So there’s this Campari ad that people have been talking about lately. Mostly over on Skyscraper but also on Barbelith. A lot of the discussion centres on whether the ad is meant to read as ‘queer’, rather than resolving into heternormativity — particularly at the end, when the protagonists reveal to each other that they are in drag, oppositely ‘dragged’ you could say. There’s also some critique of the way that this ad makes genderbending into a game, rather than a real, daily-life thing. (Well, what can one expect from an ad for Campari, anyway? Advertisements are hardly going to present the material conditions of gender-bending as a way to convince people they want Campari.)

Some people are arguing that there’s a normal heterosexual, normatively gendered spectator out there who will merely read the ad on its surface, as a playful hetero game; that there’s no deep message buried in the ad about genderfuck being good, or okay, or sexy (Indeed, the ad is perhaps too sexy and objectifying.) Skyscraper writes:

from the onset i’ve considered it in the context of merely being a regular, one-dimentional campaign to get people to buy a certain product, that normally would not provide for complex analytical content and would not prompt complex, multi-level, educated interpretations.

It’s obviously a regular ad. And I don’t know if any hint of queerness here could be described as a ‘deep’ message, as if only two readings were possible, your ’surface’ and your ‘deep’ (your superficial, and real). Seeing the masculine chest of the one in the dress, and seeing the bound chest of the one in the suit, doesn’t necessarily tell us anything about their ‘real’ gender or their ‘real’ desires. It shows — it doesn’t tell.

But I hesitate to agree that normal ads are always one-dimensional or heteronormative. And I hesitate to agree that ‘yer average viewer’ is actually average, or normal. I think more ‘avergage’ people have gender variant desires or fantasies than anyone suspects. Many of them may only play out their fantasies in the privacy of their homes (or minds) — does that render them categorisable only by their sham surface normality?

And I definitely disagree with the assumption that reading ambiguity into that particular advertisement requires a gender studies degree; with the assumption that there are any ‘normal’ viewers here who aren’t capable of complex analysis. It seems quite clear to me that anyone who watches TV is evidently capable of complex analysis. Television narratives (and film, and pretty much any visual medium you care to name) can be read as always ambialent, ambiguous. That’s why people talk about television shows at the mythical ‘water cooler’, right? Because interpreting layers of meaning into narratives is what hooks us as spectators, or readers, in the first place. Complexity keeps us watching, tracking episodes, noticing the various installments of marketing campaigns, reading novels, reading narratives of all kinds, visual, textual and both/neither. Besides, isn’t it an insult to people who aren’t university-eduated to suggest that they aren’t capable of complex readings?

Therefore it’s impossible to know if the ad is meant to mock, or celebrate, or both at once. For me, the ad’s effectiveness at inciting debate here in the blogosphere only proves its indeterminacy and ambivalence more.

All this, of course, doesn’t make it any more or less than an ad for a bitter, clear, red aperitif that actually tastes rather foul. But I think it’s dangerous political territory to assume capitalism works in a linear, monolithic fashion with heteronormativity and/or gender-normativity. If that were the case, how could we start critiquing gay marriage, for example?

(I really want to quote Samuel Delany here, for some reason, because he does a similar thing with narrative and complexity and the refusal to assume people aren’t perverse or queer. But the quote I’m thinking of is from The Madman. But in looking for the quote I did find this awesome thread on ILX. If you met him, what would you ask Samuel Delany?)

Can anyone recommend a good online RSS feed aggregator, other than Bloglines, or a way to make an aggregation page on a weblog, similar to livejournal friends’ pages? I’m a bit over Bloglines.

Probably only a couple of readers will appreciate this, but I think it’s hilarious. I was just checking the uni library for transgender-themed films when I remembered — aha, they got in By Hook or By Crook for me last year. I looked it up in the catalogue, and its listed under the subject, “Gay men — United States — Drama.”

That’s a pretty amusing misreading. Or not.

The ‘gender questioning’ publication I was working on all last year has finally been printed. It’s not online yet, but there’s a PDF in the works. All in all, a happy ending to a pretty bureaucratised and sometimes frustrating process. Also, yesterday I got the proofs back for an article due to come out in June on the Re Kevin case, trans marriage and nationalism. Yay proofs. And the survey count currently stands at 224. That’s a lot of data. I’m kind of overwhelmed at how many people have linked to it, or put the link on their forums. Thank you.

This should be up soon on the Long Sunday Spivak Carnival.

I’ve spent the last week trying to decide whether to, as may be expected on a ‘literary’ blog, to engage in ‘close reading’ in a philosophical/literary manner, or to get eclectic on your asses and tie some questions Spivak asks to questions I’d like people to think about more. I ended up going with the latter, and at length. But first, prefatory caveats. Part of the oddness of my response to "Scattered Speculations", I think, is that capitalism has never seemed that coherent or smooth to me. It has always seemed crazy. Now, I am not a scholar of Marx, and I lack skills in parsing the distinctions in debates about use-value, exchange-value and surplus-value unless they are explained to me very slowly. But it still seems ‘intuitive’ that capitalism runs on crisis. There’s an interview in Hatred of Capitalism where Jack Smith calls capitalism (or rather, landlordism, but he saw landlordism as an extension of capitalism) a fear ritual, completely counterintuitive: "We have to spend the rest of our time struggling against the uses we make of our money against us." This might be about antagonism rather than indeterminacy, I know, but I will come back to Jack Smith later. (I also committed to blogging against heteronormativity today, and later I’ll try to address that in regard to value.) What I get from "Scattered Speculations" is yet another insight into the precise mechanics of that insanity; and, more importantly, the role of imperialism and ‘culture’ in that mechanics. (more…)

The Spivak Blogweave/Carnival has been happening in various places (and some others.)

Too many posts and no time right now to do a proper aggregation with commentary. Go read.

Spam this around if you feel like it.

Online Questionnaire Transgender, Transsexual, Genderqueer, Gender Variant People and Travel

Check out Gender Travel

How would you like to participate in an online questionnaire about gender
variance and travel?

The project studies how patterns of geographical travel relate to gender
variant identities and practices. It forms part of a doctoral research
project in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at the University
of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

The questionnaire is for anyone, living anywhere in the world, aged over 18
who considers themselves transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, gender
variant or gender transgressive.

During the questionnaire, you will be asked questions such as: whether you
have ever travelled long distances in order to obtain body modifications
such as hormones or gender reassignment surgery; whether it has been
necessary for you to move to another place in order to live in your chosen
gender; if you have travelled or gone on holiday in order to mark the moment
of public transition from one gender to another; if you feel that place or
geographical location relates to the way you experience gender identity, and
if so, how; about any experiences you’ve had negotiating gender identity or
passing while travelling, for example in airports, passing through Customs,
etc.

Unfortunately, the questionnaire is only available in English at this time.
The questionnaire takes about 15-30 minutes to fill out. You do not have to
provide your name — it is entirely anonymous. You can also stop doing the
survey at any time.

The results of the survey will be used in both a qualitative and
quantitative sense: to prepare some statistics on the most common reasons
that gender variant people might travel; and to gather first-hand textual
accounts. I will be analysing and publishing the results in the latter part
of my PhD thesis, entitled “Travellers Across the Boundaries of Sex”.

For more information about the study as a whole, ethical considerations,
method and direction of this research, please see the Gender Travel website:
http://www.gendertravel.info.

About the Researcher: Aren Z. Aizura is a Melbourne-based ftm trannyboy. He
is writing a doctoral research project on gender variance and travel, for
which this questionnaire is designed.

The anticipated expiration date for the questionnaire, depending on
responses, is June 30th.

Please email me on alchemic[AT]optusnet.com.au if you have any questions
regarding the survey or research.

Erotica and fiction writer, sex columnist and pervert Patrick Califia has had a heart attack. Patrick has no health insurance, so the hospital refused him extended treatment: they stabilised him and sent him home. From all accounts, he’s pretty disoriented and shaken up. He’s in need of cash donations, hugs, love, letters and whatever other care you can send his way.

It’s a fucking tragedy that someone who’s given so much to so many queer, sex radical, trans and S/M communities in the US and elsewhere can still be on the breadline. He is also chronically ill with fibromyalgia, which means the lack of insurance must bite even harder than for someone with good health generally.

Send get well cards and letters here:

Patrick Califia
2215-R Market Street #261
San Francisco, CA 94114

Or send Paypal donations to patcalifia@aol.com

I’m not sure how you can send Paypal donations to an email address, but try going to Paypal and looking it up. Paypal also take a small percentage off credit card donations, so if you can afford to donate, cheques and money orders are probably better.

(Via Matt and the rest of the queer internet)

Because A. has been pestering me to post a baby photo, and so everyone can grasp the use and abuse of yoghurt for life:

No-one really seems worked up about this, but I think it’s worth a comment. News this week has been really…. schizoid. The evidence:

a) in Italy, Berlusconi is gone, even if he won’t admit it. They’ll be dancing in the streets but not for long, is my guess. Prodi looks like a genial, alcoholic freak.

b) The evidence against terrorist suspect Abdul Nacer Benbrika and his cohort of ‘recruits’ seems to rely on zero prof of actual intent to bomb. Benbrika was supplied with explosives to detonate in a ‘terrorist training exercise’ at Mount Disappointment by an undercover agent of the Victorian Police. In fact, it looks like the officer set up the ‘exercise’ and took Benbrika along for the ride. Which means, effectively, that the alleged ‘terrorists’ have been caught by entrapment.

Also, Abdulla Merhi was locked in his cell in only his underwear after a fight with the prison guards, who said he had to wear the civilian clothes he’d been arrested in to a hearing.

I’m slightly shocked that Indymedia and the other independent news services around aren’t really following this case. I mean, sure, the 16 detainees might well be nuts, but no evidence has yet been produced that they were planning to bomb anyone. And I’m sorry, having a conversation about wanting to kill John Howard = so ubiquitous. You could arrest me for that. What’s the story?

c) From now on, any boatloads of ‘unauthorised arrivals’, or stateless people seeking asylum, who land on the shores of mainland Australia will be placed in detention camps on Nauru, Manus Island, PNG or Christmas Island.

Having already excised most of the satellite islands in the north ffrom the ‘migration zone’, (the zone in which a person can legally seek asylum), the Howard government has noe excised the mainland too. But just for boat arrivals, mind. If you manage to get here on a plane, you may still be granted the privilege of detention in a mainland camp — if you’re the wrong colour, or whatever. In context, this move is designed to repair diplomatic ties with the Indonesian government, which is upset about the sudden flare-up of interest at protests in West Papua and the exodus of lots of West Papuans to Australia. But what an opportunity for the government. They no longer need their officials to provide excuses about asylum seekers not saying the right words to seek asylum officially, or not filling in the right forms. Automatic deportation and internment will do just fine.

d) Lots of threats to forcibly remove the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, or Camp Sovereignty, in the Melbourne King’s Domain over the last two weeks, and lots of claims that we shall not be moved. The tent embassy started as a protest against the Commonwealth Games (the ‘Stolenwealth Games’ was their slogan), but now that the tourists have left and no-one is paying attention, it’s back to normal operations: indigenous people, scram!

In the middle of the media ruckus, City of Melbourne Mayor John So visited the campsite last weekend, took part in a traditional smoking ceremony and said the following: he personally wouldn’t let the police remove them forcibly, and would the protesters like a Koori historical cultural centre to be built on the campsite? Nonetheless, the police kept making threats, and by yesterday everyone was packing up.

I really hope that the calculation at work here — premised on relinquishing the campsite, but keeping a fire alight for the few more weeks it takes to establish the site as officially sacred, and under protection, rather than forcing the issue (meaning that the cops would be likely to douse the fire, too) — is correct. I have this awful feeling that the Black GST protesters taking down the tents of their own accord means giving up something: space, and the assertion of space even under threat of arrest. Mr So said in a statement the council supported the “further recognition of culturally significant sites in Melbourne, including Kings Domain.” Which means what? Another statue and some street names, like Bunjil and Wurundjeri Way? (Not that I don’t like the Bunjil statue. It’s just a poor, stratified and slightly bleached-out substitute for people camping where they want, messily, with tents, caravans, fires and politics.)

d) Migration stuff again in the form of massive, heart-warming protests in the US this month. See here. I spent a while on Barbelith yesterday explaining why the guest-worker idea is not great, and may as well reproduce it here:

It’s maybe worth pointing out here that the ‘pro-immigration’/'anti-immigration’ distinction is not really a good one to use to frame these events. No matter how ‘anti-immigration’ conservative/neocon/racist discourses are out there, migrant labour is necessary to keep the US state running. But to get the best surplus-value from migrant labour, it’s necessary to keep migrant workers rightless — ie, under threat of deportation, working for low wages, with no security or medical benefits. The ‘informal economy’ of migrant workers actually benefits the state and corporations: it helps to keep everyone else’s wages down by constantly offering work to people who are forced to do it for less money.

So in a way, these protests are not just important because they’re about migration and opening the borders, but they’re also important insofar as they relate to the economic conditions of all workers in the US. If migrant workers had to be paid a living wage, then that ‘wedge’ enforcing substandard conditions on everyone else would disappear. The distinction between ‘migrant’ worker and ‘non-migrant’ worker would disappear. This is also why it’s worth being suspicious of a ‘guest worker’ system (which is, nonetheless, what may end up happening): as guest workers, migrant workers will have less rights, will probably be paid less money, and will still be forced into a position as the ‘wedge’ that sustains anti-migrant sentiment and keeps wages low.

This is why I’m so glad that ____ phrased it initially as a ‘new poor people’s movement’. Makes me feel all fuzzy and warm-hearted and like shouting embarrassingly Marxy* things like, ‘Solidarity, Compas!’

*Not Marxist, not Marxian, but Marxy. See? With those three crunchy consonants like breakfast cereal without milk.

One thesis research site finished and waiting for readers. I’m quite proud of the design, actually. The English/Cult Studs Department doesn’t actually do geeky stuff like hosting research projects, so I designed it myself. With a little inspiration from sites of the rich and famous.

I’m also proud of its purpose — which is really to solicit lots of questionnaire responses about gender identity and travel. If you’re interested in taking part in the questionnaire itself, please come back on Monday when it opens officially. Bugs notwithstanding.

Yesterday I finally got a couple of films from the last little while developed. It seems that the only colour roll, with post-surgical snaps, had no film in the canister, so all I have are some black and white shots from December and January.

There’s Schnapps, contemplating a pigeon:

(more…)

Mamdouh Habib, who was released without charge from Guantanamo Bay last year, may have his freedom. But he’s still not really ‘free’. Anyone else who called the police to report a drive-by shooting would be asked to make a witness statement at the scene, right? Instead, Habib and his 15 year old were dragged to a police car, capsicum sprayed, interrogated for four hours, held overnight and released the next morning without their own clothes or shoes. The police confiscated $800 (only $40 has been returned), a mobile phone and his car — which came back from the copshop with loose panels and fingerprint powder everywhere.

(via the age)

Which is worse: three years of torture, internment and interrogation in Guantanamo Bay, or a lifetime of harrassment by stupid coppers just itching to be involved in the ‘containment’ of a REAL LIVE TERROR SUSPECT, however unnecessary?

Blog carnivals have been taking off lately. There’s the Radical Women of Colour Carnival (well worth a read, by the way); the Carnivals of Bent Attraction; and so on.

At Long Sunday, however, they have a different style of blog carnival. It’s not so much an anthology of great blogposts, selected by judges, but a week-long free for all theory glut. Long Sunday also call their carnivals Symposiums, or maybe blogweaving. So far they’ve done the Carnival of Benjamin; the Carnival of Tronti; and now, fast approaching, is the Carnival of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, for which I’ve foolishly signed myself up to contribute. We’re going to be writing about a particularly dense and crunchy essay, “Scattered Speculations on the Queston of Value”. This is Spivak at her crack-troop Marxiest.