Here it is! FLORESCENCE, my final piece for my foundation art course.. a whole lot of trans love poured into one celebration of trans identity. It’s not everything I wished it had been, but it’s still what it is
WOW this film is nearly two years old. Little reblog to celebrate it being shown in the TATE Britain last night. Trans love forever!
In Full Swing: A comic about Spider-Gwen’s past inspired by Across the Spider Verse 🏳️⚧️ (⚠️Spoilers!⚠️)
I would immediately ask him the stupidest questions. “Did you have toilets back then?” “Do you know what an oven is?” “Things must’ve been great before guns were invented, huh?”
Seeing and knowing
okay but like. This exact concept is what finally got me to be open about being queer in my day to day.
I was at work. I can't go into detail about the situation, but someone was outed without their consent. And nobody was saying anything, and it was quiet, so I outed myself, too. So at least neither of us would be alone.
I was worried about the consequences. I'd never considered my identity a secret, but I wasn't open about it, either. It felt like it wasn't relevant to my job. If someone asked, I'd tell them, but otherwise, what did it matter?
After the incident, I met privately with a higher up. Told them what had happened and why it wasn't good, and made some suggestions on what to do in the future to keep everyone safe to be in the closet or out of it on their own terms.
To my absolute amazement, they told me that others had come forwards anonymously to say the same things. Then word spread. Meetings were had. Policy and procedures were put in place. A training course on gender and sexuality was implemented for the very first time.
And of course there were protests- people who dug in their heels and kicked up a fuss and didn't want to learn about "all that bullshit", and when those people showed their colors, their superiors realized that they weren't actually good representatives of the sort of environment they wanted to provide our clients, and a small number were actually let go.
I went to a meeting again the other week. And do you know what happened?
The meeting lead introduced themselves by name and pronouns, and asked everyone to please state their name, and, if they wished, theirs as well.
I was near the front. I introduced myself with He/Him. I thought I'd stand out like a sore thumb and feel like an idiot for hoping for better.
Two people down, someone introduced themselves as They/Them. Someone I'd never spoken much to before.
Then, She/they. At least two "anything fine"s. A he/her.
It was incredible. And it wasn't even a whole year ago.
There are so many of us, now. Even more, as we teach and learn about ourselves, and it's not so scary because there are others like us.
I'm not as loud and proud as I hope to be some day, because I'm still scared, a little, but I am here.
And I've learned that being openly queer isn't about just expressing myself for the sake of it, bringing personal details into places it doesn't matter-
-it's about telling someone, it's not just you. I'm in your corner. There are more of us than they think. There is power in numbers, and you are not alone.
And I kind of love that
I bought a cheap bisexual flag bracelet at Pride this year, and I wear it daily in work. I'm a lecturer - many of my students are fresh faced eighteen year olds leaving home for the first time, and possibly considering the scary step of living openly for the first time. It's important, I think, that they can plainly and easily see that one of the authority figures in their brave new world is openly queer, and that's okay. Plus, it lets them know I'm a safe person to talk to about the whole thing.
Visibility is super important
also somwtimes when you dont understand a piece of art it's not bc ur dumb it's bc you havent had the very particular emotional experience that it's trying to invoke in you and you just cant relate. which is also why sometimes you will hear a mountain goats song and say Meh and then you go through some shit and you listen to it again and lose your fucking mind at how real and raw it is. art is how we communicate with each other about experiences that cannot be adequately represented straightforwardly with language. sometimes you have to abstract your representation of the experience in order to truly communicate how big and insane it felt
hope is a skill
hope is a weapon you are trained to wield
favourite additions
You cannot hide this in the tags, bestie. This is too lovely to keep a secret.
