The Best of fem.men.ist: A 6 Month Retrospective.

Happy 6 month anniversary to fem.men.ist! :)

Wow. its already been 6 months since i decided to try out this "blogging thing". It actually started as an idea to create a social networking page for women (bio or trans) who wanted to meet feminist men, but it gradually turned into the discourse you see here.

Over the 6 months, It has made me really happy to see that my relatively new blog has been getting thousands of hits comprised of people from every continent on the planet, much less to see that college websites and a campus safety website are listing fem.men.ist as a resource. I have also been really grateful to all the other progressive bloggers who have put me in their blogroll. And of course, I am very grateful to anyone who has commented here, or in person, and to all the lurkers who come back time and time again. :)

SO! Fave posts. Your faves, my faves. I got a couple categories, here goes:


Most Popular "101" Posts.
These posts consistently got a lot of hits, and dealt with fundamental definitions and strategies.

The Male Privilege Checklist (gets many many hits every week!)
Five Ways To Be A Trans Ally (A serious post, very helpful)
The Roots Of Xicanisma (Xicanisma, or Chicana Feminism, defined)


Signature fem.men.ist posts:
These deal with issues that are close to my heart & culture, and pertain mostly to issues of sexuality and masculinity.

Thoughts On Jamaica, Masculinity, Performing Gender, Orishas & House Music (i LOVE this post! This is stuff I have thought about for awhile, which intersects personal identities as a Jamaican, a dj, a man, a follower of Orisha, etc)

Homophobia In Jamaica: Thoughts Intersecting Current Politics, Dancehall, Colonialism, Religion, Slavery & Jamaican Patriarchy. (My signature post on homophobia in Jamaica.)

Nostalgia For The Gender Fluid 80's (Could Ready For The World drop now? Earth Wind And Fire? Or can black men only embody a 50 Cent kind of masculinity in the media? This still gets a lot of hits too)


other fem.men.ist faves

Upstream : Prosem About Being An Ally. (This was my first to take on a more creative poetic structure. Also see the post i did last month which was a haiku tribute to Nanny Of The Maroons and Harriet Tubman.)

Report Back From The SFWAR Walk Against Rape (This was a very special and inspiring day. Spirit willing, I want to do this walk every year. Hopefully will have some other men of color down to walk with me too, but i wanna walk regardless)

What Is One Sexist Thing You Are Trying To Unlearn? (Was really trying to create dialogue with this one! It caused some good discussions, on and offline.)

Not So Nice Outside: Street Harassment Is The Rage This Season. (Did this post during the summer. A VERY surprising comment dialogue came from this one!)


MOST CONTROVERSIAL POST!
Whew. Hands down:

Bob Marley's "Kinky Reggae": A Coded Song Preaching Tolerance For Homosexuality And Jamaican Sexual Taboos? (This also holds the record for most commented post. [56 comments at last count!!] And the comments range from agreement, to drawing anger from Rastas, to somehow becoming delvings into erotica written in patois... and much more. This was an intense one, watch di ride!)


So yes, enjoy clicking and reading and commenting and bookmarking and forwarding! There is of course, much more going on in the archives, and perhaps you will find other posts that are your "hands down" favorites. Already, even the post right below this one is getting a crazy amount of hits (Heterosexuality Is A House Of Cards That Can Collapse Anytime! Too. Frikkin. Hilarious).

Thanks again for helping to make this a successful blog. If this has helped make just one male bodied person change their perspective around their privilege, sexism and heterosexism, i feel like i have done my job. No On Props 4, 6, 8 and 9, Go Obama, all power to the people. Bless up!

with love and solidarity,
richard