For the (sex) cops to bar their threatening return (Cop Convention At My Work)

[thewilderhen]

I do not deny that the effects of the past are still with us.
But I refuse to anticipate compliance. I will shove
cops out of my way even if it takes several hard
looks and several gray
streaks in my bog-witch
hair, in the hallway I will strengthen
my looks by repeating them I will confer
upon them an irremovability
the equivalent of destiny, assigned
cop at birth, poor deluded mass, I will pour
electrolytes on their heads I will confuse
the cultural biology of
their gender dressed
in suits, ready to mistake
my car as uber, to get in with
the stretch of a commodious
belonging: how dangerous open
bodies can be, on the road.

We watch me walk down the hall. 
The pollworkers cannot cover
their face, he says. No visible
evidence of weapons, meaning guns he
voices the last part
yes, he voices the last part.



————
Stolen words from Hélène Cixous, late to her party as I am.
When I first heard the acronym ACAB I thought it meant “assigned cis at birth” and I was like, mmmm buddy aren’t we all.

[dukealien]

I do not deny that the effects of the past are still with us.
But I refuse to anticipate compliance. I will shove
cops out of my way even if it takes several hard
looks and several gray
streaks in my bog-witch
hair, in the hallway I will strengthen
my looks by repeating them I will confer
upon them an irremovability
the equivalent of destiny, assigned
cop at birth, poor deluded mass, I will pour
electrolytes on their heads I will confuse
the cultural biology of
their gender dressed
in suits, ready to mistake
my car as uber, to get in with
the stretch of a commodious
belonging: how dangerous open
bodies can be, on the road.

We watch me walk down the hall. 
The pollworkers cannot cover
their face, he says. No visible
evidence of weapons, meaning guns he
voices the last part
yes, he voices the last part.



————
Stolen words from Hélène Cixous, late to her party as I am.
When I first heard the acronym ACAB I thought it meant “assigned cis at birth” and I was like, mmmm buddy aren’t we all.

I'm so very glad this is "for fun" so I can avoid the labor of engaging with ... it, can we say "it" without en-gendering?

The first strophe has definite Medusa aspects.  The concept of a negative or antinarcissistic contra-male gaze is entertaining:  so it wasn't all those heroes being turned to stone by Medusa's looking at them, but their reaction to her dreadlock-snakes, not sucking the life out of them but jamming their own dynamic to move and change back into them of their own volition.  I can definitely feel that, looking at a very but merely ugly woman.  An ugly woman with attitude - I feel my face start to petrify.

I was just reading an SF novel by Anne Leckie, "Radiant Star," one of her Radch novels.  She rings changes on off-the-wall pseudo-gender pronouns and (implied) identities while telling a perfectly involving story.  What I can't decide is the extent to which the scatter-shot pronouns are meant to satirize modern faculty-lounge shibboleths, or to pledge allegiance to them.  If the former, good fun.  If the latter, she fails - though not at story-telling.  I really think it may be the former, though, from the way she plays with "them" as a singular/plural pronoun to create confusion which must, surely, be intentional.  (This last occasioned by "we watch me.")

And the pronouns are completely irrelevant to the (very fine) plot.

[thewilderhen]

Oh, yes we are all having fun. I will add Radiant Star to my list. I am reading Mona Awad (Bunny) (who can say no to a campus novel?) and it is unsettling. To engender is to ultimately engage in body horror. Thrilling, then it comes around again and we stop having fun. But as I said, we are all having fun today.

[dukealien]

Oh, yes we are all having fun. I will add Radiant Star to my list. I am reading Mona Awad (Bunny) (who can say no to a campus novel?) and it is unsettling. To engender is to ultimately engage in body horror. Thrilling, then it comes around again and we stop having fun. But as I said, we are all having fun today.

It might be better to start the Imperial Radch series with "Ancillary Justice," first in the series.  "Radiant Star" depends on themes (and events) developed in the preceding "Ancillary" trilogy.

[matsunosuperfan]

I do not deny that the effects of the past are still with us.
But I refuse to anticipate compliance. I will shove
cops out of my way even if it takes several hard
looks and several gray
streaks in my bog-witch
hair, in the hallway I will strengthen
my looks by repeating them I will confer
upon them an irremovability
the equivalent of destiny, assigned
cop at birth, poor deluded mass, I will pour
electrolytes on their heads I will confuse
the cultural biology of
their gender dressed
in suits, ready to mistake
my car as uber, to get in with
the stretch of a commodious
belonging: how dangerous open
bodies can be, on the road.

We watch me walk down the hall. 
The pollworkers cannot cover
their face, he says. No visible
evidence of weapons, meaning guns he
voices the last part
yes, he voices the last part.



————
Stolen words from Hélène Cixous, late to her party as I am.
When I first heard the acronym ACAB I thought it meant “assigned cis at birth” and I was like, mmmm buddy aren’t we all.

yo this is fire