Beyond Beats and Rhymes meets Drake in Lexington

Watch this documentary. After talking with a friend last night about the Drake concert recently (where a bunch of people were arrested and fights broke out) I thought about this documentary. While I don't blame Drake or the people at the concert for what occurred completely, I do think we are part of a larger system that oppresses people through all of the isms and phobias. I love that this documentary asks really good gendered, sexual and race questions that come from a loving place. I love hip hop too, but I believe that if you aren't willing to make something better you better get out of the way.

Byron Hurt (the filmmaker) is a Q, played football and loves Hip Hop. This is a well done documentary that asks the right questions.

Street Harrassment

This is a real problem, and it happens everywhere. I prefer the definition of street harassment provided by the amazing women at Incite

An interaction in a public space that:

makes you feel sexualized, intimidated,embarrassed,objectified, violated, attacked, or unsafe.

An interaction in a public space that:

restricts your movement or makes you modify your behavior in an attempt to avoid the possibility of being verbally and/or physically harassed.

Some of the of the behaviors that represent street harassment are:

Whistling, kissing noises, psssst noises
Comments like “Give me a smile!” and “Hey baby!”
Yelling from a distance
Blocking a woman’s path
Grabbing, groping, touching
Following (on foot, in a vehicle)
Honking

What are your experiences with street harassment in Lexington? Where were you when it happened? How did you respond?

Also, I've printed a ton of anti-street violence brocures from Incite's action page that I intend to distribute around town. They're AMAZING. They define street harassment, talk about why it's dangerous, and list things you can do if you're being harassed on the street, as well as things men can do to educate other men about street harassment (not that men are the only ones who harass people on the street).

If you'd like some brochures to give to friends, leave at your school, doctors office, grocery store, etc. you can download the PDF from the above link, or get in touch with me and I'll give you some. My email is laexigente@gmail.com

xo,

delas.

holiday greetings, layout updates and mistaken genders..

First of all, happy holidays everyone. The Gendered Lex crew is spread out across the country at the moment. I myself am recovering from some intense family time and enjoying a full week off from work. With all my free time I figured I better get some blogging in. You may have noticed that the blog layout has changed a bit. I've been playing around with some of our options. Don't be alarmed if it changes again. :)

On to the actual post..

I am very rarely read as any other gender besides female. I am a cisgendered, female identified person so I guess that works out for me. However, for many people that is not the case. Particularly for people who fall somewhere on the gendered spectrum in a place other than "male" or "female." Being mistaken for a gender other than your own can be a source of shame, embarrassment, and frustration for people, and even worse, can result in violence.

In a perfect world it I suppose it wouldn't matter if someone made a mistake and called you out of your gender. You would correct them, they would apologize, and everything would be fine. In an even MORE perfect world, maybe gender wouldn't matter at all and we wouldn't be so obsessed with trying to put people into certain categories.

Unfortunately in this world, we're only given two options and we have to conform to them. I really got to thinking about this recently after someone left me a crappy comment on my you tube channel where they referred to me as male.

To give it a little context, I made a video about what comes inside the Tofurky vegan feast package. The video is maybe about three minutes long and is intended to be light and silly. Here is the comment that I received:

"More proof that being a veegan is just a fad. Look at this guy's pseudointellectual glasses... multiple piercings... rebellious short hair... and flanel. Str8 Tool. So egotistic they record themselves because they think people want to watch. Well, i enjoyed calling you out, dear sir."

So yeah. I mean, I know that there are a lot of ignorant creepy people trolling around in internet land, and trust me, my feelings aren't hurt. I had a good laugh about all of the misspellings in his comment and his obvious lack of knowledge about veganism. But I think what really struck me the most was that he thought I was a guy. I guess I'm just not used to it. It just seemed so ludicrous to me that he couldn't see that I'm female. Then it struck me, that this may be similar to what transpeople and genderqueer people experience on a daily basis; people who can't seem to see their gender identity for what it is.

I want to hear about your experiences with being mistaken for a different gender. What happened? How did it make you feel? How was it resolved?

De Las.