“You Are Triggering Me!” The Neo-Liberal Rhetoric of Harm, Danger and Trauma

Brilliant, Jack: “…saying that you feel harmed by another queer person’s use of a reclaimed word like ‘tranny’ and organizing against the use of that word is NOT social activism. It is censorship.” I applaud your considered thinking on these difficult topics.

I have lived through and participated in most of the “eras” you describe. You forgot t mention the part where some claim that my recognition of my bisexuality is considered false by others. I also insist that most people are bisexual (biologically correct), and that anyone who has even a modicum of attraction, in dreams or otherwise, to both or all genders is bi-, or omnisexual. I get a lot of hate mail for that.
My pet peeve: applauding EVERYONE and exalting mediocrity in the process. Good on ya!

Bully Bloggers

by Jack Halberstam

I was watching Monty Python’s The Life of Brian from 1979 recently, a hilarious rewriting of the life and death of Christ, and I realized how outrageous most of the jokes from the film would seem today. In fact, the film, with its religious satire and scenes of Christ and the thieves singing on the cross, would never make it into cinemas now. The Life of Brian was certainly received as controversial in its own day but when censors tried to repress the film in several different countries, The Monty Python crew used their florid sense of humor to their advantage. So, when the film was banned in a few places, they gave it a tagline of: “So funny it was banned in Norway!”