Queertake

The Queer Take: Price of admission into bois locker room-like spaces is ability, willingness to dehumanise the other

The common defense of this straight male culture has been that it is a “safe space” for men to be themselves, to say the politically incorrect thing, to let it all hang out. It is their safety valve. In reality, if one reads through the messages on similar forums like the recent ‘bois locker room’ one could go as far as to say: these aren’t safe spaces at all.

The Queer Take: When 'passing' is the accepted mode, at stake is a hard-earned, hard-fought culture, aesthetic

While a part of me has always understood that queer people come in all shapes, sizes and star status, most of me has always imagined that we were super special and anyone with any sense could tell | Joshua Muyiwa writes in this week's #QueerTake

The Queer Take: Divorced from death and disease, re-imagining desire without shame, and celebrating it

As a noun and a verb with the profilferation of pornography in our lives, sex doesn’t sit well on the scale, it isn’t so simple. We might have to extract the shame from the sensual, the sexual to truly be able to celebrate it.

Social distancing, self-isolation aren't just coronavirus-related terms, they've long marked everyday lives of queer, marginalised

'I know what you are thinking: Yet again, the — queer, femme, Black person — speaks of dirty things like desire at a time of disease and death. Well, it is difficult only for those who have made a division between the three.' | Joshua Muyiwa writes in #QueerTake

Responding to the coronavirus outbreak while being queer, femme, and a body that doesn't conform

There’s been a lot of policing of bodies in this time of the coronavirus pandemic and LGBTQ+ influencers on social media have been especially calling out the community for not adhering to shutdowns ordered by public health ministries. Their logic: we should know better having been schooled and brought up in the post-AIDS/HIV times.

The Queer Take: In embracing the new, inclusive language project, what has been gained and what has been lost?

In domains like gender and sexuality, we have managed to demand more words and vocabulary and descriptions that allow more of us to name our selves, our desires, our milestones. This evolving language was allowing more of us to walk into more rooms, but also I could see those rooms still had the same rules, the same problems, writes Joshua Muyiwa in #QueerTake

The Queer Take: What catchy phrases like 'Love is Love' overlook about the LGBT experience

Love in the queer community has always had the added sheen of shame. That this is something we don’t want to talk about publicly is completely understandable. But by lying to everyone else for so long, we’ve stopped talking about it in private too.

The Queer Take: Looking anew at the Pride March, and its shifting spirit over the years

I’m not diminishing the importance of the Pride Parade; I’m interested in the way it has changed in its text, tenor and tone | Joshua Muyiwa writes in this week's #QueerTake

The Queer Take: Moving past the LGBTQ community's entrenched ageism requires that we first confront it 

In this week's 'The Queer Take', Joshua Muyiwa writes: Seeing older gay, bisexual and men fade away into invisiblity makes me hyper aware that there is something to the invincibility I felt in my younger days

The Queer Take: Dating apps promised a world of possibilities, but may have caged us further instead

Dating apps are the new impasse in the possibilities for conversations, coming together, and coming.