you can keep the pentagon
keep the propaganda
keep each and every tv
that’s been trying to convince me
to participate
in some prep school punk’s plan to perpetuate retribution
Particularly appropriate for today, and such a great song.
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Yeah, I always take time to reflect on the music of artists who support the continued cis-apartheid that has its cultural center at Michfest…
No, wait, I fucking don’t. This is marginally worse than scabbing a picket line, which is one of the most gutless things one could ever do.
I was doing research on MWMF musicians a couple years ago and I can’t remember finding when Ani last performed at MWMF or any sign of a statement from her supporting the policy?
Let’s see:
a) the boycott has been over since at least 2006
b) trans women have been able to openly attend since 2006
c) I know Ani is reported to have played Fest in the past, but hasn’t since at least 2006, and, given the times I saw her pre-2006, I think it had to be way, way in the past (possibly pre-boycott, I think we all need to remember when we look back that Fest often obscured it’s policy and that Camp Trans didn’t start being a stable event until 1999 and that’s when information about the policy started to really spread outside of a narrow portion of the trans community). Performances I saw of hers in 1999 and 2004, she had men as part of her band.
d) as far as I know, unlike Bitch and Kaia Wilson (who made really strong pro-policy statements that were explicitly transphobic) or even statements made by members of Le Tigre (pro-policy, not as explicitly transphobic as Bitch or Kaia). Of course, as far as I know, she didn’t work with Camp Trans (most likely because she was there in a year/years when there was no Camp Trans) to bring people together and deal with the policy like Amy Ray did.
And marginally worse than scabbing a picket line? “Cis-apartheid”? The “scabbing” comment severely trivializes labor struggles, and “cis-apartheid” buys into this harmful idea that somehow michfest continues to be a nexus of transphobia. Yes, we’re likely to never get Lisa Vogel to flat out rescind the “expectation” and apologize, but, at this point, trans women who want to attend michfest need to attend, and need to work on the pockets of transphobia in that space, with solidarity from cis people there. And, furthermore, trans communities are organized enough that we can work on exclusion from women’s space when and where it occurs — we won the symbolic victory for inclusion in women’s spaces at fest in 2006, and the work in years prior helped with making that happen and strengthening communities. One of the major flaws with Camp Trans was ignoring the significance of 2006, and pretending that Camp Trans was still THE location for struggling for trans women’s inclusion and against transphobia.
@Lisa I was going off of wikipedia.
@Anarchafemme marginally is a synonym for slightly or on paper being… yes, continuing to support the festival where every trans womon is specifically told she is not welcome, when American trans womyn are still murdered for being trans, and American workers have gained rights to point where they are no-longer being murdered for a better wage, yes, this is magrinally worse than patronizing scabs In North America… the developing world is another matter. That said, calling an action a tantamount lack of solidarity does not diminish the importance of the action to which it is being compared. I wouldn’t cross a line, and I wouldn’t patronize an organization that discriminated based on any facet of transness. That’s why I left the board of TESA. (Long story short the president said he’d call the cops on a person in high-femme dress with visible facial hair walking into a womyn’s washroom… attempts to call him on this were minimized by the rest of the board.)
They are both reprehensible actions, no matter how much some might want to see whoever’s playing the land this year, or want to buy a pair of twenty-dollar sneakers.
And yes, I happen to believe that getting rid of the *policy* wherein the organizers claim somehow that it is anti-sexist that cis womyn only are *welcome* at fest (admitted to fest is another matter. But non-operative me wouldn’t feel safe there as it stands by any stretch of the imagination.) would have massive reprocussions in feminist spaces. How many very involved and activist cissexists who would be uncomfortable at a fest where trans womyn were welcome would lose, what is to them a crucial, opportunity to network with other cissexists?
If it were an unimportant preserve of privilege, there for purposes of tradition and sorrority, the attempts to batter down the walls would be met with a collective yawn.
Fest matters.
Oh and if CT is about trans womyn’s inclusion in womyn’s only space, why is it dominated by men? What conceivable reason do men have to fight for their own exclusion? Well, it turns out that they don’t. They tend, instead, to argue that womon = anyone but cis man… The invalidation of transfeminine and transmasculine genders inherent to that taxonomy speak for themselves, but I’ll still spell it out for you… womyn and trans effectively means that those attending are women and not-really-men (trans men) and not-really-women (trans womyn)
One thing I will agree with Germaine Greer on. Womyn are not defective men.
Her wikipedia page says nothing about MWMF or transphobia or trans people.
Also, I once heard that entering a space where you are told you are not welcome is often an effective form of protest against discriminatory policies. And that often, not doing this fails to force the issue and maintains the status quo.
I was unaware that this was equivalent to crossing picket lines.
1. She was listed on the Michfest article on Wikipedia
2. That’s the first good point I’ve heard on this issue in some time. I have to think on that.