everything but the kitchen sink

this week is a bit of an oddity, I actually have a number of things I'd like to comment on but there almost all current events that would be less relevant down the road and typically much better brought up elsewhere. so I figured this would be a fairly blanket post on all the subjects.

first up is something that's just about me. I decided to sign up for form spring. http://www.formspring.me/venatuscindy  if your unfamiliar with it it's basically a continuous QnA, since I've signed up I now have my own page and you can ask me any question you want (well any question that can fit in about 300 characters)  and unless the question is spam or intentional flam-bait or anything about how to contact me outside of the internet I plan to answer it, this includes being able to ask questions anonymously, so if anybody reading this has something you'd like to ask me about being trans, living in a place as conservative as Idaho, or about any of my nerdy subjects I blab on about, please feel encouraged, and don't worry about me having any idea who it is.

now some bad news there's a legal case building up in Texas were a trans woman recently lost her husband (a firefighter) and his family is now trying to nullify their marriage and claim his life insurance benefits for themselves, and because of Texas legal precedent defining gender by genetics, and the fact that gay marriage is not legal there it has a strong chance of succeeding. and to make matters worse their now trying to lay claim to the money she earned herself (turns out she was the main breadwinner in the relationship). a better explanation and linked details here  http://www.questioningtransphobia.com/?p=2671

now some good news, a family is allowing there transgender child to grow up as her real gender, further more this is getting positive media attention in daytime television. http://www.questioningtransphobia.com/?p=2708

and finally the movie inception, go see it. if you only see a small number of movies in theater every year, go see this movie in theaters, and if you can't do that, rent or buy it as soon as it's on DVD. the movie is seriously worth it and I want to see more thought provoking Hollywood movies like this, and if you just want an action movie, it does that incredibly well too, seriously this movie as something for all adults and you need to see it.

why activism is important (to me at least)

you may have noticed I added a small section of activist blogs into the side bar, it's actually something I've been considering for a while but was a little hesitant since pretty much every single one of those blogs as a list far bigger than mine, but expect mine to be growing fairly regularly.

I also know that activism is generally seen as not popular by many, middle class white men in particular, but even woman, transexuals, the GLBT, and all manner of racial activism will try to dismiss it as being overly sensitive, or any number of ways to say that it's not worth it or that it's only for angry young people (ignoring the fact that most people in activism tend to be older than teens or twenty's) but as you may have guessed I don't buy it. and I really don't buy the idea i've been told a few times that as I mellow out and grow older I'll get over it ( for the record I'm 23 which I know puts me on the young end of things).

but as long as trans people are dropped from ENDA (the employment non-discrimination act) in what felt like seconds after it was first introduced, as long as I hear trans woman say we have no part in feminism since it's very name excludes us, and as long as studies like this Half-of-Japanese-Females-Think-Virtual-Girlfriends-Are-Superior are met with scores of men saying the women need to lower there standards in men ( to be fair the study did have a large number of problems including sample size and didn't disclose too many other variables, but that's still about 150 girls that believe that). I'm sorry but transsexuals should enjoy equal employment, trans woman have just as much right in feminism as any woman, and if a woman is competing with a computer program for love and affection her self esteem and standards are already too low. and I honestly and truly hope that I am never comfortable with those injustices.