148412 | 22.7.2015 | 10 years agoautumn joy
141165 | 2.6.2015 | 10 years ago
On May 29, 2014, the issue of timemagazine magazine which proclaimed the “Transgender Tipping Point” was revealed with me on the cover. June 1, 2015 a year and 3 days later, Caitlyn Jenner’s vanityfair cover was revealed proclaiming #CallMeCaitlyn I am so moved by all the love and support Caitlyn is receiving. It feels like a new day, indeed, when a trans person can present her authentic self to the world for the first time and be celebrated for it so universally. Many have commented on how gorgeous Caitlyn looks in her photos, how she is “slaying for the Gods.” I must echo these comments in the vernacular, “Yasss Gawd! Werk Caitlyn! Get it!” But this has made me reflect critically on my own desires to ‘work a photo shoot’, to serve up various forms of glamour, power, sexiness, body affirming, racially empowering images of the various sides of my black, trans womanhood. I love working a photo shoot and creating inspiring images for my fans, for the world and above all for myself. But I also hope that it is my talent, my intelligence, my heart and spirit that most captivate, inspire, move and encourage folks to think more critically about the world around them. Yes, Caitlyn looks amazing and is beautiful but what I think is most beautiful about her is her heart and soul, the ways she has allowed the world into her vulnerabilities. The love and devotion she has for her family and that they have for her. Her courage to move past denial into her truth so publicly. These things are beyond beautiful to me. A year ago when my Time magazine cover came out I saw posts from many trans folks saying that I am “drop dead gorgeous” and that that doesn’t represent most trans people. (It was news to be that I am drop dead gorgeous but I’ll certainly take it). But what I think they meant is that in certain lighting, at certain angles I am able to embody certain cisnormative beauty standards. Now, there are many trans folks because of genetics and/or lack of material access who will never be able to embody these standards. More importantly many trans folks don’t want to embody them and we shouldn’t have to to be seen as ourselves and respected as ourselves . It is important to note that these standards are also infomed by race, class and ability among other intersections. I have always been aware that I can never represent all trans people. No one or two or three trans people can. This is why we need diverse media representstions of trans folks to multiply trans narratives in the media and depict our beautiful diversities. I started #TransIsBeautiful as a way to celebrate all those things that make trans folks uniquely trans, those things that don’t necessarily align with cisnormative beauty standards. For me it is necessary everyday to celebrate every aspect of myself especially those things about myself that don’t align with other people’s ideas about what is beautiful. #TransIsBeautiful is about, whether you’re trans or not, celebrating all those things that make us uniquely ourselves. Most trans folks don’t have the privileges Caitlyn and I have now have. It is those trans folks we must continue to lift up, get them access to healthcare, jobs, housing, safe streets, safe schools and homes for our young people. We must lift up the stories of those most at risk, statistically trans people of color who are poor and working class. I have hoped over the past few years that the incredible love I have received from the public can translate to the lives of all trans folks. Trans folks of all races, gender expressions, ability, sexual orientations, classes, immigration status, employment status, transition status, genital status etc.. I hope, as I know Caitlyn does, that the love she is receiving can translate into changing hearts and minds about who all trans people are as well as shifting public policies to fully support the lives and well being of all of us. The struggle continues…
Laverne Cox on Caitlyn Jenner. So perfect.
(via smashasomebox)
20379 | 23.4.2015 | 10 years agoWatch: The newest ‘Little Prince’ trailer will melt your heart
Cue tears
(via tillythemenace)
367121 | 18.4.2015 | 10 years ago
989529 | 12.4.2015 | 10 years agoteam i can’t do math for shit but i can write a 3 page english paper in less than an hour
team I can do math for hours but I can’t write an english paper for shit
Team I can’t, I have rehearsal
team in theory I could do these things but instead I’m going to spend four hours on the internet for no reason
Team Edward
WHAT TEAM
WILDCATS
(via weare---wild)
1456 | 9.4.2015 | 10 years ago
“ The first thing people think when I introduce myself: Indian.
And the next thing they think when I show them my resume, a product of my 18 years of dedication, stress, tears, commitment and pride, is oh.
They say, with a little knowing smile on their face, “You’ve done so much.” But this isn’t uttered with a tone of praise, but with a tone of disdain, contempt even.
“You’ve done so much”, they say, but with those words they intend to deface my achievements with implications of: “you’ve done so much because you only care about getting into college”, “you’ve done so much for the sake of doing so much”, “you’ve done so much because you’re Asian.”
With each stab into my credibility, my accomplishments are belittled, attributed to my culture and ethnicity rather than myself as individual. I become not a person anymore, but a mindless, well-oiled robot who is programmed with goals of attending Ivy Leagues for their face-value- I become nothing but another face.
“Yes, I suppose I’ve done a lot”, I used to answer, naively thinking I was simply being acknowledged for the work I have done, but I soon learned, as an Asian, I would have to qualify it much more than with a genuine testament to my dedication and passion for education. “Yes, I’ve done a lot, but only because I value perspectives so much.” “Yes, I’ve done a lot, but only because I like being involved.” The answer becomes a plea to bestow value upon me, to acknowledge my existence as a person.
Friends, uncles, interviewers alike nod with amusement, as if to say, yes of course, that’s why, because they can understand me better than I understand myself it seems. They can understand the all-nighters I spent studying for one test, they can understand how I had to manage releasing a newspaper issue due the next day while studying for an exam worth 75% of my grade the next, they can understand how I looked up countless websites and bought countless prep-books to study for classes that had teachers that didn’t even know what they were teaching, they can understand how I flitted from to meeting after meeting after volunteer event in one day, just to come home exhausted and find mounds of work that I had left to do, and they can understand how I am aware that the only way for me to succeed in my goal of impacting others is through education. Of course they can. I’m Asian after all.
“Yes, of course. But tell me. Do your parents place a lot of pressure on you to do well?” The obvious implication here is that my parents are the common representation of Tiger Moms, helicopter parents. That my parents view my academic success as equal to my success as individual. And while there may be reasoning behind this, as every stereotype stems from at least some shallow understanding of truth, does the child not do the work? Even if parents placed this undue pressure upon a child’s shoulders, isn’t it the child who was burdened with it? And to the type of parents I am blessed to have- who not only support every endeavor I choose, but actively create opportunities for me to remove obstacles for me when they can, who chauffeur me to endless places sometimes 5 hours away for a single speech competition, who stay up with me until 3 a.m. while I study so they can give me words of encouragement presented in a cup of tea, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours tutoring or finding someone to tutor me, and when that never worked, buying me prep books- are these people that are deserving of your disdain?
The problem with this belittling of accomplishments simply because of preconceived notions of culture and ethnicity that the speakers barely comprehend is not only that Asians have to work a hundred times harder to prove that their motives behind “doing so much” were genuine, but that hard work itself is belittled. It becomes custom in school, among friends, to sheepishly laugh and say “I only studied for like 40 minutes. I don’t know how I got an A. I don’t even read the book.” Getting things easily is preferable to working hard for it because it somehow emphasizes how genuine that A on your transcript really is.
Even more dangerous is the consequence of arrogance. By viewing work and academic accomplishments with distaste, anyone who admits that they spent 11 hours studying is immediately characterized as arrogant. “Wow, thanks for rubbing it in”, they say. By lowering the standards for arrogance, true arrogance is perpetuated even more “Yeah I got into this college without working hard at all. Why are you trying so hard? Are you stupid?” In the end, Asians view each other with the same disdain that our interviewers, friends, uncles, view us with.
If we cannot view not only our own hard-won achievements with pride and respect, but our peers’, we will always be subject to that pitying, amused smile that becomes associated with the statement “You’ve done so much.”
czar-ra-sultan (via smashasomebox)
yes reminders this kinda made me think about how every time i said i played piano you get the inevitable your parents made you didnt they? and how i used to feel uncomfortable about it and now i actually understand why
And the next thing they think when I show them my resume, a product of my 18 years of dedication, stress, tears, commitment and pride, is oh.
They say, with a little knowing smile on their face, “You’ve done so much.” But this isn’t uttered with a tone of praise, but with a tone of disdain, contempt even.
“You’ve done so much”, they say, but with those words they intend to deface my achievements with implications of: “you’ve done so much because you only care about getting into college”, “you’ve done so much for the sake of doing so much”, “you’ve done so much because you’re Asian.”
With each stab into my credibility, my accomplishments are belittled, attributed to my culture and ethnicity rather than myself as individual. I become not a person anymore, but a mindless, well-oiled robot who is programmed with goals of attending Ivy Leagues for their face-value- I become nothing but another face.
“Yes, I suppose I’ve done a lot”, I used to answer, naively thinking I was simply being acknowledged for the work I have done, but I soon learned, as an Asian, I would have to qualify it much more than with a genuine testament to my dedication and passion for education. “Yes, I’ve done a lot, but only because I value perspectives so much.” “Yes, I’ve done a lot, but only because I like being involved.” The answer becomes a plea to bestow value upon me, to acknowledge my existence as a person.
Friends, uncles, interviewers alike nod with amusement, as if to say, yes of course, that’s why, because they can understand me better than I understand myself it seems. They can understand the all-nighters I spent studying for one test, they can understand how I had to manage releasing a newspaper issue due the next day while studying for an exam worth 75% of my grade the next, they can understand how I looked up countless websites and bought countless prep-books to study for classes that had teachers that didn’t even know what they were teaching, they can understand how I flitted from to meeting after meeting after volunteer event in one day, just to come home exhausted and find mounds of work that I had left to do, and they can understand how I am aware that the only way for me to succeed in my goal of impacting others is through education. Of course they can. I’m Asian after all.
“Yes, of course. But tell me. Do your parents place a lot of pressure on you to do well?” The obvious implication here is that my parents are the common representation of Tiger Moms, helicopter parents. That my parents view my academic success as equal to my success as individual. And while there may be reasoning behind this, as every stereotype stems from at least some shallow understanding of truth, does the child not do the work? Even if parents placed this undue pressure upon a child’s shoulders, isn’t it the child who was burdened with it? And to the type of parents I am blessed to have- who not only support every endeavor I choose, but actively create opportunities for me to remove obstacles for me when they can, who chauffeur me to endless places sometimes 5 hours away for a single speech competition, who stay up with me until 3 a.m. while I study so they can give me words of encouragement presented in a cup of tea, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours tutoring or finding someone to tutor me, and when that never worked, buying me prep books- are these people that are deserving of your disdain?
The problem with this belittling of accomplishments simply because of preconceived notions of culture and ethnicity that the speakers barely comprehend is not only that Asians have to work a hundred times harder to prove that their motives behind “doing so much” were genuine, but that hard work itself is belittled. It becomes custom in school, among friends, to sheepishly laugh and say “I only studied for like 40 minutes. I don’t know how I got an A. I don’t even read the book.” Getting things easily is preferable to working hard for it because it somehow emphasizes how genuine that A on your transcript really is.
Even more dangerous is the consequence of arrogance. By viewing work and academic accomplishments with distaste, anyone who admits that they spent 11 hours studying is immediately characterized as arrogant. “Wow, thanks for rubbing it in”, they say. By lowering the standards for arrogance, true arrogance is perpetuated even more “Yeah I got into this college without working hard at all. Why are you trying so hard? Are you stupid?” In the end, Asians view each other with the same disdain that our interviewers, friends, uncles, view us with.
If we cannot view not only our own hard-won achievements with pride and respect, but our peers’, we will always be subject to that pitying, amused smile that becomes associated with the statement “You’ve done so much.”
czar-ra-sultan (via smashasomebox)
(Source: wnq-writers.com, via smashasomebox)
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