Maskandthewearer - :)

[“Growing up in an upwardly mobile English-educated family in Kolkata meant that I had access to the United States Information Services and British Council libraries, where I would spend countless hours devouring the Atlantic Quarterly or Signs, learning about the emerging LGBT and new wave feminist movements. The splashy images from the twentieth anniversary celebrations of Stonewall in 1989 inspired some of us to start the first gay and lesbian support group in Kolkata.

We would spend hours in cruising parks and women’s studies gatherings doing outreach for support group meetings. Soon we connected with support groups in local cities and recently formed LGBT South Asian groups in major cities of the US and UK. We organized the first International South Asian conference on “Histories of Alternate Sexualities” in New Delhi in 1993 and in the following year the first International South Asian conference of gay men and men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM). Tensions existed along class and gender lines, and any conversations with Hijras (often referred to as third-sex-third-gender in South Asian countries) were barely happening. Our publications had to be trilingual to reflect the complex linguistic contexts of India, but at support group meetings, Bengali and Hindi-speaking men and women would often remain silenced.

At the core of these tensions was our own internalized classism and homophobia. The key organizers of these fledgling LGBT support groups were all upper-middle class English-educated men and women. We were well-trained, respectable Indian citizens. The feminine voices and flamboyant mannerisms of the non-English speaking Kothis were too disruptive for us. I would act polite and smile as I met Kothis in cruising parks and I would hand them flyers for the support group, yet secretly I hoped they would never show up at meetings. In the parks, they would walk in small groups, wear facial makeup, and speak in street Bengali. Their loud mannerisms and shabby clothing felt alien compared to my English-speaking, denim-sporting, globetrotting “gay” world.

Yet when I was harassed by cops at the parks, it was Kothis who came to my defense. One such incident happened on a dark winter evening. I was caught carrying condoms in my bag by the local police, who would haunt the cruising joints hoping to extract money from “cocksucking Kothis.” The two cops threatened to arrest me for distributing “profane materials.” I was nervous, and yet kept talking to them in English and broken Bengali, telling them that I worked for family planning programs. The cops laughed loudly at all my pleas. Three of the Kothis came running, yelling and clapping loudly, cursing the hell out of the cops. A small crowd gathered, and ultimately the cops left. As I began to mingle more with the Kothis, I began to face my own inner prejudices and fears. I learned that loud mannerisms, claps, and street-smartness were their way of surviving the harsh realities of working class femme men in Kolkata. I went on to build friendships with several Kothis. We would sit on a park bench and giggle over how we would love to be the “wives” of hot butch men.”]

— debanuj dasgupta, from trans/nationally femme: notes on neoliberal economic regimes, security states, and my life as a brown immigrant fag, from why are faggots so afraid of faggots? flaming challenges to masculinity, objectification, and the desire to conform, edited by mattilda bernstein sycamore.

Look at the love of my life being a badass energy

:-) 🌿

also eloise bridgerton is conceptually the most hilarious character on the whole show. claims to be a feminist but every time her fellow women talk about their artistic pursuits or hobbies or interests or ambitions she’s like ugh you all fucking suck. not me though. i’m different. i want to be like my brothers. and then she has no real talents of her own. she’s not a feminist she’s still a reactionary turbohater AND a girlfailure. what she’s trying and failing to articulate is that she’s a lesbian.

every morning i wake up and make the worst possible time management decisions anyone has ever made

I want to see the notes of Kusuos dad. I need to see them‼️

It’s generally about his parents, I have more stuff that is tangentially related to them but that’s in my Kusuke section (which is much longer), plus all my on-paper stuff

i hate it when guys knit/crochet and are all like ‘ooooo i’m breaking ~gender norms~’ no ur not. arthur did that shit twenty years ago. you are nothing special

I didn’t see them announcing the news

David Slack warning against AMPTP trying to turn the unions against each other, and stating the facts.