Get It, Girls

"The girl and the woman, in their new, individual unfolding, will only in passing be imitators of male behavior and misbehavior and repeaters of male professions. After the uncertainty of such transitions, it will become obvious that women were going through the abundance and variation of those (often ridiculous) disguises just so that they could purify their own essential nature and wash out the deforming influences of the other sex. Women, in whom life lingers and dwells more immediately, more fruitfully, and more confidently, must surely have become riper and more human in their depths than light, easygoing man, who is not pulled down beneath the surface of life by the weight of any bodily fruit and who, arrogant and hasty, undervalues what he thinks he loves. This humanity of woman, carried in her womb through all her suffering and humiliation, will come to light when she has stripped off the conventions of mere femaleness in the transformations of her outward status, and those men who do not yet feel it approaching will be astonished by it. Someday (and even now, especially in the countries of northern Europe, trustworthy signs are already speaking and shining), someday there will be girls and women whose name will no longer mean the mere opposite of the male, but something in itself, something that makes one think not of any complement and limit, but only life and reality: the female human being." Rilke

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womenwhokickass: Tona Brown: Why she kicks ass She is the first African-American Transgender violinist and vocalist to sing for a seated President of the United States of America, she did so in June 2011, when she was invited to perform the National Anthem for President Barack Obama in New York City during the opening ceremony of the LGBT Leadership Conference and Gala Fundraiser.  As a professional musician and vocalist, her career spans across North America and Europe. Ms. Brown formerly was on the National Advisory Board of OUTMUSIC – The LGBT Academy of Recording Arts (The LARA). She programed and conducted the very first classical performance for the 7th Annual OUTMUSIC Awards with her 11 piece AIDA String Ensemble playing Vivaldi’s ‘Summer’, this acknowledged with a roaring 5 minute standing ovation. She also has been featured in numerous newspaper, magazine and television programs for her work with the youth in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and for her recitals, such as articles in the Advocate magazine and The Virginian Pilot. She was selected to do a national tour with the “Tranny Road Show” a multi-media, tour group of Transgender artists that toured from Florida to Canada in April 2006.  Ms Brown was also a featured soloist and speaker for the 2nd Annual LGBT Pride Month Commemoration Ceremony for the Department of Veteran Affairs singing the National Anthem. She was also a guest on the “Anthony McCarthy Radio Show” speaking about her volunteer work with Hearts and Ears Inc.

womenwhokickass:

Tona Brown: Why she kicks ass

  • She is the first African-American Transgender violinist and vocalist to sing for a seated President of the United States of America, she did so in June 2011, when she was invited to perform the National Anthem for President Barack Obama in New York City during the opening ceremony of the LGBT Leadership Conference and Gala Fundraiser.
  •  As a professional musician and vocalist, her career spans across North America and Europe.
  • Ms. Brown formerly was on the National Advisory Board of OUTMUSIC – The LGBT Academy of Recording Arts (The LARA). She programed and conducted the very first classical performance for the 7th Annual OUTMUSIC Awards with her 11 piece AIDA String Ensemble playing Vivaldi’s ‘Summer’, this acknowledged with a roaring 5 minute standing ovation.
  • She also has been featured in numerous newspaper, magazine and television programs for her work with the youth in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and for her recitals, such as articles in the Advocate magazine and The Virginian Pilot.
  • She was selected to do a national tour with the “Tranny Road Show” a multi-media, tour group of Transgender artists that toured from Florida to Canada in April 2006. 
  • Ms Brown was also a featured soloist and speaker for the 2nd Annual LGBT Pride Month Commemoration Ceremony for the Department of Veteran Affairs singing the National Anthem. She was also a guest on the “Anthony McCarthy Radio Show” speaking about her volunteer work with Hearts and Ears Inc.

(via thenewwomensmovement)

I saw Ingrid do this live last night. It was obviously beautiful. And I cried.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.
I’m not sure all these people understand.
It’s not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
Of recklessness and water.
They cannot see me naked.
These things, they go away,
Replaced by everyday.

Michelle as Marilyn

Video of Michelle Williams preparing to play Marilyn Monroe. Michelle is killing it. In the good way. Check the black and white shot at 1:35.

Homecoming Queen and HS Football Kicker

On Friday, with Pinckney leading powerful Michigan rival Grand Blanc, 6-0, at the half, Amat, the first girl to play football for the school’s varsity, was asked to return to the field. When she arrived, she was told that her fellow students had voted her queen. When the tiara was placed on her head, she was wearing not a dress, like the other girls in the homecoming court, but her No. 12 uniform, pads and all.

Damn, girl. 

Get ready for it.

Awesome slide show of Annie Liebovitz’s Vogue shoot of Michelle Williams, based on her next role as Marilyn Monroe. I especially love the first shot. She looks so comfortable. “She was so honest and present that you had no choice but to find that level of honesty in yourself,” says Dougray Scott, who stars as Monroe’s husband, Arthur Miller.

Awesome slide show of Annie Liebovitz’s Vogue shoot of Michelle Williams, based on her next role as Marilyn Monroe. I especially love the first shot. She looks so comfortable.

“She was so honest and present that you had no choice but to find that level of honesty in yourself,” says Dougray Scott, who stars as Monroe’s husband, Arthur Miller.

The Pinup of Williamsburg: Zooey

Obviously Zooey Deschanel is fabulous (though, see page 3 about women who disagree). This article is double fabulous because it’s so well-written (see, i.e., “Deschanel has a laugh like a rapid reverse hiccup.”) and so full of Zooey. Jada Yuan has also forced me to consider getting cable to watch “New Girl.”

“She, more than most of her indie-actress peers, seems to live it, too—less sardonically than sweetly—and the perception of her as a sort of standard-bearer for all things sincere and nostalgic (or mannered and twee, depending on your point of view) has made her a figure of both adoration and exasperation. She has a band, of course, a folk-rock duo with M. Ward. As half of She & Him, she sings Shirelles harmonies, plays piano and ukulele, and writes most of the songs—well enough that, as Pitchfork.com wrote in a stunned, positive review, she’s somehow avoided ‘a Hollywood archetype: the actor-turned-singer-turned-punchline.’ Online, she declares her love of board games, baking, and karaoke to the almost 600,000 followers of her super-sunny ­Twitter feed, @therealzooeyd, and this summer she started a humor and lifestyle website called HelloGiggles for ‘smart, independent, and creative females.’ Section headings include Cuteness and He Haw.”