By Masha Gessen — 2021
The opposition is cast as one between cis-girl athletes on the one hand and a vast liberal conspiracy on the other.
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CLEAR ALL
So many of the little rituals I have each day—like my makeup or skincare routine—do help soothe and/or rejuvenate me. For me, any type of solo practiced routine is good. But I’ve learned that self-care does not, and cannot, sustain me. And I believe that this may be the case for many of you.
Creating spaces where the need to assimilate, conform, and belong are no longer important
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Xe/xem, ze/zir, and fae/faer are catching on as alternatives for transgender and nonbinary people
“Creating Joy In Community,” the first residential retreat for transgender people, brought together 50 members of the transgender, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, and non-binary community at Big Bear Retreat Center in California.
When I told my family I was trans, one of their initial reactions was, “But you’re so hairy! It’s going to be so difficult to remove all your hair to be a woman, so you should just give up.” They were zeroing in on my body hair as the barrier for me to be seen as feminine.
One of life’s paradoxes is that we are encouraged to “be ourselves,” but are often punished when we do.
Queer culture and the arts would be much poorer without the presence and contribution of butch and stud lesbians, whose identity is both its own aesthetic and a defiant repudiation of the male gaze.
“Representation and visibility is given to us by larger power structures, but what do we give ourselves? I’m more interested in that. What questions are we asking ourselves to grow and heal? To challenge the ways this world constantly teaches us to hate ourselves?”
We’re exploring what it means to be queer and have a body, with essays about the ways our bodies are legislated and discriminated against, the strategies we’ve used to find belonging in them, and how we’re breaking down the stereotypes, preconceptions, and fetishization that many of us endure.
Body image is particularly important to discuss in the context of the LGBTQIA+ community, due to the prevalence of eating disorders and similar issues that disproportionately impact those who identify as LGBTQIA+.