#queering literature

[enbycrip]

I was discussing with a mate what actively makes a piece of media Queer as opposed to just featuring same-gender attraction.

I am a big fan of Queer being a verb as well as an adjective.

I wouldn’t call Romeo and Juliet queer because while it’s transgressive within the frame of the narrative, it’s *not* transgressive within the wider cultural framing? A young hetero couple from different sides of a conflict being married was so incredibly acceptable that it was a long-established practice for establishing peace - to the extent that the Friar even mentions that within the text as part of his reason for facilitating the marriage outside the strict norms of parental consent and acceptance?

Plus the whole framing of choice-led marriage as a force for societal harmony was such an influential trope at that particular period, particularly within Elizabethan England’s newly Protestant culture? Virginity was no longer prized the way it had been in a more Catholic culture, nor was the remote idealisation of courtly love. Instead you get a young different-gender couple who choose *married love*. In the context this was written, this was almost the *opposite* of Queer.

I’d say that, for a text to be Queer, it needs to not only transgress both norms internal and external to the text, but also flip those norms in a way that actively invites the reader to reconsider those norms in a new light? It’s why I’d call so many of Shakespeare’s comedies queer in a way Romeo and Juliet isn’t, because, even though everything goes hetero at the end to fit theatrical conventions about comedies ending with a marriage, they are this space where gender becomes fluid and playful, and *that’s* what you walk away with the impression of from the play? The hetero endings are so enforced it’s kind of deliberately ridiculous?

It’s why I feel Queerness includes readings and depictions of disability that aren’t any of the standard boxes that it is so often shoved into in media. If a disabled character isn’t “inspiring”, or “pitiable”; if they’re not artificially helpless, or completely unaffected by their disability, and, more than anything, if *they* are the centre of the text, with genuine agency, and the text is about *them*, not about their effect on abled characters, that definitely queers a text to me.

And *more* so if it centres their desires and their desirability as a character. Not that they can’t be asexual; asexuality is *very* queer, but if they are not *artificially* desexualised, as disabled characters so often are.

[sleeplessv0id]

what doesn't kill you makes you weird at intimacy

[genderqueerdykes]

from Original Plumbing, a publication for and by transmasculine people.

What's your favorite part of being a transsexual?

"While I often wish I was born a bio boy and didn't have to go through all of this, it's more often that I find it a blessing to have lived and experienced both sides of life, sex and gender and get to play in-between. To have been a girl, a woman, a lesbian, a dyke, a tomboy, a 'questioning', a boy, and now a queer man is pretty amazing and fucking hot!"

[virginwithasthma]

"Modern retelling" and it's a blatant misinterpretation of the original text

[nekhcore]

HEY YOU!

Yeah, you! Are you trans? Do you like reading books? Or watching movies?

Do you like media about trans men/transmasculine characters but don't know where to find it?

That's sooo crazy because I have this little spreadsheet I'm working on where I'm trying to document all media with protagonists/major characters who are FTM or transmasculine.

The spreadsheet currently has 400+ entries spread across the following categories:

Books

Manga

Memoirs and non-fiction

Movies

TV Shows

Graphic novels / Comics

Webcomics

Audio dramas

Books and movies are also sorted by:

Which character is trans (MC, love interest, antagonist, etc)

If the trans character is POC

The trans character's sexuality (Because I saw lots of transhet guys sad about only being able to find gay romances)

If the author/actor is also trans (if we know for sure)

It's free to use, and free to add to as well! Editing permissions are on, and I check on the spreadsheet every now and then to make sure everything is in order and to clean up.

If you know something that isn't on the list, please add it! You don't have to fill in every single column, but fill it to the best of your abilities.

If you don't want to use the big ass long link below, you can also use: bit.ly/FTM-protags

I made this because I want it to be a community resource. So even if you're not a trans guy or transmasculine person, please reblog!

[elainiisms]

*me at the club* so does anyone wanna discuss queer undertones in classic literature?

[spoonsbutbetter]

please laugh, it’s 4:17am here and i’m GIGGLING

[everyponie]

transreads.org is a fantastic resource for queer literature and history, and the best part is that it's FREE! There's no excuse to be ignorant when the information is being handed to you like this.

Leslie Feinberg also has all of hir works free online if you are particularly interested in lesbian history and literature. They are available as downloadable PDFs, and I believe they are on the internet archive aswell.

transreads.org also has a great section on Palestinian queer literature if that's something that interests you, it's important that we learn about queerness outside of America. I've dabbled in a few of these books and essays and poems and they're very cool! I really do enjoy learning about queerness in other cultures, I hope you all can find joy in that too!!

if you have any good queer resources that you'd like to share pls comment or add it to a reblog!! I'll probably make a bigger masterpost later, or perhaps a Google document.

[that-butch-archivist]

"rockstar" by Chloë Brushwood Rose, 2000

source: Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity, edited by Chloë Brushwood Rose & Anna Camilleri

[channary]

EXCUSE ME?

[degenderates]

— Tony Kushner, Angels in America

[floral-ashes]

Remember when I published this in a serious journal and everyone thought it was very funny?

Well, Gender/Fucking: The Pleasures and Politics of Living in a Gendered Body is basically where I stake my claim at being a depraved freak. 😉

Don’t wait! Get your copy now! Available on Bookshop and plenty more.

[campgender]

butch trans women: a butch voices 2011 panel

…the transcript!

as far as i can tell, the captions on youtube are fairly accurate, but creating a full transcript was still important to me for a few reasons: accessibility, archival, & resources. 1) especially for people who can’t listen to the audio, i think the transcript is a lot easier to read with punctuation, speaker notation, etc. 2) i’m always concerned about the possibility of youtube videos being taken down (by the creator or more likely youtube itself) & text documents are a lot easier than video to share & store, including offline. 3) whenever possible i incorporated updated & archived links of resources mentioned as well as pdf backups.

watch, read, share with your friends, add to your trans microlibrary (@thetransfemininereview), print out & put on your bookshelf, & most importantly remember butch trans women are a vital part of butch/femme history, present, & future❣️

google doc / pdf link

[genderqueerdykes]

From Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America, written by Gregory D. Smithers.

[Image ID: A photograph of a page from the book mentioned above which reads:

PROLOGUE

Two Spirit Natives are sacred

Lesbian Natives are sacred

Gay Natives are sacred

Bisexual Natives are sacred

Trans Natives are sacred

Queer Natives are sacred

Intersex Natives are sacred

Nonbinary Natives are sacred

- NATIVE AMERICANS in Philanthropy

End image ID.]

[sleeplessv0id]

being snuggly and cuddly at heart 🤝 having a crippling fear of being a bother.