Archive for January 1st, 2007

Happy new year!

Not only is this my first post of 2007, but it’s also my 100th post! Woohoo!

I’ve been busy spending quality time with my family (and watching football, heh), so I haven’t gotten to attend to blogging very much except to moderate comments. There’s been a lot of great discussion going on the comment threads of recent posts here; though I haven’t yet gotten a chance to get into the discussions myself, I really appreciate reading it all and thank everyone for sharing and engaging. It’s wonderful to see constructive, thoughtful conversations, ones that include differences of opinions expressed in useful, respectful ways. (Note that “hateful transphobic bullshit” does not qualify as “differences of opinions.”)

For more constructive and instructive discussion, check out the conversations being held on brownfemipower’s Women of Color Blog, including this one, in which she opens up a dialogue for women of color, trans and non-trans. I think that this goes to show that a blog “owner” can really set the tone for the quality of conversation that goes on under their little virtual roofs, through clear intentionality about what their space is all about. That doesn’t mean quashing dissent or disagreement; rather, it means setting parameters for what is respectful of others and therefore acceptable, and what is not. Brownfemipower has done a really good job of that, and I think that the rest of us bloggers have a responsibility to do the same.

Also – this link is coming a few days late, and I hope most folks have read this already, but Winter has written a really excellent post on her blog entitled “I did not come to feminism for this: thoughts on the anti-transgender agenda.” If you’ve not read it yet, you most definitely should.

One more also: I’m thinking I need to write something somewhere prominent on this blog that tells people not to bother if they intend to write me an email or comment saying that I’m racist or sexist for holding people who possess racial and/or gender privilege (especially white people and men) accountable for their privilege, power, and prejudice. ‘Cause it’s really getting old, people.