“The movie establishes that there are no white saviours there to make things better. Belle is forced to do that for herself, and itâs her journey in educating herself and trying to convince her chief justice uncle to vote against the legality of the slave trade that makes the film more fascinating than most films in this genre.” â Zeba Blay, TIFF 2013 Review on Belle.
drag queens often perform incredibly catty misogynistic stereotypes of womanhood and use a huge amount of misogynistic slurs and transmisogynistic slurs. itâs also incredibly common for drag circles to excuse or actively engage in racism, see Shirley Q Liquor, who wears actual blackface onstage (which RuPaul defended publicly and insisted wasnât racist). and when RuPaulâs Drag Race was called out by the trans community for frequently using transmisogynistic slurs and then designing a game on the show where the goal was literally to âclockâ trans women, the drag community rose to defend him, and he got away with a weak-ass fauxpology. additonally, drag is a performance, so the performers can shed womanhood (particularly the dangerous territory of DMAB womanhood) at will, and do not actually experience misogyny or transmisogyny in any real way. drag culture also often blurs the lines between drag and non-cis genders as a way of excusing transmisogyny, which perpetuates attitudes in queer communities that non-cis genders are performative and therefore to be judged on how âwellâ they are performed. this often makes cis queer spaces very uncomfortable for trans people; people will openly clock you and comment on your ability to âpassâ. I have no problem with drag as a gender expression, or with DMAB people who express femininity, but I have a huge fucking problem with drag culture.
And that got me interested in working out what the demographics have been for the Special Guests (as listed on their websites) of the past four major YouTube events. I feel like weâre all generally aware that women and people of color are underrepresented at these things, but when you look at the numbers it becomes embarrassingly clear how ridiculous this disparity is.
The highest percentage of female Special Guests at any of these events was 32% at Summer in the City. LESS THAN 1/3.Â
The highest percentage of Special Guests of color* at any of these events is 16% at the current Buffer Festival. LESS THAN 1/6. (And SitC only had ONE PoC on their Special Guest list this year, which is fucking absurd.)
I donât want to rant about this too much, I just sort of want to make these numbers known because I find them maddening. And if you guys do too, I encourage you to message the organizers of these events, let them know your thoughts, and maybe recommend them some of the incredible prominent women and PoC we have in this community.Â
Buffer Festival: support@bufferfestival.com (Corey contacted me not too long ago about female representation at Buffer and I gave him a ton of names, but I donât know if he had time to take any of those suggestions on board in time for the event. Hopefully itâs something he and the team are genuinely serious about and that next year will be better on that).
Câmon YouTube events. I love you, but you seriously need to get your shit together.
*Note that my count is based primarily on looks and the people whose races I know for sure. If I made a mistake and missed anyone whoâs white passing, let me know.
this symbol does not represent mainstream feminism
this is the symbol for black feminism, that black feminists have created and been using for decades to represent our struggle against anti-black misogyny, hence the combination of the black power fist and the symbol for womanhood.
âHog-spitting â not just spitting,â Tonja Bulley emphatically clarifies.
âHe just hog-spit at my baby. He hog-spit. He took everything out of him and spit in my daughterâs face. She is a minor. Thatâs the absolute worst thing you can do, when you spit on another human being. She was just saying âNo justice, no peaceâ and he hog-spit (at) and then smacked my baby. At that time â there was no more being peaceful.â
Bulley and her daughter, Brandy were released from jail last night after being arrested by police outside the St. Louis Rams game the previous day after a violent clash with football fans.
As the Rams were completing an impressive 28-26 victory over the Super Bowl champions Seattle Seahawks, Tonja and Brandy were outside the stadium participating in a non-violent protest calling for justice for Mike Brown, and the immediate arrest of his killer, Darren Wilson.
Tonja, known affectionately to her friends as âTiny,â continued:
âWe were peacefully protesting. We were saying something that this big, tall White man did not like. He shouldâve been locked up, and they did not lock him up. One slapped my daughter and another hit her with his fist. Another woman threw her drink on me â and I retaliated. Iâm not coming out to fight, but I have the right to protect myself.â
Tiny would eventually get punched and knocked to the ground. âI got hit by a couple people. I have a mark behind my ear.â She was initially charged with two felonies for throwing punches after the initial altercation. No violent Rams fans were arrested.
She says the racial double-standards were apparent: âWe had a right to protest without anybody interfering. When the White people protest, there are no problems. Nobody is spitting on them. When we try to do it, the media goes around and acts like we started (the fighting.) We did not start it. I peacefully protest every day in Ferguson, and itâs never a problem.â
In Ferguson, Tiny and Brandy have been protesting since Brown was killed in August, and have become unofficial members of the Lost Voicesâa spirited and well-known group of young leaders who led Sundayâs protest.
LemonGrenade 