Links round-up

Posted by Lashings of Ginger Beer Time

Lashings will be performing outside The Women's Library in London at 7:30pm on Thursday as part of an event organised by Save The Women's Library.

In 'Transition as Transaction: 'Passing' and the Commodification of Womanhood', trans feminist Natalie Reed examines how "the primacy of 'passing' as the implicit goal of transition is hooked up to extremely narrow, culturally-rigid standards of female beauty and feminine dress, appearance and mannerism… which are each in turn inseparable from commerce, commodity, transaction and the beauty industry."

Katie Barker at Autostraddle presents a primer on appropriation vs appreciation, with a focus on Native / First Nations cultures in North America. (Some of the comments are also worth reading.)

Yolo Akili discusses how sexism and male privilege can play into interactions between women and gay men. (See also: our "How To Look Good Naked" parody).

Glosswitch at The New Statesman refutes James Dyson's derisive comments about studying "French lesbian poetry" at university instead of the sciences:

"We gain from having people who reshape our cultural landscape and put things in new contexts. People who don’t use “lesbian” as a shorthand for irrelevant. People who challenge bigotry rather than flippantly reinforce it. Engagement with feminism and queer theory – when it’s done properly (ie not as disastrously as I used to do it) – can change people’s lives far more than a modification to a vacuum cleaner and the fact that it’s made one person very rich. While I have never owned a Dyson, I still have feminism. And yes, one cannot live on feminism alone, but that’s why I’ve bought a cheap Tesco model, complete with bag."

Nadya Lev at Coilhouse profiles the growing visibility of people of colour (particularly women) in the goth and alt scene.

Sparky, guest-posting at Womanist Musings, outlines how the use of dictionary definitions can function as a silencing tactic in the context of social justice and marginalised people.

Chloe at Feministing outlines the differences in heart-attack symptoms (and outcomes) between men and women - while the symptoms of heart attacks in men (and presumably all AMAB people) such pains in the left arm and tightness in the chest are considered the 'classic' ones, common warning symptoms in women (/AFAB people) include pain in the back or jaw, lightheadedness, and nausea. Reading this article could save someone's life.

And finally, on a lighter note, a 72-year-old becomes an internet sensation by modelling the women's clothes made by his granddaughter.