Comments for Gukira

Comment on Queer Paresthesia by Corey

Corey — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:19:39 +0000

:-)

Comment on Queer Paresthesia by Tamaku

Tamaku — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:40:42 +0000

I love the way you express your thoughts. It goes beyond words.

Comment on X Tourism by Kenyanchick

Kenyanchick — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:42:01 +0000

Slum/sex/eco-tourism. I thought we’d finally exhausted the possibilities as far as hyphenated tourism goes.

My jaw hit the floor when I saw this:

http://www.mothersfightingforothers.com/underwear-for-africa

Comment on X Tourism by keguro

keguro — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:51:26 +0000

You really must stop using me against me. Your wonderful memory and eye for detail gives a history to my thinking (and acting) that makes my present meditations tremble at being found out.

Ugali is pretty terrible, even when good.

I am, of course, avoiding the more mundane and obvious fact of my having turned into a tourist. Perhaps my own reluctance to invite myself, or feel I have the right to issue invitations. This question of what kind of “right” that is I need to think through more.

Comment on X Tourism by Todd Zimnoch

Todd Zimnoch — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:43:59 +0000

Silly typos and an auto-completed field. I’m sure you’ve mentally corrected both, but I apologize regardless.

Comment on X Tourism by Surjective

Surjective — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:41:51 +0000

You’ve never invited me to visit. You say it’s a terrible place and I would be hopelessly bored with the mundane rituals of your family, parafin and siafu. I will find nothing fabulous in the dusty, rural roads; dingy, run-down buildings; bland ugali. You say this with a mischievous grin that gives the lie to your sincerity, but is not reverse psychology either. I’ve never deciphered it.

But do the though experiment. Who would you invite to Kenya. Why? What would you hope to show them? Would you still believe them to be tourists, rather than guests?

Comment on On Caster Semenya by keguro

keguro — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:19:02 +0000

I haven’t been following the news, and especially not news from South Africa. I have, however, just asked a friend in South Africa what is going on, and she is well placed–in feminist and queer circles–to have a good answer.

A CFP is circulating right now in which Semenya’s name is mentioned as a possible paper topic. I know this is what we do, and I realize that it does create enabling spaces, even livable spaces, but it still feels “off.”

A U.S.-based commentator mentioned that now Semenya will sell the rights to a story, have a movie made, and have some kind of financial payoff from 13 minutes of infamy (we have to shave off 2 minutes!). I wish it were that easy–and maybe it will be. In part, to be confessional, I am measuring the kinds of impossibilities that we who live abroad negotiate, the kinds of impossibilities that make living abroad less impossible than living at home. Semenya has become a name for that impossible-less impossible scenario. But this might be too dark. And unnecessary.

Comment on On Caster Semenya by jstheater

jstheater — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:28:29 +0000

Really superb, as always. I also wonder, though, should the focus be on “defending Semenya” or rather on helping to ensure there is a space or spaces in which Semenya and other intersex people coming from the place she now is can talk and think through herself or selves? It’s impossible at this point to shut down the spectacularization, and having US and Euro queer scholars step in to decide for her how she ought address the situation and think about herself is problematic, but in light of how badly the whole situation has been botched, by South Africa’s and international sports authorities, the media, and so on, aiding Semenya in establishing a discourse in which to become herself as she sees fit seems optimal. It is telling that almost no scholars or theorists working in the area of intersexuality have been consulted, at least by the MCM, but what do you think is really happening in South Africa around Semenya, given some of the scholarly and theoretical (and creative) work of South Africans themselves? Do you know?

Comment on Purity by jstheater

jstheater — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:16:40 +0000

Ah, to be respectable! It didn’t even work for him….

Comment on On Caster Semenya by Ed

Ed — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:47:25 +0000

This has been the best written piece I have read in a long time while clearly asking the necessary questions. Thank you for writing this!