Exit: Eve

Betty and I learned the sad news this week that the founder of the Jean Cocteau Repertory and one of the regular directors of the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Eve Adamson, died suddenly this week. She was 69 years old.
She started the Cocteau in the 70s in the East Village; she was the first to stage the Ballet Trocadero in New York. When Betty went to her to explain her gender issues, she didn’t miss a beat, and reminded us that she knew Candy Darling.
She was that kind of artistic person, a New Yorker who was around when New York was reinventing the world, & art, & culture. It was people like her who created the New York I wanted to live in. It seems somehow fitting to me that she would make her exit the same month that CBGB will finally close its doors; they were both of an era that is over.
But more than that, she was a woman who formed a theatre company in the 70s, when the theatre world was still very much a man’s world (which, some say, it still is). But there is no doubt it was in the 70s, and she did the classics – but always insisted on them being relevant to today’s audience.
Seeing her direction of Oedipus in the days after 9/11 with the actors intoning, “My city, my city…” brought that out a little too clearly.
She directed the last play that Tennesee Williams would see premiered in New York in his lifetime.
Without women like her, I couldn’t be doing what I do now. It is reassuring in her death to know that she did what she wanted to do for most of her life; she kept doing her art, she kept telling her actors to find their light, she kept breathing new life into classic plays and bringing whole new audiences under their sway.
Eve, theatre will miss you, New York will miss you, & I will miss you.
Her friends and fans are free to leave their own messages here.

Answers (to the Feminist Quiz)

  1. In what year, and how, did American women get the vote?
    1920, 19th Amendment
  2. Who is the only woman the United States government has ever honored with a commemorative coin?
    Susan B. Anthony
  3. Looking at a photograph of famous women at the formation of the National Women’s Political Caucus, Nixon asked his secretary of state what he thought it looked like. What was the response?
    A burlesque
  4. When did the first issue of Ms. Magazine appear?
    first Dec 20, 1971 as a 40-pg supplement in New York magazine
    first full issue was in the spring of 1972
  5. What important document was issued at Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848?
    The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
  6. When, and by whom, was the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) introduced?
    1923, the National Woma(e?)n’s Party
  7. What was referred to in Washington as the “Bunny Law”?
    The sex provision in the Civil Rights Act
  8. What common feminist slogan was first used at an anti-war protest in Washington DC in 1968?
    Sisterhood is powerful
  9. On the subject of slogans – The office of the editor-in-chief of a popular women’s magazine was taken over for nine hours on March 18, 1970 by a large group of women led by Susan Brownmiller. What magazine was it, and what was and is still the slogan of the magazine?
    Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman
  10. What was the Oak Room Invasion of 1969?
    NOW sponsored an invasion of the men¹s-only clubroom at The Plaza in NYC
  11. How was Our Bodies, Ourselves written? By whom?
    12 white, middle-class women ages 24-40 in Boston, 1969 were involved in a group. The book emerged from a series of papers from the group.
  12. When was the National Organization of Women (NOW) founded? What was its policy towards men at the time? Who was its first chair?
    1966, men were very specifically INCLUDED, Dr. Kathryn F. Clarenbach
  13. Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is one of the most famous feminist works, and the theory is widely known. It is less well known that she has also written about the feminist mystique, in her later book, The Second Stage. What is this feminist mystique?
    A false polarization of feminist and family‹a denial that the core of who a woman is is fulfilled by love, nurture, and home. It is possible to have a home, family and love and still be feminist, she says.
  14. Who wrote the book Confessions of a Feminist Man?
    Floyd Dell
  15. On the fiftieth anniversary of women’s suffrage, there was a large demonstration on 5th Ave, NYC. What was the march?
    [The first annual (not critical)] Women¹s March For Equality
  16. Who was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1975?
    Twelve women
  17. Who released the popular children’s album Free to Be You and Me?
    Marlo Thomas
  18. Explain the original purpose of the “powder room.”
    men powdered their wigs there in Colonial times
  19. When was the UN Decade for Women?
    began in 1976, of all years!
  20. When did NASA accept its first women astronauts?
    1978
  21. Since what year have women outnumbered men in America?
    1950
  22. What US college was first to allow women?
    Oberlin (1833)
  23. Describe the origin of the I.U.D.
    pits were inserted into the uterus of a camel so it would not get pregnant on long desert voyages.

Thanks to Williams College for the quiz and the answers.

Three More Ways

Three more ways you can help the larger trans community, according to NCTE:
#26: Make a Restroom More Accessible to Trans People
&
#27: Collaborate with another group on a community project or social event.
&
#28: Work to pass an anti-discrimination policy at your workplace
Eventually there will be 52 suggestions, one per week, listed at the NCTE website.

A Letter from Paisley Currah

I received this today & as an author of books on trans subject, I thought I should make it available for more of you to see. There is very little out there that recognizes good scholarship/writing on the part of transfolks.

Friends,
Some of you know that, in addition to being a transgender rights advocate, I’m also the Executive Director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS). Much of my work at CLAGS focuses on supporting writing, research, and advocacy about and for trans people.
I’m emailing you because, as activists, a scholars, or as scholar-activists, I know you’re interested in research on trans issues, and that you might be interested in supporting this work by making a donation to the Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies, a prize CLAGS gives out each year for the best piece of published writing in transgender studies. The 2004 winner was Jamison Green, for his book, Becoming a Visible Man. It probably won’t come as a surprise to many of you that there is still little recognition of transgender studies in the academy, and in publishing generally, so the very existence of this award does much to promote the work of those writing about transgender people.
I’m very proud of the work that we do at CLAGS to further transgender studies and advocacy, among other things. But here’s the thing–less than 7% of CLAGS’s operating costs come from the university that houses us. Almost all our work depends on the support of individuals and foundations. And all of the support for our fellowships, including the Sylvia Rivera Award, comes from individuals like you.
So please do consider supporting transgender studies by making a donation of any size (even a $10 or $20 donation would help a lot , $100 or $200 even more !) towards the Sylvia Rivera Award. Donations to the Sylvia Rivera Award count will also entail you to a CLAGS membership, including a subscription to CLAGSnews, other member benefits, and my undying love and gratitude.
You can make your donation online, right now. Just go to our donations page and choose “Sylvia Rivera Award” under “your support.” Or, you can send a check to CLAGS, Room 7115, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016.
For those of you who don’t know about CLAGS, here’s some background–CLAGS was established in 1991 at the Graduate Center campus of the City University of New York as the first and only university-base research center for Lesbian /Gay /Transgender /Bisexual /Queer (LGTBQ) issues, histories and ideas. For more than a dozen years, CLAGS has worked to foster and disseminate LGTBQ thought to the country through its public programming (panels, colloquium series, conferences), outreach efforts (free reading and discussion groups), and resources (a far-reaching newsletter, well-trafficked website, a book series with NYU Press). And in May 2005, we hosted a national conference, “Trans Politics, Social Change, and Justice.” More in-depth information about the trans conference and CLAGS in general can be found at our website, www.clags.org.
Thanks so much for considering my request.
All my best,
Paisley
Paisley Currah / Executive Director / Center for Lesbian and Gays Studies (CLAGS) / http://www.clags.org &
Director / Transgender Law & Policy Institute / http://www.transgenderlaw.org
The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) / Graduate Center, Room 7115 / City University of New York / 365 Fifth Avenue / New York, NY 10016
For more information about CLAGS’s events, programs, conferences, colloquia, and fellowships, to add to or search our directory of LGBTQ Studies, to join our mailing list, or to find out how to become a member, please visit our web site at www.clags.org.To make an online donation to CLAGS, go to our page at Groundspring..

You're a Bigger One

From a book called The Forty-Nine Percent Majority: The Male Sex Role:

“Hawks” on the issue of war are considered more masculine than “doves;” when Senator Goodell changed his position from supporter of Vietnam to critic, Spiro Agnew christened him the “Christine Jorgensen of the Republican Party.”

He is explaining how the four ‘commandments’ of masculinity make up ways to be considered masculine if you’re a man, and they include: 1) No Sissy Stuff; 2) The Big Wheel; 3) The Sturdy Oak; and 4) Give ‘Em Hell. He talks about the way masculinity’s requirements gets more flexible into adulthood because having high status can eliminate or less the need for physical power and aggressiveness, which are required for adolescents who don’t have as much access to status and accomplishment yet. Then he goes on to clarify:

But one rule has not changed appreciably: the old first commandment of No Sissy Stuff! remains intact, with almost all the force it possessed in the testing period of adolescence.

Saturday Night

Saturday night, Betty and I went to a birthday party for the President of NCTE that was also an NCTE fundraiser, and while we didn’t stay long, we did manage to find Michelle and Mara Keisling – and took them with us to Silver Swan once Betty and I paid for one beer + one glass of wine that cost us $17.
We met a CD from Chicago named Rebecca while we were there, & she took a nice photo of the bunch of us, and since she got everyone’s permission to post it on her blog, I thought I’d cross-post it here:
swan group
Back Row: Betty, Michelle
Front Row: Helen, Mara, Michelle, Jamie, Rebecca.

We didn’t stay till 6am with all of them, but we did go home awfully late & awfully drunk. (Okay, well I was drunk, but that’s because I haven’t adjusted to how fast I get drunk now that I’m dieting & can’t eat a bowl of pasta before I go out = cheap date.)
& No, we’re never going back to Crobar again. Way too bridge and tunnel for me, and I hate clubs where everyone’s wearing jeans and t-shirts. BOring. Though while we were in a cab, an SUV full of party girls started emptying its contents, groups of two & threes of these trashy looking girls, & they just kept coming until it was like a skank version of a clown car. Very amusing.

Five Questions With… Holly Boswell

Holly Boswell helped launch the transgender movement with her groundbreaking essay “The Transgender Alternative” in 1990. S/he has been the chief architect of Southern Comfort‘s programs since 1991, and is a regular presenter at several conferences. In 1986 s/he co-founded the Phoenix Trans Support group in Asheville, NC, in ’93 founded the alternative Trans-Spiritual community known as Kindred Spirits, hosts the Bodhi Tree House, and directs the Traveling Medicine Show.
photo of holly boswell
 

1) Recently our message boards have been discussing the way “transgender” seems to be coming to mean – in the popular/media usage – “transsexual.” As someone who self-identifies as a transgenderist, how do you feel about this new usage?
I reject the usage you describe of the term “transgender” as coming to mean “transsexual” — if indeed that is really happening. That is totally erroneous. “Trans” means to cross: either vestments, gender, or biological sex. All of these categories cross the lines of gender, which is why the word “transgender” has come to be an umbrella term for the entire Trans Community, such as it is gradually formulating itself out of its own amazing diversity. Transsexuality comprises only a small (perhaps 10%) segment of the overall Trans Community, and yet it receives the lion’s share of attention because it is so dramatic and sensational. Please, let us respect our terminologies, as well as the roots of our word meanings, so that we can continue to make sense out of our own personally complex equations, without abandoning our ability to communicate our truth to mainstream culture through a common language.
Continue reading “Five Questions With… Holly Boswell”