Gender Roles

Justin on Panels - Season 2, Episode 07

Justin on Panels - Season 2, Episode 07

The adventure of cleaning up audio and improving show notes from previous panels continues in today’s episode of Justin on Panels. We are still working through MarsCon 2018, with the panel “Cleavage Optional: Gender, Cosplay, and Genderbending Cosplay”.

Content Warning: Blackface does get mentioned during this panel.

How is the cosplay experience different for women and men? Why is genderbent cosplay so popular? What fans aren't doing it and what characters aren't being genderbent? What does this mean for trans and non-binary characters and fans?
With: Bridget Landry, Justin Grays, Kris Heding

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 06

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 06

In this episode, we discuss topics ranging from politics and lateral reading to science fiction and polyamory.

This episode is not sponsored.

Hosted By:

Justin (xe/xem) - https://www.justingrays.org/
Nat (they/them)
Noel (they/them)
Sarah (she/her)

Content Warning - Mentions of:

  • The Bible

  • COVID-19

  • Death

  • Guns/Gun Violence

  • Joss Whedon

  • Mass Shooting

  • Masturbation

  • Military/National Guard

  • Murder

  • Nazis/Neonazis

  • Odinists

  • Police

  • Porn

  • Religion

  • Richard Spencer

  • Seth MacFarlane

  • Sex

  • Suicide

  • Violence

  • Zack Snyder

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 05

GraysMatter Podcast - Season 1, Episode 05

In this episode, we discuss topics ranging from conventions and politics to COVID-19 and memes.

This episode is not sponsored. We are not medical providers, and nothing we say should be construed as medical advice.

Hosted By:

FaeBun (she/her)
Justin (xe/xem) - https://www.justingrays.org/
Michelle Chmura (she/her) - https://twitter.com/avocadabro & https://residentialrobot.tumblr.com/

Content Warning - Mentions of:

  • Aging

  • COVID-19

  • Death

  • Fibromyalgia

  • Military

  • Physical Therapy

  • Richard Dawkins

  • Weight & Weight Loss

Super Bowl Halftime Shakeup

The 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show seems to have ruffled some feathers. I personally didn’t care about Super Bowl LIV until a couple of days after it happened - that was when I started seeing commentary from various folx calling out people who have been having “righteous anger” about Jennifer López and Shakira’s halftime performance. To be honest, I still don’t care about football or the Super Bowl itself [Note 1] [Note 2]; I only liked the beauty, pageantry, and importance of this particular halftime performance.

It took over a day before I saw any negative posts about the halftime show appear in my social media - in fact, I only saw one directly. The condensed version of the one negative post said: “We want women to not be seen as sex objects… yet we celebrate during half time woman[sic] in almost nothing doing strip club moves” and went on to say that men of “integrity” chose a better path than to watch the show [Note 3]. It was strongly implied that the men of “integrity” were some flavor of Christians - Assemblies of God [Note 4], I think. This was a troubling sentiment, and I responded with:

So, we should blame women for men not treating people like people? That doesn't make sense. And what about the Latinx kids in cages singing BORN IN THE USA and LETS GET LOUD surrounded by an illumined Venus symbol? Did you notice the foot work? Did you notice the rope Shakira tied around her body while belly dancing? Everything done at this event has a far, FAR deeper meaning. Not to mention the multilingual songs, the Puerto Rican flag, that sex work is legitimate work and the pole wasn’t about you? This righteous anger is very weird, I find. "Here's what appropriate dress is" with no concept of culture or history, with nothing said about kids in cages or the policing of brown bodies. Depressing.

One person took exception to my saying that sex work is legitimate work, and made her feelings clear about it, expanding on them on her own page. Unfortunately, everything said was either based on a lie, was a half-truth, or was the legacy of white people removing POC agency. I was initially incensed, but then instead of engaging directly I decided to go ahead and write this.

When I made my initial comment on the Super Bowl post, I had not yet seen the entire performance; only clips, stills, and other people's comments. Since then, I have seen the performance in its entirety. I was absolutely floored by it. It was an amazing experience. It also made me even more disturbed by the comment that I saw.

I hope that anybody who reads this will have the opportunity to share it and help spread knowledge - stop the shaming and misinformation.

Gender & AI - CONvergence 2019

Gender & AI - CONvergence 2019

Androids & AI in sci-fi disrupt the idea of a gender binary: what purpose is there for an android and/or AI to have gender? Could an android/AI be trans, gender-fluid, and/or non-binary? How will that affect how we as a society see gender as a construct? Participants: Naomi Kritzer (mod), Leigh Hellman, Justin Edward Grays, Nate Bird, Elliot Besmann

Content Warnings:

Mention of sexual harassment towards AI.

References to the dehumanization of indigenous peoples.

Avoiding Tokenism in Literature at CONvergence 2018

Avoiding Tokenism in Literature at CONvergence 2018

Creating actual diversity requires a great effort to avoid unintentionally tokenizing your characters. Tokenism, even when unintentional, is what leads to adding "diversity" for the sake of diversity. How do we engender true diversity in our literature?
Panelists: Tamora Pierce, Justin Grays, Kerry Peterson (mod), Jei Herald-Zamora

CVG 2018 Day 3, Part 2 - Sex in Sci-Fi/Fantasy

CVG 2018 Day 3, Part 2 - Sex in Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Warning: Rape gets brought up in this post. It is mentioned in the Hard Passes.

CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, almost 3 months ago now. I had planned on getting this post done two weeks ago as I have been trying to get posts out on a regular basis, but certain events tied up my brainspace. I’m not willing to say that I am back on track yet, but I am certainly trying. As a reminder of Day 3 (Saturday the 7th), I was on the panel “Polyamory 101” and attended “Sex in Sci-Fi/Fantasy”. For part 2, I present to you my notes from “Sex in Sci-Fi/Fantasy”.

CVG 2018 Day 3, Part 1 - Polyamory 101

CVG 2018 Day 3, Part 1 - Polyamory 101

CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, almost 3 months ago now. I had planned on getting this post done last week as I have been trying to get posts out on a regular basis, but certain events tied up my brainspace last weekend. Now that I am back on track, I am getting Day 3 (Saturday the 7th) up for you all. I was on the panel “Polyamory 101” and attended “Sex in Sci-Fi/Fantasy”. For Part 1, I present to you the audio recording of the polyamory panel as well as my additional written thoughts about what we discussed, a link to “Polyamory: Perceptions and Realities” from MarsCon 2018, and various resources. Listen to the raw recording of “Polyamory 101” here.

CVG 2018 Day 1 - Part 2

CVG 2018 Day 1 - Part 2

CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, 2 months ago now. I had meant to write these posts shortly after CVG ended, but as I’ve explained in previous posts, I have been dealing with broken technology, depression, and other things that have been occupying my time. This year, the theme was “Natural Twenty: Celebrating The First 20 Years Of CONvergence” - for the full archive of all twenty years of CONvergence, click here.

On Thursday the 5th, I attended the following panels: “Deep Space Nine Fan Panel,” “Breaking the Holographic Ceiling: Female Leadership in Star Trek,” “Speculative Biology 101,” “Women in STEM - The Road Not Taken,” “Flirting 101,” and “Misogyny in the Geek Community”. Here is part two of my notes from the panels - I plan on providing my thoughts and analysis of my notes in the near future.

CVG 2018 Day 1 - Part 1

CVG 2018 Day 1 - Part 1

CONvergence 2018 was July 5-8, 2018, 2 months ago now. I had meant to write these posts shortly after CVG ended, but as I’ve explained in previous posts, I have been dealing with broken technology, depression, and other things that have been occupying my time. This year, the theme was “Natural Twenty: Celebrating The First 20 Years Of CONvergence” - for the full archive of all twenty years of CONvergence, click here.

MarsCon 2018 - Day 3

MarsCon 2018 - Day 3

If you haven't read MarsCon 2018 - Day 1 or MarsCon 2018 - Day 2 already, I would suggest that you read those two entries first. Some parts of the eight previous panels can be connected to today's panels: "Androids, AI, And Gender Theory" and "Artificial People in Science Fiction."

MarsCon 2018 - Day 2

MarsCon 2018 - Day 2

If you didn't read the previous post, MarsCon 2018 - Day 1, I would suggest checking that out first. The panels that I was on, "Avoiding the Tokenism in Comics and Sci Fi Cultures," "How to Fail Gracefully," and "Polyamory: Perceptions and Realities" are all related to today's panels in one way or another: "The Prime Directive as Liberal Eurocentric Superiority," "Gem Watch," "Star Trek," "Cleavage Optional: Gender, Cosplay, and Genderbending Cosplay," and "Race and Culture in the Honorverse."

MarsCon 2018 - Day 1

MarsCon 2018 - Day 1

MarsCon is a fan-run science fiction convention for all ages held every March in the Twin Cities area. This year's theme is Robots, Rayguns, & Rockets: The 3 R's of Sci-Fi. Today I was on two panels, "Avoiding the Tokenism in Comics and Sci Fi Cultures," "How to Fail Gracefully," and "Polyamory: Perceptions and Realities." There are audio recordings of all three panels; however, they are still the raw, unedited versions. The normalized, balanced versions will be put up on a later post. I also took some notes for some of the panels - I will include them here so that I can expand on them on a later date. Please feel free to ask questions and post comments about the panels. Enjoy!

Sex and Gender Part I: The Structure of Sex

There is a distinction between sex and gender: sex is a categorization that is determined by the  anatomy of one’s reproductive system, chromosomes, genitalia, hormones, and secondary sex characteristics, whereas gender is a social role based off of the sex of a person or their own identification through self-awareness. Both are constructs, malleable, and are subjected to societal standards, but they are not interchangeable. This post will talk about sex and how it is a construct.

CONvergence 2017 - Two Weeks Later

CONvergence 2017 - Two Weeks Later

Since I have returned home, I have not had a change to down the notes that I took on the the other panels that I attended at CONvergence - "Women of Color in Comics: Race, Gender and the Comic Book Medium" and "Latinx Empowerment Through Latinx Heroes" (I also attended "Don't Go There: Taboo Topics and Triggers In Art," but I did not take any notes) - but now I have a moment to get some thoughts down. These two panels do tie into the other panels that I was on (read about Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4), and I plan on writing out detailed thoughts about these as time permits.

CONvergence 2017 - Day 4

CONvergence 2017 - Day 4

To catch up on the weekend, here are Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

"Steven Universe as Queer Space Opera" was the final panel that I was on - we had great conversations about queer shaped relationships, gender and gender roles, polyamory, and how having a child-orientated cartoon that features these subjects is important.

CONvergence 2017 - Day 3

CONvergence 2017 - Day 3

If you haven't read CONvergence 2017 - Day 1 or CONvergence 2017 - Day 2 already, I would suggest that you read those two entries first - the four panels that I was on, "Speculative Fiction Against Colonialism," "Avoiding Tokenism in Comics & Sci Fi Characters," "Diversity, Class Systems, and Equality in Science Fiction" and "50 Shades of Blackface," all relate to tonight's panel: "Androids, AI, And Gender Theory."

This post will be in three parts: First, a couple of definitions and points - these definitions will be without citation, as I jotted them down in a notebook for reference for the panel, though I do plan on revisiting them in a future post. Second, a listing of media that has to do with stories about Androids, AI, and/or Gender. Third, free-form notes that were taken during the panel that I plan on elaborating on at a later date.