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I’ve researched a little into the topic of Heteronormativity in our culture. It is a big word, but really it just means the structural framework of how we view women and men in our culture and the roles and expectations we define as normal and how these roles should be performed. All fine and dandy right? In reality, not so much. It does not take much to transform gender roles into gender stereotypes and beginning the process of ordering people into their “proper” gender identities based on their actions and appearance.
Being an outlier on the hetronormative scale invites a variety of negative responses ranging from quizzical looks and questions all the way to profane gendered slurs. Concepts like heteronormativity and Patriarchy, if you are part of the dominant majority, are sometimes very hard to see or even conceptualize. It is only until you breach a perceived norm (as a member of the privileged class, if you’re in the underclass you get oppressed by default 24/7) do things start to go sideways. I came to this little discovery point about twenty some years ago for something as basic as choice of adornment.
The cause of some controversy? :>
Having worn a gold rings on my index toes for some twenty years now let me assure you that I have received compliments all the way to outright hostility for a simple choice of jewelry. One of the most common responses I get is “Hey, aren’t toe rings for girls?” to which I usually reply to my (almost always) male questioner, “Hey aren’t earrings for girls?”. Which usually makes them stop and think for a bit as the realization that the cultural validity of gendered practices is not static, but rather quite fluid in nature. Okay, well I hope they realize this, but most of the time they, just repeat their first comment again (they having just passed a heteronormative judgment), to which I reply, “I think they look cool, and thanks for asking,” and politely steer the conversation elsewhere.
Less judicious or enlightened individuals have often questioned my sexuality dropping the familiar hetro-bomb, “Are you gay?” with the word gay dripping with scorn and derision. Does wearing toe rings make you gay? It has not worked yet, and I would not be particularly worried if it did because like most decisions of this nature, first and foremost it is my choice. And I choose the gendered slurs and disapprobation from various sources because when it comes down to it, it is their problem, not mine. I can come to this conclusion precisely because I am a member of the dominant class and still retain enough of my privilege so that my outlier choices do not negatively effect my social status much over all.
Still think that patriarchy and privilege are not integral parts of our society? Push your “normal” gender role a bit just to see, as an experiment, how closely heteronormative norms are enforced, I dare ya. :)
Men are not supposed to do nail polish either. I say bollocks to heternomativity. :)
One cannot always write about the evil that is religion or what amazing new low conservative politicians have brought public discourse to. So this Monday I share with my loyal readers my most favourite foods in the whole wide world.
Of course, the crown jewel and most exalted must be the princely Perogy. I’m game on almost any filling but would have to put classic potato, cheese and bacon and sauerkraut as my top 3 choices. With a liberal application of sour cream (or cottage cheese), bacon bits and onion I quickly reach a heavenly food nirvana in which all becomes good with the world and I crave only a nap to digest all the carbohydrates I just consumed.
Another indulgence that I less often satisfy is the wonderful taste universe of Sushi, the melting of delicately cut tuna on my tongue followed by the blistering heat of the wasabi leaves everything to be desired as only more can make my sushi-lust abate.
What better to combat a cold winter’s day than a steaming bowl of Pho? Combining just the right amount of lime, hot peppers, sprouts and Hoisen sauce to create a symphony of savoury sweet, meaty soupful bliss makes for a warm happy ending and brief reprise from the overall misery of winter.
Please share your favourites in the comments section as I am always willing to expand my list of favourite foods. :)
Oh, and stay out of the way of other peoples' shots.
It has been a long time since I’ve played racquetball. We stopped playing last year late November as regular bouts of sickness began hitting my racquetball partner and I. However, this last Friday we convened, along with my future brother-in-law to be to play a little cutthroat at the University courts.
The game results were not pretty for me as it seemed my goto play was hitting the ball out of the court with amazing speed and accuracy. For the uninitiated in racquetball, the general rule is the lower you hit the ball on the wall, the better. I also managed to forget about my knee pad until I left a few patches of my epidermis on the court floor. *sigh*
On the upside, it was fun while we were playing and I had a wonderful time. The next morning, as I write this blog post my body is telling me a distinctly different story. I know first time back is always hell, but I don’t seem to remember it being this bad. Waaaa!
I have to keep the focus on this exercise thing being good for me, and things will be fine. (sounds good, no?)
Ah yes, the Alberta Blizzard Season, the most wonderful time of the year.
I like a clean sidewalk.
Nature has provided me yet another series of opportunities to show the world how much I really prefer my snow to be in neat piles rather than unruly drifts on my parking spot or in front of my house. After work yesterday, I spent the better part of 2 hours pushing too much damn snow around creating 5 to 6 foot piles of snow at various points near my house.
Poor Intransigentia she was also caught up in the madness and was eventually tasked with digging the first pile of snow out and transferring it to the new second pile, in an effort to make room for the next snowfall. She almost disappeared into the mighty drifts that were accumulating, but did a heroic job in fighting her way out and giving me more space to put the new snow.
It is now, the next morning, it is still snowing and my back has more than a few things to say about yesterdays orgy of shovelling and scraping. It is the dull throbbing pain that makes me write this particular post and the amusing fact that I seemed to have frozen my posterior yesterday so much so that I made cold spots wherever I landed, sitting inside for at least three hours.
Not me but I can relate.
The best part is that, it is still snowing, so I have more good times to look forward to after work.
Hollywood is stupid. The hype, the banal trysts, the obscene amount of media attention garnered. If it all evaporated mysteriously overnight, it would be no great loss to humanity.
What is good though is some of the off-beat weird films that get produced around the fringes of the Hollywood fail machine.
Would anyone lives be the same after seeing such awesomeness as Jesus Christ:Vampire Slayer? Or Sukiyaki Western Django or The Good The Bad and the Weird? Probably not. Let me be clear, I’m not recommending any of these titles to anyone, they are all cheezy schmaltz, but if you want something that is not H-wood approved, these titles would not be a bad place to start.
Any other oddball picks you can recommend? Leave them in the comments. :)
The books we read define who we are. The books we choose inform our world view and how we look at the events in the world. The dissident viewpoint is not particularly fun or easy to hold as every point must be scrupulously backed up with ample evidence to be even considered in conversations and debate. This list, as the title says, is not complete nor will it probably ever be as education and learning never stops during a lifetime.
This post serves also to provide insight into the how and why I talk about issues and the positions I take while debating.
The first, and probably most important work to my education as a rational human being would have to be the grand tomb by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky – Manufacturing Consent. It is an acutely precise documented look at the American Media. Manufacturing Consent also offers a propaganda model to assist in analyzing and understanding how the media works, the reason for the prevalent rightward bias, and why that bias exists.
MC really started my adult education, as it caused me to become skeptical of what I had been taught in school and question the assumptions and point of view of how most my classes where taught.
I should mention Hegemony or Survival and The Fateful Triangle and Year 501: The Conquest Continues as well. They all brought clarity to the questions about how the world works and more importantly the structures in place that work against justice, egalitarianism and freedom.
I have read more Chomsky, particularly to understand the Vietnam War but I would single out these four works as being particularly important.
Howard Zinn is another major figure in my interpretation of history. It was his A People’s History of the United States that really reinforced the idea of history being written by the victor and how important alternate narratives are in understanding history. Out of the rest of his works, I have read War and Terrorism, which I also recommend as it is also very informative and illuminating.
In a similar vein, Major General Smedley Butler‘s work War is a Racket also ranks prominently in my readings of Western History because he simply tells it like it was for him, as a member of the United States Armed forces. His prescient observations are ever more true today.
I came upon Chris Harman’s book A People’s History of the World, like Zinn’s work it is a depressingly good read. I have only read it once, but it is coming back into rotation as is a valuable reference and starting point for further historical analysis.
It sits beside my copy of Zinn’s work as part of the spine of my history collection.
A fiery excerpt from one of his speeches.
War Talk, An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy, and Taraq Ali’s Pirates Of The
Caribbean: Axis Of Hope (2006), Bush in Babylon (2003), and Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002). Both Roy and Ali provide external analysis of our situation in the West and how we are viewed by the rest of the world. Ali is a powerful speaker and I had the opportunity to listen to him when he came to the University in 2008. His eloquence and arguments made for an evening to remember. External points of view are necessary, but sometimes a homegrown view is necessary to provide more perspective on the important issues of our time.
The Canadian Naomi Klein and her works fits nicely into the puzzle giving a Canadian view of the world as it. I did not enjoy NoLogo very much but found The Shock Doctrine to be a necessary and informative read about how the elites do what they must to rule the world. The Shock Doctrine explains how countries are jolted into submission before neoliberal reforms are forced on them. Again, file under good but depressing reading.
I almost forgot one of the most important works of history that I have read. It is called The Great War for Civilization by Robert Fisk. It is a huge work spanning most of Fisk’s journalistic career. It is history close up, a punch in the nose of a wake up call as for what trouble with Middle East and ‘civilizing influence’ there.
This list is a longer than I first expected, as even after 500 words I have covered only a couple of areas of the literature that informs my view and opinion on the world (in retrospect, probably a good thing). I will cover other areas of my interests in future posts.
Working on holidays on campus is always a rewarding and edifying experience. I get to meet the upcoming best and brightest students that our fair institution produces for Alberta. However, the building I work at is closed today, as it is a long weekend holiday.
“But how Arbourist, are people getting into a locked building?” my inquisitive audience asks.
Good question padawan, I mostly blame the radio station that also shares this building as they have staff that is going in and out all the time. No big deal. However, the front doors were recently renovated and I think that whomever did the measuring did not have their morning coffee because they stop and stick just short of the locking mechanism.
Consistently.
I assume this is where the Grand Axis of the Universe managed to gain entry to my fair building. After using the facilities he and his partner were summarily greeted by yours truly and asked to kindly leave, as it was a holiday and the building was closed.
I swear, it was like I was in my dodge-ball days again, twisting and turning but now only verbally.
“Where am I supposed to study?”
“I have a study group to attend and I need a space to do so!”
“I pay for the operation of this building, why can’t I use it?”
“Is there anyway to withdraw my student union fees? I need to use the building and clearly I’m not being allowed.”
Now gentle reader, I have some time behind me in the service industry (not to mention special education), and dealing with assholes is a useful skill one acquires over the years. The important thing is to empathize, or at least appear to empathize with the AIQ’s (asshole in question) concerns, then offer useful alternatives, but maintain the message you need to get across, namely you my dear dear AIQ need to GTFO out of my building, post haste. The AIQ’s companion had obviously been down this road before, and she mouthed her apologies and resignedly shrugged as we exchanged glances. She smiled as I arched my eyebrow and rolled my eyes at AIQ’s entitlement fail.
They left, and I had to just stand for awhile and process the twerpitude that had just been performed for my benefit. It was inspiring to share the magnitude of the naive cluelessness of our dear AIQ. He genuinely felt wronged by the University for having the audacity to close the building on holiday weekend disrupting his study plans.
Boo-frakking-hoo.
AIQ is under the false assumption that the powers that be give a rats ass about his bullshite undergraduate work and that anything he produces during his undergrad counts for anything meaningful. You just do not understand how balls to bones sincere AIQ was, this was near life and death. The sheer magnitude of his whingeing set AIQ in a class all by himself (I hope). Stern letters, at the very least, would be written!
It was like the Ivy Tower educated snob stereotype anti-intellectuals like to paint came to life and manifested all the bullshite priggish entitlement crap that makes the average person cranky.
I do like to think of myself as a intellectual (of sorts), and therefore I offer an apology for AIQ’s behaviour as I now can understand the need to throttle people who actually act like this.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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