Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
Hey campers, I just spent a while upgrading the blog and hopefully everything will be groovy and happy.
But… if it isn’t. Let me know via this post.
Update 01: You will have to login again as the whole password/security system has been changed. Fun! Not. Sorry.
Thanks!
Betty
At least here at Merrimack, they’ve got it good, even though they probably don’t know what’s right under their noses.
They get free films, for instance. I’ve been going to see them, which is kind of funny considering I don’t like most movies most of the time & don’t go see them – not American movies, anyway, or anything contemporary. They’re rarely worth the $10.
But Tuesday night I saw Deepa Mehta’s Earth, which is about the Partition of India in 1947, into India & Pakistan, and which came with Independence. It’s a stunning movie, & I’ve been thinking about the plot and themes and scenes and characters since I saw it. It’s a terrifying film, but deeply moving as well.
Last night I saw one of the earliest Theda Bara films, A Fool There Was, in which she plays her legendary vampire character, and afterwards they’re screening a documentary about her. A Fool There Was made so much money that it helped launch Fox Studios. It’s such a lovely rare treat to get to see a silent film on the big screen.
& In a couple of weeks, they’re screening a film about Dorothy Day, though it’s not the one that I missed when it played at the Brecht Forum in NYC.
I don’t know what it is about me, but the ladies in the cafeteria & some students (who aren’t in my class) as well as some administrators, seem to think I’m one of the students. It doesn’t matter how I’m dressed, though today, on a non-teaching day, being in jeans & hoodie probably doesn’t help. But even in a suit jacket, I’m still assumed to be a student. (Must be my acne.) There aren’t any grad students around, either.
Still, I’m wondering if I just don’t radiate professor. Probably I don’t, and I don’t think I will when I’m 80 years old, either.
I suppose the anarchy ring doesn’t help, nor do the new piercings, nor does the fact that the campus, in general, is pretty mainstream: sadly, no blue-haired kids, no goths that I’ve seen. A lot of athletes, though; I get the feeling a lot of people here have never met a NYC hipster before.
Our message board are a bit wonky and that may be due to a server upgrade by our hosting company. In the meantime, our own DSL is down so Betty isn’t online.
So please hold tight, folks.
As it turns out, Oprah will be recording a new show about trans – in fact, two shows (again!). We did not, unfortunately, make it on this time either, as the shows are focused on families & children. From what I know, the first will be about families in which there are children who are trans, and the second will be focusing on families where a parent (or both) is trans.
Thus, not us. And while I could rant & rave about the legitimacy of our family, because we ARE one, dammit, even though we don’t have children, I won’t, as the producer we’ve spoken to has been quite lovely and the whole experience very pleasant & encouraging.
I don’t know when the shows are airing, but I assume in not too long.
After much agonizing poking around code, I found myself unable to figure out just why you good people weren’t getting your temporary password when you registered for the blog.
Well, that’s probably because I’m not really a hacker or a coder.
But Dana Johnson is, and she figured it out!
So, two cheers to Dana!
Now, those of you who tried to register, please do it all over again and I’m pretty sure you’ll get your email with your temp password. Just be sure to change it to something you’ll remember.
So comment away!
xx
Betty
I’m turning the comment feature off because they’re getting spammed. I’m going to upgrade the blog software to something that might actually have a chance at blocking this stuff. When? Soon, I hope.
Thanks to everyone for your support and general all-around loveliness.
Hey folks, I’m doing a bit of site updates over the next week or so, hopefully it won’t get ugly or anything, but consider yourself warned!
Hey all, I managed to cut the file size in half of the promo video and it seems to be streaming now, which is a good thing. So, for those who didn’t get a chance to see it (and my lovely wife) check it out!
Helen’s asked me to post some of the links to “transnews” that I come across occasionally, and here’s an article about a recent court decision in New York favorable to transgender rights, rejecting the defendant’s argument that state and city human rights laws do not apply to transgendered people. (The lawsuit, which has been around for awhile, arose from a landlord’s eviction of a non-profit group from its building for allowing mtf transgendered clients to use the women’s bathroom.)