holtman declared in his The Napoleonic Revolution that The Napoleonic Code was among the few documents to have changed the entire world.
The code was originally enacted in the European territories that Napoleon had conquered. Specifically, the Napoleonic Code forbade special privileges based upon birthright, secret or unpublished laws, special laws that applied to specific incidents, and ex post facto laws (laws written and applied to events that have already occurred). Just as importantly, The Napoleonic Code reformed judicial procedures and the treatment of criminals.
As for the Emperor himself, he was rumored to have had many male lovers among his aides, guards, and fellow soldiers. According to biographer Evangiline Bruce, Napoleon once wrote a note declaring that whenever he met a good looking man, Napoleons feelings were felt “first in the loins and in another place I will leave unnamed.”
11 - Helicopters & Modern Aviation
Queers to thank: Leonardo da Vinci, Howard Hughes
Leonardo da Vinci was the legendary Renaissance artist who was arrested twice following accusations that he had engaged in same-sex activity. Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, who inherited the Mona Lisa, had an unusually close and suggestive relationship with da Vinci. However, one possibility regarding who the real life subject of the Mona Lisa was provides a scintillating clue here. This proposal put forth by Susan Dorothea White, has that the Mona Lisa was actually a self portrait of Leonardo da Vinci in drag. Also, Keith Stern claims that an article published in the April 1995 edition of Scientific America described a computer scan that came to that conclusion as well.
As for helicopters, Leonardo da Vinci designed many fantastical mechanical devices, but unfortunately the materials necessary for those devices to actually work were not created until many years after his death. One such device was a primitive helicopter, with Leonardo’s design used as the inspiration for the modern flying contraption.
Howard Hughes was the producer and director for The Outlaw a movie filled with homoerotic subtexts (and Jane Russell’s bosoms). In her autobiography, Greta Keller claimed that Hughes engaged in a sexual relationship with her husband, David Bacon. Bette Davis who had a sexual relationship with Hughes, claimed that Hughes frequently liked to fantasize that she was a man.
Howard Hughes is credited with quite a few aviation innovations and set many world records flying air-planes that he had commissioned. Hughes was awarded several aviation awards, in addition to the Congressional Gold Medal in 1939 for his contributions to the industry.
10 - The Computer
Queer to thank: Alan Turring
Honorable Mentions: Lynn Conway, Mary Ann Horton, Sophie Wilson, Audrey Tang, Kate Craig-WoodAlan Turing was an early pioneer in the field of computer science and artificial intelligence. His work included developing the Turing Test, which is intended to test if a computer has achieved human level sentience. He also helped design the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) which was the first computer built in Great Britain. Turing’s numerous accomplishments have lead many to declare him the father of the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence.
Tragically, Alan Turing was convicted for committing homosexual acts and sentenced to probation and chemical castration. This punishment is thought to have led him to commit suicide in 1954 at the age of 41.
Lynn Conway is a computer engineer who first worked at IBM, but was fired in 1968 when she transitioned into a woman. She is credited with having developed numerous computer science innovations, many whose names make no sense to me, such as generalised dynamic instruction handling and Mead & Conway revolution in VLSI design.
Mary Ann Horton is a computer scientist and trans activist whose innovations aided the developement of Usenet and later the Internet itself. Sophie Wilson is a trans woman who designed the Acorn Micro Computer.
Audrey Tang, who transitioned from a man to a woman in 2005, is a Taiwanese free software programmer, who taught herself Perl at age 12 and is considered to be one of the “ten greats of Taiwanese computing.”
Kate Craig-Wood is a British innovater, co-founder and managing director of Memset, the first British carbon neutral ISP. She is a proponent of greater energy efficiency in electronic technology. Kate Craig-Wood transitioned in 2005.
9 - Christianity
Queer to thank: Alexander the Great
Honorable Mentions: Desideririus Erasmus, Théodore de Bèze, King James IThe exploits of Alexander the Great, who was lovers with Hephaestion, are legendary. Most people know that he conquered “the known world” spreading Greek culture as he went. What many people, outside of historians, are not so aware of, is that this hellenization (as Alexander’s spread of Greek culture is referred to) later helped ease the subsequent growth and spread of Christianity.
Desideririus Erasmus was the controversial writer/editor behind several influential editions of both the Old and New Testaments. Erasmus’s writings also included many letters to his fellow monk, Servatius Roger, that were highly suggestive and included phrases like, “You are half my soul… I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly.” Roger’s responses were usually more to the point and included phrases like, “What is wrong with you?”
Théodore de Bèze was a follower of John Calvin and played an important role in the Protostant Reformation. After the death of John Calvin, Bèze succeded Calvin as the leader of the reformation. Bèze was also criticized for a relationship he had with a young man, Audebert, whom Bèze wrote numerous love poems.
King James I, the man responsible for the King James Bible, had a secret passage that linked his royal bedchambers with those of George Villiers, with whom it was thought that King James I was intimate. He was also rumored/thought to have been intimate with others, including male courtiers, Robert Carr, and Esmé Stewart.
8 - The Great March on Washington & the Civil Rights Movement
Queers to thank: Bayard Rustin
Honorable Mentions: Alain LeRoy Locke, Langston Hughes, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Alice WalkerBayard Rustin was the chief organizer behind the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Rustin was also a highly influential advisor to King and was the individual responsible for convincing King to adopt non-violence as a key strategy. Rustin was open about his sexuality and in 1986 gave a speech entitled “The New Niggers Are Gays”.
Other important contributions to the Civil Rights Movement came from Alain LeRoy Locke, Langston Hughes, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, and Alice Walker.
7 - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations
Queer to thank: Eleanore Roosevelt
Eleanore Roosevelt chaired the committee that drafted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has proven enormously influential on international law and U.N. policy since it was first adopted. Roosevelt also campaigned heavily for the formation of the United Nations and founded the UN Association of the United States for that purpose.
Roosevelt is thought to have been intimate with suffragette Nancy Cook.
6 - [Insert Title of Pretty Much Any Significant or Popular Work of Art]
Very short list of queers to thank: William Shakespeare, Sapho, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde,Graham Chapin, Cole Porter, James Ivory, Roland Emmerich, Elton John, Langston Hughes,Dee Palmer, Leonardo Da Vinci, Donatello, Michelangelo, Rupaul, Lady Gaga, Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Lorraine Hansberry, Countee Cullen, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Octavia E. Butler, Billie Holiday, Jacqueline Woodson, Wanda Sykes, Bill T. Jones, Zora Neale Hurston, E. Lynn Harris,Alvin Ailey, Pedro Almodóvar, Charlie Anders, Molly Cutpurse, Candy Darling, Harisu, Dana International, Jeffrey Catherine Jones, Terre Thaemlitz, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Jin Xing, Antonia San Juan, Witi Ihimaera, Bessie Smith, Sylvester James
Nearly every artistic form, genre, and work, from the highbrow films of James Ivory to the lowbrow sci-fi action pornos of Roland Emmerich, to the pop songs of Lady Gaga, there is probably not a single work of art that does not owe some dept, to some queer, somewhere. If a work of art was not created by a queer, then it was probably inspired by some other work that was created by a queer.
5 - U.S. Constitution
Queer to thank: Alexander Hamilton
Honorable Mention: Friedrich Wilhelm von SteubenAlthough the Federalist Papers were written anonymously, historians generally attribute their primary authorship to Alexander Hamilton. The purpose of the Federalist Papers was to argue that the U.S. Constitution should be ratified by the states. Alexander Hamilton was possibly an intimate of John Laurens, to whom Hamilton wrote, “I wish, Dear Laurens, it might be in my power, by action rather than words, to convince you that I love you.”
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was an important military leader in the Revolutionary War, who helped General Washington install discipline into the entire Continental Army. A hero of the American Revolution, Steuben came to America and the aid of General Washington after he was accused of “improper relations” in his homeland of Prussia. Steuben was thought to have been the intimate of John H. Mulligan, William North, and Ben Walker.
4 - Philosophy
Queers to thank: Socrates, Plato
Honorable Mentions: Marsilo Ficino, Francis Bacon, Francesco Algaratti, Goerge Santayana,Gerald Heard, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Ram Dass, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Hazel Barnes, Marquis de Sade, Simone de Beauvoir, Allan Bloom, Judith Butler, Alain LeRoy Locke, Peter Gomes, Saint Anselm, Audre Lorde, Jane Addams, Didier Eribon, Raewyn Connell, Deirdre McCloskeyThales may be credited as being the “first” western Philosopher, but it was Socrates, along with his student Plato, who took it to the next level. So radical and offensive were the notions of Socrates to the ancient Athenians, that he was pretty much the original Marilyn Manson. After Socrates was put to death following accusations of corrupting the Athenian youth and questioning the existence of the Gods, Plato fled Athens in disgust, before returning to found the original Academia.
In addition to having been teacher and student, Socrates and Plato are also thought to have been lovers. Plato argues in the Symposium that same-sex love is the highest form of love of all.
Trivia: Plato was the teacher of Aristotle and Aristotle in turn would tutor Alexander the Great, making the total influence of Plato and Socrates on world history and culture so great to be immeasurable.
3 - Calculus & Various Mathematical Theories
Queer to thank: Isaac Newton
Honorable Mentions: Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, Sofia Kovalevskaya, Alan TuringGranted, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz developed calculus at the same time, so maybe calculus does not owe it’s existence to calculus. However, Leibniz’s and Newton’s versions of calculus differed on several points, so calculus can be said to at least owe a debt and a hearty thanks to both. Isaac Newton also developed an early way of calculating the roots of a function and made many other independent and significant contributions to the field of mathematics.
Isaac Newton is believed to have been intimate with Fatio de Duillier and Newton became depressed when Duillier moved out/broke up in 1693.
Other important mathematical theories were developed by queers such as Andrey Nicolaevich Kolmogorov and Alan Turing. Furthermore, anyone who thinks that a woman cannot compete with men on the same level with regards to fields such as mathematics should read the story of Sofia Kovalevskaya. What makes her notable was that Sofia was forbidden from studying mathematics in Russia, because she’s a woman. Outside of Russia, she was forced to obtain alternative means to obtain advanced degrees, as the university where she was studying would not even allow her to audit classes. Her contributions to the field of mathematics include the discover of the “Kovalevsky top” and the Cauchy-Kovalevski theorem.
2 - Modern Science
Queers to thank: Isaac Newton
Honorable Mentions: Alexander von Humboldt, Count Justus von Liebig, Alan Turing, Georg Joachim RheticusIsaac Newton did not develop calculus on a whim, he did it to help with his work creating the three laws of physics that bear his name. Newton’s theories held until Einstein came along and made everything relative. Physicists and engineers still rely on Newton’s equations in situations involving the macro universe and speed not approaching the speed of light. Furthermore, Einstein could not have developed his theories without the previous work of Newton.
Count Justus von Liebig developed the modern chemistry lab set up that is still used today.
1 - Democracy
Queer to thank: Solon of Athens
Honorable Mention: Alexander the GreatSolon of Athens is credited with instituting legal reforms that helped pave the way for the development of democracy in ancient Athens. Solon of Athens also composed poems expressing his love for boys.
The Hellenization brought about Alexander the Great, also helped with the spread of democracy, in addition to Christianity.
Recently I was asked to attend an event. I was quite interested in the topic, and given some of my recent work experience I was actually really excited about the event. The person who asked me to be there is one of the main organizers, and so when I knew I would be able to be there for sure, I let them know that given the size of the event, I would need interpreters in order to be able to attend. When the cost of providing interpreters became known the response was that we’d love to have you, but it’s too expensive and in the future we will make sure that we have a budget for interpreters.
Although there are personal reasons why this frustrates me, the more frustrating part is how invisible disability is within our community. I know several people who do fairly inclusive event planning. By which I mean they strive to ensure that events are accessible in terms of race, class, family or immigration status etc. Childcare is typically provided, event fees can be made sliding scale or optional, there is recognition of oppressions and people seek to ensure there is representation and equality. However, for events taking place outside of the disabled community, the same effort for disability is rarely made. Efforts for disability are often tokenistic at best. The event is held in a wheelchair accessible location. We’ll even try to make sure that an accessible washroom is thrown in there too. While these are important accommodations and I don’t mean to belittle them, they are a tiny piece of providing a truly accessible event.
By not recognizing the responsibility to provide accommodations for a number of disabilities, communities speak strongly about who is truly a member of their community. By planning events without a budget line for accommodations (which I recognize can potentially be the majority of the costs associated with the event, depending on the budget for the event) it indicates that disabled people are not expected to care about these issues, be impacted by these issues and that they have nothing of any value to add to the conversation. It continues to isolate disabled people, and push their agendas, insights and experiences to the margins. It negates the fact that like others, disabled people often hold complex intersecting identities and would have very much of interest to say on queer issues, race issues, poverty issues, sexuality and women’s issues, policy issues etc. It erases the identity of the disabled youth worker, or the disabled lesbian and creates a climate where you can either be disabled or you can be a lesbian, but simultaneously being both is impossible. Where one identity exists, the other is erased.
The erasure of identity has a cyclical effect, we create a climate where disabled people cannot be professionals, cannot have a sexual orientation or gender identity, or any other aspect of their identity aside from being disabled by our refusal to create space for them in our event planning. Then, because they are unable to attend events designated for professionals, queers, feminists, activists, racialized persons etc. we justify their exclusion by saying that they do not exist. After all, if they exist they would be attending the events. Instead of recognizing that these people do exist and making space for them within our communities, we are instead choosing to erase them and then using that erasure as a justification for their continued exclusion. However, if we were to approach things from an assumption that whatever the event is, whatever the community is, there are disabled people who are impacted by these issues, who are in these communities and we need to hear their voices and ensure that they participate, accessibility no longer becomes an optional line item on a budget. In fact by taking disability for granted rather than using it as an exception it allows for all kinds of new and exciting possibilities for partnerships and a stronger voice to emerge. It allows us to create a movement where people with disabilities are integrated and included and allows us to advocate even more strongly for accessibility at all levels. After all, if grassroots organizations and organizing can provide the models for truly inclusive planning with limited funding and manpower, what excuse do corporations and governments have?
Accessibility costs can be high, there is no way around that, and that particularly in the funding climate we are in right now money is scarce. However, as a movement we need to collectively decide our priorities. When disability and accessibility are not seen as a priority that creates a weaker movement. Especially now when the battles we are fighting are so important, and so big we cannot afford to leave anyone out of the conversation or the fight. The question really isn’t whether or not we can afford to provide accessibility at our events, but whether or not we can afford not to.
A few recent readings and experiences have brought some of the ideology I grew up with as a Christian fundamentalist back into my mind. Specifically, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about conservative Christian attitudes towards menstruation.
I spoke on a panel this summer and got a laugh when I explained, “Personhood laws define the fetus as a person from the ‘moment of conception’, whatever that means.” Folks have been pointing out for a while that “moment of conception” is a pretty unscientific concept – conception is a process, not something that happens in a magic instant where a new human being is created and simultaneously imbued with a soul. Then I read this amazing interview with Vyckie Garrison, who left the Quiverfull movement. I grew up in a different fundamentalist Christian tradition, but the amount of ideological overlap was intense. Then there’s the recent ramping up of the war on contraception, which Amanda Marcotte has done such a great job of highlighting. All this got my mind going about attitudes towards sexuality that are buried just below the surface of the anti-choice movement, and are being made more and more obvious these days.
I grew up with a mix of ignorance and shame about sexuality that was no accident. While most anti-choicers see their position as being about defending human life, anti-choice politics are based in willful ignorance about sex and a belief (often vehemently denied by those who hold it) that women shouldn’t have informed control over their own bodies.
In the Eastern Orthodox Christian church, which I was raised in, menstruation is considered unclean. Women on their periods are not allowed to partake of sacraments, especially Communion, or even touch holy items like the Bible or icons. This is not a universal practice – many churches no longer follow this rule, and many Orthodox Christians don’t even know about it (since I was raised as a boy in the church I didn’t know about this rule till my sister told me – we definitely learned different things based on gender) – but it hasn’t gone away entirely.
Orthodoxy is the most tradition-based form of Christianity – a lot of its rules haven’t changed in about 2,000 years. A lot of the rules and rituals seem very dated from outside, but there’s certainly links to practices and beliefs in other Christian traditions. No, you’re not going to see such explicit rules about periods in every fundamentalist church. But I’ve found, for example, that the Bible story of Jesus healing a woman with “an issue of blood” is incredibly popular among these folks, and often interpreted as being about the unclean-ness of periods.
Periods as “unclean” may have started with ideas about sanitary practices – a lot of religious traditions have rituals around menstruation that suggest similar links. But that’s definitely not what it’s about now – now menstruating paints a woman as unclean, both bodily and spiritually.
For men, the act that’s treated with the exact same rules is wet dreams – which of course only impact men, because only men have sex for pleasure. Night emissions (that term always makes me giggle) aren’t considered a sin because they’re on accident, whereas masturbating is a sin. The fact that the rules are the same for periods and wet dreams point to why both are considered unclean (in addition to making clear that they’re basically considered male and female versions of the same thing). Sexuality is unclean, a sign of the fall, and both are a waste of a potential life.
Yes, potential life. Because not only is it a person as soon as the egg and sperm meet, these two ingredients must be preserved because each could lead to life some day maybe. Every sperm, and egg, is sacred. Wasting either, through masturbation, a wet dream, or simply having your period, is a sign of our fallen state, our unclean-ness. Even though a woman’s period is also a sign of her one real purpose: to make babies. So women are baby-making factories, that’s what God made them for, but their ability to fulfill this purpose makes them unclean. So women are inherently unclean, or a failure at being women.
If this isn’t making much sense, then we’re on the same page. To be punished, excluded from religious ritual, because of something you can’t control, and even though the church wants you making babies. It makes women’s sexuality and reproduction inherently unclean at the same time that this is considered a big part of their purpose in life. And there’s the attitude we keep coming up against everywhere – women are dirty whores who should just be making babies.
No, your average Christian doesn’t think this way. Many many Orthodox Christians don’t hold this worldview either (not every Orthodox church is fundamentalist, though the one I grew up in certainly was). But a lot of the more fundamentalist folks do. People I grew up with certainly do, and its this kind of belief about religion and reproductive health that I hear backing up so much anti-choice rhetoric.
There’s an overwhelming fear and willful ignorance about sexuality on display here. Folks so uncomfortable with sex and reproduction they want to put it away in a place for dirty, unseen and unsee-able things. This is the sort of belief system that leads to support for abstinence-only programs, to deliberately keeping young people uninformed about their own bodies. Better gender stereotypes that keep everyone feeling ashamed and uncomfortable than actual health information.
No, I’m not expecting the anti-choicers to join birth control manufacturers in ananti-period campaign. But it’s worthwhile to acknowledge just how far their willful ignorance, negative view of women’s reproductive capacity, and deep, moralistic fear of sexuality can go.
In American culture, Disney has become synonymous with childhood. Present-day grandparents grew up watching the animated films, wearing Mickey Mouse pajamas and begging to go to Disneyland. But while it all seems innocent, few people have considered the hold that the Disney Corporation has not only on their own lives, but on the world as a whole.
Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock explore this relationship between consumer and industry in their book “The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence.” [Full disclosure: Henry Giroux is a member of Truthout’s Board of Directors.]
Cuddly cartoon animals and whimsical fairy-tale stories are merely Disney’s public face. The expansive conglomerate is not limited to Disney film and theme parks. It also owns six motion picture studios, ABC television network and its 226 affiliated stations, multiple cable television networks, 227 radio stations, four music companies, three cruise lines, theatrical production companies, publishing houses, 15 magazine titles and five video game development studios. This media and culture monopoly goes unnoticed by most Americans, who just want to indulge their childhood fantasies as Disney so deftly enables with its movies, theme parks and merchandise.
Giroux and Pollock’s peerless scholarship exposes Disney through essential, hard-hitting information that America needs to face. The authors’ dedication to thorough research and the book’s trove of facts and statistics make this an indispensable reference work, as well as a passionately engaged and engaging investigation of Disney and its place in consumerist America.
A case study of corporate morality and intention, “The Mouse that Roared” also analyzes the zeitgeist and culture that both give rise to and are shaped by Disney, which, as the authors illustrate, succeeds in raking in money by both pandering to childhood and adult imagination, and molding the minds of our youth.
The authors quote Walt Disney: “I think of a child’s mind as a blank book. During the first years of his life, much will be written on the pages. The quality of that writing will affect his life profoundly.” They demonstrate how Disney’s movies, TV shows and toys are doing a majority of that writing in this generation’s children.
Cultural pedagogy provides the lens through which Giroux and Pollock evaluate not only the media monopoly the Disney conglomerate has built, but also the impact of that media on the development of cultural attitudes and behavior through the targeting of youth, beginning today with Disney video programs aimed at infants.
The Baby Einstein products are designed to entertain and educate children as young as three months. However, according to the Journal of Pediatrics, infants who watched an hour or more of television a day displayed slower language development. While the Baby Einstein Company did eventually remove the section from their web site claiming that their videos had educational value for children, a 2007 study still showed that 48 percent of parents thought these videos had a positive effect on young children.
“The Mouse that Roared” also draws attention to the gender stereotypes in Disney princess movies, from older cartoons such as “The Little Mermaid” to their newest, “Enchanted.”
“Disney has become a major player in global culture, and the first casualties of its dominance in popular culture are, of course, those who are most defenseless - children,” the book warns.
But Disney has even taken the parental audience into their cultural monopoly, making it difficult for parents to see exactly what the conglomerate is doing to their children. In 2007, Disney launched DisneyFamily.com, a web site targeting the 32 million moms online in America. The web site features parenting tips - which, the authors point out, spend considerable time and energy attempting to refute the findings of experts in the children’s heath field.
must read this book.
Just the title makes me feel nauseated, now that I know what it refers to.
I was alerted to this horrifying product last week by Amy Sedgwick, aka @UterusLover (profiled here on Shameless by D. Cole). “My New Pink Button” is a “beauty product” designed to be used on the female genitals to temporarily dye the inner labia to turn them pink.
Yes, really.
From the FAQ section of the product’s website:
Q. “I used to be so “Pink” and healthy looking on my inside Labia Lip area. Now I am losing that fresh look. Is there anything I can do”?
A. Yes, now there is a solution! “My New Pink Button” is a Cosmetic Dye especially for the woman’s genital area, to help restore that healthy vibrant Rosy color. Until now there has never been a solution for restoring natural pigment. This is a concern with many women and more than you can even imagine, and a frequent question that Physicians are asked. Check out the blogs on the Internet. You are not alone! This is a common problem and we now have a simple and safe solution, restoring sexual confidence to Women everywhere![I want to get snarky all over the site for its random use of capital letters (Rosy colour! Women everywhere!), but that’s beside the point.]
I’m sure I don’t even have to point out the problems with this product, but I’ll throw out a few and you can have at it in comments:
• the idea that only very young-looking genitals are appealing
• the acknowledgement that pigment changes are common, but insisting it’s still a problem to be fixed
• the fact that no equivalent “problem” for men is suggested
• the racism inherent in privileging certain skin shades
• um, putting chemical dye on your labia …
-_-
thats all i’m gonna say.
