Item the first: Next week, I’ll be at WisCon 37, which runs on the 24-27th in lovely Madison, Wisconsin. I’ll be on several panels and look forward to seeing some of you in the audiences and around the convention. Don’t be shy about introducing yourselves, because I don’t bite.

Unless you have free food on offer, in which case I’ll definitely bite the heck out of that. (No please: Take me out to lunch.)

Adjunct to this, I have two essays appearing in The WisCon Chronicles: Shattering Ableist Narratives, Volume 7, edited by JoSelle Vanderhooft. You can pick up a copy of the book at WisCon if you’re there, and it’ll be released in June for the rest of you kids, at which point you can order it from Aqueduct Press, your local independent bookstore, or another preferred book vendor.

Item the second: The Great Facebook Debate has ended in a reluctant compromise. I now have a Facebook Page, which you can ‘like,’ if you’re into that kind of thing, to keep up with my doings. (And non-doings, as the case may be.)

PLUS, it’s Second Saturday, which means you can wander around Mendocino and look at art, to boot. I mean, really, how can you say no to that.

I hope to see you at the Gallery Bookshop, at the corner of Main and Kasten Streets in Mendocino, on 13 April at 6:30; it’s also Second Saturday, so it’s a great opportunity to wander around, see some art, and then enjoy a hot chocolate at the Mendocino Hotel afterwards.

(I try not to bombard y’all with appearance information and other such news here, but every now and then I will take the liberty of cross-posting. If you want to keep up to date on where I’ll be at various points and what I’m up to, go to s.e. smith to find out more.)

Today also marks the publication date of Get Out of My Crotch!, an anthology looking at the social and cultural context of these attacks, and how to fight back. It includes essays on the subject from a broad number of people, including yours truly. Mine, it probably comes as no surprise to learn, is about the issues within the reproductive rights movement, and ways in which we might work cooperatively to resolve these issues and create a stronger, more cohesive movement that’s truly inclusive of everyone. It is, as is often the case with my work, not easy reading, because the goal is not to make the reader feel settled and comfortable, but to impress upon the reader the urgency of cleaning house.

Because we need to work in solidarity right now. We cannot afford to be at odds, and this doesn’t mean that the needs of some people should be ignored and overridden by the needs of others, nor does it mean that some people should be quiet right now in the interest of ‘the greater good.’ It means that all of these needs must be addressed holistically, because liberation for some is justice for none. A battle in which rights are only won for a few, and they are restricted and confusing in nature, is just turning around in the gilded birdcage, not actually opening the door and getting out.

This is a society where people who have vaginas are viewed as second class citizens. They are hated, feared, and subjected to myriad attempts at pressure and control, from attempts to limit their access to health services to lower pay in the workplace. Because most of these people are women, this hatred and fear is inextricably bound up with misyogyny and the genuine belief that women carry some sort of evil with them that must be controlled and reined in lest they spin off into the stratosphere.

And some of those cis women are hated and feared more than others. Cis women are not all equal because they are cis women, they are not all on the same footing because they are cis women, they are not united on a common cause because they all have vaginas and they are all read as women. To pretend otherwise is ridiculous, and ultimately hurts a movement that should bring about justice for everyone: not just cis women but all women, and all people with vaginas, and all people in general, because reproductive rights is something that affects people of all genders and society as a whole.

This is not just about the right to have or not have children, although these issues are key, it is also about gender and sexuality and social control. And that means the stakes here are much too high to play around when it comes to which voices are heard and which direction the movement takes. Culturally, huge shifts are occurring right now, and we have an opportunity to shape the direction they move in, whether society becomes more or less equal, and what form these changes take in the long term. It’s up to us to decide whether gender equality should be achieved, or whether we should silence and marginalise the people who need to be a critical part of the fight to achieve that equality.

In the defense of reproductive rights, we cannot forget that these rights take a lot of forms and they are all important. We cannot forget that different people experience our biased and discriminatory society in different ways, and that they have different stakes in this movement. What’s important to a middle class white cis woman living in New York is not to an immigrant cis woman of colour seeking asylum in Denmark, but both of these women are equally important in the much larger discussion about reproductive rights, gender, freedom, and equality.

This is about the right to have children. This is about the right to not have children. This is about the right to keep your children when you have them. This is about the right to not be judged for the timing, spacing, and number of your children, if you have children at all. This is about safe access to accurate health information and a full range of appropriate treatment options for your needs. This is about the Global Gag Rule, it is about the Hyde Amendment, it is about funding for public health and medical training and anti-domestic terrorism and so many other things, and we all matter in this fight. You, and you, and, yes, you as well.

They are many. We are few.

But together we can take down empires, if we’re willing to join hands and do it. Whether we do that is up to you.

This award is given on the basis of a popular vote, which is where you come in—I need you to vote for me, and I need you to tell your friends to do the same, and for them to tell their friends, and so on. Here’s the voting page, and please do spread that link far and wide, because I need you to show the Women’s Media Center and other news organisations that social justice media is vibrant, alive, and filled with a variety of complex personalities who talk about a lot of diverse issues.

A quick note on gender: Some of you may be wondering why a genderqueer was nominated for an award of this nature, assuming either that I don’t deserve to be under consideration or that I was misgendered by the Women’s Media Center. I want to say that this is actually something we discussed before I accepted the nomination and the list went public; they actually reached out to me with concerns because they wanted to make sure I felt comfortable with being included in the lineup, and I do.

As a genderqueer nominee (and hopefully the first genderqueer honouree!), I’m making history not just for myself but for other genderqueer people in the media. We are here, we are active, and we do count. My work is definitely in alignment with the WMC’s mission and I work in solidarity with women and girls every day in addition to advancing the cause of equality for people of all genders. This award is not just about the gender of the recipient, but about that recipient’s work and lived experience.

Voting will be open until 29 October, with an awards ceremony scheduled on 13 November. I’d really love to be there, so why not vote and help make it happen?

The talk is at 8pm in Waite Phillips Hall, Room 207 (Here’s a handy map to help you find it). The venue is accessible and sign language interpretation will be provided; if you have additional accessibility concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

I’d love to see you there!

Item the first: Anna Hamilton and I are in the Frontier issue of Bitch Magazine, with ‘Access & Praxis—disability at the digital frontier.’ We cowrote it and she illustrated it. It’s pretty awesome. If you want to hear us talk about it, you can check out Bitch Magazine’s Friday podcast this week!

Item the second: I’ll be appearing at USC on 22 March at 8pm (venue TBD) with a talk followed by a Q&A on the desexualisation of people with disabilities, looking at social attitudes about disability and sexuality and how these attitudes play out in the wider community as well as in queer spaces. The event is sponsored by the Queer and Ally Student Assembly and I hope to see you there; the venue will be accessible and we’re working on sign language interpretation. If you have specific accommodations requests or concerns, please email me (sesmithwrites at gmail dot com).

Anna:…people are afraid of mental health conditions. They see things on TV and decide that that is what “crazy” is. This can lead to stigmatizing people they know who are out about having a mental health condition, but it can also lead to people being afraid to get treatment or just seek help because they don’t want to be like that. It took me nearly a decade of trying to handle my untreated mental health condition before I sorted out that it wasn’t like that. The stigma as portrayed on TV and as perceived by everyone around me, including myself, led to years of additional misery that I didn’t need. I think these things matter.

‘We’re All Mad Here’ will be running for the next eight weeks, and we have an assortment of rather exciting things planned, so it would be lovely to see you there.

Issue two of Longshot Magazine features a piece, ‘There’s a lot of waiting at the end,’ by yours truly. You can order your very own copy of issue two if you want!

“Do you have another card?” she asked, as a woman with a poodle battled her way through the door into the waiting room. A gust of hot, dusty air swirled in along with the sounds of passing traffic outside. I wanted to run out the door, kick off my shoes, and streak barefoot down Franklin Street.

Places I Was

I Fry Mine In Butter fans may be aware that we hung up the frying pan on 21 May after an excellent run of pop culture discussions and so much more. I said farewell in my own little love note to pop culture, but, never fear, the archives remain, fully browsable, searchable, and always delicious.

Over at Bitch Magazine, we wrapped up Grand Rounds: Dissecting Grey’s Anatomy, and you can read a full archive of our round tables from season seven right here.

Places I Am

As I believe most folks are aware, I have a regular television criticism column at Global Comment. Sometimes I sneak in book reviews, because I am sassy that way.

Many of you have also probably figured out that I’ve been invited to join Team Tiger Beatdown. I’m pleased as punch that Sady brought me on board and really glad to be working with such fabulous people, so drop on by for class rage and so much more.

Places I Will Be

I’m part of the Guardian Comment Network, a new feature on The Guardian’s Comment is free with a selection of syndicated content from site partners. We’re an eclectic mix so please pop by and check us out!

Anna and I will be returning to Bitch Magazine in August with a series on depictions of mental health in pop culture. We have an array of pretty excellent posts planned and hope to see you there.

In court hearings earlier this year, several doctors testified that Bunton was not only incompetent to stand trial, but was also unlikely to be restored to competency because of his physical disability.

s.e. smith at The Guardian: Comment is free: Cheers for nothing, ‘rapist’

I wonder if schools plan on issuing a disclaimer to new cheerleaders, warning them that in the event of their assaults by popular members of sports teams, they may be compelled to cheer for them at games.

Corey Hutchins at Free Times: Donkey Brawl

No one expected a real fight for who might lead South Carolina Democrats after Carol Fowler said last July she wouldn’t be running for reelection after two terms.

Red Rall at Maui Time Weekly: Thrifty Families and Other Lies

Our average family’s savings are virtually nonexistent: $3,800 in the bank, no retirement account whatsoever (for half of families, average retirement savings $35,000 for the other half), no mutual funds, no stocks, no bonds.

Paul Constant and Jen Graves at The Stranger: Could Kickstarter Be Evil?

Like the best ideas, Kickstarter is pretty simple: An artist or organization explains a project on the site, and if enough people pledge donations within a certain window of time, the pledges become real money.

Jim Hightower at Illinois Times: Unreasonable women take on the banksters

Let me offer two examples of people today who deserve our applause for rankling the establishment and, in turn, enduring its furious abuse: Sheila Bair and Elizabeth Warren.