Carly, Jazz, and Caitlyn

I am officially home from Panama City and we had a great time. It was a full house but it was fun. In addition to that, my daughter, husband, and myself also moved. I now feel a lot more at ease and refreshed. A lot of stress has been lifted and I feel able to get back to this blog now and I am excited about it, so I guess I am just going to jump right in! That being said in order to not over exert myself I'm not going to be doing a schedule anymore, posts will go up when I am able.

I really want to talk about all these transgender docu-series popping up on television. When Bruce Jenner had an interview with Diane Sawyer talking about the transition into the nameless woman that he knew he really was who he referred to simply as "Her", everyone stopped paying attention to other celebrity news and in some cases non-entertainment news, to hear about every step of the transition. Some were accepting and supportive while others were hateful and closed minded. Regardless, that's all we could talk about. Since then, we have seen the rise of several doc-series about trans lifestyle.

The first to air was Becoming Us, a show produced by Ryan Seacrest that hit ABC Family June 8th. It's a show told through the eyes of a teenage boy named Ben living in Illinois as his father transitions into a woman named Carly. Interestingly enough, Ben's girlfriend Danielle's father is also transitioning.

Next will be airing this Wednesday on TLC and I am very excited about it. It's called I Am Jazz and it is about a 14 year old girl, Jazz Jennings. Jazz is a transgender teen who is a YouTuber, an LGBT+ activist, has written a children's book based on her real experiences to help explain the trans community to kids, and is of course trans herself. The show will focus on this strong young woman and her family.

Ironically enough the last to air on this list of shows is the one that truthfully started the whole thing. I Am Cait will air on the E! network July 26th following Caitlyn Jenner as she transitions and becomes her true self.

There are people who are seeing all these shows airing and thinking it's getting excessive and out of hand. There are people who think these networks are just trying to capitalize on a growing trend. And as for the networks intentions, you may be right. I do not work for E!, ABC Family, or TLC so I can't tell you honestly what their thoughts are on the topic or why they chose to take on these shows. But I can say, whether it's for money, for education, for whatever, it doesn't matter. What matters is every single one of these three shows is absolutely necessary.

Inactivity

I am sorry that I have been slacking the past couple days on this blog. Sunday was Father's Day, Monday I was packing for vacation, and right now I am just burnt out. I was in the middle of making a post about how majority America such as straight people, white people, cis people, and men are completely oblivious to a lot of minority issues, and I just found myself rolling my eyes. I was trying to be polite and level headed explaining how people say that LGBT people already have representation and whatnot and while I was in the process of explaining how wrong that is my tone changed. Mid sentence I found myself going from an informative explanation to suddenly talking about how ignorant and homophobic these remarks are and how fed up I am with hearing them. The level of awareness that I have developed for the people around me has become infuriating. I am stressed out about all these things around my house that I can't sit down and be logical when talking about these racist, sexist, homophobic people who I often address with these posts. Society has me exhausted and drained. So I need to get through my summer holiday with at least some degree of sanity. I will be back after that. Sometime early to mid July I will be back to posting regularly. Deeply sorry, I am simply busy and people are awful. 

Audience/Boundaries

Racist "jokes"

Homophobic "jokes"

Sexist "jokes"

Transphobic "jokes"

Ableist "jokes"

Rape "jokes"

I put jokes in quotations because these things are not funny, at all. When you talk these "jokes", you aren't being witty or clever, you are being rude and offensive. In this post, I have two types of people to address. The person who insists upon telling the "joke", and the people who are hearing it.

If you want to tell a controversial joke or make a potentially offensive remark in jest, you need to know your audience. Ask yourself, who's company are you in? Any of the following people, will probably not receive these jokes very well;

1. Someone you aren't very close to
2. People who have suffered prior harassment due to one of these things
3. [In regards to rape jokes] Most rape victims, especially recent victims
4. [In regards to ableist jokes] Those who have a mentally handicapped person close in their family
5. [In regards to ableist jokes] Those with recent diagnosis

Gay Couples; "So Which of You is the Girl/Guy?"

At one point or another almost everyone has probably either asked a gay couple, or asked a mutual friend of the gay couple, or asked anyone about a gay couple. "So, who is the guy/girl in the relationship?" This is one of those "phobias in disguise" type of statements. When or if you are asking that, I highly doubt you realize that what you are saying is homophobic.

If a person is homosexual, they aren't attracted to the opposite sex. They are only interested in people of the same sex. So that being said, what your saying is overly heteronormative and you are erasing the identity and relationship that you are questioning.

If that person wanted a traditional relationship with a man and a woman, they would have that. If that was the type of thing they desired, that in and of itself would make them not gay. If you are looking at a homosexual relationship, there is no male and female role. There are two men or two women. I think it's time we stop being so heteronormative and see gay relationships for what they are and stop trying to put everyone in our weird little box of gender roles and what's "normal" because it becomes really harmful.

Phobias and Isms in Disguise

Homophobia. Transphobia. Sexism. Racism. 

It is 2015, we have a black president and a woman ready to run in the next election, every day it seems we find gay marriage become legal in another state, marijuana is getting legalized in various places, and still despite the progress as liberal ideals slowly creep over the nation, we are still dealing with these four things. There are still people all over the country who cannot open their minds to what is really in the world around them. And no one wants to admit that they are closed minded bigots, so they find a way to disguise it. They say little simple things that aren't a big deal, but you can tell there is more to it than meets the eye. Maybe it's body language, maybe it's their response to you disagreeing with what they say, maybe it's as simple as their tone or demeanor. Whatever it is, big and obvious or small and subtle, it's clear that it isn't just a little comment from someone who is uneducated, it's someone who isn't comfortable with progress. Here are some every day problematic thing that we hear, to help you identify that person in your life.

Rules for Reboots

Lately I have been seeing a lot of reboots of older or already successful movies, comic books, and other ideas as it pertains to consumer media. I think that is fine, but I also see a lot of people getting up in arms about certain things and it becomes a great war between those who support it and think its wonderful and those who don't. Now What I am talking about more than anything is those reboots that aren't just to give a fresh and more modern perspective to something that was originally set in a time where the ideals or technology don't hold up in today's world. I, of course, am talking about controversial reboots. Reboots that change a key aspect of the original piece, mostly in reference to the main characters. Things like changing the race, gender, sexuality, or something that takes a long standing iconic character and changes something about that character. Before explaining how I feel about it, we should probably visit the two perspectives on the matter.

1. Support;
These people say go for it. We need a fresh perspective and we need better representation for minorities. They see nothing wrong with these reboots under any circumstances and call anyone who opposes them racist, sexist, and homophobic. They think those who oppose these reboots are simply a dying breed and society will progress without them. I think these people are right sometimes.

2. Oppose;
They say it's never okay. These are the stories and characters of our youth. They say that these character becomes almost a brand that is identifiable and changing it takes away from those who grew up with it. They think anyone who is on board is taking from the creator of the original and call it a disservice to modern media. I think these people are also right sometimes.

Now, while I agree with some of what I am seeing in either argument, I don't feel either is entirely correct. We do need representation of strong, powerful, women saving the day. We do need to see black, hispanic, asian, and other minority races in relatable roles. We do need LGBT+ people in our films to help slowly erase heteronormativity, which I will further address in the future. We don't need to erase a long standing and complex universe to do so.