tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post9203751519102756312..comments2024-01-13T23:32:12.331-06:00Comments on Slaves of Academe: Cleaning My ClosetOso Rarohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11345231159759787852noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-27129344197820610432007-11-03T23:03:00.000-05:002007-11-03T23:03:00.000-05:00I echo maggiemay but then I've said it before, I b...I echo maggiemay but then I've said it before, I believe.Rent Partyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05172304380312568465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-42429096761131866852007-10-20T07:47:00.000-05:002007-10-20T07:47:00.000-05:00I'll just repeat what A.W. said above: a fucking ...I'll just repeat what A.W. said above: a fucking amazing post, oso. I hope that IRL you are putting some of your blog work together for a book of essays; it's powerful, powerful stuff that deserves a wider audience than the blogosphere.Margarethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03047700345491098393noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-86017785059727087832007-10-19T23:28:00.000-05:002007-10-19T23:28:00.000-05:00This post was great. It made me think a lot and re...This post was great. It made me think a lot and resonated with me. As other people have commented, I like that you critique the whole coming out narrative, but also recognize the difficulty of a closet and people whose situations/positions are different than yours. <BR/><BR/>"Coming out" has been an interesting process for me for a few reasons; a major one of them being my privileges - straight privilege from being flexible (my word because bisexual is gender-exclusive and inaccurate for who i tend to be attracted to anyways) and just looking pretty gender conforming; long white girl hair, etc. Not being in any relationships makes it hard to just drop a pronoun (and even if I was in a relationship, the pronoun might not make my queerness obvious) without further discussing sexual desire/identity in a way I might not want to with family, coworkers, etc. <BR/><BR/>I have at some times felt like an outsider in the queer community, and like I didn't have a right to be there, either because of my own baggage or other's reaction. Sometimes I don't believe myself. I recognize this has a lot to do with my position of privilege and the parts of straightness, or at least choices, I have, but I don't really fit in as straight at all anymore, if I'm being myself. I am definitely not trying to whine about having no community, because many queer (and straight) people/communities have embraced me, but am agreeing with your idea that it doesn't always lend itself to a clear linear narrative.Bad Decision Makerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14394225373078412615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-35117922372033947012007-10-18T17:53:00.000-05:002007-10-18T17:53:00.000-05:00Gorgeous post. You strike a balance (as lesbo prof...Gorgeous post. You strike a balance (as lesbo prof noted) between serious critique and sincere compassion.<BR/><BR/>I'll point this out to the students in my Queer Lit class.<BR/><BR/>cgCarol Guesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14810606077438065844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-79867592004962727652007-10-17T15:39:00.000-05:002007-10-17T15:39:00.000-05:00i hardly no where to begin in response, other than...i hardly no where to begin in response, other than to say this is unreal--beautiful, personal, intellectual, political--in a far less elegant form than your own, fucking amazing. <BR/><BR/>your claim that coming out is a daily experience is wonderful, not the experience, but your description. and i agree that the singular "coming out" narrative seems entirely too personal to share.<BR/><BR/>i know that we straights (or bi, in my case) are fairly dumb and clueless about such things, but some of us not only care deeply but are more often than you might expect not baffled.gwoertendykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00542058287462910446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-65943244269739018482007-10-16T14:23:00.000-05:002007-10-16T14:23:00.000-05:00Odd Bear (me gusta traducirlo así, mejor que como ...Odd Bear (me gusta traducirlo así, mejor que como <I>strange</I> o peor aún <I>weird</I>), as you say, “one is constantly coming out, over and over again, on a daily basis.” However, for each outing there is a new closeting at stake. And as much as one goes out of various closets (being non-gay, that is a closet I don’t really fit in), one gets—unwittingly—into other ones, from which it might not be so easy to get out, for one may not even realise one is inside them (these closets do not have an “National Day” to come out of them—a marketing problem, if you will). If “being in the closet doesn’t mean you don’t know who and what you are,” just the correlative opposite may be said of being out-of-the-closet: it doesn’t mean you know who and what you are. For the self-affirmation that denies acknowledging the non-sharable character of such an experience in its vain attempt to proclaim it, to reach others (as in the litany of <I>intimate</I> narratives deprived of an intimate context to be told), can also be seen as a “peculiar form of self-mutilation.” After all, self mutilation isn’t necessarily to be equated with claustrophilia, for claustrophobia is, after all, a phobia. Besides, there’s much fun to be had in closets. The thing is to know how to choose the appropriate one, and for how long to hang out… oops! I mean, to <I>hang-in</I>.<BR/>Chaufa!Maxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12308954205854314838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-58377175874175657352007-10-14T13:36:00.000-05:002007-10-14T13:36:00.000-05:00I have decided that one of the reasons the deep so...I have decided that one of the reasons the deep south (which I am now located south of, gott sei dank) <BR/>is so deeply twisted is that so many people are so deeply closeted.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-90047621796244763892007-10-12T18:24:00.000-05:002007-10-12T18:24:00.000-05:00I enjoyed this post so much, especially that you e...I enjoyed this post so much, especially that you end remembering the stifling feelings of closetedness and the initial discoveries of sexual identity. I attended a conference once with a whole bunch of lit crit types (no offense intended, of course) who spent a great deal of time discussing the need to disabuse LGBT students of the idea that there is such a thing as a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender identity, as such. It was just a social construction, a meaningful yet intangible abstraction that is more deployed than innate. <BR/><BR/>And while I get the whole critique of identity, I came to the meeting from a school in the deep South, where many queers were hidden, scared, and barely breathing in their closets. And the idea that there was an identity to cling to, however fragile, a community with a history of which they could be a part, was intoxicating and life-giving. <BR/><BR/>So, I cautioned them about taking away the concept of an LGBT identity before students could even profitably form one. As you say, these identities and their formation is an important thing in our own development as queers... whatever that means.Lesboprofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09249806181782620274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-65014205416330955192007-10-11T22:23:00.000-05:002007-10-11T22:23:00.000-05:00This was an amazing post, and I actually talked ab...This was an amazing post, and I actually talked about it specifically in my lit and sexuality class today. You are awesome Oso Raro. (And you should know that everybody in my class laughed at the "you'll be up to your ankles in ice cream" line - and most of the students I teach identify as straight :)<BR/><BR/>One of my students actually asked how I found you. Clearly I just demurred and said that there are a lot of great college profs who blog :)Dr. Crazyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457967076373916629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-22339062862689678762007-10-11T20:16:00.000-05:002007-10-11T20:16:00.000-05:00Oso - HAPPY NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY!Here's a great...Oso - <STRONG>HAPPY NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY!<BR/></STRONG><BR/>Here's a great contribution from two lesbian women to commemorate the National Coming Out Day :<BR/><A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhiEsxI5fRQ" REL="nofollow"><STRONG>Coming Out in an Evangelical Church - Wow!</STRONG></A><BR/><BR/>You can also go directly to FaithoftheAbomination.com. Their story will be told in a documentary film. I feel this will be groundbreaking for the GLBT community.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22234799.post-9088933970795245112007-10-11T12:00:00.000-05:002007-10-11T12:00:00.000-05:00Tus reflexiones me llegan al alma. You are such a ...Tus reflexiones me llegan al alma. <BR/>You are such a good insightful writer.Maruja Mucihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07796343403043680557noreply@blogger.com