Tag: isms

How to spell the word “bisexual”

queermutiny:

(via whatexit.org)

By Tom Limoncelli

10/18/1999

The word is spelled “bisexual”. It’s really quite simple. It has no hypen and the “s” is not caps. Unless it is at the beginning of a sentence, the first letter is lowercase.

RIGHTWRONGbisexualbi-sexualBiSexualBisexual (unless at the beginning of a sentence)

It’s easy to remember the thing about the hyphen: It’s not homo-sexual, it’s not les-bian, it’s not bi-sexual.

I see some people write it with the first letter in caps as in:

Tom is a Bisexual.

I consider this to be bad form. Nationalities are first letter cap, but adjectives aren’t. The word “bisexual” is an adjective, not a nationality. There is no Bisexualia from which we all come. Therefore this is correct:

Tom is Italian.

and this is correct also:

Tom is bisexual.

On the other hand, some GLBT publications, like the Philadelphia Gay News have an editorial guideline that dictates that they always capitalize Gay and Lesbian. Therefore they write:

Johnson, a Gay activist, spoke at the conference.

In this case, we demand capitalization parity and therefore in this case and in this case only should the word be capitalized. Therefore, PGN should write:

Bob, a Gay man, and his partner Mike, who is Bisexual, also spoke at the conference.

However, we consider this a silly editorial standard since they don’t capitalize the word “heterosexual”.

I can’t believe that I’ve been doing bisexual activism for the last 10 years and this issue still comes up so often. Oh well. There are bigger fish to fry.

P.S. This reminds me of the old vaudville joke where the secretary asks her boss if “brown” should be capitalized. He tells her “no” and leaves the room. She turns to her typewriter and speaks as she types: “Dear Mister brown”.

theyoungradical:

politicista-blog-blog:

Radical simply means “grasping things at the root.” – Angela Davis

Good chance to share some of her talks..

On Feminism and Abolition: Theories and Practices

On Palestine, G4S and the Prison Industrial Complex

On Political Activism from the 1960s to the Age of Obama

With Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad

androgynistic:

The word Monosexual and Monoromantic are so important because otherwise

  • when Bi/Pan/Omni people vent explicitly about Gay and Lesbian people straight people will side with us not to support us but because of their own Homophobic and Lesbophobic agenda                                                 
  • when Bi/Pan/Omni people vent explicitly about Straight people Gay and Lesbian people will side with us not in support of us but to co-opt our experiences and erase that our experiences with oppression are always linked to us being bi, which may help to fight Homophobia and Lesbophobia but do fuck all about Bipobia

I love Zoe Saldana’s work. I’ve seen some of her movies more than once and really enjoy what she brings to the screen. As an actress I respect her process, but I also know that there are many actresses out there, known or not, who would be great as my mother. The one actress that I’ve had in my heart for a very long time, whose work I’m familiar with already, is Kimberly Elise. Many people have spoken to me about Viola. I love her look. I love her energy. Both of the actresses that I’ve mentioned are women of color, are women with beautiful, luscious lips and wide noses, and who know their craft. I also have no problem introducing someone we’ve never heard of before who can play my mother. How does someone just decide to do a story about someone and completely bypass family? Completely bypass her representatives? … I talked with [the director, Cynthia Mort] once, about a year and a half ago. It was very emotional for me to just get on the phone with her because there were so many questions in my mind… I asked her if her mother was still alive. I asked her if she still had a good relationship with her mother and she sounded like a really nice lady. She really, really believes in what she’s doing. I do remember saying to her that if any of us tried to take the story of Bing Crosby or, Dean Martin, or Frank Sinatra, or Elvis Presley and turn it into something that was a tall tale based on something that never happened, I doubt that we’d get very far. My mother’s life was tragic enough. My mother suffered enough. Her life is full of enough wonderful and tragic true things to make a hit movie. You don’t have to embellish her story.

Lisa Simone (Nina Simone’s daughter) addressing the serious problems with the Nina Simone biopic starring Zoe Saldana
 (via angrywocunited)

If you’re a woman, if you’re a person of color, if you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, if you’re a person of size, a person of intelligence, a person of integrity, then you’re considered a minority in this world. And it’s going to be really hard to find messages of self-love and support anywhere. It’s all about how you have to look a certain way or else you’re worthless. For us to have self-esteem is truly an act of revolution and our revolution is long overdue.

Margaret Cho (via larmoyante)

particlecollisions:

particlecollisions:

Self defence sprays that are legal to carry and use in the United Kingdom

Image 1: Farbgel
Image 2: StoppaRed

I’ve seen a lot of people (mostly women, for reasons which may be obvious) speaking about being worried when going out, be it alone or even with friends, both in the day and at night. I know that a lot of female friends of mine carry around a can of antiperspirant or a pot of pepper to use if they’re ever attacked. What I know a lot of people don’t realise is that there are products out there which work in a violent situation and help in catching the assailant for the best part of a week afterwards.

Known as ‘criminal identifiers’, these sprays are brightly coloured dyes which can be sprayed in the face of an attacker. Unlike things such as CS or Pepper sprays, criminal identifier sprays are legal in the UK.

There’s a few available on the market, with farbgel and Mace’s Stoppared being the mostly highly recommended.

What these sprays do is release a sticky, brightly coloured dye. It’s difficult to wipe away and stains the skin a bright red colour. No matter how hard an attacker might try to remove it from their skin and clothing, the staining typically lasts for around a week and doesn’t even start to fade until after a few days have passed.

Unlike CS and Pepper sprays (which, again, aren’t legal in the UK) criminal identifier sprays don’t cause irritation or pain to an attacker. Instead, they expand and clog up the area sprayed with a kind of sticky foam that’s difficult to wipe away. It should give you enough time to escape and report someone whose face resembles a baboon’s arse to the police.

Each can of the sprays costs around £10 each, though it may be cheaper when buying multiple canisters and if you shop around.

FarbGel 

StoppaRed UV Personal Attack Self-Defence Spray by Mace

This is an original post, but I’ve released it into the public domain. It can be shared, altered, reposted in whole or in part with no need for attribution (though obviously I would appreciate it!)

cc misandry-mermaid

dynastylnoire:

loveisrespect:

This is really important info from a really great resource! Remember: No one ever deserves to be harassed, exploited, or emotionally abused. Everyone deserves to have their privacy and their body respected—whether they’re a current partner or an ex.

Check out endrevengeporn.org to learn about ways to get explicit images taken down, how to get involved in your area, or how to seek legal assistance. Or for more info about digital abuse and online harassment, check out loveisrespect.org.

90 percent of the victims are women