Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Linkin Blogs
I'm on Scott and Ben's excellent blog again, this time in a post featuring pics by my friend Gio. He is one of my longest term friends (being so careful not to say oldest!) in the scene and has had my back and me in front of his camera for years. Its good to see his good work get its due on their site.
FK
Thursday, February 24, 2011
On cue
yet another pool table photo. This time it was the back room at Hamburger Mary's. Chalk it up to my desire to do a different pose, but this time, I stood my ground, instead of staying on the balls :)
FK
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Katt's meows
an overdue shout out to one of my long term friends in the scene. Al of Altomic Visuals has been photographing me forever. The one below is from 2002!! Some of the better shots on this blog were done by him. I've done several formal shoots with him and am overdue for another one.
Al is always at the events taking pictures and giving back to the community. He has a good eye, and a better heart and its always a pleasure to run into him when I am out on the prowl.
If you want excellent artistic photographs done by genuinely nice guy, please visit his website. And if you want to see a little of the scene through his eye, visit his flicker page, where you may catch a glimpse of the Katt now and then.
FK
Al is always at the events taking pictures and giving back to the community. He has a good eye, and a better heart and its always a pleasure to run into him when I am out on the prowl.
If you want excellent artistic photographs done by genuinely nice guy, please visit his website. And if you want to see a little of the scene through his eye, visit his flicker page, where you may catch a glimpse of the Katt now and then.
FK
Kattacombs
Diva on a Ninja :)
a pic from June 2006, posing on a friend's bike outside the old Yukon Restaurant in Hollywood. A place where the unusual was somehow commonplace.
FK
Monday, February 21, 2011
on a serious note
Once again, the ugly label wars are raging online so I am posting this essay again, for all the good it has ever done to make people realize that labels are for clothes and that it costs nothing to pay others respect. But if a cat has nine lives, there is no reason why my words can't also, so here we go again.
Everyone is so consumed by labels, by what makes a male a male, and a female, a female, and what it means to be attracted to one or the other or both. But ultimately, all of the things that we think of to divide male from female: hair and skin and body size and shape and breasts, are all secondary sexual characteristics, and as such, they differentiate but they don't define. For human beings, there is only really one primary sexual characteristic, and for better or worse, that's the external genitalia. You can talk about genetics and xx and xy and xyy and all the chromosomal variations, but ultimately, how those genes are expressed physically is what counts. Males have penises, female have vaginas
But Male is not man and female is not woman. Your anatomy is not your gender, which is much more of a psychological construct than a physical absolute. Genitals are not what makes a man a man, or woman, a woman. Having a penis doesn't make you a man, or exclude you from being a woman. Your gender is between your ears, not your legs.
Same with homo vs heterosexual. homo=same. hetero=different. In the strict, literal sense of the terms, if you have a penis and your partner has one as well, that is a homosexual act.
But homosexual isn't the same as gay, just like hetero isn't the same as straight. Gay and Straight are social and cultural constructs, not easy absolutes. Being gay or straight is more about who you are attracted to, and why, and how you interact with them, and how you interrelate to the rest of the world. Being "gay" is more of a social political identity than a sexual one, just as being straight is. If an open admitted gay guy becomes celibate, he is still gay. If he sleeps with women, I would argue he is still gay as well. A man who is attracted to a transgendered woman can be straight. but he can't technically claim to be wholly heterosexual.
The term transsexual is an unfortunate one, because unlike homo and heterosexual, being transsexual is not about sex, its about gender. If they would have started with the term transgendered at the outset, instead of it evolving slowly and fitfully into more common usage, there might be a lot less confusion and angst among the transgendered community.
but we can never un-ring the bell as far as the terminology of transsexualism goes, so the term will continue to define gender and to confound how we deal with it.
I think rather than worrying about labels, that you should love who you love, or lust for those who you lust for, and do so proudly, and openly and shrug off those who would try to define or confine you. Sexuality is nothing if not fluid, and too many people are swimming against its current instead of going with the flow.
Peace
FK
Everyone is so consumed by labels, by what makes a male a male, and a female, a female, and what it means to be attracted to one or the other or both. But ultimately, all of the things that we think of to divide male from female: hair and skin and body size and shape and breasts, are all secondary sexual characteristics, and as such, they differentiate but they don't define. For human beings, there is only really one primary sexual characteristic, and for better or worse, that's the external genitalia. You can talk about genetics and xx and xy and xyy and all the chromosomal variations, but ultimately, how those genes are expressed physically is what counts. Males have penises, female have vaginas
But Male is not man and female is not woman. Your anatomy is not your gender, which is much more of a psychological construct than a physical absolute. Genitals are not what makes a man a man, or woman, a woman. Having a penis doesn't make you a man, or exclude you from being a woman. Your gender is between your ears, not your legs.
Same with homo vs heterosexual. homo=same. hetero=different. In the strict, literal sense of the terms, if you have a penis and your partner has one as well, that is a homosexual act.
But homosexual isn't the same as gay, just like hetero isn't the same as straight. Gay and Straight are social and cultural constructs, not easy absolutes. Being gay or straight is more about who you are attracted to, and why, and how you interact with them, and how you interrelate to the rest of the world. Being "gay" is more of a social political identity than a sexual one, just as being straight is. If an open admitted gay guy becomes celibate, he is still gay. If he sleeps with women, I would argue he is still gay as well. A man who is attracted to a transgendered woman can be straight. but he can't technically claim to be wholly heterosexual.
The term transsexual is an unfortunate one, because unlike homo and heterosexual, being transsexual is not about sex, its about gender. If they would have started with the term transgendered at the outset, instead of it evolving slowly and fitfully into more common usage, there might be a lot less confusion and angst among the transgendered community.
but we can never un-ring the bell as far as the terminology of transsexualism goes, so the term will continue to define gender and to confound how we deal with it.
I think rather than worrying about labels, that you should love who you love, or lust for those who you lust for, and do so proudly, and openly and shrug off those who would try to define or confine you. Sexuality is nothing if not fluid, and too many people are swimming against its current instead of going with the flow.
Peace
FK
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