and this is for colored girls who considered suicide..

...and are moving toward the ends of their own rainbows...



Looking forward to this one.

Willow Has Arrived

We waited for it and now here it is and at a view rate of approximately 1 million viewers a day so far...

Quiety Disrupting the Equilbrium

On Sally Gross: an intersexed woman who I had the pleasure of hearing speak at the "LGBTI: Who are 'We'" Panel Discussion for UCT's HUMA two-week long series of talks and discussions around various topics addressing society, politics, philosophy, medicine and science. Her words were wise and she spoke of the importance of embracing gender diversity. One or two others also raised the point that disdain for the LGBTI community is linked to patriarchal and heteronormative ideas that sustain the myth that a gender binary must exist in order to maintain structure and avert a kind of confusion or restructuring of the status quo that may be required upon acknowledgement of a multiple gendered people.

Citing the American scholar Susan Kessler, Gross observes that such interventionist surgery at birth is carried out not because the failure of the body to conform "is threatening to the infant's life but because it is threatening to the infant's culture".

From a biophysical standpoint, its plain to see how easily the gender binary breaks down yet society continues to fervently push forth the concept of male and female and no other.

Gross points out that the way biological sex develops is complex, and cannot always be regimented into a straightforward classification of a person as either male or female. At least five variables come into play: external genitals, chromosomal patterns, dominant sex-hormones, the nature of the person's sex-glands and the internal structures of reproduction - these jointly result in the person's physical sexual type. "But none of these are absolutes," says Gross. "You get in-betweens, even within the single variables. All sorts of permutations occur. What's needed to yield unambiguous male or female is for all five of these variables to be completely congruent with one another and unambiguous in themselves. Nature and the mathematics of it all ensure that many other types of outcomes are in fact possible."

Reading her story and bearing in mind women like Caster Semenya has allowed me to dispel my own mistaken beliefs on gender and its identification. I hope that the same can be said for others who have become aware of the prevalence of intersexed peoples in South Africa and throughout the world.

Another Day, Another Dollar

I've never been someone who revels in talking down on others. Being on power-trips at the expense of others is not something I fancy. Though it delights others, the mere thought of bringing another some sort of emotional pain makes me want to lose it because I can empathize - having been in that position - and I simply refuse to be a perpetrator. But today, I gave someone a serious lecture, an almost maternalistic lecture which I did not intend to do but ended up doing instinctively. We had a group project to complete for Applied Math and you know how it goes, some people get lazy and rely too much on others. But there was one, who was truly special. The guy did not show up for a single meeting or contribute anything to the project and claimed to be part of the group a day before the deadline submission. So, I gave him a little chat about responsibility and what your task is as a college student - taking full accountability for your studies and not relying on anyone. These words must've really struck him because he seemed to be on the verge of tears. And being me, I started to feel really bad.

Man, I find it so hard to be stern. But what kind of surprised me is how seriously he took my words. I have never had that experience. Being the youngest member of the family, I am so used to being lectured to, having others instruct me or at least try to! The tables turned today, I was the one giving stern instruction and it scared me a little. I shook and my heart palpitated. At that point I realised how used to being powerless I am. How conditioned I have been to falling under the authority of others. It was such a significant moment. An epiphany and it woke me up to something I hadn't noticed about myself for so long...I am a bloody coward who needs to grow a spine.

But experiences are there to teach us and today has taught me something profound!

Yeeah, You a Bad-Ass Bitch!

This is an important read for all who believe in the "illusion of race" and think that racism is still not an issue.

This comes from the black brute stereotype – blacks as having a violent, savage, immoral nature that they have a hard time controlling. Particularly true for big black men. A fear whites have had since the 1870s shortly after blacks were freed from being slaves. In fact, though, most crime against whites comes not from blacks but from other whites and is done for all the ancient, all-too-human reasons.

From personal experience, remembering all the pathological people who were not black and suspected me of having evil intent, being dishonest, angry or malicious when I was not even close to any of these, I know that the black equates all which is bad stereotype still lives and breathes in our society. Racism is still going strong unfortunately.

Taken from a blog that addresses the Black Female Attitude Myth