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  In his new book, Francois Cusset says that: “We need to learn to take the text, turn it over, penetrate it, play with its sex, slip ours into it, follow it to the end of its fine ambivalence, and force it along the way to assume a position.” Finally a writer who shares the same queer biblio-lust as myself! With The Inverted Gaze: Queering the French Literary Classics in America, Cusset presents a new addition to the study of queer theory, dissecting the French literary classics from the point of view of what Cusset calls a “QC” or queer critic.
It must be noted that this is not a book for the faint of heart and is a highly academic read. I have read a few authors who belong to the French canon that Cusset discusses (most notably Proust and Balzac) but I was not nearly as familiar as I would like to be with the authors and works discussed. I think this book would be most enjoyed by someone who is well versed in the French literary canon. I could also see it being a valuable resource in an academic setting for a class about queer theory, especially in regards to French texts.
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  Size Queen clothing comes to the catwalk and to Fat Fancy, just in time for holiday shopping Thursday
Opening night for GenderFantasy should be off the chain. For a full preview of what to expect check out our interview with creator Kaj-Anne Pepper.
Size Queen fashion show at Fat Fancy – Our favorite QPOC and locally owned plus size clothing store is having another one of their fabulous events. This time it is a fashion show featuring another local big girls and boys clothing shop, Size Queen, in honor of their lines coming to FF. These events often include a DJ and/or lovely nibbly things so it’s the perfect place to shop and schmooze with folks that are both fashionable and personable. And don’t forget to check out their new Indie Go Go video to raise money to open an online store. It’s both adorable and informative.
Growing Up Policed: Surveiling Racialized Sexualities – If you’re a grad who misses the academic speak from time to time this conference will quench your thirst in a queer way. The daylong conference uses a recent legal case that occurred in Portland, Oregon to highlight how young people marginalized through sexuality and race are targeted. It’s extremely relevant and a great place to start dialogue with other academics, activists and interested community.
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  Film still from 'Still Black - A Portrait of Black Transmen' Building community for queer students of color (QSoC) and their allies, the Queer Students of Color Conference (QSoCC) is the first of its kind in Oregon. Taking place from Friday, April 29th to Sunday, May 1st at Portland State University, this QSoC led and organized event seeks to address the unique issues that effect queer students of color and the communities they occupy.
Although a liberal-minded city inclusive to many folks on the sexuality and gender spectrum, Portland is considered the whitest big city in the US and often fosters queer spaces that are unwelcoming to queer people of color. In a state with a long, long history of institutionalized racism and displacement of people of color, Portland, OR is a prime location for anti-racist growth and QPoC empowerment, taking place at this year’s conference.
QSoCC main events include: keynote address by Portland-raised trans feminist activist, Elena Rose; the Portland premiere of Still Black—A Portrait of Black Transmen, and a Q&A with director/writer Kortney Ryan Ziegler to follow; daytime workshops; a dance party, and more. Open to community members from all backgrounds, identities, and orientations, this year’s QSoCC is a long-awaited landmark event in Portland’s queer history that is not to be missed.
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  An academic friend in the midwest sent this call for papers my way and I figured Portland, being so famous for the bearded, men and ladies, queer and hetero, needed a voice. So I encourage you all to submit.
To date, no monograph length text has been produced that looks at beards from both an academic and community based perspective that is critically engaged. This book seeks to carve out a space to discuss the social cues and meanings of facial hair, specifically beards and other bulk masses of visible hair, on queer(ed) bodies.
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  Homomentum performs Friday as part of the Lewis & Clark Gender Symposium For the pop-academia lovers among us this week presents one of the better college conferences on gender and sexuality. Beginning tomorrow Lewis and Clark will kick off the 30th annual Gender Studies Symposium titled New Directions: Gender in the Future. Organized by a committee of students, with support from faculty and staff, the Gender Studies Symposium brings together representatives from academia, activism, and the arts for three days of workshops, roundtable discussions, lectures, film screenings, readings, performances, academic panels, and other intellectual and creative explorations.
This year doesn’t have as big of names as have some past years (i.e. Dorothy Allison, Leslie Feinberg or Angela Davis) but it has a great program nonetheless.
Julia Serano’s Compulsory Genderqueerness: Transsexuality, Feminism and the “End of Gender” on Thursday afternoon should be particularly fascinating. Author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity Serano is an artist, wordsmith, slat poet, and Ph.D. holding science geek.
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 The interdisciplinary academic arena that is Women’s Studies, Gender Studies or Sexuality Studies is one that is rife with opposing opinions. Indeed, that is one of its great strengths and great frustrations. I attended Smith College in the early aughts and what to call this specific department was contonually under debate, even though the decision to keep it Women’s Studies (because we had to keep the “We study women in a major way” button tradition alive..) and to focus on spotlighting the “fairer sex” had already been “decided.”
Now our local public university, Portland State, is having that discussion as well. This Thursday 21st (tomorrow) the PSU WST Dept is holding a meeting from 7:-9 pm in Smith Memorial room 296 to discuss the possibility of changing the department’s name to reflect changes both internally in the program, and externally in the field as a whole.
Here is some of the discussion so far:
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