Queer Film Series: Gen Silent

Monday 9/20, 7:30pm, Belk Library rm. 114

Gen Silent (2010, USA. 63 minutes.)

An award-winning film documenting elderly LGBT people who go back into the closet to survive in the healthcare system. Here we see meet six LGBT elders and a wide range of paid caregivers: From those who are specifically trained to make LGBT seniors feel safe, to the other end of the spectrum, where LGBT elders face discrimination, neglect or abuse. As we journey through the challenges that these men and women face, we also see reasons for hope as each subject crosses paths with a small but growing group of impassioned professionals trying to wake up the long-term and healthcare industries to their plight.

abstractish

Universalizing perspective on the gender/sex binary with critical analysis of the conflation of sex and gender. Critiquing "reading" of bodies as a texts; examination of gender policing in the field of medicine: pathologizing, gatekeeping, and polarized language. Liberatory potential in reiterations, reclamations, and representation. Analysis of "borderland" analogy; transgender "border-wars." Limits to autonomy; limits of discourse. Dialogue around fear of "the foreigner" and "otherness." Movement towards resources for all identities and embodiments. Argument for the deconstruction of the heteronormative metanarrative through poststructural/queer iterations and visibilities in healthcare. Examination of healthcare options for transgender persons nationally; argument for creating a politics of possibility/poststructural ethics for medicine.

chosen area...

to work

so, I wouldn't count this as incredibly productive, but yesterday I organized all of the relevant readings from my theory classes into one giant filing unit. Now I can easily access a lot of what I have learned in the past few years - alphabetically by author's last name. this feels like a gigantic relief, especially because it gave me a chance to review some of my readings and refresh how i've come to know what i know today. today's goal: go through all of my old planners to find & record relevant projects/events/conferences that have shaped my field of study and knowledge formations. also: skim old readings that might prove particularly relevant to my thesis, scrub the tub, finish misc. homework, color in my anatomy coloring book (yes, it is really fun!), and hopefully post again with any new thoughts.

The Carnival is in town!

Come one, come all! The carnival has come to town...
Sept. 1-4 (through Saturday night) the lights will be shining at the old high country fairgrounds down old 421 ... 6pm 'till later evening. the map - http://www.visitnc.com/listings/view/47219

Potential thesis area numero 4

politics of visibility. queer femme invisibility; invisibility as visibility. multi-situational and intersecting invisibilities: class, gender, immigration status, disability. analysis of politics of representation. stealthy subversion. my own situated story as a femme.

Potential thesis/project area numero 3

resource booklet for queer, genderqueer, transgender, and transexual healthcare and supportive therapies throughout NC or the southeast. options for transitioning, holistic therapies. possible website construction for discussion of providers (and perhaps between providers), for ratings of healthcare, feedback/infosharing for trans/queer communities. published analysis of SE/NC trans healthcare with distributable resource zines/pamphlets. possible short analysis of transphobia in science and medicine.

Potential thesis area numero 2

poststructural ethics and queer anarchisms. drawing connections between political guardianship of gender expression and model citizenship/axioms. relating the reproduction of the gender binary to maintainance of capitalist social formations. the role of the state in the subjugation of bodies and regulation of gender, sex, and sexual orientation/preference. possibilities for deconstructing ontological meta-narratives through reclaiming language. development of pluralist, multivocal communities. focus on liberatory potential within self-definition.

Potential thesis area numero 1

border-crossings. homelands. transcending gender as a movement across national borders- one state to another, one gender to another. resisting definition of identities (national, gender, etc.) as natural, immutable categories. living in the borderlands- issues of choice, privilege, access. mestiza consciousness, nomadicism. marking territory on bodies, autonomy through transgender surgeries and hormone therapies, intersections of homelands and communities. investigation of immigration policies for queer and transgender individuals; gender policing, (DSM and medical institution, etc.) identity as home, retreat - construction of borders for protection. problems of phobia, violence, demonizing otherness. examination of "the other" within.