#alok vaid-menon

[transbookoftheday]

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon

In Beyond the Gender Binary, poet, artist, and LGBTQIA+ rights advocate Alok Vaid-Menon deconstructs, demystifies, and reimagines the gender binary.

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, Beyond the Gender Binary, Alok Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white, but in full color. Taking from their own experiences as a gender-nonconforming artist, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression. The only limit is your imagination.

#beyond the gender binary #alok vaid-menon #nonbinary #trans book of the day #trans books #queer books #bookblr #booklr

[read-alert]

April is National Poetry Month! Here's some of my favorite collections! Full titles under the cut!

Feed by Tommy Pico

Black Movie by Danez Smith

The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes

The Twenty Ninth Year by Hala Alyan

If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar

Nature Poem by Tommy Pico

Femme in Public by Alok Vaid-Menon

IRL by Tommy Pico

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom

A Place Called No Homeland by Kai Cheng Thom

Homie by Danez Smith

Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

#bookblr #poetry #national poetry month #kai cheng thom #danez smith #tommy pico #alok vaid-menon #langston hughes #fatimah asghar #hala alyan #claudia rankine

[luckydiorxoxo]

2024 Sundance Film Festival Portraits by VARIETY

#lucy liu #sundance film festival #asian actress #variety #jodie foster #Julia fox #alok vaid-menon #lionel richie #saoirse ronan #kerry washington #alicia silverstone

[coochiequeens]

“India has one of the highest rates of honor killing and dowry deaths, where newlywed brides are tortured, burnt, sometimes even murdered on the basis of sex. For a man with caste and class privilege living so far removed from the everyday realities of Indian women, Alok Vaid-Menon sure has audacity to call himself a ‘bride,'” she (Vaishnavi Sundar) said.

An American trans activist who identifies as ‘transfeminine’ was recently featured by the Indian publication Brides Today on their digital cover, prompting criticism on social media. Alok Vaid-Menon, 31, who uses “they/them” pronouns, was interviewed and photographed for the magazine wearing clothing resembling traditional attire for women.

Vaid-Menon’s April 19 appearance in the magazine was presented as a commentary on same-sex marriage, which is currently being debated at India’s highest court.

During the full interview, Vaid-Menon was asked his thoughts on topics such as marriage and love, stating “love is about expansion, not constriction. Permission, not prohibition… I want to be a living love poem. Every day I ask myself, ‘How can I love harder?’ Love breaks through binaries—man and woman, us and them, you and me… Love doesn’t live in should, it lives in what is.”

Yet despite the platitudes, Vaid-Menon has caused concern for a past statement in which he referred to “little girls” as being “kinky” and claimed to have himself once been “a cute little girl.”

In approximately 2016, when Vaid-Menon was using the moniker Dark Matter to promote himself as a performance artist and poet, he published a disturbing statement on his views of young girls’ presumed sexuality.

In the statement, Vaid-Menon rejects the notion that little girls need to be protected from “gender/sexual deviance,” and instead claims that “little girls, like the rest of us, are complicated people.”

Vaid-Menon was writing about legislation that had been introduced in the state of North Carolina that year establishing that public restrooms remain single-sex accommodations. House Bill 2, the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, was intended to protect women and children from being exposed to men while in a state of undress. 

Vaid-Menon responded to the bill being signed into law by claiming that single-sex spaces were being upheld under a false narrative of protecting “innocent little girls” from “freaky” transgender people. 

“There are no fairy tales and princesses here. Little girls are also queer, trans, kinky, deviant, kind, mean, beautiful, ugly, tremendous, and peculiar. Your kids aren’t as straight and narrow as you think they are,” Vaid-Menon wrote.

He went on to claim that he viewed the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist as being about “a little girl … exploring her sexuality (masturbation and so on) and her own demons/meanness.”

In 2021, quotes from the post began circulating on Twitter and prompting outrage, but users found themselves getting suspended for referencing or reacting to the text. 

Conservative political pundit Lauren Witzke was suspended from Twitter for hate speech after retweeting a graphic showing Vaid-Menon’s quote, to which she commented that the views he expressed were “demonic.” Witzke was reinstated on the platform almost two years later, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter and offered “amnesty” on many previous suspensions.

The views expressed in Vaid-Menon’s Facebook post were criticized by the now-deceased lesbian activist YouTuber Magdalen Berns in a video she titled “Non-Binary Bullsh*t.” Berns concluded that in her opinion, his comments on girlhood made him “sound a bit like a pedo,” and remarked that “even his fans” disapproved, causing him to eventually delete the post.

The following year, in 2017, Vaid-Menon and fellow non-binary activist Jacob Tobia were profiled by Vice in an article titled “Why Can’t My Famous Gender Nonconforming Friends Get Laid.” The article was subject to widespread mockery for highlighting Vaid-Menon’s lack of success in dating, and included comments indicating that Vaid-Menon and Tobia had considered taking female hormones in order to date heterosexual men in an attempt to expand their dating pool.

Vaid-Menon has been a strong proponent for “neutralizing” women’s issues in order to make them “gender inclusive.” He has previously written about the importance of using gender neutral language when discussing abortion, pregnancy, or sex-based violence, also denouncing the term “women’s rights” as not being sufficiently welcoming to gender non-conforming people. 

In 2020, Vaid-Menon was featured by menstrual hygiene company This is L and the Phluid Project – a “gender free” clothing and lifestyle brand based in New York – in a promotional video featuring individuals of varying “gender identities” to spread the message that periods are not specific to females. Vaid-Menon had endorsed this belief previously when, in 2019, he shared an articlefrom Seventeen magazine, a publication aimed at girls and young women, titled “What Trans & Non-Binary Menstruators Should Know About Periods.”

Women’s rights campaigner and filmmaker Vaishnavi Sundar blasted Vaid-Menon’s activism as “dangerous” while calling attention to the plight of women and girls in India. 

In 2020, screenings of a documentary Sundar had produced titled “But What Was She Wearing?” were cancelled in response to previous tweets she had made opposing men in women’s spaces. Her film sought to address the sexual harassment and sexual violence that women in the nation experience, juxtaposing the contrast between what laws on paper purport and the on-the-ground reality.

“India is an extremely caste-riddled society. Indian women across all castes experience profound violence at the hands of men. A large majority still live under acute poverty, devoid of basic sanitation, education, safety, or legal recourse,” Sundar told Reduxx.

“India has one of the highest rates of honor killing and dowry deaths, where newlywed brides are tortured, burnt, sometimes even murdered on the basis of sex. For a man with caste and class privilege living so far removed from the everyday realities of Indian women, Alok Vaid-Menon sure has audacity to call himself a ‘bride,'” she said.

“To import gender identity ideology as some form of progressive ticket to freedom is not just obscene, it is dangerous. In a country that still kills the female newborns and blames young girls for being raped, gender identity is the last thing we want shoved down on us while we haven’t even saved ourselves from the existing misogyny,” Sundar added.

“The only group of people profiting from this ideology are the corporations, medical and pharmaceutical industries. Men like Alok Vaid-Menon are promoters of said industries under the veneer of being progressive and inclusive.”

#India #Brides Today #Alok Vaid-Menon #Trans identified males sexualizing girls and girlhood #Womb envy #Vaishnavi Sundar Spoke the truth

[d-criss-news]

benjpasek: A great New York City night cohosting an event to support the upcoming @ lgbtq_museum, a new cultural institution dedicated to preserving, researching, and sharing LGBTQ+ history and culture.

Thanks to cohosts @zachstaff @ kevinsobieski @christianangermayer @ fabian.hansen @rpmumby and our incredible performers @ darrencriss @thealexnewell @realgavincreel @alokvmenon

Special thanks to

@ danielle_perelman @partymosaic

@ depart_wine

@billclarkmakes

Check out link in bio to contribute to this wonderful initiative!

#darren criss #benj pasek #alok vaid-menon #gavin creel #tan france #alex edelman #lgbtq museum event #instagram

[inhernature]

Allow Yourself To Be Beautiful

“The writer Philip Pullman once said poetry is not a fancy way of giving you information; it’s an incantation. It is actually a magical spell. It changes things; it changes you.

I come to you in the midst of the fires of hate with the sincere belief that we can be forged into something more beautiful on the other side. That doesn’t make me an optimist – it makes me a poet. And to be a poet is to resurrect dead things – like hope. To be a poet is to be an ambassador for humanity in a society with an allergic reaction to itself. To be a poet is to notice the quiet magic that sustains life. Is to tune each word to the hum of it. Find majesty and magnificence in the muck.

Poetry is not merely a genre of literature, it is a mode of living. Something we can all do if we allow ourselves to be beautiful. So won’t you please, allow yourself to be beautiful.”

Shared excerpt from Alok Vaid-Menon's new speech “Allow Yourself To Be Beautiful” at Out & Equal

(Facebook Source)

#Alok Vaid-Menon #poetry #speech #dream ahead #allow yourself to be beautiful #excerpt

[annemarieyeretzian]

#queer activists #bamby salcedo #kumu hina #menaka guruswamy #arundhati katju #pidgeon pagnois #cece mcdonald #blair imani #alok vaid-menon #candi brings plenty #pride #lgbtqia+ #lgbtq+ #lesbian #gay #bisexual #pansexual #trans #queer #intersex #asexual #infographic #art #digital art #photoshop #photoshop art #photoshop artist #artists on tumblr #artist on tumblr #annemarieyeretzian

[cronchygravel]

i've read 3 books so far this year, clap for me yall

#❀ #when women were dragons #kelly barnhill #beyond the gender binary #alok vaid-menon #circe by madeline miller

[gayingawaythepray]

#queer activists #bamby salcedo #kumu hina #menaka guruswamy #arundhati katju #pidgeon pagonis #cece mcdonald #blair imani #alok vaid-menon #candi brings plenty #pride #lgbtqia+ #lgbtq+ #lesbian #gay #bisexual #pansexual #trans #queer #intersex #asexual #infographic #art #digital art #photoshop #photoshop art #photoshop artist #artists on tumblr #artist on tumblr #annemarieyeretzian

[swallowedabug]

ALOK VAID-MENON Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness 1x03 (2022)

#alok vaid menon #alok v menon #getting curious with jonathan van ness #jonathan van ness #queer #racism #:::...

[asoftepiloguemylove]

"i believe that we are related beyond blood. i believe that i need you and therefore i love you. i need you, and therefore i love you."

Alok Vaid-Menon, Small Talk

#alok vaid-menon #small talk #poetry #poem #writing #quote #words #dark academia quote #dark academia writing #aesthetic #dark academia poem #dark academia poetry #dark academia #spilled writing #spilled poetry #spilled thoughts #spilled ink #queer poet #queer poetry

[unfoldingmoments]

So I found you, my beautiful friend

Alok Vaid-Menon

is an internationally acclaimed writer, poet, performer, comedian and public speaker. As a mixed-media artist their work explores themes of trauma, belonging, and the human condition. They are the author of Femme in Public (2017), Beyond the Gender Binary (2020), and Your Wound/My Garden (2021). They are the creator of #DeGenderFashion: a movement to degender fashion/beauty industries and have been honored as one of HuffPo's Culture Shifters, NBC's Pride 50, and Business Insider's Doers.

Over the past decade they have presented at more than 600 venues in 40 countries, most recently headlining the 2021 New York Comedy Festival. On screen, they have appeared in HBO's late-night sketch series Random Acts of Flyness and the 2016 documentary The Trans List. They currently can be seen on the Netflix docu-series GETTING CURIOUS WITH JONATHAN VAN NESS.

Copyright © Alok Vaid-Menon, 2022 All rights reserved

#Alok Vaid-Menon #ValentinoTheNarratives #writer #writing

[mintlimeginger]

"Coming out isn’t just about gender and sexuality, it’s about giving birth to yourself on your own terms. Most people don’t know who they are outside of what they’ve been told they should be. Part of growing up is that we question the scripts we were assigned by our families and our societies and we make the courageous act to give birth to ourselves — to come out as ourselves. This act of self-creation is something that trans and gender non-conforming people continually template for the world. And invite everyone to it: that sacred ceremony of becoming."

~ALOK 🔥🔥🔥

#alok vaid menon #transgender #gender feels #gender euphoria

[nicolemaiines]

NEW GIF PACK ALERT: 200 gifs of alok vaid-menon ( trans nonbinary, they/them ) in interviews that were made from scratch by me. please give this post a like or reblog if you use/save or find these gifs to be helpful in any way! if you enjoy my gifs, please consider tipping me on ko-fi! trigger warnings: n/a

🏳️‍🌈 this pack is part of my birthday + pride month packs! 🏳️‍🌈

gif pack rules, gif page and other links can be found here!

#alok vaid menon gif pack #alok vaid menon gif hunt #alok vaid menon #gif pack #gif hunt #rph #rpc #dearindies #userdevon #thaywrites #resovrceful #osvaldrps #uservoid #userkass #usermina #tasksweekly #userindig #rellerps #gif hunt: mine

[vizthedatum]

"Heal, because if we don't, our grief can become weaponized." - Alok Vaid-Menon

#alok #alok vaid menon #healing #heal #quotes

[terfrepliesonly]

One of my social work profs played a video for the class of Alok “little girls are kinky” Vaid-Menon talking about how when it comes to trans rites, “it’s not about comprehension - it’s about compassion.” she acted like this was so fkn deep when the guy literally just said “be nice & trust me bro.” Then she strongly recommended we check out more of his content.

I didn’t say anything at the time but I’m fuckin tired of this shit. I’m not busting my ass paying for this degree to have instagram reels of online gendies presented as academic gospel. I want to raise this critique & Alok’s disgusting statements to the prof but I have to be really careful abt it. Getting labelled a TERF in social work would fuck my career before it’s even gotten off the ground. I knew going in that TQ+ rhetoric was the order of the day but between the daily pronoun sharing & the Q word appearing in literally every syllabus I feel like I’m losing my mind.

Is there a polite way to say “hey, you showed a video of a guy who’s made pedophilic statements saying that we don’t need to understand gender ideology, we just need to accept it. this doesn’t seem academically rigorous” without getting blacklisted by this prof?

#radfems please touch #queer academia #gender critical #gender ideology #university #terfsafe #alok vaid menon #tra nonsense