g_b GayBombay 11th Anniversary Sunday Meet at Thane on 6 September 2009
The GayBombay 11th Anniversary Sunday Meet at Thane on 6 September 2009 The lone GayBombay Sunday Meet to be held as a part of the 11th Anniversary Celebrations of GayBombay will be held at Village a unique theme restaurant which revives the long forgotten traditions and culinary secrets of the Indian culture and heritage. Village, has a no time limit policy, variety of regional entertainment attractions, a gigantic spread of six different cuisines from all over India. This one ticket restaurant allows you to sample unlimited food beverage from its well appointed food chowkis cooked in front of you. You get to sample 70 tempting delicacies ranging from appetizers to desserts. Begin your gastronomique experience with choicest appetizers farsans, chaas, sugarcane juice and sherbets, hot cold chaats, main courses from each region, select tawa attractions, scrumptious tandoori delicaies, assorted parathewali gulli or the robust Punjabi dhaba. Do save some appetite for the sinful kadhaiwala doodh, the hot kesar jalebis and the kandi kulfis served with the Mishtaan bhandar from West Bengal V illage, offers a complete experience to its visitors through its well planned entertainments and attractions. The verandah hosts rural artisans like the kumbhar, the toy maker and Rajasthani handicrafts to view and buy as memorabilia. A old wise man welcomes you to the Village by offering a share of his hookah, to discuss the worldly matters under the wisdom of the panchayat tree. The Panchayat houses vivid attractions like the palmist, fortune teller, tarot card reader, Bioscope and the mehandiwala. You would be greeted by a Rajasthani Maand folk troupe enchanting you with folklores of bravery and love. You can even join the revelry with the band adorning the colourful garba or the vibrant bhangra. Traditional folk art of puppets, kutchi ghodi and periodical performances of the famed Rajasthani Chari dance, Ghoomar dance, sword / thali dance and the garba adorn every other corner. GB 11th Anniversary Celebrations are very special, and Village, perhaps would be the only rare place which offers a complete opportunity for the entire group to bond together in spirit and occasion. Day Date: Sunday, 6 September 2009 Time: Assemble out side Village 6:30 PM - 7:00 PM. Meeting Venue: Village, Eternity Mall, Teen Hath Naka (Marathon Chowk), Junction of Eastern Express Highway and LBS Road Thane (West), Cover: Rs. 349/- to be paid to Village to gain access to their premises We shall gather outside Village, situated in the Food Court of Eternity Mall between 6:30 and 7:00 pm. We shall enter Village at 7:00 pm for whole session of revelry and celebration that can last until 11 pm. Look for someone wearing a black cap at the assembly point. Directions: For those coming by trains: Alight at Thane Railway Station and hail an auto rikshaw for Teen Hath Naka. Eternity Mall is an imposing building at the Junction For those coming by Highway: Eternity Mall is an imposing building at the Teen Hath Naka. Note: 1. Do get your friends along to help them gain access to a group especially if they are not netizens. 2. You do not have to be out to the world to attend. This is a discreet event being held as a clean, safe social get-together of a non-sexual nature. Hardly any of those attending are out as such. 3. You need to be at least 18 years of age to attend. 4. There may be many who will prefer being discreet or may be still be coming to terms with themselves hence a request that all be sensitive to this and act and dress accordingly. 5. To identify the group look out for someone wearing a black cap See you all on Sunday. -- This event is organised by: http://www.gaybombay.org Right of admission reserved.attachment: meetlogo13.jpg
g_b Blustring Sahibs and Section 377 [1 Attachment]
Please find the article (review of HRW's paper on sodomy laws) published in the Economic and Political Weeekly attached. Best, Aditya B -- Do not print this mail unless really necessary. Save paper, save trees..!! If you loose your way while SCUBA diving, the safest direction to head for is UP..!!!
g_b Centre to clarify stand on gay sex next week
Centre to clarify stand on gay sex next week 8/31/2009 The Union Government is likely to clarify its stand on the issue of legalising gay sex between two consenting adults, before the Supreme Court next week. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has already indicated that the committee of three ministers, comprising himself, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily and Union Health Minister Ghulam Navi Azad, is going to submit its report to the Union Cabinet. The apex court is awaiting the stand of the Union Government on homosexuality. The Delhi High Court in its judgment dated July 2 had held that an act of homosexuality between two consenting adults is not an offence under section 377 IPC. The HC had also recommended to the Union Government to amend the said section accordingly. The judgment came under heavy fire from religious leaders who felt that such an act was in violation of nature and will spread dangerous diseases like AIDS in the society. These religious leaders, some of whom have already approached the Supreme Court against the judgment, are also of the opinion that homosexuality is a disease and will spread sexual corruption in the society and is also against the cultural and ethical values of Indian society. The Union Law Minister has, however, already made it clear that the HC judgment is well researched and cannot be contested. Attorney General of India G E Vahanvati had said on the last date of hearing that there was no need to stay the HC judgment at present. In all probability, the Union Government is not likely to resist the HC judgment. UNI Email: mailto:modera...@gaybombay.in modera...@gaybombay.in Web Sites: http://www.gaybombay.in/ www.gaybombay.in http://www.gaybombay.info/ www.gaybombay.info http://www.gayindia.org/ www.gayindia.org E Groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay GB Internet Radio http://www.gaybombay.in/gbradio Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay Emergency Helpline number 9820565885 Orkut: http://www.orkut.co.in/Main%23Community.aspx?cmm=22091955 http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955 Blogs: http://gaybombay.blogspot.com/ http://gaybombay.blogspot.com http://gaybombay.wordpress.com/ http://gaybombay.wordpress.com Twitter http://twitter.com/gaybombay http://twitter.com/gaybombay Facebook http://www.facebook.com/gaybombay facebook.com/gaybombay
g_b Mature Males
Looking for mature males from Thane / Mumbai pls contact me on stro...@yahoo.com
g_b File - E mail problems?
Hi Have you stopped getting emails from this group suddenly? It is highly unlikely that your name has been deleted from the list. We do not delete anybodys membership until and unless the person repeatedly spams or sends pornographic/crude emails you might not be getting your mails is because your email is on the bouncing list. Some members have trouble with bouncing e-mails: Messages that are sent out by the group cannot be delivered to their mailboxes and are sent back to Yahoo. This can happen for various reasons, for example, when their mailboxes are full, or their e-mail addresses have become obsolete, etc. Yahoo doesn't tolerate bouncing mails and will deactivate these persons' memberships. It will, however, send you a reactivation request. All you have to do is reply to that (once you've fixed the problem with your mailbox), and Yahoo will resume sending you the messages. We will also send out these requests daily. Bounced Messages If you subscribe to a Yahoo Groups discussion group under one of the e-mail options (normal or digest), Yahoo Groups will suspend sending mail to you after repeated attempts bounce back. To see your recent bounced messages, view your Yahoo Groups preferences at http://groups.yahoo.com/myprefs and click Bounce history for your e-mail address. For more information on bounced-message handling by Yahoo Groups, search Yahoo Groups help for the word bounce. Why does it say my account is bouncing? If group messages sent to your email address are returned to Yahoo! Groups as undeliverable (bouncing), your Yahoo! Groups account may be temporarily disabled. Messages can be returned for several reasons: Your mailbox may be full -- try deleting messages from your Inbox. Your ISP may have a backlog of email to process -- contact your ISP. Your ISP may be blocking email from Yahoo! Groups -- contact your ISP. In many cases, Yahoo! Groups can automatically reactivate your account once the delivery problem is solved. However, in some cases you will need to manually reactivate your account: 1. Visit your My Groups page. 2. Look for a bounce alert near the top of the page. 3. Click the Alert link to reactivate your account. Email: modera...@gaybombay.in Web Sites: www.gaybombay.in www.gaybombay.info www.gayindia.org E Groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay GB Radio www.gaybombay.in/gbradio Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay Emergency Helpline number 9820565885 Orkut: http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955 Blogs: http://gaybombay.blogspot.com http://gaybombay.wordpress.com Twitter http://twitter.com/gaybombay Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:gay_bombay-dig...@yahoogroups.com mailto:gay_bombay-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: gay_bombay-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
g_b File - Personal Advertisements
Hi All 2 personal advertisements seeking mates a month are allowed on the list. Its unfair to others if you post your advertisement every few days. In the past, many have complained that they see too many personal advertisements on the list. So a restriction of 2 personal advertisements per month has been imposed. You may, if you wish, place your advertisement in the classified section at www.gaybombay.info as well. In case you want to reply to a members personal advertisement, kindly click on the persons email address. This will ensure that your reply goes to the concerned person and not to entire list which is what happens when you hit the reply button. So please reply directly to the advertiser and not to the whole group in case your reply is personal. Regards modera...@gaybombay.in Email: modera...@gaybombay.in Web Sites: www.gaybombay.in www.gaybombay.info www.gayindia.org E Groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay GB Radio www.gaybombay.in/gbradio Gaybombay breaking news and annoucements http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/subscribe/Gaybombay Emergency Helpline number 9820565885 Orkut: http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=22091955 Blogs: http://gaybombay.blogspot.com http://gaybombay.wordpress.com Twitter http://twitter.com/gaybombay Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:gay_bombay-dig...@yahoogroups.com mailto:gay_bombay-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: gay_bombay-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
g_b File - Personal Replies To Advertisements
Hello please reply to the concerned person directly in case you want to reply to someone who has posted a personal email. please CLICK ON THE PERSON'S EMAIL ADDRESS while replying to him . this will enable you to send a mail to the person with whom you want to communicate. if you click on the reply button, the message will go the entire group. it is unfair and many persons have complained that they do not want personal correspondence in their box. Individual personal replies to one another will NOT BE CARRIED on this list until and unless it is relevant to the entire group regards moderator modera...@gaybombay.in
g_b File - Emergency Number.doc
File: Emergency Number.doc Description : Emergency Number Emergency Number.doc Description: Binary data
g_b File - Photo Album
Hi all, I just created a photo-site. You can view the photos at the following link - http://gaybombay.picsquare.com/album/Default Album There will be no nude pictures in this album. Members are welcome to send pictures of men, preferably south asian though not necessarily so. But please do send non nude, non porno pictures. Once you send the pictures, I shall try and add them to the album. Regards Moderator
g_b File - Tired of too many mails?
Tired of too many emails from this group? Hi All I know that this group has been generating too many emails. Many subscribers are flustered at the number of mails. Some of you might be thinking of leaving the group because you do not like your mail box to be clogged with mails. But just in case you do not know, you have the option of receiving all your emails in a digest mode or you can opt for no email mode. That way, you can see what's new on the website and still keep a clear mailbox. You will never receive mail from us if you do that. YOU choose when to visit us ... and you can check out what you like and can skip over what doesn't interest you. (Or choose Daily digest ... once or twice a day, you will receive an email -- text only -- listing all new postings ... just click on the messages link at the top of the digest to go to the web archive to see any attachments.) How ? Depending on what you opt for, you can send mail to: Digest Mode:- gay_bombay-dig...@yahoogroups.com No Mail Mode:- gay_bombay-nom...@yahoogroups.com Regards modera...@gaybombay.in
g_b File - just in case you did not know
Hi. I am sure you are enjoying reading the thought provoking, at times funny, at times informative mails and also seeing the JPGs/pictures that members post on this list However, at times you may get a lot of mail and it may flood your email box. If you feel flustered and feel that there are too many emails, I'd like to remind you that you don't have to leave just to stop us from clogging your inbox. You have the option of 1) getting your mails in digest form (however you will not be able to see the pictures in this format) Daily digest ... once or twice a day, you will receive an email -- text only -- listing all new postings ... just click on the messages link at the top of the digest to go to the web archive to see any attachments.) 2) or you can view mails directly on the web... and choose the option ... you can see what's new on the website and still keep a clear mailbox. You will never receive mail from us if you do that. YOU choose when to visit us ... and you can check out what you like and can skip over what doesn't interest you. 3)no email option I hope this helps. The commands for choosing the various modes are listed below. Warm Regards modera...@gaybombay.in = == To write to the list -email to: gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com To unsubscribe, send an email to: gay_bombay-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com Want to read each mail individually? Mail to gay_bombay-nor...@yahoogroups.com Tired of too many emails? Want all your daily mails together in digest form? E-mail to gay_bombay-dig...@yahoogroups.com (You will not be able to see pictures/jpgs) Don't want mails at all yet want to be a part of the group? Mail to gay_bombay-nom...@yahoogroups.com Want to directly read mails on Internet? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/
g_b File - Essentials
Chat Room At www.gaybombay.in or http://pub35.bravenet.com/chat/show.php?usernum=2998156902cpv=2 GayBombay Orkut is at http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=22091955 GayBombay Google group is at http://groups.google.com/group/Gaybombay PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS GROUP DOES NOT CARRY ADULT PICTURES OR LURID MATERIAL.NEITHER DOES IT CARRY ANY LINKS/EMAILS/ADVERTISEMENTS OF COMMERCIAL WEB SITES, ADULT OR OTHERWISE. SO DO NOT BOTHER POSTING SUCH ADVERTISEMENTS This group is not associated with any other e group or web site other than www.gaybombay.in Rss feed: http://www.mail-archive.com/gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com/maillist.xml Gay_Bombay, LGBT India,GayBombay,Gayindia.org,www.gaybombay.in, Gay India Group web site www.gaybombay.in
g_b Fwd: Castigated and celebrated (on Caster Semenya)
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Insight/Article.aspx?id=1056989 http://www.thetimes.co.za/ Castigated and celebrated Published:Aug 29, 2009 -- PATRIOT GAMES: The outpouring of support for star athlete Caster Semenya from political quarters could be nothing more than expediency. Picture: MARK DADSWELL/ GETTY Our society’s response to the difference she represents, signifies a significant shift in social norms http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php Had the acceptance by South Africans of athlete Caster Semenya’s difference been extended to murdered footballer Eudy Simelane she may have still been alive today, writes Mark Gevisser Two highly accomplished, young, black, female South African athletes are currently in the news. One came home to a hero’s welcome and got to meet the president. The other is dead, her alleged assailants in a Delmas court this week on trial for her rape and murder. Blessed with masculine looks and physiques, both women chose the sportsfield over more feminine pursuits. Both experienced ostracism because they challenged stereotypes and both appear to have dealt with this by devoting themselves to their codes. Caster Semenya, 18, won the 800m at the world athletics championships last week; Eudy Simelane had been a member of Banyana Banyana, the women’s national football team, and was training to be a professional referee when she was murdered in KwaThema aged 29 last year. Both women appear to have been punished — one in the most severe way possible — for their difference and their excellence. Semenya has been dealt the humiliation of having her gold medal withheld until she proves she is a woman. And although the prosecutor failed to establish a connection between Simelane’s sexual orientation and her murder, her friends are convinced she was the victim of an epidemic of violence against lesbians, who are subjected to what is sometimes called “corrective rape” by men seeking to punish or cure them; or who feel that butch women are competing with them by straying into their territory. According to Phumi Mtetwa, director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, at least 20 women have been killed, in ways similar to Simelane, over the past five years. In the shadow of such violence, what are we to make of the extraordinary surge of emotion and patriotism in support of Semenya? Much of it seems driven by grievance, by the sense that South Africans have been denied a rightful reward. There was conscious reference, by parliamentarians, to Saartjie Baartman, and perhaps the national anger at Semenya’s humiliation arises out of what we might call our Bartman Complex, a particularly South African anxiety, that we will gain notoriety for our alleged abnormality rather than celebrity for our excellence. Or, worse yet, that we will be revealed as Mugabes rather than Madibas; that the world will take away our gold medal and label us freakish instead. But the upside to this anger is the acknowledgement that we strive towards a society based on something different than the repressive notions of gender roles inherited from colonial law-makers and patriarchal African society. Welcoming Semenya home this week, Jacob Zuma gave eloquent voice to this: not only had the athlete “showcased women’s achievement, power and strength’’, but she had “reminded the world of the importance of the rights to human dignity and privacy’’. And so there is a way that the current adulation of Semenya — even if it is fuelled in part by jingoism and wounded pride — vindicates the memory of Simelane, and other young women who have been victimised because they are too butch for comfort. This is not to suggest, for a moment, that Semenya herself is a lesbian, or a transsexual, or intersexed, or anything other than a shy and determined young woman who is a demon on the racetrack. Rather, it is to acknowledge the way our society’s response to the difference she represents — the language it uses to protect her — signifies a significant shift in social norms since the advent of democracy. Listen, for example, to Leonard Chuene, the blowhard South African athletics chief: “I am not going to let that girl be humiliated, because she has not committed (any) crime whatsoever. Her crime was to be born the way she is born,” he said to one journalist in Berlin. And to another: “Why must she be subjected to this? How you look and behave is a God-given thing. You do not have a say in that.” Leaving the nature/nurture debate aside (is how we behave a ‘God-given thing’?), Chuene’s comments acknowledge that Semenya’s gender identity is inherent and integral rather than perverse and pathological. And in acknowledging this, he is using (even if unwittingly) a template provided by the struggle for gay equality in South Africa. The winning argument, in this struggle, was that to discriminate against people because of gender identity or sexuality was to punish them for inherent
g_b Fwd: We celebrate otherness today (on Caster Semenya)
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-08-31-we-celebrate-otherness-today We celebrate otherness today COLLEEN LOWE MORNA: COMMENT - Aug 31 2009 06:00 Long before the Caster Semenya sex-test row hit the headlines, South Africans in all their corners were questioning her identity. Inevitably questions such as “would you want to be seen with her”, “would you marry her” and “she must be a lesbian” peppered conversation. It’s wonderful how the rainbow nation has rallied around its “golden girl”. But how deep, how broad, how far and for how long will this celebration of otherness last? Remember, Semenya’s agony did not start with (though it will be considerably aggravated by) being thrust under the global media spotlight. It started with being a little girl who liked playing soccer in the dusty plains of Limpopo, who has been refused entry into public toilets and whose humiliation did not start in Berlin. As I watched the headlines progress from “She’s a lady, man” and “Yes, she’s a girl” to “All black, all gold, she’s our girl”, I could not help but remember the story of Marco Ndlovu, one of many women who annually participate in workshops to chronicle their lives at Gender Links. The following are a few lines from her testimony, written under the header “Finding the real me”: “I am a 39-year-old black lesbian born into to a family of eight, of whom only five survived. Gender violence has been so much a part of my life that at times I wonder if there is such a thing as a life free of violence. “As a lesbian, hate, violence and misogyny follow me wherever I go. I became pregnant as a result of being raped by a man I believed to be a friend. I have been beaten almost to pulp because of my sexual orientation. “I have a female lover, but since she is not ready to be open about our relationship, we have to keep it secret. While I look for whatever job I can get so that I can build a home for my children and grandchildren, I write poetry and create the world of my dreams with the words that flow from my pen. I am Marco, a proud woman, who loves her two daughters, who loves other women, and who -- despite the pain and suffering that I have endured -- is finally finding the real me.” I remembered Marco, because like Semenya she is athletic, muscular, flat-chested and could easily be mistaken for a man. Unlike Semenya, she will not have a hero’s welcome, meet the president or have the whole nation proclaim her right to be. As we welcome Semenya home, it behoves us to ask how many others there are out there, men and women, who have refused to conform to societal templates, and whether we will stand up for them in the same way. In the very same newspapers that have now shown us every angle of Semenya’s face, her facial hair, her crotch, her braided hair and her muscular body (whenever before has a woman athlete featured so prominently on the front page of any newspaper?), we have the obligatory blonde, blue-eyed, skinny pin-up girls from Planet Hollywood pasted on back pages. On the same page heralding Semenya’s red-carpet welcome on Tuesday, one paper reported on Miss South Africa, Tatum Keshwar, saying she hopes she has done the nation proud by being selected seventh in the Miss Universe contest. So now its official: women come in all shapes and forms. Why is that important? Because although sex is a biological given (though even that, we have learned, is far from straightforward), gender is a social construct: how society expects women and men to behave. Precisely because girls are expected to be pretty faces with limited strength and thinking capacity, they retreat or are forced to retreat from sport, from public life, from hard beats in the media, from boardrooms and management, from entrepreneurship and jobs such as mining and security. Stereotypes also limit men: they should not cry, feel, care or engage in “women’s work”. In the past several years we have been running a course called Business Unusual in different parts of Southern Africa. In Tanzania we found Masai men making money by using their skill in braiding hair to run salons in a local market, describing how, by challenging their socialisation, they are doing a rip-roaring trade. Bravo to them. Will women in South Africa, come the World Cup in 2010, get to play the game, drive taxis and build highways? If we fail to use this extraordinary event to breathe life into the celebration of diversity envisaged in the Constitution, our large turnout at Oliver Tambo Airport this week will have been little more than a fleeting show of national unity. We will have raised a middle finger to the rest of the world but retreated into our cocoon of black and white, male and female -- not the rainbow nation we claim to be. Unlike Marco, we will still not have found our true selves. *Colleen Lowe Morna is executive director of Gender Links.* *Source: Mail Guardian Online Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-08-31-we-celebrate-otherness-today *
g_b Fwd: Feminine masculinities, masculine femininities (on Caster Semenya)
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-08-31-feminine-masculinities-masculine-femininities Feminine masculinities, masculine femininities ANTJE SCHUHMANN: COMMENT - Aug 31 2009 06:00 Politicians, the public, family and friends have for days been expressing their unconditional support for “golden girl” Caster Semenya -- and this would be fabulous if it were truly unconditional. But is it? With a surprising disregard for Semenya’s nonconforming gender performance -- after all, women in South Africa have been violated simply for wearing pants -- the patriotic support she is receiving is based on clearly reinforcing her sex as female: “She is a woman”, “I bathed with her, I know”, “She is beautiful”, “She is our first lady of sport” and so on. Feminine masculinities and masculine femininities are not normally celebrated so overtly. On the contrary, women looking, dressing and moving like Semenya are often the targets of hate crimes, “curative” rape and homophobia. Women who don’t buy into gender-stereotypical behaviour are often violently “reminded” of who they are supposed to be. It is Semenya’s nonconformity that the Young Communist League is conveniently forgetting when it calls her sex testing racist. After all, Serena and Venus Williams have never been similarly tested -- because they are Americans. But, unlike them, Semenya does not run across tennis courts in miniskirts and have a prominent cleavage. In not acknowledging the Williams sisters’ gender conformity, this particular critique of racism silences the uncomfortable fact of Semenya’s transgender performance. The constant reiteration that she is a woman, and support for her that assumes her treatment is unfair to a woman (rather than unfair to anyone, whatever their sex and gender identity), reinforces the same binary that is the cause of the problem: men have to be men and women have to be women. Looks, clothes, gestures, hormones, hairstyle, physiognomy, movement, voice, chromosomes, psychology, attitudes --all these are seen to divide us, yet we’re supposedly equal. Do we all know our chromosome status and testosterone levels (maybe some are in for a surprise)? What about those born with ambivalent genitals who are raised female, undergo surgery and become male? And what is it that makes a woman a woman? Is it the ability to give birth? If so, after menopause, am I a woman no longer? Why do we need to be sure about someone’s sex at all? Why do we need to have our biologically allocated sex in sync with our gender performance? While we are celebrating Semenya’s achievement, why aren’t we doing so on the grounds that she -- as all of us -- could be found to be anything and everything? And why are her supporters not stating clearly that she will be a South African celebrity whatever the outcome of her sex test? What will a result suggesting she is not “entirely female” represent for her supporters? Will they stand by her side and make sure she does not have to give back the medal? Sex tests have strong ideological undertones. During the Cold War it was the Eastern Bloc that was suspected of “cheating”; now Western newspapers report that it is particularly Third World countries that send men disguised as women to international sports competitions. The point is not merely that athletes from the First World are not also subjected to sex tests. It is rather that, given the history of slavery and colonialism, the exposure of a black woman’s body has a very specific context. In the sensationalism of Western media discussing the “Bantu as often being hermaphrodites” and in the echo here of Sarah Baartman being exhibited at fairs and her genitals being dissected after her death, we recognise a painful “herstory”. This is a history at the intersections of racism and sexism, buoyed up by science and public spectatorship, that is re-emerging right now in front of us. No person, black or white, should be subjected to the investigation Semenya has undergone. A narrow understanding of the diversity within femininities and masculinities haunts both South Africa and the world. For our country, this moment must make us measure our progress on the constitutional imperatives of freedom, equality and dignity for all. And it is an opportunity to question how truly we are willing and able to engage and embrace difference. *Antje Schuhmann is a senior lecturer in Wits University’s politics department* *Source: Mail Guardian Online Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-08-31-feminine-masculinities-masculine-femininities * -- Do not print this mail unless really necessary. Save paper, save trees..!! If you loose your way while SCUBA diving, the safest direction to head for is UP..!!!
g_b FW: Shoot for Mid-day---any takers? [1 Attachment]
From: Anuja Gupta [mailto:emailan...@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 6:44 PM To: modera...@gaybombay.in Subject: Shoot for Mid-day Dear Sir/Madame. I am assistant to Som Subhro Sarkar, a commercial photographer. We are doing a photoshoot for Mid-Day The image attached with this mail is a layout of the shoot for Mid-day. The campaing ad will be on the internet. The essence of the shoot is Reality, who we are. The requirment is a gay couple, who are not hesitant to pose in front of the camera. The shoot is on 5th Sept'09. Allowances will be paid. If you can help me with in this, I will be very gratful. Regards, Anuja Gupta-- +91 98677 80807 www.flickr.com/photos/anuimages/
