please note: I re post this to not fuel drama but because there are things that need to be made clear that Juliana brings up. Outside the context of a shirt, there are important things for yall to know just WHY it is a HOUSE and if anything a house of mostly CIS WOMEN OF COLOR WHO ARE RESPECTED, LOVED, AND IF ANYTHING THE SOURCE & INSPIRATION BEHIND A LOT OF OUR RAGE. - Get into it
Neon
boop, house of ladosha, this is not HAM. we do not need to see cis gay men wearing this shit or trying to claim the c word in 2013.
Juliana Huxtable Ladosha:
Hey Terry - Hello from NY. I wanted to address the t-shirt situation. I see a lot of your issues about cis gay men using the word cunt in a way that uses the idea of reclamation to mask misogyny. I, however think that its far more nuanced here. I think the word cunt, specifically as it has its history and origins with black and latino queer women and men in new york, is something that needs to be understood in context. Cunt, like pussy and fish are metaphors for specific performances of femininity. These words are particularly complex because the communities that they arise in congeal in many ways around the shared experience of violence and persecution for their femininity, if not their female bodies. These communities, especially as protective family units (house), are not segregated along the lines of cis men, trans men, cis women, and trans women, let alone dealing with the complexity of how sexual orientation plays into it all. I think there’s a beauty and and solidarity in a celebration of the word because it speaks to our shared oppression as victims of misogyny and patriarchy, in its multiple forms. Particularly in black and latino communities, male femininity is not tolerated at all, trans-femininity exists at risk of violence or death, and w2w sexual relations are underpinned by the social assumption that all FAB people on some level desire the penetration and validation of men. These dynamics are harsh and the burden of violence is shared by all, including cis gay black and latino men, and depending on where you grew up (my hometown for example) a lot of cis gay white men - all who regularly have their ‘cunt’, ‘pussy’, and ‘fish’ beaten out of them, preached out of them, or killed as a product of the deaths that regularly occur. There is no re-appropriation happening, these words have legacies decades long in New York and I am indebted to the queer men, women and otherwise who were imaginative and persistent enough to create a language that deals with the harsh realities of their/our lives by utilizing equally harsh terms and turning them ideals, with performative dispositions and legacies that have more texture than any word some shitty faggot uses could ever have. As a transwoman, there are so many times when I stop and question gay men around me, especially those who bear more privilege than others. There are times when I hate that gay men can say cunt and pussy and tuna out of context and turn it into a way to mock, mimic or shame the bodies of women with vaginas and simultaneously ostracize and alienate the bodies of women with penises. I will speak out in those moments and will always believe that there are many contexts, if not most, in which the misogyny you’re speaking of is pervasive and insidious. I refuse, however, to ignore and reduce the complications, intimacies and solidarity that these words have for many, myself included. What you didn’t acknowledge is all of the women of color who are in the House of Ladosha, who are celebrated and uplifted by our cis-male sisters and brothers, whose very use of these terms exists in tandem with the family and house that we have formed together. There are a lot of people in our house, and perhaps a discussion about what we produce means in the larger world, especially given the visibility of a lot of our work, is in order. But to take a moment of celebration, specifically one premised on giving visibility to the members of our family that help construct and illuminate our world of references - mostly women and particularly women of color - and reduce it to a question of cis gay men, who honestly aren’t even the central players in this show, is to do a disservice to the women of our house (myself included), the faggots of our house who have escaped violent lives, and the complexity of the communities in which these terms came to exist, only after the fact appropriated by the disgusting breed of cis gay men I assume you and i both hate. There is a lot going on in this show, the least important of which is a t-shirt. Lets be critical, but lets also realize and acknowledge that the gay men aren’t the only ones in the room and there is a lot of beautiful and dynamic work produced by people who deserve better than to be reduced to a t-shirt potentially being worn by a faggot who is more than likely going to be shitty either way. Also, that shirt is not for sale. It was a single piece made for the show. Thank you for voicing your criticism and its not even unwarranted, but there’s a lot more going on…
Hey Terry - Hello from NY. I wanted to address the t-shirt situation. I see a lot of your issues about cis gay men using the word cunt in a way that uses the idea of reclamation to mask misogyny. I, however think that its far more nuanced here. I think the word cunt, specifically as it has its history and origins with black and latino queer women and men in new york, is something that needs to be understood in context. Cunt, like pussy and fish are metaphors for specific performances of femininity. These words are particularly complex because the communities that they arise in congeal in many ways around the shared experience of violence and persecution for their femininity, if not their female bodies. These communities, especially as protective family units (house), are not segregated along the lines of cis men, trans men, cis women, and trans women, let alone dealing with the complexity of how sexual orientation plays into it all. I think there’s a beauty and and solidarity in a celebration of the word because it speaks to our shared oppression as victims of misogyny and patriarchy, in its multiple forms. Particularly in black and latino communities, male femininity is not tolerated at all, trans-femininity exists at risk of violence or death, and w2w sexual relations are underpinned by the social assumption that all FAB people on some level desire the penetration and validation of men. These dynamics are harsh and the burden of violence is shared by all, including cis gay black and latino men, and depending on where you grew up (my hometown for example) a lot of cis gay white men - all who regularly have their ‘cunt’, ‘pussy’, and ‘fish’ beaten out of them, preached out of them, or killed as a product of the deaths that regularly occur. There is no re-appropriation happening, these words have legacies decades long in New York and I am indebted to the queer men, women and otherwise who were imaginative and persistent enough to create a language that deals with the harsh realities of their/our lives by utilizing equally harsh terms and turning them ideals, with performative dispositions and legacies that have more texture than any word some shitty faggot uses could ever have. As a transwoman, there are so many times when I stop and question gay men around me, especially those who bear more privilege than others. There are times when I hate that gay men can say cunt and pussy and tuna out of context and turn it into a way to mock, mimic or shame the bodies of women with vaginas and simultaneously ostracize and alienate the bodies of women with penises. I will speak out in those moments and will always believe that there are many contexts, if not most, in which the misogyny you’re speaking of is pervasive and insidious. I refuse, however, to ignore and reduce the complications, intimacies and solidarity that these words have for many, myself included. What you didn’t acknowledge is all of the women of color who are in the House of Ladosha, who are celebrated and uplifted by our cis-male sisters and brothers, whose very use of these terms exists in tandem with the family and house that we have formed together. There are a lot of people in our house, and perhaps a discussion about what we produce means in the larger world, especially given the visibility of a lot of our work, is in order. But to take a moment of celebration, specifically one premised on giving visibility to the members of our family that help construct and illuminate our world of references - mostly women and particularly women of color - and reduce it to a question of cis gay men, who honestly aren’t even the central players in this show, is to do a disservice to the women of our house (myself included), the faggots of our house who have escaped violent lives, and the complexity of the communities in which these terms came to exist, only after the fact appropriated by the disgusting breed of cis gay men I assume you and i both hate. There is a lot going on in this show, the least important of which is a t-shirt. Lets be critical, but lets also realize and acknowledge that the gay men aren’t the only ones in the room and there is a lot of beautiful and dynamic work produced by people who deserve better than to be reduced to a t-shirt potentially being worn by a faggot who is more than likely going to be shitty either way. Also, that shirt is not for sale. It was a single piece made for the show. Thank you for voicing your criticism and its not even unwarranted, but there’s a lot more going on…
respectfully,
Juliana Huxtable Ladosha
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