i’ve come across several references online that have confirmed that bitch’s performance has been cancelled at the boston dyke march. apparently, this was initiated by some trans activists who did not approve of a musical artist who also performs at the michigan womyn’s music festival.
so, do we also stop buying indigo girls cd’s because they record on the sony music label, whose management engages in offensive and highly questionable behavior?
apparently, lgbt artists are also being silenced in the world of movies, as the gendicator was cancelled from showing at the san francisco lgbt film festival.
i am going on record here and now in saying that this type of silencing and censureship must stop. if we are to survive as human beings, we must allow everyone their voice.
i own and enjoy several indigo girls cd’s. i own and enjoy a bitch cd. and frankly, if gendercator comes to phoenix, i will buy a ticket and see it. or if it becomes available on itunes, i will buy it, download it, and watch it. then, and only then, will i offer an opinion about it.
and speaking on opinions, there are some comments on heart’s post like:
transsexuals seem to be focused on cultural gender roles and “feeling” like a woman…
which i totally disagree with, and i believe also perpetuate stereotypes about trans people. no kiuku, i am not focused on cultural gender roles, and i don’t “feel” like a woman. unless of course, you’d like to describe exactly what a woman feels like, and i’d be able to tell you whether or not i feel like one.
for the time being, i’m content in saying i feel only like me, because that’s the only experience i’ve had, and therefore, the only experience i’m qualified to speak to. and for the record, i feel like a trans person.
so while the commenters on that thread are complaining about silencing, please, stop silencing me and mine, and perhaps we’ll be able to work together in building a community dedicated to our survival. you know, if a man decides to rape me, he’s not going to initiate a chromosome test to make sure i was born a woman. he’s just going to rape me, same as you. just like my employer will impose that glass ceiling, without same chromosome test. just like people will dismiss my opinions, without said test.
i may be trans, but i move through the world as a woman, just like you. like it or not, we are in this together, even if i set off some people’s manometers. the people i encounter in the world, see and treat me as a woman, just like you.
Nexy, did you see my post about what happened at the Boston Dyke March? I was there Friday night.
Couching what happened regarding Bitch as “transpeople vs. lesbians” is just not accurate. The movement to stop her from performing was not started by a transperson. The committee who decided to disinvite her was not stocked with transpeople. The crowd who cheered when a member of the committee read a statement saying they did it to ensure that everyone should feel welcome there was almost entirely made of women-born-women.
Of course, our detractors have already couched this as if it were our doing, yours and mine Nexy.
Like you i did not agree with the decision and i publically stated last week that i did not support it. I don’t like the divisiveness and the adversity and do not think that this is a matter where some people should “win” and some should “lose.” We all “win” when we recognize the strength in unity that celebrates diversity. We all win when we recognize that we can have voices that disagree under the same roof.
But i think this is also a case where people in the lesbian community who support transfolk have been pushed to real anger, seeing their friends and lovers excluded and repeatedly detracted and agitated against.
Comment by sabrinastar — June 11, 2007 @ 7:10 am
Well said, Nexy.
I guess if both sides stopped exchanging barbs and realized how we’re all in this together, then things woul dbe better. Till then, there will always be those opinionated people who want to exclude others.
Comment by Colleen — June 11, 2007 @ 8:12 am
Sorry Nexy,
I disagree with your premise to begin with. The promoters and the community that attends the march have no mandate to include anyone. Censorship is “the systematic use of group power to broadly control freedom of speech and expression, largely in regard to secretive matters.” This isn’t a matter of public policy, but group choice.
As for the Indigo Girls, I don’t BUY their music ;). I support the musicians by going to shows, since that’s where they make the majority of their money.
Comment by Marti Abernathey — June 11, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
Could someone please explain to me why Bitch has been targeted? Is it something she has said or done, a position she has taken? If so, is there a link to a quote to her own words? Or is it just because she performs at Michfest?
Comment by hypatia's child — June 12, 2007 @ 7:32 am
this is an example of the issues some had with bitch performing there.
this is an interview with bitch during which she speaks of her position.
Comment by nexy — June 12, 2007 @ 8:42 am
hypatia’s child,
It’s not just because of where she performs. Bitch has made public statements in support of the policy of trans-exclusion at Michfest. In my account of the Dyke March here i quoted a sample of what she has said:
Comment by sabrinastar — June 12, 2007 @ 12:26 pm
Honestly, Nexy, I don’t see censorship here.
Nobody’s tried to suppress Bitch’s ability to speak for herself and her viewpoints, nobody’s tried to sabotage her career, and nobody’s barring her from attending the event. They–the Boston dyke community–have simply chosen not to use their community’s resources to extend her a platform because of some of those views. Why should they give their money to a celebrity to headline their event–to, in effect, represent them and their values and their pride–if they don’t feel she’s in line with how their community works?
I don’t see why, say, a black pride march that includes black Jews or black peole who partner with Jews should be obligated to invite Louis Farrakhan as a keynote speaker, nor a homophobic Baptist college give their commencement address to a religious-left activist from Soulforce just because they’re all Christian.
Bitch is free to go, do, and say what she likes; likewise, the makers of “The Gendercator” can promote their film however they like, and nobody’s trying to prevent other people from seeing it or destroy the film. But a community that includes folks who feel attacked by those artists–including a dyke community that has in it trans people, partners and family of trans people, and allies who simply hold the principle that our rights are important–should never be obligated to use their resources to extend a platform to them or set them up in a position where those artists represent that community.
I just don’t see the censorship there. I also don’t see the prevention of other people from seeking out those artists and engaging with their work. It’s just the community exercising its right to refrain from supporting people who they feel are doing harm to people they care about, in a specific context.
Similarly, if the Boston Dyke March had invited the Indigo Girls to headline, and then as a community determined that they felt the implicit endorsement of Sony’s other artists was problematic, they would have every right not to invite, promote, and pay a group they felt wasn’t in line with their community’s values. And folk in the community who disagreed with that ruling would also have every right to fight that decision among their fellows and try to have it changed.
Comment by little light — June 13, 2007 @ 8:43 pm
where do we, as a community, draw the line? and who gets to decide? dykes? trans people? gays? bisexuals? how far do we take this? do we stop buying or listening to beatle albums because john lennon said that the beatles were more popular than jesus? do we stop buying dixie chick albums because natalie maines said she was ashamed the president of the united states is from texas”? do we stop going to their concerts? or hiring them to play at our events? do we change the channel when they appear on tv? how do we reconcile cancelling lgbt performers being cancelled at lgbt events?
Comment by nexy — June 14, 2007 @ 12:27 am
We draw the line at being able to draw our own lines. You don’t like the Dixie Chicks, you don’t listen to them, and you don’t pay them to get on a stage at your event and represent you. I like them, so I go buy their album. Your call. My call.
The Boston Dyke March’s call was to cancel the Bitch performance. Your local community might be faced with similar choices, and it’s their call. Nobody gets to say “But that performer is queer. So our call is that you have to not cancel her at your event.” It’s that community’s call who they have headlining their celebration, and it’s yours when it’s your community.
They get to decide for themselves. If some statement or connection from some artist doesn’t jive with your values to the point where you can’t feel you can support them, you don’t support them. If, on balance, you feel okay about it, support them.
What line is there to draw? You want to change the channel, change the channel. You want not to, don’t. You don’t want the person next to you on the couch to change it, you talk to them about it, you know?
Not every LGBT performer is or should be welcome in every LGBT community. Dan Savage is a gay man, but he’s said some pretty unfortunately things about bisexuals and trans people. Why should a gathering of bisexual or trans people have to treat him as “one of their own” for the sake of the LGBT political alliance? Where do they have to draw the line? Are they obligated to invite him to an event? Invite him to speak? Invite him to speak about them? Encourage each other to buy his book? Just because he’s gay?
Bitch is queer. The community that decided not to make her its headlining star in Boston is also queer. That doesn’t mean they agree on everything, or don’t have the right to make their own calls about her positions and how those positions affect them. There is no obligation to use your resources to support and endorse someone you disagree with just because you’re both “LGBT.” I draw the line making sure people are allowed to make their own decisions about who they support.
Some other community event–the Austin Dyke March, maybe, or the San Francisco Dyke March–may decide, as a group, that they have no problem with Bitch headlining for them. That’s their call, too. I’m not going to second-guess Boston’s call about what they feel is best for their own folks.
I don’t see, considering that you’ve said in the past that you support, say, Michfest’s policy to decide who they let in for themselves, how you can simultaneously have a problem with the Boston Dyke March’s deciding that they, too, can decide for themselves–and it’s not even a decision on who to let in, just who they’re going to put up front and give their resources to! How is one group’s autonomy okay, and the other’s isn’t?
Comment by little light — June 14, 2007 @ 4:32 pm
“I don’t see, considering that you’ve said in the past that you support, say, Michfest’s policy to decide who they let in for themselves, how you can simultaneously have a problem with the Boston Dyke March’s deciding that they, too, can decide for themselves”
good point. i’ll have to think about this.
Comment by nexy — June 15, 2007 @ 12:46 am
yeah, i mean: people protest Shirley Q. Liquor performing at certain clubs, because, yanno: racist. I’m not real sold on the whole “freedom of speech!” riff and “can’t we all just get along?” there, any more than I am wrt Don Imus getting canned is “censorship.”
I mean, you see the irony here, right? (well yeah, someone just made that same point). She’s defending certain groups like MichFest’s right to include or exclude whoever they want. So, another organization says, okay, in that case -we- don’t want -you,- and NOW suddenly it’s so totally unfair?
Look, we’re not all going to just get along, no matter how much some of us wish it were so or want to keep extending the olive branch. The people in that Heart thread–I’ve never seen so much ass-backward rationalization in my life. “The Lavender Menace,” well yes, in fact. Someone who kept rabbiting on about the “lavender menace” -now- who got disinvited to a feminist organization–know what? No sympathy from here. Who’s being divisive, again?
Comment by belledame222 — June 16, 2007 @ 8:32 pm