tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22760549191113690072025-12-18T18:15:10.295-08:00Exploring the alchemical intersections of queerness.zeraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17032274476748969498noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-35339282325512817482016-10-27T15:41:00.002-07:002016-10-27T15:46:54.746-07:00

This article originated as a response to this Tumblr thread, where a lot of white people were upset by the idea of safe spaces for people of color, as described by this article by Aeman Ansari. A lot of white people who think safe spaces (and the like) are racist were raised with the idea that racism is resentment/bigotry against people of a different race than yourself. I know that I was.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-34592995804989695122015-10-06T17:43:00.001-07:002015-10-06T17:43:09.394-07:00

Apparently, there are very few working images left on this blog. This was entirely unintentional and doesn't indicate that I've decided to neglect this blog. Rather, it's because Google's privacy controls for pictures suck, as a result of their decision to push their Google+ product to the detriment of their users. As you may know, Google introduced their social network, Google+, to a fairly

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-28240328404315617472015-06-18T09:56:00.000-07:002015-10-08T21:59:15.133-07:00

The word "cis" or "cisgender" has been growing in popularity recently. While the terms have been around for some time, it is only recently that they have broken into the mainstream discourse. Some people are understandably confused about what these relatively new terms mean, and some people are surprised to find themselves called "cis" or "cisgender" by trans people. The word 'cis' was

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-34637482798837605052014-07-18T05:12:00.001-07:002015-06-18T10:37:18.664-07:00

We lie. Everyone does, and people with chronic illnesses do. I lie to my family and my friends when I can tell by their voices that they really want me to be doing well. When they say, "You must be feeling so much better now that the weather is warm!" I say, "Yeah, sure, it's good, it's okay." Even if I'm mid-relapse and thought about suicide twice yesterday because my body hurt and I started to

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-37276587910249079412014-04-28T15:36:00.001-07:002018-07-12T15:47:21.240-07:00

There was a time when I didn't know how to approach feminism or a feminist identity. I saw that some feminists had defined different roles, both overtly and subtly, for men and women who want to come to a feminist identity or become allies to feminists and women generally. As a genderqueer person, I could not exclusively assign myself to either road. My gender itself defied attempts to

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-72685250242274687682014-03-22T12:29:00.001-07:002014-04-28T16:28:47.960-07:00

I can tell that when I talk about my life, in terms of things I have done and accomplished, it adds evidence to the idea that I do not have a disability. Or people see that I'm able to visit them at their house or I look well, so therefore I do not have an illness at all. This all makes me feel really alone lately. I emailed an older friend and activist about my art opening in November, and he

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-68889283749745298552013-12-27T08:04:00.003-08:002014-03-28T15:26:12.341-07:00

By Rosie Franklin, via Disrupting Dinner Parties: Feminism for Everyone Last week we talked about what a “model of consent” is and what a few models were. Today is about consent under the “yes means yes” model. Consent is being in agreement that what is going on is good/ desirable/ fun/ sexy and should keep happening. You need to have your partner’s consent for sexual activity,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-64690848179052259922013-09-05T11:03:00.004-07:002013-09-06T10:47:44.459-07:00

"I think, as I get older, I become stranger and more generic. A generic queer, for queer is my nation and my culture." -Dragon XCalibur, "Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue" (source) My genderqueer translady friend is showing off her haircut. As usual, it's long in some parts, short in others. Like me, she almost always has the hairstyle we call an undercut: Longer hair on top, covering

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-69028610293283663032013-07-30T09:44:00.001-07:002018-07-12T16:10:35.063-07:00

I heard that you wanted to know what it felt like. You didn’t want to hear more about the words, the labels or the identities. You didn’t want the Trans 101, the umbrella terms, the carefully constructed sentences meant to include everyone and exclude nobody. You didn’t want the mental processes, the noise, the endless seesaw of indifference and argument and negotiation, the droning

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-78861124758559619962013-06-21T12:56:00.000-07:002015-10-08T22:06:11.604-07:00

These fonts are great for making paste-up zines, but they can also add kind of a paste-up style to a zine that is put together on the computer. I'm partial to paste up zines myself, so I like the idea of printing some of these out for borders, titles, etc., and combining them with hand-written, collaged and typewriter-written material. One of the fonts is a typewriter font that I really like--

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-85923105052082780592013-06-11T20:34:00.000-07:002013-06-11T20:34:49.871-07:00

By Andrea MacDonald This is a piece I’ve been meaning to write for a while. These words reflect my ongoing process of coming to terms with my privilege. These words have laid dormant, wrapped up in fear and pondering; caution and consideration. I have been endlessly nervous and unsure of myself in articulating these sentiments because I worry what people will think – what the unintended

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-49698975587833002752013-06-11T12:58:00.000-07:002013-07-30T16:21:58.681-07:00

New at The Alchemist's Closet zine distro are two fantastic zines: MXD Zine: True Stories by Mixed Race Writers is full of powerful voices talking about being mixed race. Contributors discuss being constantly asked to explain their ethnicities, being seen as white and experiencing casual racism of white people, queer genders and sexualities with mixed race identity, and a lot more. MXD Zine

Zeraph Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02698828111898099622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-89683792955447844362013-04-15T07:00:00.000-07:002015-10-08T22:12:17.727-07:00

There are other best-of underwear lists for queer folks, but not all of these consider the rights and well-being of the workers who sewed those garments. Thanks to Autostraddle.com's recent Underwear Week, it's not hard to find pretty comprehensive lists of skivvies for many gender presentations and body types. But those lists are mostly about fit, comfort, fashion, and gender presentation.

zeraphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17032274476748969498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-63581048000899594502013-03-14T12:51:00.000-07:002014-04-28T16:24:41.500-07:00

I've been to several great consent workshops, and I've learned a lot in the process. After one of these workshops, I approached the experienced and talented presenter, a member of our small radical queer community in central Maine, and asked this question: "What about BDSM* and consent? No one ever mentions that, and I've never seen any resources or zines about it." To my surprise, she agreed

Zeraph Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02698828111898099622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-68242340342704267492013-03-01T12:59:00.000-08:002013-03-01T12:59:05.443-08:00

Trans Heart Pin by WickedQueer on Etsy Trans Lives Matter, a Seattle-based trans community and advocacy group, is seeking trans* artists, crafters and sellers on Etsy and beyond for a listing of trans-owned businesses. Trans/gender and non-binary sellers can get in touch with Trans Lives Matter to be added to a listing on their website, translivesmatter.org. Trans Lives Matter is developing

Zeraph Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02698828111898099622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-29552528823812418042013-02-12T20:08:00.000-08:002013-02-12T20:09:10.691-08:00

Founded in March 2009 and still run by a dedicated team of indentured masochists, Autostraddle is an intelligent, hilarious & provocative voice and a progressively feminist online community for a new generation of kickass lesbian, bisexual & otherwise inclined ladies (and their friends). They're looking for queer-identified trans* women to contribute all types of written work to a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-21792334060864311312013-02-10T22:52:00.002-08:002013-03-28T08:29:06.983-07:00

Recently, there was a bit of a mix-up over at the FOX News website. Their trusty anti-feminist woman writer, Suzanne Venker, was explaining how ladies and mens are different and how feminism is hobbling all of our true natures. "Each gender," explains Venker, "has its own energy that flows in a specific direction. For God’s sake, let it flow." I have to admit that Venker sort of intrigues me,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-16856980639980422832012-12-01T16:39:00.002-08:002015-10-08T22:24:23.839-07:00

When the sign on the door says "LGBT," and the facilitator asks for everyone's pronouns, [trans people] are still not in a space that is free of cissexism, binarism and transphobia. In fact, we may be subject to them in a unique way that exists within an LGBT movement that has been led and shaped primarily by cisgender gays and lesbians.    Sometimes I am not so sure that we

Zeraph Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02698828111898099622noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-937707699666263202012-11-21T14:32:00.005-08:002015-06-18T10:55:08.549-07:00

There are plenty of queer "glossaries" and "Trans 101" documents out there on the internet. But interacting in the online queer world as a member, rather than just as an ally, requires more than Trans 101. At times it requires being able navigate a field of linguistics, theory, terminology and queer studies that can be baffling to newcomers and frustrating to lots of people. Unfortunately,

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-74287580818486016572012-11-21T13:23:00.001-08:002012-11-21T23:28:11.365-08:00

Alchemy is perhaps not given enough credit. Most people are familiar with only the vaguest idea of the practice, and usually what they think of is the effort to  turn metals into gold, which out of context seems like very materialistic goal. Actually, alchemists worked with metals because they were chemists at a time when religion and science were considered very much the same thing,

Zeraph Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02698828111898099622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-59580064538984192492012-11-06T13:57:00.001-08:002012-11-21T13:25:57.855-08:00

I am so excited about the brand-new Genderplayful Marketplace! Genderplayful is a new community selling platform with hand-chosen sellers serving the trans, genderqueer, gender variant and gender playful community. It's always a challenge for me to find clothes that fit me, both physically (as a small, masculine-dressing person) and mentally (I'm searching also for fashions that are

Zeraph Dylanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02698828111898099622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-9277677960096088422012-11-04T01:57:00.000-07:002013-03-28T08:29:50.822-07:00

Transgender youth are transitioning, whether socially, medically, or both, earlier than has ever been possible before. Trans youth often face challenges associated with transitioning in school. Some youth and their families "go stealth," making sure no one knows about their trans status and that they can present publicly as the sex they identify as. This is the issue explored in this podcast by

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-49047687548168287332012-10-23T16:24:00.000-07:002012-11-21T23:36:10.713-08:00

In 2013, I'm really excited to stock a bunch of new zines. AC consigns zines by queers, trans people, feminists, anarchists and punks, among others. I am especially interested in consigning zines that are both political and personal, sexuality & gender topics in zines, and zines that are not carried by many other distros. At this point in time, I would be delighted to stock up some more

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-22570585990835114172012-10-05T10:43:00.001-07:002013-03-28T08:35:05.814-07:00

Almost exactly four years ago, I launched a website for my zine distro, The Alchemist's Closet. I spent dozens of hours on the learning curve of HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), Paypal shopping carts and promotion. That was the hard part. Mailing stuff out was the fun part. The first packages I sent out were super elaborate: I wrapped each bundle of zines in brown kraft paper, sealed them

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2276054919111369007.post-67595138979584594862012-09-16T19:36:00.000-07:002012-09-16T19:43:38.190-07:00

This is the last day of the "Invisible Illness Awareness Week," September 10th through 16th. I was drawn to learn about this awareness-raising week while checking out the blog Chronically Creative, a personal account of living with multiple chronic illnesses and also being creative and crafty. There are a lot of people who are definitely creatives and who deal with one or more chronic visible or

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0