Happy/L.A. Hyder,Self Portrait At 40, 1987

Happy/L.A. Hyder, Self Portrait at 40, 1987

I feel all my work is informed by who I am as a lesbian. That no matter what it is, it’s lesbian art… I want to be visible as a lesbian and as an artist, to be able to hold my identity wherever I am and still be included in non-lesbian-identified art exhibits and non-sexual art exhibits. I think most of the art we see that is identified as done by lesbians has a sexual context. I have no problem with art with a sexual content, but that’s almost all that’s shown unless we put our own exhibits together or we go to places that are alternative.  I’ve been thinking about censorship and I have a question. Do we tend sometimes in our lesbian content or in our desire to do lesbian content, to censor ourselves so we don’t get censored? Is lesbian art inherently political art? I don’t think so. Although saying I’m a lesbian gives it a kind of a curve, it’s a political act by an artist. I wonder when a curator who likes my work and wants to put it in an exhibition learns I’m a lesbian, is that going to color their decision? To identify as a lesbian is often to take a risk.

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Writing Tip

because I see this everywhere and most people don’t know about it. The hyphen(-), the en-dash(–) and the em-dash(—) are three completely different things with completely different uses. If you write fanfiction, it’s likely that your readers won’t care, but if you want to submit a manuscript for publishing, you need to know the difference. 

The hyphen (-) is the basic symbol you find on your keyboard, and it’s meant to only be used for hyphenated words (well-being, two-thirds). 

The en-dash (–) is a slightly longer dash. It’s usually the width of an uppercase N, hence the name. You can find it by looking through the ‘insert symbol’ option in MS word or many word processors, and it is meant to be used to show a particular distance, or for intervals (May–August, 1900–1916, pages 12–22)

The em-dash (—) is what people most commonly use, but they refer to it as a hyphen. It’s the longest dash, about the size of an uppercase letter M, and you can either find it through the list of symbols in your word processor, or some word processors actually automatically transform two hyphens (–) into an em-dash  (—). It is meant to be used as a break in the sentence, in a place where a comma, semicolon or colon would normally be used or as a break in dialogue. (Her niece—the daughter of her oldest sister—is the one over there.) 

*All three types of dashes are normally meant to be used without any spaces on either side of the dash. 

See the thing is that performing femininity DOES empower women. Most women are very aware that they are treated better when they wear makeup and dress femininely. But no man is afraid of eyeliner “sharp enough to kill a man”. No woman ever got a job over a man because she was wearing heels and he wasn’t. But women have lost opportunities and been treated like shit for not doing those things.

Female empowerment through performing femininity does not give women power over men. It gives women power over other women. That fucking sucks.

Ah no wonder Horse was animated so smoothly

Your daily reminder you can download a FREE copy of Stone Butch Blues off of Leslie Feinberg’s website

Glasses are the most common disability aid in America.  

And some people may say, ‘you would look better without them, have you considered contacts/corrective surgery’, but no one acts like it’s a big deal if you need them, or need some special accommodations because of the condition you need them for, or if you only wear them part time.  No one looks at a person wearing glasses and thinks or says 'that person has both eyes, why would they need glasses?’.  No one says a child or young adult with glasses is 'too young’ to have that problem.  No one looks at a person in glasses and assumes they have them because they are fat, or lazy, or trying to trick people into some imagined advantage. Poor or irregular eyesight is a disability that has been normalized to the point that no one thinks of it as a disability any more.  Glasses quickly become just a part of the face of the person who wears them, and are solid proof that it isn’t hard for the people of this country to accept and to think of–to acknowledge–that a disability aid, whether part time or full time, is simply an extension of the disabled person who requires it to ease their interactions with the world.

SO IT WOULD BE SUPERB IF PEOPLE COULD STOP BEING SUCH ABSOLUTE FUCK-CLOWNS ABOUT WHEELCHAIR USERS.