tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778288021058168082024-03-13T07:24:29.894-07:00Alan Michael Williamsalanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-61268749838218860252023-05-08T12:51:00.004-07:002023-12-02T10:46:00.117-08:00"Queering the Color Line within the Color Line: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Transwar Transpacific"<a href="http://www.amwilliams.com/small-americanstudies.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="533" height="200" src="http://www.amwilliams.com/small-americanstudies.jpg" width="133" /></a>
<p>My article<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"> "Queering the Color Line within the Color Line: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Transwar Transpacific" released in the journal <i>American Studies</i>! <a href="https://journals.ku.edu/amsj/article/view/15847">Read the abstract here.</a></span></p><p><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Article here: </span><a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/ams.2022.a913747">https://doi.org/10.1353/ams.2022.a913747</a>.<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"> </span></p>alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-91987489932295547002023-03-16T15:29:00.001-07:002023-03-16T15:29:38.978-07:00Supplementing the Peril–Model Binary with the Yellow–White Peril Binary<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lHAlkM_K-I/WLSyBzE5ftI/AAAAAAAAEL0/VD1ENQeERxcg12My1vW9oCy9j8uS1m38wCLcB/s1600/AAAS-logo-reversed-white-text-small.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lHAlkM_K-I/WLSyBzE5ftI/AAAAAAAAEL0/VD1ENQeERxcg12My1vW9oCy9j8uS1m38wCLcB/s200/AAAS-logo-reversed-white-text-small.png" style="background-color: darkblue;" width="200" /></a>Paper abstract for the 2023 Association for Asian American Studies Conference in Long Beach, CA:<br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><div>The theorization and historiography concerning the twists and turns of the peril–model binary has been one of Asian American studies’ great efforts for combating racism and white universalism. However, with the US imperial decline and (re-)rise of Asian universalisms, classroom presentations of the peril–model binary can sometimes have inadvertent negative effects. For example, in learning the history of Asian exclusion and postwar model minoritization (and on the global scale, US empire’s orientation toward universalizing liberal democracy), the undergraduate Chinese international student might regard the increasing sequestration of <br />China as proof of the binary in action, thereby validating Chinese nationalism and “defensive” military posture. How might Asian American studies classrooms present the peril–model binary in a way that does not fuel Asian universalisms? By supplementing the peril–model binary with the yellow–white peril binary, the former is better historically contextualized as an inter-imperial debate regarding the teleology of “civilization,” which is used by empires both East and West to justify war and racial violence. My presentation will highlight secondary literature in Asian/American studies and historical primary sources suitable for undergraduates to analyze the yellow–white peril binary across three eras: 1895-WWI (rise of Japan, when the “White Peril” was first debated), 1930s-60s (the US-Japan “race war” and competing liberal-pluralisms in the transpacific, shifting to the Cold War with a similar dynamic), and 1980s-present (competition over the administration of neoliberal individualism).alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-75376242720870922102020-06-09T21:40:00.004-07:002020-06-18T23:12:44.368-07:00Queering the Transpacific: Race and Sexuality across the U.S. and Japanese EmpiresSubmitted my dissertation to the UW grad school. Here’s the abstract (in English and 日本語):<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The primary thesis of <i>Queering the Transpacific</i> is that 20th-century U.S.-Japan relations evince a genealogy of the racial and sexual logics that underpin today’s transpacific complicity with neocolonial capitalism and violence, but what I heuristically call a “queer transpacific critique” can help foster non-complicity. The project is particularly attuned to the role of progressive discourse in extending the reach of empire. Throughout, I cross-pollinate insights in Asian/American studies in order to analyze the intersection of transpacific racialization and queer exclusion/inclusion, and think through race and sexuality as inter-imperial modalities. <br />
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Chapter 1 investigates the “queering of empire” during the Russo-Japanese War era when the ascent of Japan—the young empire configured in Western sexological discourse as more heteroflexible than the West—unsettled scientific racism. Progressive thinkers on both sides of the Pacific called for racial egalitarianism and U.S.-Japanese cooperation without questioning the teleology of empire. Chapter 2 thoroughly unpacks the African American intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois’ support of Imperial Japan by juxtaposing his political realism and doubts about transwar racial progressivism with that of the Asianist revolutionaries Sun Yat-sen and Anand Mohan Sahay. I interpret the role “Japan” plays in his 1928 novel <i>Dark Princess</i>, which depicts competing transpacific pluralisms: I argue that in the interplay between its realist and utopic registers, the novel evinces a queer political ontology beyond the imperial logics of the transwar period. <br />
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Chapter 3 updates the “racial castration” model in Queer Asian American studies given the rise of Asia and presence of overlapping masculinities in the transpacific. I call for a reconfiguration of the symbolic so as to contend with a world ordering that does not add up to white heteropatriarchy as the sole structuring of the universal. I reread Lonnie Kaneko’s 1976 short story “The Shoyu Kid” and Soon-Tek Oh’s 1970 play <i>Tondemonai—Never Happen!</i> for how they narrate homosexuality during Japanese American internment not as abject, but as entangled with an abusive, “queerly-inclined” U.S. state that was in competition with Japan’s model minoritization ambitions. Finally, Chapter 4 expounds upon the queer chronopolitics of the Japanese director Ōshima Nagisa with a reading of his 1983 film <i>Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence</i> as presaging homonationalism at a time when neoliberal logics were cementing and the U.S. state treated potential Japanese economic ascendancy as perilous.<br />
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<b>クィア化するトランスパシフィック : アメリカ帝国と日本帝国にまたがる人種とセクシュアリティ</b><br />
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『クィア化するトランスパシフィック』の主要な主張は、20世紀の日米関係は、新植民地資本主義と暴力に加担する今日の太平洋横断を支える人種的で性的論理の系譜を明らかにしているが、私が発見的に「クィアな太平洋横断的批判」と呼んでいるものはそれに非加担を促進することに役立つということだ。このプロジェクトは帝国の範囲を拡大する上での進歩的な言説の役割に特に取り組む。全体にわたって、私は太平洋横断の人種化とクィアな排除・包摂の交差点を分析して、人種とセクシュアリティを間帝国的な様相として熟考を重ねるために、アジア・アメリカ・アジア系アメリカ人研究における洞察を交わす。<br />
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第1章では、日露戦争時代の「帝国をクィア化すること」を調査する。その時代、日本の昇進、つまり西洋の性科学の言説の中で、西洋よりもよりヘテロフレキシブルに形成された若い帝国は、科学的人種主義を揺るがした。太平洋の両方の進歩的な思想家は帝国の目的論を疑わずに人種的平等主義と日米協力を求めた。第2章では、アフリカ系アメリカ人の知識人であるW.E.B.デュボイスの日本帝国への支持を徹底的に説明し、彼の政治的な現実主義と貫戦期の人種的な進歩主義についての疑問を、アジア主義者にして革命家である孫文(Sun Yat-sen)とA.M.サハイ(A.M. Sahay)のものと並べる。私は、競合する太平洋横断の多元主義を描く彼の1928年の小説『黒い王女』で「日本」が果たす役割を次のように解釈する。その小説は、現実的にして空想的な使用域の相互作用を通じて貫戦期の帝国的論理を超えたクィアな政治的存在論を明らかにしているということである。<br />
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第3章では、アジアの進歩と太平洋横断において重複する男らしさの存在を考慮して、クィア・アジア系アメリカ人研究における「人種的去勢」のモデルを最新のものにする。私は、白人のヘテロ父権制が唯一の普遍の構造化ということにならないような世界秩序化に取り組むように、象徴界の再構成を求める。ロニー・カネコ(Lonnie Kaneko)の1976年の短編小説"The Shoyu Kid"(しょうゆ子)とスーン=テック・オー(Soon-Tek Oh)の1970年の劇Tondemonai—Never Happen!(とんでもない―決して起きない!)を読み直す。それには日系人の強制収容中にアブジェクトではなく、日本のモデル・マイノリティ化の野望と競争していた虐待的で「クィアに傾斜した」米国の国家と絡み合っている同性愛を物語っている。最後に、第4章では、1983年の映画『戦場のメリークリスマス』を読んだことで、日本の映画監督である大島渚のクィアな時間的政治について説明する。この映画は、ホモナショナリズムの予感を与えている。この時期は新自由主義な論理が定着しようとしており、米国の国家は潜在的な日本の経済的優位性を危険なものとして扱っていた。alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-76023770192354971302019-12-05T23:12:00.012-08:002021-03-09T14:12:46.175-08:00"Asian Racialization and the Early 20th-Century Queering of Empire"<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lHAlkM_K-I/WLSyBzE5ftI/AAAAAAAAEL0/VD1ENQeERxcg12My1vW9oCy9j8uS1m38wCLcB/s1600/AAAS-logo-reversed-white-text-small.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lHAlkM_K-I/WLSyBzE5ftI/AAAAAAAAEL0/VD1ENQeERxcg12My1vW9oCy9j8uS1m38wCLcB/s200/AAAS-logo-reversed-white-text-small.png" style="background-color: darkblue;" width="200" /></a>Paper abstract for the 2020 Association for Asian American Studies Conference in Washington, D.C.<br />
(Conference canceled due to Covid-19 ☹️).<div><br /></div><div>Update: Will pre<span style="font-family: inherit;">se</span>nt this at the 2021 Association for Asian Studies conference (online) instead!</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HxAPhw-mAbU/W133V_HzxII/AAAAAAAALPE/ndXqHCylxR4If22xvxveOEhqwp3oEHXoQCPcBGAYYCw/s756/Screenshot_20180729-101929.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="160" data-original-width="756" height="40" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HxAPhw-mAbU/W133V_HzxII/AAAAAAAALPE/ndXqHCylxR4If22xvxveOEhqwp3oEHXoQCPcBGAYYCw/w190-h40/Screenshot_20180729-101929.jpg" width="190" /></a></div><br /><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this presentation, I argue that homonationalism has East/West roots in the late 19</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-century inter-imperial Scramble for China, when racializing sexology both arose and was destabilized by the rise of Japan. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Imperial queering</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span>can be seen in the juxtaposition of the trial of Oscar Wilde with the First Sino-Japanese War: Japan breaking through the China gridlock for/against the West, but Britain’s strategy of embracing what racializing sexological discourse framed as a rising “queer” power against a “degenerating” Russia while trying to excise queerness at home. German sexologist Benedict Friedländer extolled Japan for having a “male culture” rooted in the homoerotic prowess of the samurai against a “feminizing” and heteronormativizing West that had lost its moral and material bearings, a neglected element of “Yellow Peril” rhetoric that stereotyped the East as threateningly closer to masculinist “pro-gay” humanist truths. In the U.S. during the Russo-Japanese War, the threat of the “White Peril”—that is, an increasingly “immoral” Europe and the racially exclusionary attitude of the U.S. West Coast—was framed by transpacific “progressive” thinkers as defusable through a U.S.-Japan imperial partnership and tolerance of racial difference. I argue that, although racial egalitarianism and the U.S.-Japan Alliance would not take hold in U.S./global policy until the postwar—and homonationalism not appended to U.S. empire until the post-Cold War after the defeat of a “degenerated” Russia—the global powers during the Russo-Japanese War era sought to “out-queer” one another in their incorporation/disavowal of the racial/sexual other so as to stabilize modernity in their favor. </span></span></div>alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-5779562607439945822019-04-06T15:20:00.002-07:002021-09-15T16:20:33.820-07:002019 Mormon Policy on LGBT membersGiven my extensive previous work on the topic, I figured I'd offer brief thoughts on <a href="https://affirmation.org/who-is-actually-being-served-by-the-exclusion-policy-reversal/">"Who is Actually Being Served by the Exclusion Policy Reversal?"</a><br />
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<br />alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-87963473405034352692018-08-02T14:01:00.003-07:002023-05-08T12:54:30.464-07:00W.E.B. Du Bois and the Transpacific<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.jaas.gr.jp/image/logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.jaas.gr.jp/image/logo.png" data-original-height="172" data-original-width="200" /></a></div>
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A chapter of my dissertation focuses on W.E.B. Du Bois and the twists and turns of racial capitalism during the interwar, particularly the issue of U.S.-Japan imperial competition. While Du Bois erred in supporting the Japanese Empire, his mistake is not well-understood and his insights concerning racial capitalism in the transpacific and inter-Asian relations remain underanalyzed, but are significant contributions to his global "color line" thesis.<br />
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In June, I presented a paper at the Japanese Association for American
Studies conference (held at the University of Kitakyushu) entitled "Queering the Color
Line within the Color Line: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Transpacific." I
also gave my farewell presentation at IUC in Yokohama, entitled 「カラーラインの中のカラーライン」:W.E.B.デュボイスの視点からみた太平洋における人種 [The
Color Line within the Color Line: Race in the Pacific from the
Perspective of Du Bois].<br />
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<a href="http://www.amwilliams.com/IUCvid-DuBois-Williams.wmf">Here's a video of the latter</a> (210MB).<br />
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<a href="http://amwilliams.com/IUCvid-DuBois-Williams.doc"><img border="0" src="http://www.amwilliams.com/icon_doc.jpg" /> Word version</a>alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-73154148055496800762017-10-28T05:06:00.001-07:002023-05-08T12:57:17.167-07:00"Queer Temporality in the Films of Oshima Nagisa"
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3eSXBFR197Y/WfRwRPTBp2I/AAAAAAAAGdo/milGArHQ6SIoWV0atbynyfbg1TOvRCu9gCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/DMZ4mtGVAAAGWUI.jpg%2Blarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1106" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3eSXBFR197Y/WfRwRPTBp2I/AAAAAAAAGdo/milGArHQ6SIoWV0atbynyfbg1TOvRCu9gCPcBGAYYCw/s320/DMZ4mtGVAAAGWUI.jpg%2Blarge.jpg" width="220" /></a>
<p>While in Japan this academic year at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, I've been invited to guest lecture at Kanagawa University! (Thanks, James Welker for both the invitation and making the poster! 🙂) A wonderful opportunity and a great springboard for delving into a planned chapter of my dissertation...<br />
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<br />alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-63961356412665911272017-04-18T14:08:00.002-07:002020-05-14T07:35:27.030-07:00CFP: Queering the Transpacific: Asian American, American and Asian Queer Studies<div style="text-align: center;">
Click <a href="https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2017/02/13/queering-the-transpacific-asian-american-american-and-asian-queer-studies">here for this call-for-papers</a>.</div>
alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-43676486113792961992017-02-27T15:11:00.004-08:002023-05-08T12:59:35.478-07:00“Queering the Transpacific: Inter-imperial Relations in Lonny Kaneko’s ‘The Shoyu Kid’ and Oshima Nagisa’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lHAlkM_K-I/WLSyBzE5ftI/AAAAAAAAEL0/VD1ENQeERxcg12My1vW9oCy9j8uS1m38wCLcB/s1600/AAAS-logo-reversed-white-text-small.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lHAlkM_K-I/WLSyBzE5ftI/AAAAAAAAEL0/VD1ENQeERxcg12My1vW9oCy9j8uS1m38wCLcB/s200/AAAS-logo-reversed-white-text-small.png" style="background-color: darkblue;" width="200" /></a><p>Paper abstract for the Association for Asian American Studies Conference in Portland, OR, this April!<br />
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This paper argues for a queer transpacific critique that reads queer Asian racialization beyond the “racial castration” model expounded by David Eng (2001), and towards one that also foregrounds inter-imperial relations in Asian American and transpacific history (see Augusto Espiritu 2014). As Eiichiro Azuma (2005) has discussed, many Issei settlers considered themselves as modern and worthy of the US frontier as white settlers, and by the 1930s, some in the Japanese Empire even propagandized a superiority of the Yamato race above whiteness. This paper offers readings of two popular queer texts, Lonny Kaneko’s short story “The Shoyu Kid” (1976) set during US Japanese internment, and Oshima Nagisa’s film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) set in a Japanese POW camp in Java. Both texts narrativize illicit queer relations between subjects of competing heteronormative empires. What happens if one reads the cowboy-Indian play in “Shoyu Kid” not merely as a displacement of Japanese “brownness” as Eng does, but rather by way of Iyko Day’s “settler-native-alien” triad that might also foreground Japanese settler-colonialism? In Mr. Lawrence, how might the Japanese homophobic backlash toward the rape of a Dutch POW by a Korean soldier, and a closeted homosexuality for the Japanese captain, both perceived by the white characters as exploitable weaknesses, be read as a filmic prelude to what Jasbir Puar (2007) calls homonationalism, when white homo-norms are set as “modern” against “backward” Asian hetero-norms? In essence, this paper aims to further the conversation at the intersection of racialization, queerness and inter-imperialisms in the transpacific. alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-68043703760757275232016-04-25T20:50:00.000-07:002020-05-14T07:36:04.366-07:00"Japan Can Halt the Threat of Sino-U.S. (Cold) War"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My short essay, "Japan Can Halt the Threat of Sino-U.S. (Cold) War," won an essay contest for the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington! <br />
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<a href="http://jassw.org/blog/2016/04/25/ana-essay-contest-results/">- JASSW link to essay</a><br />
<a href="http://nwasianweekly.com/2016/05/essay-contest-winners/">- Northwest Asian Weekly blurb</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amwilliams.com/icon_pdf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.amwilliams.com/icon_pdf.jpg" /></a><a href="http://amwilliams.com/ANA-essay-contest-2016.pdf">Pdf version</a> <br />
<br />alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-42744728274266740942016-03-30T21:51:00.002-07:002023-05-08T12:58:52.348-07:00Queer Asia and Homonationalism<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HxAPhw-mAbU/W133V_HzxII/AAAAAAAALO8/oMsQl6z6USIQNWA_UfCdMQtkPkA3OEBCgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screenshot_20180729-101929.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="160" data-original-width="756" height="41" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HxAPhw-mAbU/W133V_HzxII/AAAAAAAALO8/oMsQl6z6USIQNWA_UfCdMQtkPkA3OEBCgCLcBGAs/s200/Screenshot_20180729-101929.jpg" width="200" /></a><p>Panel organized for the <a href="http://aas-in-asia-doshisha.com/index.html">Association for Asian Studies in Asia conference held at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan</a>, this June.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Queer Asia and Homonationalism</b><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Since Dennis Altman’s 1997 formulation of “global queering,” the question of the effect of US-led neoliberalism and sexual exceptionalism (e.g., same-sex marriage discourse) upon global gender and sexual practices has been hotly debated. Particularly, Jasbir Puar’s 2007 concept of “homonationalism” that outlines the teleological arc of freedom, including for gender and sexual minorities, and that intersects with neoliberalism and militarization, has seen widespread discussion. Homonationalism is both useful, but also not, for theorizing queer practices and politics in Asia. By engaging in a regional conversation, yet one that still attends to the local/global binary, we hope to continue the complex task of provincializing western queer studies without unduly self-/orientalizing or reterritorializing Asian queer spaces. Shana Ye thinks through the problems of imagining post-socialist “queer China” as both “follower” and/or as “other” for western queer practices and queer studies. Chris Tan examines a lack of applicability of homonationalism for Singaporean queer politics through an investigation of the event called “Pink Dot.” Lin Song reads a queer 2015 Chinese internet talk show episode featuring Taiwanese host Kevin Tsai that went viral on the mainland, and considers how, despite local homonationalist intentions, regional reception deconstructs national imaginaries. Alan Williams investigates the changing gendered logics of the US/Japan relationship with the 1990s rise of homonationalism and now Japanese remilitarization, suggesting that the US and Japan are perhaps entering a “same-sex marriage.” <br /><br /><b>DISCUSSANT</b><br /><br />John Treat (Yale University)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>PANELISTS</b><br /><br />Shana Ye (University of Minnesota)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>The Promise of Chinese Ku’er: Affect and Transnational Queer Praxis </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Chinese queer sexuality has been articulated in pop culture, activism
and academia as embodying a promise for transformation -- on the one
hand, the notion of sexual progress and individual sexual rights is
placed as central to transform China from a socialist totalitarian state
to a democratic neoliberal world power; on the other hand, vernacular
queer practices are often utilized as examples par excellence to counter
Euro-American queer studies and politics. Such desires, investments
and attachments to the making of “Queer China” reflect intertwined
discourses about modernity, time and difference, and simultaneously
challenge and reinforce the asymmetrical transnational power structure
and queer studies’ imperialist, colonialist and hierarchical
assumptions. This paper examines the knowledge production of queerness
in relation to the ambivalence of the post-socialist condition. Contrary
to the normative and nationalist imagination of China as a future world
power, “Queer China” embodies “hopelessness,” which ironically reflects
the condition of the marginalized and fosters the transnational system
of inequality, privilege and western-centrism. Comparing how “Queer
China(s)” are produced differently in various locales, this paper pushes
transnational queer scholarship to examine its own position in academic
and cultural production.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /><br />Chris K. K. Tan (Shandong University)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Pink Dot: Cultural Citizenship in Gay Singapore</b> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once considered the Asian country least likely to have any positive LGBT
developments (Leong 1997), Singapore has witnessed a number of such
advances in the last decade. In my presentation, I critically examine a
failed gay pride parade, together with “Pink Dot,” an immensely
successful rally for the freedom to love. I have two goals. Firstly, I
invoke the idea of cultural citizenship (Ong 1996, Rosaldo 1994) as I
ethnographically investigate the efforts that queer Singaporeans make to
overcome their national estrangement, particularly through “Pink Dot.”
These efforts are essential to a better understanding of what it means
to be Singaporean. Secondly, rather than wanting to remain socially
marginal and critical of the norm, queers actually express their desire
for national inclusion through Pink Dot. Yet, I argue that it would be
erroneous to read this desire as “homonationalism.” Ritchie (2015)
reminds us that homonationalism remains at its core an idea rooted in
contemporary western racial politics, but the extent to which these
politics overlay onto Singapore is questionable. Pink Dot also provides
a fertile example that counters the often conventional view within
queer studies that queers should always resist the heteronorm.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />Lin Song (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Reimagining Homonationalism across China and Taiwan</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 2015, an online video clip featuring the Taiwanese host Kevin Tsai’s
impassioned speech about coming out went viral in Mainland China. The
clip is excerpted from an episode of the Mainland Internet talk show
Qipa Shuo (literally “weirdo talks”) on whether one should come out to
his/her parents. After stimulating animated discussions, the episode
disappeared from the Internet, rumored to be banned by broadcasting
authorities. As a rare case of explicit and wide-range discussion of
homosexuality in China, the incident epitomizes the complex negotiations
in the formation of a homonational moment at the intersection of a
state-promoted national identity and powerful Chinese kinship ideology.
In a sense, the incident is reminiscent of the screening of The Wedding
Banquet in 1993 Taiwan, that some interpret as symptomatic of fostering
homonationalism through updated, postmodern patriarchy. Juxtaposing the
two texts, I observe in their local homonationalist tactics a rooted
transnationalism that is coupled with the queering of kinship. The vital
importance of the Mainland character in the Taiwanese film and the
Taiwanese celebrity in the Chinese talk show in forming a queer
narrative, I argue, reflects a deterritorialized sexual politics
transgressing constructed national imaginaries. Meanwhile, the
reconfiguration of Chinese kinship in the two texts effects a queering
of kinship that challenges western liberationist discourse by
conceptualizing queerness within rather than outside the structures of
kinship. These rooted transnational queer knowledges, I contend,
contribute to a reimagining of sexual politics and homonationalism.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />Alan Williams (University of Washington) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>U.<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">S.<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">/</span>Japan<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">: </span></span></span>The Transpacific Partnership is a Same-sex Marriage</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b> </b></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is sometimes said that the Pacific community is like a marriage: the
United States is the father, Japan is the mother, and several children
have been midwifed by Australia (Tadiar 1993). This paper updates the
metaphor to a “same-sex marriage,” taking into account the following:
(1) sexual and gendered minorities are increasingly welcomed into
nation-states in both marriages and militaries along a teleological
narrative of “freedom” (homonationalism), (2) the Obama and Abe
administrations have aimed to move Japan away from postwar pacifism
(masculinized violence), and (3) the transpacific partnership hopes to
better strengthen the Pacific “family” in rivalry with China and Russia,
and to ward off potential waywardness or “queerness” of the tiger cubs
(US-led neoliberalism). I will discuss how this Japanese “sex-change”
highlights both old and new gendered logics of empire for a post-Cold
War world, and speak to the roles the parents and imagined “children”
(e.g, South Korea, the Philippines) have played in the twentieth century
and into the twenty-first.</span>alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-58191682852822103472015-04-13T00:38:00.001-07:002019-08-02T12:00:13.035-07:00"Rethinking Yaoi on the Regional and Global Scale"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://intersections.anu.edu.au/images/intersections_small_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://intersections.anu.edu.au/images/intersections_small_logo.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Excited to release my essay "<a href="http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue37/williams.htm">Rethinking Yaoi on the Regional and Global Scale</a>" in the journal <i>Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific</i>!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Also, someone on their blog graciously <a href="https://fujoshiharuka.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/%E3%80%90%E7%BF%BB%E8%AD%AF%E3%80%91%E5%9C%A8%E5%8D%80%E5%9F%9F%E5%92%8C%E5%85%A8%E7%90%83%E8%A6%8F%E6%A8%A1%E9%87%8D%E6%96%B0%E6%80%9D%E8%80%83yaoi/">translated the essay into Chinese!</a></span>alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-3662596365603858812015-01-17T16:18:00.001-08:002021-05-12T18:10:27.985-07:00Nephew's Baklâ JokeDuring a conversation I was having with my partner, Michael, today over lunch, I remembered a joke our nephew made during a camping trip a year ago. I want to recount it here so I don't forget it.<br />
<br />
At the time our nephew was 8-years-old, and I had just taken him to the campsite restroom. As we returned to the tents, he said to me, "When I go with my mom to the restroom, she takes me into the women's restroom. But what if I went in there alone? What would all the women in there think? I could tell them, 'Don't worry. I'm <i>baklâ</i>.'" We both then laughed.<br />
<br />
For anyone who doesn't know what <i>baklâ </i>is, it's the Filipino (Tagalog) word for "gay" or more specifically, "effeminate gay man," but this does not fully capture the meaning of the word. In that instance, I realized that (1) he was connecting with me as an uncle in a relationship with his other uncle (such a joke would've unlikely been uttered to his parents), but then (2) as a Filipino born in the US with multiple gay uncles, he is growing up with quite complex views on gender...more complex than what is captured in the categories "Hetero vs. LGBT." <br />
<br />
Then and now he's doing all the sports-stuff that boys often do (plays basketball, soccer and football), and spends hours upon hours in <i>Minecraft</i>. Somehow I doubt he'll take on the identity <i>baklâ</i>, but his momentary identification that day I remember with a smile.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">(For more information, see Martin F. Manalansan, <i>Global Divas:
Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora, </i>
Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2003.)</span></span> alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-38216336564483950632014-02-09T12:03:00.005-08:002021-03-13T09:55:19.000-08:00Mormon-Themed Posts of MineI was a contributor to <a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/">Main Street Plaza</a> (a web-community interested in Mormonism) from 2010 to 2015. My interests have moved in other directions now... probably because I'm 30+ years old now and left the Church half-my-life ago! Here are my posts, organized thematically.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
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<u><b>Race</b></u><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/12/12/lds-org-posts-historical-context-for-ban-on-black-ordination/">LDS.org posts Historical Context for Ban on Black Ordination</a> - Dec 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/03/23/mormonism-native-american/">Mormonism: a “Native American” faith?</a> - Mar 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/03/17/curse-cain-remains-mormon-imaginary/">Why the Curse of Cain remains in the Mormon imaginary</a> - Mar 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/01/21/domestic-servitude-perfect-mormon-housewife/">Racialized Domestic Servitude and the Perfect Mormon Housewife</a> - Jan 2011 </li>
</ul>
<b><u>Queer </u></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2015/04/26/final-religious-amicus-brief-on-us-same-sex-marriage/">Final religious amicus brief on US same-sex marriage</a> - Apr 2015</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2015/04/10/thoughts-on-rfras/">Thoughts on RFRAs and Nondiscrimination</a> - Apr 2015</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2015/03/18/lds-church-becoming-more-and-more-orwellian-on-gay-issues/">LDS Church becoming more and more Orwellian on gay issues</a> - Mar 2015</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2015/01/06/should-my-husbands-not-gay-air/">Should "My Husband's Not Gay" Air?</a> - Jan 2015</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2014/12/16/mormonism-christianity-and-queer-politics/">Mormonism, Christianity and Queer Politics</a> - Dec 2014</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2014/07/03/the-church-asks-its-gay-members-to-water-down-doctrine/">The Church asks its gay members to water-down doctrine</a> - Jul 2014</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2014/01/02/three-gay-mormon-organizations-become-two/">Three Gay Mormon Organizations Become Two</a> - Jan 2014</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/06/20/end-of-exodus-international/">End of Exodus International: what does it mean?</a> - Jun 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/05/13/pride-parades-mbb-what-about-equality/">Pride parades this summer: Will MBB march again, and if so, will they allow signs that advocate equality?</a> - May 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/04/07/10806/">The Social Psychology of Mormon Heteropatriarchy</a> - Apr 2013 </li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/02/08/utah-state-legislature-drafting-nondiscrimination-bill/">Utah State Legislature drafting Nondiscrimination Bill</a> - Feb 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/02/05/bishops-guide-to-same-sex-attraction-posted-and-then-removed/">Bishop’s Guide to Same-sex Attraction posted, and then removed</a> - Feb 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/02/02/church-files-amicus-brief-against-marriage-equality/">Church files Amicus Brief against Marriage Equality</a> - Feb 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/12/06/mormonsandgays-org-a-sign-of-movement-toward-dialogue/">mormonsandgays.org — a Sign of Movement toward Dialogue?</a> - Dec 2012 </li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/07/29/mormons-in-pride-parades-okay-i-need-to-vent-part-2/">Mormons in Pride Parades</a><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/06/07/mormons-in-pride-parades-okay-i-need-to-vent/"> — </a><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/07/29/mormons-in-pride-parades-okay-i-need-to-vent-part-2/">Okay, I need to vent (Part 2)</a> - Jul 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/06/07/mormons-in-pride-parades-okay-i-need-to-vent/">Mormons in Pride Parades — Okay, I need to vent…</a> - Jun 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/05/10/obama-supports-gay-marriage/">Obama supports Gay Marriage</a> - May 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/04/24/gay-mormonism-in-the-news-a-lot-recently/">Gay Mormonism in the news a lot recently</a> - Apr 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/02/07/9th-circuit-overturns-prop-8-lds-response/">9th Circuit overturns Prop 8 — LDS response?</a> - Feb 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/01/28/narth-exodus-spat/">Exodus ejects NARTH’s reparative therapy books from their bookstore</a> - Jan 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/01/02/religious-exemption-law/">“Religious Exemption” in Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Law</a> - Jan 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/12/14/anti-bullying-lesson-schools-not-out-students-parents/">Anti-bullying lesson: Schools should not “out” students to their parents!</a> - Dec 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/11/02/same-sex-attraction-catholic-newspaper-the-devil/">What Causes Same-Sex Attraction? Catholic Newspaper: “The Devil”</a> - Nov 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/10/26/north-star-sending-bad-message/">Is North Star Sending a Bad Message?</a> - Oct 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/09/04/mitch-mayne-lds-prf/">Mitch Mayne and the Church’s PR machine</a> - Sep 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/06/13/space-leave-homophobia/">How Much Space Should we Leave for Homophobia?</a> - Jun 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/03/05/revisiting-dallin-oaks-principles-govern-public-statement-legislation-affecting-rights-homosexuals/">Revisiting Dallin Oaks’ “Principles to Govern Possible Public Statement on Legislation Affecting Rights of Homosexuals”</a> - Mar 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/02/01/understanding-closet-present-day-mormonism/">Understanding the “Closet” in Present-day Mormonism</a> - Feb 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/01/05/2010-lgbt-issues-church-optimism-pessimism/">2010 LGBT issues in the Church: optimism or pessimism?</a> - Jan 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/12/31/dadt-mormon-military-milieu/">DADT: the Mormon versus Military milieu</a> - Dec 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/12/21/mormonism-disability-same-gender-attraction/">Mormonism, disability, same-gender attraction</a> - Dec 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/12/11/mormons-ceased-anti-gay-marriage-political-agenda/">What if Mormons ceased their anti-gay marriage political agenda?</a> - Dec 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/11/14/gay-suicide-gay-futurity-simple-history/">Gay suicide and Gay futurity – A short history</a> - Nov 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/10/08/3340/">HRC and Mormons speaking past one another?</a> - Oct 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/09/27/prop-8-update-the-question-of-child-welfare/">Prop 8 update: the question of child welfare</a> - Sep 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/08/13/prop-8-supporters-argue-for-stay/">Prop 8 supporters argue for stay</a> - Aug 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/08/09/my-experience-at-sunstone/">My experience at Sunstone</a> - Aug 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/08/04/walkers-prop-8-ruling-evidence-shows-that-a-gender-restriction-on-marriage-is-nothing-more-than-an-artifact-of-a-foregone-notion-that-men-and-women-fulfill-different-roles-in-civic-life/">Judge Walker’s Prop 8 ruling: Evidence shows that a gender restriction on marriage is “nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic life”</a> - Aug 2010</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<b><u>Feminism</u></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2014/06/01/jesus-didnt-ordain-women-prove-it/">Jesus didn’t ordain women? — Prove it.</a> - Jun 2014</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2014/04/08/womens-ordination-and-gay-marriage/">Women’s Ordination and Gay Equality – How They’re Connected</a> - Apr 2014</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2014/03/18/why-has-lds-church-responded-to-ordain-women/">Why has the Church responded to Ordain Women?</a> - Mar 2014</li><li><a href="https://mainstreetplaza.com/2014/03/26/missionary-chat-ordain-women-2/">Missionary Chat: Ordain Women</a> - Mar 2014<br /></li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/08/26/what-hannah-arendt-can-teach-us-about-womens-ordination-in-the-church/">What Hannah Arendt can teach us about Women’s Ordination in the Church</a> - Aug 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/04/04/imagine-a-church-where-your-beloved-grandmother-is-your-stake-president/">“Imagine a Church where your beloved grandmother is your stake president.”</a> - Apr 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/08/31/valerie-hudsons-take-on-taylor-petrey-a-misogynist-in-sheeps-clothing/">Valerie Hudson’s take on Taylor Petrey: A Misogynist in Sheep’s Clothing?</a> - Aug 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/12/13/economic-role-mothers/">The Economic Role of Mothers</a> - Dec 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/11/14/pornography-vis-a-vis-female-ordination/">Pornography vis-a-vis Female Ordination</a> - Nov 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/08/23/book-lds-women-globe/">New Book on LDS Women around the Globe</a> - Aug 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/08/23/chicken-patriachy/">Mormonism’s Chicken Patriarchy</a> - Aug 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/07/23/mormon-beards-redux-2/">Mormon Beards redux</a> - Jul 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/04/23/orientation-selfishness-female-ordination/">Orientation, Selfishness and Female Ordination</a> - Apr 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/04/06/toward-mormon-lesbian-theology/">Toward a Mormon Lesbian Theology</a> - Apr 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/07/24/faithful-lds-women-and-mm-romance/">Faithful LDS women and m/m romance consumption</a> - Jul 2010<br />
</li>
</ul>
<b><u>Polygamy | FLDS</u></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/02/25/why-not-legalize-polygamy-too/">Why not legalize polygamy, too?</a> - Feb 2013</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/08/17/continued-lds-campaign-mormons/">The Continued LDS Campaign against “Mormons”</a> - Aug 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/07/30/warren-jeffs-joseph-smith/">Is Warren Jeffs really that different from Joseph Smith?</a> - Jul 2011</li>
</ul>
<b><u>Policy</u></b><br />
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/03/17/mormonism-101-faq/">Mormonism 101: FAQ</a> - Mar 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/02/03/the-rescue/">“The Rescue”</a> - Feb 2012</li>
<li><span id="goog_1196407169"></span><span id="goog_1196407170"></span> <a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/09/21/political-neutrality/">The Church’s “Political Neutrality”</a> - Sep 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/08/11/international-conversion-rates/">About those International Conversion Rates</a> - Aug 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/07/05/holy-spirit-offended-trademark/">Would the Holy Spirit be offended if He were trademarked?</a> - Jul 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/11/18/framing-story-church-internet-age/">Framing the story: The Church in an internet age</a> - Nov 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/10/15/the-elusiveness-of-the-lds-newroom/">the elusiveness of the LDS Newsroom</a> - Oct 2010</li>
</ul>
<b><u>2012 Election Cycle | Romney</u></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/01/13/would-romney-dare-female-vp/">Would Romney Dare Choose a Female VP?</a> - Jan 2012 </li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/05/24/mormons-and-gay-marriage-during-this-election-cycle/">Mormons and Gay Marriage During This Election Cycle</a> - May 2012 </li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/10/12/you-vote-mormon-president/">Would <i>you</i> vote for a Mormon for president?</a> - Oct 2011 </li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/08/04/romney-signs-nom-pledge-anti-gay-marriage-constitutional-amendment/">Romney signs NOM pledge for anti-gay marriage Constitutional Amendment</a> - Aug 2011</li>
</ul>
<b><u>Environment</u></b><br />
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/05/05/fruitful-multiply-or-not/">Be Fruitful and Multiply…or how about Not?</a> - May 2011</li>
</ul>
<b><u>Scripture</u></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/12/03/future-king-follett-discourse/">The Future of the King Follett Discourse</a> - Dec 2010</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/09/13/matthew-2223-33/">Matthew 22:23-33</a> - Sept 2010</li>
</ul>
<b><u>Miscellany</u></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2013/07/09/orson-scott-card-really-wants-you-to-watch-enders-game/">Orson Scott Card really wants you to watch Ender’s Game</a> - Jul 2013 </li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/09/12/a-couple-articles-i-noted-this-week/">a couple articles I noted this week…</a> - Sep 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2012/05/13/mormons-and-the-beltway/">Mormons and the Beltway</a> - May 2012</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2011/06/30/respectful-proselytizing/">What is Respectful Proselytizing?</a> - Jun 2011</li>
<li><a href="http://mainstreetplaza.com/2010/10/12/the-older-mormon/">the Older Mormon</a> - Oct 2010 </li>
</ul>
alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-85217460548950807832013-09-05T09:46:00.003-07:002023-03-16T15:37:49.278-07:00Erotic Detours (or Destinations!)<div class="separator"><p style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"> <br />
</p></div>As I work on my fantasy novel, I keep running into a conundrum...<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><p>Whenever I get to scenes that have any erotic undertone whatsoever, I end up overwriting them. Then, when I go back and reread the scenes, I think to myself, "This is too erotic. My characters are hornballs." Not that I don't want my characters to be hornballs, but there's a time and place to focus on this aspect.<br />
<br />
One way to deal with this conundrum is write a novel out of order; many novelists can do
this: they can write a sixteenth chapter before they write a
second. Alas, I cannot.<br />
<br />
Then I realized I was the hornball! So, I took a detour and wrote some erotica to get it out of my system.<br />
<br />
Here it is... my first foray into pure erotica: <b><a href="http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/interracial/korean-dude-gets-his-wish/">Korean Dude Gets His Wish</a></b>.<br />
<br />
It was just posted last night, but I've already received numerous pleased responses asking for/demanding a "Part 2"! (Erotica fan mail is so great!~)<br />
<br /><img border="0" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="120" src="http://www.amwilliams.com/teehaus/logo.png" style="clear: right; float: right;">While I'm here on the topic of erotic storytelling, also -- I've been translating into German with the help of a wonderful proofreader the popular American yaoi webcomic <a href="http://www.teahousecomic.com/">Teahouse</a>. We've begun Chapter Three, and I hope to keep myself/us on a schedule of uploading a couple new pages per week. If you happen to be a German-speaker into yaoi, here you go: <b><a href="http://teahousecomic-de.blogspot.com/">Teehaus</a></b>.</p>alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-77483323593039456042013-07-24T10:48:00.000-07:002013-07-24T10:52:44.355-07:00Newer Work<a href="http://amwilliams.com/qoc.doc"><img border="0" src="http://www.amwilliams.com/icon_doc.jpg" /> Marxism and Queer of Color Critique</a><br />
(2012, 12pgs)alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-70592107757772352902013-03-26T20:51:00.002-07:002023-05-08T13:00:33.340-07:00"The Curious Case of Mormons and LGBT Rights"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="http://www.amwilliams.com/small-RD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.amwilliams.com/small-RD.jpg" /></a><p>Check out my <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/6971/the_curious_case_of_mormons_and_lgbt_rights/">essay published today at Religion Dispatches</a>! A critical critique of national LGBT rights-based strategies given the Mormon context. alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-76887457019100760052013-02-20T00:16:00.001-08:002016-04-27T15:27:47.352-07:00Older WorkNow that I'm in a Ph.D. program, I don't want to think that all my previous work is too amateurish for the world to see! <br />
<br />
<a href="http://amwilliams.com/mahapajapati.doc"><img border="0" src="http://www.amwilliams.com/icon_doc.jpg" /> Remembering Mahāpajāpatī: Buddhism, Feminism and Humility</a><br />
(2009, 12pgs)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amwilliams.com/formula17.doc"><img border="0" src="http://www.amwilliams.com/icon_doc.jpg" /><i> Formula 17</i> & the Queer Potential of Taiwanese Cinema</a><br />
(2005, 5pgs)alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-70598057844560753292012-11-17T15:54:00.002-08:002016-03-30T21:48:57.325-07:00Mormons in Pride Parades -- A Critical ReflectionI had hoped this opinion piece would show up in the next issue of Sunstone Magazine. Alas, I've been informed Romney will take up 99% of it. I would've thought at least <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney_presidential_campaign,_2012#47.25_comment">47%</a> would be dedicated to other topics... ah well. <br />
<br />
This past summer for the first time, Mormons marched in Pride parades in substantial numbers, a fact that deserves critical attention. I believe what follows provides some of that attention, as I consider the possibility that the Church's institutional heterosexism was extended more than disrupted.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Mormons
in Pride Parades – A Critical Reflection </span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: none;">
<span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">by<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">
</b>Alan Williams</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: none;">
<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "" serif "" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Written
August 2012</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Now that the Pride parades are almost done for the summer, I
would like to address some concerns I have about the Mormon presence. One major
theme I saw emerge among more liberal Mormons is an idea that “local organizing
is good organizing.” The argument went as follows:</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Not everywhere in America has the
same level of acceptance of gay people. Supporting same-sex marriage, for
instance, would be a giant, unrealistic step for most Mormons in most
cities. A lot of Mormons just need to feel they can publicly support
their loved ones. Therefore, local organizing is good organizing. Some LDS Pride contingents did support marriage equality, while others showed love, which is also good.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I think we need to be critical of this logic given how the
Church is not a local phenomenon. If we take a look at the policy of Mormons
Building Brides (MBB), the group that marched in the Salt Lake City and Boise
Pride parades, we find that the organization is basically correlated to the
Church. Not only did MBB have a rule of no political signage (such as no
marriage equality signage), but they also had a rule of no signage that
contradicts church doctrine, namely the nonacceptance of same-sex relationships
in the Church. The public received messages like “<i>LDS loves LGBT</i>,” which
is positive but diluted by the fact that <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">no</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>messages were permitted to help
neutralize the Church’s official policy of “love the sinner, not the sin.”
MBB’s policy of “disciplined messaging” applied not only to the parades, but
also to the ensuing discussion on their Facebook forum where—in an attempt to
appeal to the least common denominator of “love” to draw the most Mormons—the
moderators actively delete comments and remove people from the group who advocate marriage equality or discuss
doctrine on the question of “sin.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In essence, “love the sinner, not the sin” was expanded into
Pride parades this summer! By forbidding signage against this paradigm while
representing the Church, MBB grew the paradigm into a space that has
traditionally banned it. In the past, a religious contingent would not have
been allowed to march in Pride unless they made clear they didn’t consider
same-sex intimacy a “sin.” These days the LGBT community is empowered enough to
relax its borders a bit. Specifically in Salt Lake City, the Church’s support
of the 2009 nondiscrimination ordinances in housing and employment helped pave the way for a Mormon
presence in Pride this year. The LGBT/LDS relationship in SLC is unique,
though. Other cities with LDS Pride contingents this year (such as in
Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, New York City and Washington,
D.C.) were marched by Mormons for Marriage Equality (M4ME).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Although M4ME marched in more cities than MBB, it struggled
to gain media recognition because of the Utah-centric nature of national
reporting on Mormondom. The national media barely mentions M4ME and writes
about MBB as though some of its members support marriage equality. What the
media doesn’t report is how much supporting marriage equality (or more importantly, the idea
that same-sex intimacy is not a sin) is marginalized by MBB. Similarly, since
2009, the media writes of the Church as if it supports employment
nondiscrimination, but there is no such nondiscrimination in the Church (more about this below). In
order for the Church to “fit in” in a country moving toward gay equality, certain
half-truths must stick in the public’s mind about how “gay-friendly” the Church
is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There were cathartic tears of joy due to the Mormon presence
in SLC Pride, but I also think there’s a risk that a gay Mormon youth somewhere
is rationalizing that there’s “no escape. The Church is everywhere…even at a
place like Pride.” Personally, I know one gay Mormon youth who, growing up,
felt loved and supported by his ward and family, but eventually secluded
himself and became suicidal, ultimately deciding he had to leave the Church for
his own wellbeing. Institutional and theological heterosexism can drive a kid to hate himself even when surrounded by love. MBB’s “disciplined messaging” is an example of love put in service of institutional heterosexism.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Allow me to frame my concerns in the form of a metaphor that
has floated around this summer regarding the matter of gay equality in the
Church at the macro level (an equality whose only defining parameter, I argue here, is that same-sex intimacy is not a sin). Some suggest, optimistically, that as Mormons
currently flow down different queer <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">streams</i>
(some in support of marriage equality, more who “love the sinner, not the
sin”), they’ll all eventually merge at the same <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ocean</i> of gay equality. The idea is that if homophobic church
members are shown "love" rather than force, they'll eventually see
the light of equality. This logic might be described as "love the sinner,
not the sin of homophobia," and just like how "love the sinner, not
the sin" is bad policy, so is the former. What we’ve seen as a
result of this neutral policy of "love" is actually diversions of streams in order to ensure they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">don’t </i>merge and reach the gay ocean.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here are two examples to illustrate this anti-mergence. The
first is the SLC nondiscrimination ordinances. A decade ago, employment
nondiscrimination was considered a “slippery slope” by the Church, but now the
Church is supposedly okay with it after polite meetings with queer activists. In reality, the Church is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">
on board at all</span></i> with employment nondiscrimination as it will <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">fire any BYU teacher who has a gay
relationship</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>The Church
supported the ordinances only because they allow the Church to continue to
discriminate via “religious exemption.” Take away this exemption and the
ordinances would’ve received no support from the Church whatsoever. Thus, the
SLC ordinances are not an example of moving toward a gay ocean. They’re an
example of successfully diverted streams and the change in civil discourse
required to make this come to pass. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Here’s the second example. At the beginning of the summer,
MBB and M4ME were teammates. They both organized the SLC contingent, growing
the number of attendees marching behind a single banner, MBB’s, and everyone
followed the rules of correlated signage. There was an assurance that MBB would
offer support to M4ME for later parades as the summer rolled on, at the very
least in the form of social networking and hyperlinking. After the SLC parade,
however, MBB backed out of the partnership and engaged in a full media blackout
of M4ME, claiming that any connection between the two organizations would
undermine the “neutral message of love.” I find this background drama telling
of the fact that church members are diverting streams rather than moving toward
an ocean of gay equality. Maybe this year was a trial run whereas next year MBB
plans to relax its signage policies and allow Mormons to march with whatever
pro-gay signage they want. If not, the organizers of Pride may very well deny
their admittance given the continuing institutional heterosexism of the Church. Or worse yet,<i> MBB may be allowed to march again with no change to their policy</i>, given the overarching strides toward secular equality.<i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I informed my LDS mother that Mormons marched in Pride
parades this year, and to my chagrin, she replied, “Sure, you’re supposed to
love and support people even if you don’t approve of their—” and I had to let
her know that some Mormons marched for marriage equality. What her comment made
clear to me is that the average loving Mormon might march in Pride and not move
<i>one iota</i> on the question of “sin.” While I’d like to view Mormons in
Pride this year as a momentous development on the path to an ocean of gay
equality in the Church, I can’t help but feel that one of the bridges built was
the one that allows the Church to remain heterosexist longer.</span></div>
alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-58949640645313106192012-07-20T13:07:00.004-07:002017-04-18T14:09:19.827-07:00(Anti)Homophobia, Capitalism and Yaoi “Politics”<div style="text-align: center;">
Click for <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20150103143308/http://yaoiresearch.net/2012/07/20/antihomophobia-capitalism-and-yaoi-politics/">my post at <i>Yaoi Research</i></a>. (web-archived link) </div>
alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-6792392768899362482012-04-16T16:02:00.002-07:002013-04-20T18:36:21.050-07:00Lots More School AheadBeen accepted into the English department (Ph.D.) at the University of Washington. Will begin this autumn.<br />
<br />
Will also begin learning Japanese >_< ...Yes, I will <i>begin</i> learning a language from scratch in grad school, which I know will be rough on top of everything else I'll have to do. I could resume learning German, which would be logical (lived in Germany for many years as a kid), but I feel that I'd probably use Japanese more in the long run.alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-2811947948080208242012-03-16T20:03:00.017-07:002016-10-14T18:18:36.903-07:00Settle Down with a Chinese Girl?Last night I stayed after class and worked one-on-one with my sifu. I've been learning Wing Chun for a little over six months, and I think I'm progressing well, thanks to having dabbled in martial arts years ago. Though I miss the animal energies of my last art (snake, crane, monkey, tiger), the techniques in Wing Chun seem more effective.<br />
<br />
We were about to part ways for the evening when we started talking about life. The discussion led to if I get into a Ph.D. program how I'll have to learn another language, which might be difficult, especially if I choose a language like Mandarin. My sifu mentioned how it's better/easier to learn a language you'll use -- if you travel to a place. "You can settle down with a Chinese girl," he suggested (rather orientalist-ly).<br />
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I smiled shyly and looked downward. I could have replied (maybe less orientalist-ally): "Actually, I've been with a Filipino guy for almost five years." But I didn't.<br />
<br />
Why not? I had to think about it as I walked through the park on the way home.<br />
<br />
Is the martial arts space a bastion of male camaraderie that I don't want to tamper with my gayness? Of course not. I will admit that I do like the male space. Perhaps some of the guys I touch hands with are a tad homophobic (I don't know, because it's never come up); I'd rather not broach the subject just to "educate" them. The school is on Capitol Hill in Seattle, so homophobia would be a little out of place, anyway.<br />
<br />
I've been pretty much "out" since I was 15. By pretty much, I mean that I have to come out in every new sphere because I tend to pass for straight, and some places I choose not to be out. The martial arts school has been one of those places. Even when I've gone to gay clubs, guys there have asked me if I'm gay, and I'm like, <i>"What do you think I'm doing at a gay club?! Of course I'm gay!"</i> It was funny at first, but at this point in my life it's kind of annoying. <br />
<br />
At age 28, I'm tired of coming out. It feels like a hassle. Probably if it comes up again with my sifu, I'll say something rather than leave him making irrelevant comments. It's not so much that I'm gay, but that I'm already settled with someone.<br />
<br />
As a side note, Wing Chun -- although made famous by practitioners like Yip Man and Bruce Lee -- is fabled to have been developed by a Buddhist nun. The art is equally suited for women and older people as it is for young men, and I don't mean that to be politically correct, but it was literally developed with a smaller person's frame in mind. When I think about that, it really puts into perspective the idea of a martial arts space as a "male space." In the fantasy novel I'm writing, one of themes I plan to explore is how martial arts gets gendered.alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-92132858425974025712012-02-16T00:19:00.027-08:002013-04-20T18:52:56.339-07:00Chulito by Charles Rice-González<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-00NChat_w8I/T9rE-MK-0vI/AAAAAAAAAK4/RM5i6A-A4sQ/s1600/chulito_hi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-00NChat_w8I/T9rE-MK-0vI/AAAAAAAAAK4/RM5i6A-A4sQ/s200/chulito_hi.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
<i>Chulito</i> - by Charles Rice-González<br />
<a href="http://www.magnusbooks.com/">Mangus Books</a><br />
<b>Rating: 4.5 out of 5</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel about a gay, macho Puerto Rican kid in South Bronx. Other <a href="http://www.impressionsofareader.com/2011/11/on-chulito-by-charles-rice-gonzalez.html">reviews</a> give good <a href="http://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/11/08/chulito-by-charles-rice-gonzalez/">summaries</a>, so if you want to know what the story is about in review-like language, it might be better to read those.<br />
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<div style="color: red;">
(*SPOILERS* below) </div>
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I sympathized more with Chulito than with Carlos (who is Chulito's love interest and is "out" and more obviously gay). I found myself annoyed at Carlos for being impatient with Chulito to become a "different" person: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Chulito, you won't even hold my hand at the pier for more than two seconds or kiss me in public because someone might see you." <br />
"We different. You don't give a shit, but I do."<br />
Carlos stepped toward him, staring into his eyes. "Do you give a shit about me?"<br />
"I do. I love you, Carlos."</blockquote>
This felt like manipulation to me on Carlos' part. I think some gay guys make an assumption that macho gay guys have it easier because they can "pass" in a homophobic world. But like any other gay guy, they cease to pass when they hold hands or kiss their boyfriends in public. The assumption is that if macho gay guys are not willing to give up their heterosexist privilege and be "out and proud," then they're being unethical or unsupportive in some way.<br />
<br />
Yet the world that Chulito is passing in is one where his future is unstable (he's a drug runner), whereas Carlos is in college and has an internship to become a journalist. There's a kind of dynamic where Chulito connects Carlos' being out and proud with "legit" economic success, or at least sees no detriment to it other than Carlos having to take his "gayness" outside the neighborhood. In a later scene, Carlos makes it clear that he doesn't want to go back into hiding (in the closet) in order to be with Chulito, so it's just Carlos' personal expectation that if they're going to be together, they need to be "out." Also, Chulito threw a bottle at Carlos' ex in the past, so being out would prove to Carlos that Chulito has changed.<br />
<br />
Chulito understands this, and actually admires Carlos for being "gangsta" enough to not care what others think; he also admires Carlos for making something of his future. But Chulito isn't necessarily going to go to college and leave the neighborhood, so he has a tough choice to make: be out with Carlos and potentially lose his neighborhood (Where would he go? Would the gay community accept a thug like Chulito?) -- or lose Carlos, but keep his neighborhood.<br />
<br />
I felt like Carlos' expectation for Chulito to be out was a kind of violence inflicted. I appreciated how Rice-González explored this through a dream sequence where the government and police were arresting macho guys for being "too macho." The only way out of being arrested for Chulito was to confess his love for Carlos, publicly:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"CARLOS, I LOVE YOU AND WANT TO BE WITH YOU, ON THE PIER AND EVERYWHERE, PA!"</blockquote>
The humanity of Chulito crying out nearly brought tears to my eyes. Ultimately, Chulito <i>is</i> public with Carlos, which leads to a street fight with a homophobic bully in order to carve space for themselves <i>in the neighborhood</i>. Hence, Chulito doesn't lose his 'hood after all. And while Rice-González is speaking out against homophobia, I read an almost bigger critique concerning a need for more acceptance and understanding within the gay community.<br />
<br />
Okay...so I want to rant about "down low" culture for a bit.<br />
<br />
If you go onto craigslist, you can find plenty of macho guys who identify as straight, have girlfriends or wives, but are seeking sex/intimacy with men when their gf's/wives are out of town. There's a kind of aesthetic that's presented: the secret makes it "hot," the masculinity makes it "real," and the connection is "better" because it's "gay without being <i>gay</i>." Luckily, Chulito meets a female prostitute (with whom he loses his virginity) who informs him: "It takes more to be a man than just fucking a woman." (Somehow Chulito has a lot of great mentors throughout the book!) There's homophobia in those craigslist ads, obviously, but it's almost as if the homophobia is something the gay community acquiesces to because of an attraction to machoism. To be clear, I think these guys' behavior is dishonest and wrong because of the <i>unknowing woman involved</i>, not necessarily because they're "closeted" or choose to keep their queerness private and/or anonymous. If Carlos weren't in Chulito's life (as well as adult mentors), I do see Chulito settling down with a girl, which would doubtless be a travesty for him and for her (unless they have an open relationship, etc).<br />
<br />
However, a down low relationship between two men can be monogamous and without a woman in the picture. There are many guys on craigslist who are seeking sex/intimacy with men (may or may not identify as straight), and are single and want to be "discreet." The love Chulito feels for Carlos is intense, and if he has to be "out" and "gay" to keep Carlos (as per Carlos' insistence), Chulito is ultimately willing to do that.<br />
<br />
I guess this is why I was annoyed at Carlos. There is plenty of indication that Carlos <i>would</i> give up Chulito if Chulito wasn't willing to be out after a couple months of dating. After a whole childhood of falling in love with each other? I guess gay youth might have greater expectations of each other these days, but if Chulito didn't have his mentors, I'm not sure he could've pulled it off. I'll be pissed at Carlos if he drops Chulito a couple years down the line, still expecting him to be "different" somehow.<br />
<br />
There's a scene where one of Carlos' friends, Kenny, who's flamboyant, comments on how "weird" it is and how jealous he is of Carlos, seeing Chulito snuggling his head in Carlos' chest like a puppy. The weirdness is a surrealism of seeing a macho guy like Chulito cuddle with another guy in public. The jealousy speaks to the aesthetic I mentioned above about how being with a macho guy is seen as somehow more real or special (Although thought of as usually private? What does this say about the public fight over gay marriage?). An "out" Chulito shouldn't be weird at all, though.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, I can understand why Kenny would be jealous. Rice-González certainly made Chulito a <i>chulito</i>. More than once I grinned giddily at how Chulito delivered some of his lines.<br />
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I invite other readers to comment below...alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-79605061120857438422012-01-31T03:44:00.001-08:002014-05-06T15:52:38.517-07:00Hummingbirds in the Wintertime?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Calypte_anna_-San_Luis_Obispo,_California,_USA_-male_-flying-8.jpg/600px-Calypte_anna_-San_Luis_Obispo,_California,_USA_-male_-flying-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Calypte_anna_-San_Luis_Obispo,_California,_USA_-male_-flying-8.jpg/600px-Calypte_anna_-San_Luis_Obispo,_California,_USA_-male_-flying-8.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Practically every day I see pigeons, crows, seagulls, starlings, robins, chickadees, sparrows. Closer to the water, there are ducks, geese, eagles, herons and the list goes on. The Seattle Audubon Society says there's over a hundred species of birds that live in the city. They all have different ways of interacting with humans.<br />
<br />
Seattle also has hummingbirds. Today, one came up to me, noticing me watching it through my bedroom window. I was in awe as it hovered, investigating me. I asked what it was doing here in the wintertime.<br />
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Apparently, over the last couple decades, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Hummingbird">Anna's hummingbird</a> has decided to reside in this region year-round. At night, especially cold ones, they go into "torpor," or temporary hibernation.<br />
<br />
Seattle gets a lot of rain during the winter, and the birds are able to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15620024">shake water off their heads</a> at incredible speeds. While the creature flaps its wings thirty times per second, it can simultaneously shake its head 180 degrees in less than 0.1<b> </b>seconds. That's beyond amazing.<br />
<br />
(Update: Now I see them all the time! Maybe I'm seeing the same one over and over? It's so cute!)<br />
<br />
(Another update: Okay, so I went to the Cascades on a camping trip, and a guy at a cabin had three hummingbird feeders. When I stood very still behind the feeders, <i>twenty</i> or so birds zipped in and around, investigating me, feeding...like literally six inches from my face. XD UNFORGETTABLE!)alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-677828802105816808.post-75385235772919896392012-01-24T13:28:00.004-08:002016-04-27T15:59:02.043-07:00Year of the Water Dragon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.amwilliams.com/pics/alan2012a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.amwilliams.com/pics/alan2012a.jpg" width="200" /></a>...which I'll remember as </div>
the Year I Grew Out My Hair.<br />
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I have the following goals this year of the water dragon:</div>
<ul>
<li>Continue working on my fantasy novel, preferably at a faster rate than last year (which was slooooow...),</li>
<li>Get admitted into a Ph.D. program (this feels like a semi-long shot, since I only applied to one),</li>
<li>Consistently go to martial arts class (topped with the less frequent gym workout and yoga class),</li>
<li>Strengthen my relationship with Michael (who also happens to be growing out his hair),</li>
<li>Oh, and continue to make ends meet!</li>
</ul>
I feel like I'm part of a generation where my job doesn't define me, which probably has something to do with the economy. When someone asks what I "do," sometimes I say I'm a "writer," other times I say I'm a "social worker." I've worked with vulnerable populations (supportive housing, shelters, detox, homecare) since I was eighteen, which means I've been doing this type of work for a decade now. But I haven't really had the drive to climb the social work ladder and become inundated with paperwork, which tells me it's time to move on. That's my hope with entering a Ph.D. program: to get some teaching skills and to build upon my writing. Although, of course if I'd been smart, I'd have applied to more than one program. I wanted stay local, however...Seattle's a good city.alanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15705068701218002977noreply@blogger.com1