#gideon expresses lesbian desire on page one of book one

[gideonisms]

excuse me tlt lesbian desire callout post??

Yeah, about a year and a half ago, someone said "show me where the real lesbians are in this book," putting into motion a series of events that, not to be too sincere on this hellsite, would become the highlight of my year and a half,

[radicalfembabey]

🤝, 📚 , 💕 and 👀 for the radfem ask game?

🤝 - What introduced you to radical feminism?

[small tw for sexual violence mention] Okay this is gonna sound kinda weird but I first started seeing radfem takes on Pinterest! In like late freshman/early sophomore year of high school I was getting a lot more politically conscious; I had just taken AP Gov during the 2016 election, so it was a bit of a 0-60 kind of year for that. I remember scrolling through my feed looking through different posts related to reproductive rights and male violence, and a loooooot of posts that convinced me for a while that the libfem idea of gender was the "right" one.

I was a pretty raging TRA for a few months, but by the end of junior year I had been seeing more radfem takes - that just sort of happened by default when I saw gender-related posts, and then I started intentionally seeking them out to gloat about how dumb the radfems were. Then radfem posts started making a hell of a lot more sense than libfem ones.

I made this tumblr account and didn't even post anything, just really quietly followed some radfems on here and started looking through their blogs for a more comprehensive overview of radical feminist beliefs and also to see if anyone happened to have PDFs of radfem theory (again, all I really had to go off of was Pinterest, so not exactly the pinnacle of academia). In particular, I was looking through @rad-chocho 's posts, and saw one that was just a metric shit ton of TIMs expressing their desire to sexually harass, violate, or even brutalize and impregnate radfems. I peaked immediately, found all the radfem theory I could've wanted in a very convenient Google folder, started actually posting on this lovely blog, and haven't looked back since!

📚 - Any books to recommend?

In terms of radfem or related texts, I can't recommend "Invisible Women" by Caroline Criado-Perez enough. It's about 400 solid pages of statistics and research that dive into just how deeply misogyny is ingrained in societies worldwide, to the point that we don't even notice it the majority of the time. I would also totally recommend "The Myth of the Female Brain" by Gina Rippon; she's a highly esteemed neuroscientist and this book pretty much destroys the idea that a brain can be scanned and categorized as belonging to a man or a woman, and why. It's decently dense, and there's a lot of technical jargon, but she does an excellent job of explaining what terms mean and why it's important!

For other nonfiction texts that aren't radfem-related, if y'all are interested at all in paleontology, I've been really loving "Dinosaurs Without Bones" by Anthony J. Martin! It talks about trace fossils like footprints and burrows and how we can use these fossils to reconstruct what the lives of dinosaurs might have looked like, migratory patterns, predatory or pack behaviors, and a whole slew of other stuff. He even goes into these really vibrant narratives trying to imagine a holistic view of what the age of the dinosaurs might have looked like, based on trace fossils found during the same eras! Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but if you're a bit of a dino nerd like I am, you'll love it!

I have a love affair with fiction and I've been reading a ton of specifically lesbian fantasy! I've absolutely loved "Gideon the Ninth" and its sequels by Tamsyn Muir; she's hilarious, the worldbuilding is INSANELY interesting, and its a very slow burn about lesbian space necromancers, but if you're not ready to cry your eyeballs out of your skull then maybe wait on this one. I also really enjoyed our classic lesbian fantasy "The Priory of the Orange Tree" by Samantha Shannon, but that one's a maaaaajor commitment - like 800+ pages, with a lot of fascinating worldbuilding to understand - so definitely keep that in mind!

Also, if y'all have any recs for me, please don't hesitate to tell me!! I'm always looking for more material ❤️

💕 - Fave mutual?

Definitely on the @rad-chocho train today; I'll always be very grateful to have found her blog, and she's very sweet and knowledgeable!

👀 - Fave radblr blog you follow?

Gotta give it to our beloved @opabiniawillreturn , seeing her deactivate TRAs with a single application of the Socratic method never fails to make me laugh!!

[ucflibrary]

It’s Pride Month! Time for shouting out the celebration of the LGBTQIA community (yes, there are more than lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender in the queer community). June was chosen to honor the Stonewall Riots which happened in 1969. Like other celebratory months, LGBT Pride Month started as a weeklong series of events and expanded into a full month of festivities.

In honor of Pride Month, UCF Library faculty and staff suggested books, movies and music from the UCF collection that represent a wide array of queer authors and characters. Additional events at UCF in June include “UCF Remembers…6.12.16” which commemorate the shooting at the Pulse nightclub last year. These four events scheduled for June 8 (to avoid a conflict with other Pulse memorial events) include a blood drive at Memory Mall, an art gallery exhibit, “Reflections on Pulse” tribute event, and a “UCF Remember” ceremony.

Click Keep Reading to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the 20 titles by or about LGBTQIA people suggested by UCF Library employees.

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders An ancient society of witches and a hipster technological startup go war as the world from tearing itself. To further complicate things, each of the groups’ most promising followers (Patricia, a brilliant witch and Laurence, an engineering “wunderkind”) may just be in love with each other. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Been Here All Along by Sandy Hall Gideon always has a plan. It includes running for class president, becoming head of the yearbook committee, and having his choice of colleges. It does NOT include falling head over heels for his best friend, Kyle. It’s a distraction, it’s pointless—Kyle is already dating the head cheerleader, Ruby—and Gideon doesn’t know what to do. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. At the age of five, Jazz transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents. A year later, her parents allowed her to share her incredible journey in her first Barbara Walters interview. This groundbreaking interview was followed over the years by other high-profile interviews, a documentary, the launch of her YouTube channel, a picture book, and her own reality TV series—I Am Jazz—making her one of the most recognizable activists for transgender teens, children, and adults. In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on these very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community. Making the journey from girl to woman is never easy—especially when you began your life in a boy’s body. Suggested by Davina Hovanec, Information Technology & Digital Initiatives

Black Wave by Michelle Tea It's 1999—and Michelle's world is ending. Desperate to quell her addiction to drugs, disastrous romance, and nineties San Francisco, Michelle heads south for LA. But soon it's officially announced that the world will end in one year, and life in the sprawling metropolis becomes increasingly weird. While living in an abandoned bookstore, dating Matt Dillon, and keeping an eye on the encroaching apocalypse, Michelle begins a new novel, a sprawling and meta-textual exploration to complement her promises of maturity and responsibility. But as she tries to make queer love and art without succumbing to self-destructive vice, the boundaries between storytelling and everyday living begin to blur, and Michelle wonders how much she'll have to compromise her artistic process if she's going to properly ride out doomsday. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Bodies of Evidence: The Practice of Queer Oral History edited by Nan Alamilla Boyd, and Horacio N. Roque Ramrez Bodies of Evidence: The Practice of Queer Oral History is the first book to provide serious scholarly insight into the methodological practices that shape lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer oral histories. Each chapter pairs an oral history excerpt with an essay in which the oral historian addresses his or her methods and practices. With an afterword by John D'Emilio, this collection enables readers to examine the role memory, desire, sexuality, and gender play in documenting LGBTQ communities and cultures. The book also examines the production of comparative racial and sexual identities and the relative strengths of same-sexuality, cross-sexuality, and cross-ideology interviewing. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America by John Waters John Waters is putting his life on the line. Armed with wit, a pencil-thin mustache, and a cardboard sign that reads "I’m Not Psycho," he hitchhikes across America from Baltimore to San Francisco, braving lonely roads and treacherous drivers. Laced with subversive humor and warm intelligence, Carsick is an unforgettable vacation with a wickedly funny companion—and a celebration of America’s weird, astonishing, and generous citizenry. Suggested by Seth Dwyer, Circulation, and Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

Drag Teen: A Tale of Angst and Wigs by Jeffery Self A fantastic, fabulous, funny YA debut from Jeffery Self, one of the gay icons of the YouTube generation, that follows one high school student on a drag race to his future. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

From Broadway with Love: A Benefit Concert for Orlando produced by Michael J. Moritz Jr. and Van Dean Following the events that took place at Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016, the Broadway and Orlando theatre communities will unite to perform From Broadway with Love: A Benefit Concert for Orlando – a healing night of music and dance to honor the 49 victims. Net proceeds raised from the performance (royalties and artist fees waived) by From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Orlando were donated equally between the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida, Hope and Help Center of Central Florida and Zebra Coalition. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo Amanda Hardy is the new girl in school. Like anyone else, all she wants is to make friends and fit in. But Amanda is keeping a secret, and she’s determined not to get too close to anyone. But when she meets sweet, easygoing Grant, Amanda can’t help but start to let him into her life. As they spend more time together, she realizes just how much she is losing by guarding her heart. She finds herself yearning to share with Grant everything about herself, including her past. But Amanda’s terrified that once she tells him the truth, he won't be able to see past it. Suggested by Rachel Mulvihill, Teaching & Engagement

Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People by Viviane Namaste Through combined theoretical and empirical study, Viviane K. Namaste argues that transgendered people are not so much produced by medicine or psychiatry as they are erased, or made invisible, in a variety of institutional and cultural settings. Namaste begins her work by analyzing two theoretical perspectives on transgendered people—queer theory and the social sciences—displaying how neither of these has adequately addressed the issues most relevant to sex change: everything from employment to health care to identity papers. Namaste then examines some of the rhetorical and semiotic inscriptions of transgendered figures in culture, including studies of early punk and glam rock subcultures, to illustrate how the effacement of transgendered people is organized in different cultural sites. Invisible Lives concludes with new research on some of the day-to-day concerns of transgendered people, offering case studies in violence, health care, gender identity clinics, and the law. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

La Cage Aux Folles directed by Edouard Molinaro La Cage aux Folles is a 1978 Franco-Italian comedy film and the first film adaptation of Jean Poiret's 1973 play of the same name. It is co-written and directed by Édouard Molinaro and stars Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault.Like the play, the film tells the story of a gay couple – Renato Baldi (Ugo Tognazzi), the manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin Mougeotte (Michel Serrault), his star attraction – and the madness that ensues when Renato's son, Laurent (Rémi Laurent), brings home his fiancée, Andrea (Luisa Maneri), and her ultra-conservative parents (Carmen Scarpitta and Michel Galabru) to meet them. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

Orlando by Virginia Woolf Orlando doubles as first an Elizabethan nobleman and then as a Victorian heroine who undergoes all the transitions of history in this novel that examines sex roles and social mores. Suggested by Mary Page, Administration

Precious Perversions: Humor, Homosexuality, and the Southern Literary Canon by Tison Pugh Drawing from works of key queer, Southern writers, Pugh sets forth a new vision of Southern literature-- one illuminated by the humor of gay voices no longer at the margins. Dr. Pugh is an Associate Professor in the UCF English Department. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

Prelude to a Bruise by Saeed Jones How do we reckon our past without being ravaged by it? How do we use people, and their bodies, to express ourselves? Saeed Jones works as the editor of BuzzfeedLGBT. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Queer Praxis: Questions for LGBTQ Worldmaking edited by Dustin Bradley Goltz and Jason Zingsheim Amidst rapid advances of mainstream gay and lesbian platforms, questions of essential sexual identities, queered rituals of family, queered notions of intimacy, queer considerations of time, and the possibility and value of queered systems of relation are largely absent. Resisting the public face of a normative and homogenous gay and lesbian community, and embracing a broadened conception of queerness, this book brings together 29 writers – a diverse community of scholars, lovers, and activists – to explore queer theory and embodied experiences within interpersonal relations and society at large. Readers gain familiarity with key concepts in queer thought, but also observe how these ideas can be navigated and negotiated in the social world. Queer Praxis serves as a model for queer relationality, enlisting transnational feminist, critical communication, and performance studies approaches to build dialogue across and through differing subjectivities. Suggested by Carrie Moran, User Engagement Librarian

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met. Suggested by Martha Cloutier, Circulation

The Gay Agenda: Claiming Space, Identity, and Justice edited by Gerald Walton The «gay agenda» is a rhetorical strategy deployed by the religious right and other social conservatives to magnify fear and hostility of queers. Queers are accused, among other things, of strategizing to recruit children into sexually deviant lifestyles; dismantling family and marriage as cornerstones of civilization; and forcing the entertainment industry and court systems to do their bidding. Queers certainly do have an agenda but it is not the one that the religious right claims it is. It is to assert their presence in the public space; claim and name their identities; and strategize for social justice in law, schools, and workplaces. The Gay Agenda: Claiming Space, Identity, and Justice claims and reclaims the language of «agenda» and turns the rhetoric of the religious right on its ear. The contributors provide insightful and sharp commentary on gay agendas for human rights, marriage and family, cultural influences, schooling and education, and politics and law. Suggested by Carrie Moran, User Engagement Librarian

The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village by Samuel R Delany In this unexpurgated edition of his award-winning autobiography, Samuel R. Delany beautifully, vividly,and insightfully calls up the 1960s era of exploration and adventure in the Lower East Side of New York City. He details his development as a black gay writer in an open marriage, with tertiary walk-ons by Bob Dylan, Stokely Carmichael, W. H. Auden, and James Baldwin. Suggested by Mary Lee Gladding-Swan, Circulation

Times Square Red, Times Square Blue by Samuel R Delany Times Square Red, Times Square Blue paints a portrait of a society dismantling the institutions that promote communication between classes, and disguising its fears of cross-class contact as "family values." Unless we overcome our fears and claim our "community of contact," it is a picture that will be replayed in cities across America. Suggested by Mary Lee Gladding-Swan, Circulation

Transgender Warriors Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman by Leslie Feinberg In this fascinating, personal journey through history, Leslie Feinberg uncovers persuasive evidence that there have always been people who crossed the cultural boundaries of gender. Transgender Warriors is an eye-opening jaunt through the history of gender expression and a powerful testament to the rebellious spirit. Suggested by Davina Hovanec, Information Technology & Digital Initiatives