Happy belated NCOD. This is a quick summary of some of the changes America has seen in the past year; changes we can, as sexual beings, all celebrate. Woooooooooo.
What I find interesting in it is how focused it is on the rapidity of communication today: blogging, youtube, trans-atlantic telephone calls. But maybe it’d be better if we didn’t need this day at all. Baby stepz.
Swan
Exciting news– yesterday’s Boston Globe reported that a recent case in Australia’s highest court allows citizens to be recognized as the gender of their choosing, regardless of their genitalia. Thus, a person can choose to designate themselves the gender of their choosing without surgical interventions that are, notes the article “often unwanted or impractical”. This is a huge, huge thing, considering many transgendered people have difficulty navigating themselves through bureaucratic structures that insist upon certain requirements to designate people as ‘male’ or ‘female’, from drivers licenses to marriage documents to health insurance. A real shake-up of the current structure, bravo Australia!
The Globe writes,
The court ruled that characteristics that identify a person as male or female are “confined to external physical characteristics that are socially recognizable.’’ This recognition does not require knowledge of a person’s sexual organs, the court said.
Foucauldian power-discourse notes that a movement of resistance is oftentimes a masked ‘reverse-discourse’– however, this act uproots the very foundations of gender structure. Truly a leap forward for those anywhere on the gender spectrum.
Singer
Filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom has just released a new film, Miss Representation, that deals with the portrayal of women in the media, as well as in advertising methods. She suggests that such portrayals sell American youth “the concept that women and girls’ value lies in their youth, beauty and sexuality”. One woman speaks on the trailer that “as a culture, women are brought up to be fundamentally insecure”.
Check out the trailer below and tell us what you think! Is this an accurate representation of the media industry? Is it overblown, alarmist, or is it spot-on?
Singer
Bodies 