• • Body Politics
  • Recommended Reading
  • Trans-

  Recommended Reading: A bra that fits me - A Critique of Chrysalis Lingerie’s May 1st Launch

  May 10, 2013 • Julia Horel

  Teagan Widmer writes at Interrupt Mag about some major issues with Chrysalis Lingerie‘s launch.

  I was super excited about Chrysalis Lingerie’s new line of lingerie that debuted in their online store this week. The company boasts garments created by trans women and for trans women. Their launch has been delayed multiple, but now it was finally coming to a mailbox near you. So when I saw a post on my Tumblr dashboard saying that their store was finally open, I eagerly clicked the link for the store. My jaw subsequently hit the floor, and I don’t mean that in a good way.

  The prices of the garments are high, which is a big problem:

  Most trans women don’t have that kind of earning power thanks to the intersection of transmysogny and sexism (and often racism since there are many trans women who are also women of color).

  And on top of that:

  Upon further examination of the new shop, I came to an even more startling, frustrating, and disturbing realization. Even if I had the money to drop on a beautiful brand-new Chrysalis bra, I wouldn’t be able to buy one that actually fits me.

  Read Teagan’s excellent critique in its entirety here.
  

• • Gender
  • Queeriosities
  • Trans-

  Calling all trans, gender queer, two spirit, gender variant, and questioning youth!

  February 11, 2013 • Sheila Sampath

  Tired of how poorly we are represented in the media?
  Fed up with being measured against beauty standards that don’t celebrate you?
  Tired of comic books that fail to represent you?
  Tired of stories about trans people written by cis folks?
  Want to read stories you can relate to?

  ……..well……

  Why not write those stories and make that media?

  Super Trans Powers is an upcoming workshop series offered by Supporting Our Youth and ArtReach Toronto at the Sherbourne Health Centre, for trans, two spirit, genderqueer, gender variant and questioning youth (up to 29 yrs).
  Our workshops are going to focus on the creation of an anthology of writing, comic art, illustrations and visual art that represents us as trans, genderqueer, two spirit, gender variant and questioning youth in a respectful, fun, exciting and empowering way! We’ll have writing, visual art, and layout workshops. Come join us and find story telling skills you never new you had! Explore new ways to express your unique experience! Learn some tricks to layout your work in a book or zine! See your work in print!

  Yeah that’s right, we’re gonna make a book!
  
  It’s gonna be awesome. And FREE!

  STARTING THIS COMING TUESDAY FEB. 12!

  Visual art workshops with SYRUS MARCUS WARE!

  This is gonna rule!

  At the Sherbourne Health Centre on Tuesday evenings 7-9.
  Snacks, TTC tokens and ASL-English Interpretation will be provided. The Sherbourne Health Centre is a wheelchair accessible space.
  Please contact us with any access needs or concerns.

  ASL:
  http://youtu.be/uJ_7n7-VtgY

  For updates and more info visit
  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Super-Trans-Powers/145175488918168#

  or e-mail kit wilson-yang at
  supertranspowers@gmail.com

• • Arts
  • Gender
  • Playlist
  • Queeriosities
  • Trans-

  Coming Out Wrong with Jesse Dangerously

  December 5, 2012 • Anne Thériault

  Halifax rap legend Jesse Dangerously is known for using his music to combat sexism, racism, fat-phobia, homophobia, and a whole lot of other toxic stuff that we encounter in our day to day lives. Dangerously, who is now based out of Ottawa, recently released a song called Coming Out Wrong on the Fun Razor Mix Tape (a collaborative album put together by artists participating in and raising funds for the NOFRIENDS tour).

  Coming Out Wrong, which was made over the beat from Tribe One’s Different, totally blew me away; it was so unlike any other hip hop song I’d ever heard. In Coming Out Wrong, Dangerously talks about his struggles with gender identity, and the effect those struggles had on him as he made his way through school and out into the hip hop world. These were all issues that I’d never even heard mentioned in a rap song before, let alone discussed in such detail, and listening to this track gave me a lot of FEELINGS.

  [YouTube video of Jesse Dangerously singing “Coming Out Wrong.” Transcription at the end of this post.]

  I recently had the chance to talk to Jesse Dangerously about this song, and he had some incredibly personal, informative and fascinating things to say – check out our Q&A below!

  Q: So this is a really amazing and intense song! Can you talk a bit about what it was like to release a song like this in the hip hop community, which tends to be pretty dominated by heterosexual men?(more inside…)

• • Event Listings
  • Trans-

  International Transgender Day of Remembrance 2012

  November 20, 2012 • Julia Horel

  Today, November 20, is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance. Check out this link for international event listings.

  If you’re in Toronto, you can attend this event:

  7pm-9pm
  519 Church Street Community Centre

  Join us for this annual event which marks and commemorates those trans members of our communities who are no longer with us. This event serves as a memorial, a protest, an opportunity for reflection and a chance to see old friends and meet new ones.

  The 519 acknowledges not only transphobia as a root cause of violence in our community, but also the various forms of oppression in our culture that increase violence, and limit protections for many members of the trans community. We remember everyone lost to transphobia, racism, ageism, ableism, sex-worker stigma, classism, HIV stigma and homophobia.

  Violence has impacted our communities and is not only an intentioned act - it is also an act of neglect. Violence affecting trans communities includes cuts to social spending, and depleting the social safety net.

  Violence impacting trans people includes the ever decreasing pool of social services that leaves the marginalized members of society struggling on their own without affordable housing, without access to nutritious food, without access to necessary health care services, without sympathy from a Canadian government that deports trans women and men to their countries of origin even when violence will be waiting for them on their homelands.
  The impact of violence on the trans communities is pervasive. For many the vulnerability is constant.

  The 519 is a wheelchair accessible space, with accessible and gender neutral washrooms. Trans Day of Remembrance will be ASL interpreted for the Deaf and hard of hearing communities.

• • (dis)Ability
  • Body Politics
  • Gender
  • Trans-

  An Intersectional RSVP

  November 28, 2011 • Shoshana Erlich

  Dear Event Organizers:

  I sincerely appreciate your open invitation to attend your event on this important issue, however, I find that I must respectfully decline.

  As an activist with a complex identity, it is difficult for me to condone attending an event that, while seeking to explain and draw interest into a matter that is very near and dear to my heart, has managed to ensure that my participation in your event will be virtually impossible.

  While I can appreciate that your event is being held in a wheelchair accessible venue, it is important to recognize that that in and of itself does not ensure that your event is indeed accessible. Had you publicized your event further than one week in advance I would have been able to contact you and request an interpreter in order for me to be able to attend. Additionally, while I appreciate that many events are being put together on a tight budget, when you inform me that your event is unable to provide interpretation services due to the cost required that tells me that there is a dollar figure attached to my participation, membership or sometimes allyship in this community. Furthermore, while attempts to find out if a video is captioned are appreciated, it would be best if that information was publicized on the event details. An even better response would be that upon finding out that a video is uncaptioned that the suitability of another video being shown was examined as well as banding together as an intersectional group to apply pressure to filmmakers to ensure that their videos are captioned and accessible.

  As someone who identifies as genderqueer, there are also additional barriers to my participation. (more inside…)

• • Media Savvy
  • Trans-

  If you’ve got “boy parts,” you can’t join…

  November 9, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

  As a kid, I always dreamt about becoming a Girl Guide like my friends. But, unfortunately, it was something that never happened for a variety of monetary and time-related issues. As an adult, I was finally able to realize that dream by becoming a Brownie Unit Guider. My unit, which I helped to facilitate with two other leaders (including Shameless Reviews Editor, Jessica Balmer!), was home to 14 girls aged 7-8. For one year, we came together to encourage our fellow leaders and our Brownies to develop confidence, to develop positive relationships with others and to engage with the community. Overall, my Girl Guide experience was everything I had hoped it would be, and I would hope that anyone else interested in joining the Guides might have a similar experience. However, that has not been the case for Bobby Montoya, a seven-year-old from Denver, Colorado who wished to join a local troop of Girl Scouts.

  (more inside…)

• • Gender
  • Trans-

  Bill addressing Gender Identity and Expression introduced in B.C. Legislature

  May 30, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

  On May 26th, Spencer Chandra Herbert, the NDP MLA (Member of the legislative assembly*) for Vancouver-West End, introduced in the legislature a member’s bill intituled Gender Identity and Expression Human Rights Recognition Act, 2011.

  The Act would ensure that the B.C. Human Rights Code explicitly protects transgender people from discrimination. Under the legislation, “gender identity” and “gender expression” would be prohibited grounds for discrimination. As a prohibited ground, employers, health professionals, landlords or other business owners could not use gender identity and gender expression as the means to deny service or housing to transgender people. It would also signal to the general public that transgender people have the same rights as cis-people under the law to live and work free from fear and discrimination.

  (more inside…)

• • Arts
  • Gender
  • Trans-

  But That’s Not Normal… Or How Even People In The Liberal Arts Are Enshrined In Gender Norms

  May 16, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

  There is something I would like to share with all of you, readers. I’d like to talk about a conversation I had this past week with a new coworker and friend, J. During our dinner hour (as J and I munched on some delicious falafels and chicken kebabs), we began to discuss how certain persons at work appear or act uncomfortable around J.

  To provide some background, J and I work as ushers/concession at a theatre venue located in downtown Toronto. Most of us are just getting to know each other and J is an intelligent, fantastically outgoing and friendly person. He also loves to wear makeup and nail polish, to talk about flat-ironing his hair (and how it might be misbehaving that day) and is open and all-embracing about being gay.

  J is not a caricature and there are several overlapping issues at work here, but I feel that the negative reactions are predominantly stemming from his transgressions of accepted gender and sexual norms. There is also something else happening here and I think that it has to do with the pervasiveness of gender norms and assumptions around the liberal arts.
  There exists a societal assumption that the liberal arts and the work environments they provide are intrinsically more liberal, open-minded or accepting of differences in comparison to other work environments. While this assumption may be true to certain extents and with regards to particular issues (such as the importance of the arts), the securitization of J’s appearance has made me question such an assumption.

  (more inside…)

• • Gender
  • Media Savvy
  • Trans-

  Pick a Colour… Except for Pink

  April 19, 2011 • Naz Afsahi

  It appears that a boy’s love of pink has others seeing a different colour.

  Originally, I had planned on discussing Bill C-389 in this column. That was until Julia Horel-O’Brien sent me a link to the reactions a J. Crew email mailer (aka advertisement) has garnered since being sent to customers on April 5th (the advert is now available on the J. Crew website under the feature Jenna’s picks).

  The layout Saturday with Jenna showcases the company’s president and creative director Jenna Lyons and her five-year-old son Beckett spending time together and going “off duty in style”. In one image from the advert, a smiling Jenna is seen holding Beckett’s feet in her lap. Beckett, appearing to be having a laugh, is sporting painted toenails in a rather fetching neon pink colour. Under the headline “Quality Time”, Lyons is quoted: “Lucky for me, I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink. Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.”

  (more inside…)

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