mediumkravitz

[mediumkravitz]

It’s Bisexuality day so I made this thing both as a project and also because I wanted to so here, celebrate yourself (or others) with a little defiance.

[mediumkravitz]

Some of what y’all hide in the tags needs to go on a billboard

i really don't understand how people can say stuff like this and not realize they're being intensely misogynistic

[mediumkravitz]

Interestingly/strangely, this wording on “Bi Umbrella” page has remained the same:

Also, hilariously, these are the definitions they give for other #multisexual identities:

How “multiple/all sexes” has any distinct meaning from bisexuality when you believe there are only two relevant sex categories remains woefully unclear lol.

I noticed in your carrd about the bi vs. pan debate that you reference the American Institute of Bisexuality and I thought you might want to know that they are behind the publication Queer Majority which has published zionist articles, articles arguing sexual orientation labels should only be defined by the "sex" of who you're attracted to, and platforms TERFs and SWERFs. This only recently came to my attention so I don't blame you if you were unaware, just letting you know.

Well that is extraordinarily upsetting, especially with how much influence & reach the Institute has. Thank you very much for informing me.

I revisited the bi.org website (also run by AIB) to see if maybe I had misremembered some of its content, but it seems to have just actively changed. While I don’t have a screenshot of how the site looked in 2020, you’re just gonna have to believe I copy-pasted these quotes directly for this article in that year:

Now they look like this:

Not sure when this shift occurred, but it is certainly alarming.

While I’m unsure I can purge every trace of the AIB from everything I’ve written (as that would, infuriatingly, also mean never touching an article from the Journal of Bisexuality), I have removed all direct mentions of them from my Carrd & the historical quote article.

[mediumkravitz]

If you haven’t come across these zines, I would simply like to boost them:

What's Up With COVID and How to Protect Yourself: 2024 Edition

MASK UP, WE NEED YOU: Palestinian Solidarity, Covid-19, and the Struggle for Liberation

[mediumkravitz]

I noticed in your carrd about the bi vs. pan debate that you reference the American Institute of Bisexuality and I thought you might want to know that they are behind the publication Queer Majority which has published zionist articles, articles arguing sexual orientation labels should only be defined by the "sex" of who you're attracted to, and platforms TERFs and SWERFs. This only recently came to my attention so I don't blame you if you were unaware, just letting you know.

Well that is extraordinarily upsetting, especially with how much influence & reach the Institute has. Thank you very much for informing me.

I revisited the bi.org website (also run by AIB) to see if maybe I had misremembered some of its content, but it seems to have just actively changed. While I don’t have a screenshot of how the site looked in 2020, you’re just gonna have to believe I copy-pasted these quotes directly for this article in that year:

Now they look like this:

Not sure when this shift occurred, but it is certainly alarming.

While I’m unsure I can purge every trace of the AIB from everything I’ve written (as that would, infuriatingly, also mean never touching an article from the Journal of Bisexuality), I have removed all direct mentions of them from my Carrd & the historical quote article.

[mediumkravitz]

None of our movements had done the kind of work you ended up having to do in order to guarantee the most fundamental rights for someone who was getting sick. So it was really an extraordinary thing for me. It changed the way I understood activism. There’s no way that you have the privilege of just being an outsider when you’re fighting an epidemic. You can always be right when you’re in an outsider position. Your placard can always sound clever. Your chants can always sound correct. But when you’ve got to make sure that somebody gets bathed in a hospital, you’ve got to try to figure out how to maintain that radical position and how to get inside that hospital at the same time, so that when you’re not there, that person is still getting cleaned in a way that respects their dignity.

— Amber Hollibaugh on AIDS activism, quoted in An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures (2003) by Ann Cvetkovich, Ch. 5.

[mediumkravitz]

Curious. Has anyone here ever flipped through Ace by Angela Chen? I’d otherwise have genuine interest in reading an examination of asexuality as seemingly in-depth as this book—but since the back blurb is explicitly some “A in LGBTQIA” shit, I struggle to trust that

the book won’t take some bizarrely pretentious/out-of-touch angles on sexually active people that I’m used to hearing, or at the very least

I can just ignore any potential “being ace is totally like being gay except we’re intellectually above you simpletons” talk & still have the majority of the book remain valuable & coherent in terms of sociological insight.

I can deal with a “there’s some goofy shit you can just mentally cross out & the rest of the text is pretty much the same” book but ideally would like to be aware of the bullshit ratio prior to jumping in lol.

[mediumkravitz]

i don't actually give a fuck whether fatness is an indicator of health because health shouldn't indicate a moral high ground. being healthy isn't some pinnacle of human achievement, it's not morally superior. and being unhealthy isn't a moral failing and shouldn't mean you're less worthy of kindness, justice, and a good life. signed, a chronically ill person who will never be "healthy" at any weight.

[mediumkravitz]

Popping out from my cave to recommend the socialist feminist author Lynne Segal to like, everybody. I have yet to get to her post-2000 works (apparently she also has a new title dropping this November), but I have read & enjoyed the following:

Is the Future Female?: Troubled Thoughts on Contemporary Feminism (1987)

Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men (1990)

Sex Exposed: Sexuality and the Pornography Debate (1993) (this one is an anthology she put together)

Straight Sex: Rethinking the Politics of Pleasure (1994)

Content warning for Straight Sex: Within the last third of the book there are a tiny handful (like, less than 5 total) of dismissive comments regarding transfeminine medical transition, which will certainly inspire an eye roll but are neither antagonistic (it’s really just “wow people do that” cis person of the 90s-core) nor relevant to any of her actual talking points (which, to me, remain incredibly valuable otherwise).

If anyone is particularly curious, I read them in the following order: Slow Motion, Straight Sex, Sex Exposed, Is the Future Female? But I don’t think that’s particularly important.

[mediumkravitz]

Rejoicing!! 💕💜💙

Hell yeah B)

[mediumkravitz]

Bisexy week is upon us yet again. Rejoice!

[mediumkravitz]

I don’t know how long these stickers have been here, but I can now enjoy the awareness of their presence. So can you.

Also, if you’re some sort of local super-sleuth who can tell where I took this image, turn around & make an immediate right. Non-zero chance I’m smoking weed there.

[mediumkravitz]

While I still disagree with most projects to assign or peddle a personal “asexual” identity onto children as if child sexuality is one-to-one equivalent with adult sexuality, I also no longer agree with the bulk of the ways I argue against it in my essay on the subject, so I’m heavily considering taking that piece down because I’m no longer satisfied by it. A bit worried that it’ll be interpreted as a cheap route to take instead of Making a Statement About It, but also who cares.

In other news, I logged into Medium for the first time in months (I was just unable to do so for a long time) & I come back to 69 notifications. Nice.

[mediumkravitz]

“we need to stop the stigma towards drug users and addicts” and “we need to challenge the idea that being sober makes you boring” and “we need to stop acting like binge drinking to the extent you’re doing medical damage is fun and normal for young people” are all ideas that can and should coexist.

[mediumkravitz]

I just want to get dicked down again =/

[mediumkravitz]

if you’re mediumkravitz, then is there an easykravitz or a hardkravitz?

I wouldn’t know, haven’t fought them yet

[mediumkravitz]

I second previous anon. Your contributions to the bisexual community are enormous; you can retire, never write anything ever again, and you would rest easy at night knowing that you've done more than most of us will in a lifetime. You accomplished what most of us only dream of: you actually gave back to the community. That said, I've got a question: do you have any advice on how to get a room in a shelter? I might be homeless soon, so I should start looking for LGBT shelters.

I’m very curious what it’d be like to view my body of work as someone who isn’t me because I never thought in terms of “giving back” or anything—I just wanted to say my piece. I have very little emotional attachment to what I’ve done though it feels like I should...? In any case, I’m happy that I’ve put stuff out that’s special to people.

With shelters, I don’t know. I have no idea what it’s like anywhere besides the specific system I’m in. Just see what’s in your area and do an intake at their community center. I was virtually immediately placed in a room, which is uncommon, so I can’t give waitlist advice. IDK how it is in other places but it seems the majority of shelters here you’re not allowed to cook for yourself (I lucked out).

I also don’t know how it’ll be where you are (I gather that outside of metropolitan & adjacent cities the app’s pretty dead) but in NYC a lot of people on Lex are seeking/advertising apartment rooms or otherwise looking to find someone to apartment hunt with, so if you have income that’s another option which may be preferable.