WV: Wake up.

I think it’s just how editing made it come out. That conversation Tan and I had was about two hours on the couch. We talked about pronouns, we talked about the different transitions that trans men and trans women can go through, we talked about non-binary and genderqueer individuals, and people of color in my community who are trans and nonbinary and the additional difficulties they face. We also talked about Russia and Jamaica and how trans people that live in those countries have refugee programs directed to them, because they could get murdered and dragged in the streets. We got really, really deep.

There’s a distinct cut in that conversation with Tan and I where he’s very composed — he’s really composed all the time — and then after I laid some really deep knowledge on him, he was crying. He did come from a very sheltered upbringing and his getting into the queer community basically started with this show. So I don’t blame him for his lack of knowledge. Instead, I very much thank him for his willingness to seek out that knowledge through me, from someone who is willing to teach.

(Source)

from The Courtesy Rules Of Blindness

“When you meet me don’t be ill at ease. It will help both of us if you remember these simple points of courtesy:

I’m an ordinary person, just blind. You don’t need to raise your voice or address me as if I were a child. Don’t ask my spouse what I want–“Cream in the coffee?”–ask me.

I may use a long white cane or a guide dog to walk independently; or I may ask to take your arm. Let me decide, and please don’t grab my arm; let me take yours. I’ll keep a half-step behind to anticipate curbs and steps.

I want to know who’s in the room with me. Speak when you enter. Introduce me to the others including children, and tell me if there’s a cat or dog.

The door to a room or cabinet or to a car that is left partially open is a hazard to me.

At dinner I will not have trouble with ordinary table skills.

Don’t avoid words like “see.” I use them too. I’m always glad to see you.

I don’t want pity, but don’t talk about the “wonderful compensations” of blindness. My sense of smell, taste, touch or hearing did not improve when I became blind, I rely on them more and, therefore, may get more information through those senses than you do–that’s all.

If I’m your houseguest, show me the bathroom, closet, dresser, window–the light switch too. I like to know whether the lights are on or off.

I’ll discuss blindness with you if you’re curious, but it’s an old story to me. I have as many other interests as you do.

Don’t think of me as just a blind person. I’m just a person who happens to be blind.

You don’t need to remember some “politically correct” term, “visually impaired”, “sight challenged” etc. Keep it simple and honest, just say blind.

i guess in a weird way it makes sense. a lot of the radfems i see on here are under 25. it’s a rebellious shift from the “sex positive” liberalism that seemed to be pretty infectious on here. we’re bombarded with a narrow, heavily affected sort of sexuality that caters to only one sort of audience (white men)—and i understand the want to just divorce oneself from that but because we’re swinging too hard and not critically thinking—we throw the baby out with the bath water. and also because social network activism IS heavily performative—we get these ass up cold takes that are so divorced from reality.

i think americans need to unpack the assumption that sexual expression is deviant or something that shouldn’t be publicly discussed—that’s partly to blame for the cultural shifts.

all of our young people are being informed by pornography and youtube and netflix, etc—instead of family or older folk talking about sex or the social side of sex—the things to look out for other than diseases and pregnancy—because we forget but sex is a social expression and should be treated as such and not like something shameful or just a way to mechanically make babies…..i just…….

Mikael Chukwuma Owunna, a queer Nigerian-Swedish artist raised in Pittsburgh, has spent the past two and a half years photographing Black men and women for a series titled Infinite Essence. Hand-painted using fluorescent paints and photographed in complete darkness, Owunna’s subjects are illuminated by a flash outfitted with a UV filter, which turns their nude bodies into glowing celestial figures.

Owunna tells Colossal that the series was his response to the frequent images and videos of Black people being killed by those sworn to protect them: the police. The photographer’s friends, family members, dancers, and one person he connected with on Instagram serve as models for the project, which is named after an idea from his Igbo heritage. “All of our individual spirits are just one ray of the infinite essence of the sun,” Owunna explains. “By transcending the visible spectrum, I work to illuminate a world beyond our visible structures of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia where the black body is free.”

here’s a short elaboration:

1) it’s basically a completely empty concept. the idea of ‘intelligence’ is basically like a collection of frequently unrelated skills roughly seen as relating to cognition (and sometimes really just means an educational class background!). But like, practically, it doesn’t really mean anything other than a value judgment. The set of skills associated w ‘intelligence’ are so wide and diverse that most people who have some lack others completely (the Richard Dawkins problem) but equating them all into one idea erases this.

2) measuring people along some sort of axis of ‘intelligence’ is not only like basically impossible in any good faith way because of reason 1, it’s also almost always done as a value judgment of someone’s worth. A good example of the ways this has been done to awful effect is the use of the IQ test, let alone standardized aptitude tests like the SAT/ACT. The valuing of people’s worth based upon the cognitive ability has numerous issues wrt disability, and also frequently intelligence (or perceived intelligence) is the way that other oppressive attitudes are communicated.

3) Even if ‘intelligence’ were an actual coherent thing, there are numerous other traits that are equally or more important to have in this world. What I mean here is that there is a wide scale cult of intelligence as perhaps the most important personal trait in America. The amount of social shame that comes from not performing intelligence at the right amounts is intense, much more intense than it should be compared to other traits that are seen as basically optional. small example: I feel like I became a much better person over the same time period that my cognitive abilities kinda decreased (unrelated reasons), but obviously one of those is going to have a much greater effect on like my “success” in society!