HuffPost Live hosted a talk with some of my favorite people, y’all. There’s my bias. I’m putting it right there in the front row. Transparency forever, right? But seriously, HuffPost invited Aja Aguirre (FitForAFemme), Anita Dolce Vita (DapperQ), Morgan Willis (Bklyn Boihood), and Mary Going (St. Harridan) to talk about the ways in which femmes and butches experience different forms of oppression for their presentations and how those experiences determine the ways we discuss privilege in our community.
I appreciated how respectful and honest everyone was in this discussion. That was the reason I watched it like four times just nodding my head and screaming “yes” at my computer screen. At one point the interviewer asks Anita Dolce Vita, a self-proclaimed femme, to define masculine of center and explain what centers it. Without hesitation, Anita lets the interviewer know that she doesn’t feel comfortable defining a term that she doesn’t claim as part of her identity, especially when there are two individuals on the panel that do. Morgan from Bklyn Boihood picked it up and provided a brilliant response. Teamwork. Yo, yes, that’s how we should be having conversations. Like Laverne Cox on her Katie Couric shit, you know?
What points or opinions caught your attention? Is it cool the semi-mainstream news is trying to catch up to debates we’ve been having for years? Are you sick of the whole Butch v Femme thing forever? Also, can I just say how insanely gorgeous everyone on the panel is? And Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani’s accent is dreamy and perfect. Now, tell me serious thoughts.