To Shop or Not to Shop? (To L&G and Not TB?) - this (or that) is the Going Question … a post by Luc(e)

Being part of a group is often challenging for me as a person with Asperger Syndrome.  It has been easier for me in this NGS photo-group knowing a couple of transgender folk from elsewhere/beforehand, and not being the only ‘T’ person* in attendance - as has transpired(!) in other Queer-in-Brighton groups… However, having photography fun / making photographic art is something that comes easily to me, and offers me relief when stressed, and enjoyment when alone.  I’ve been keeping a fotografic journal over the past 3-years -or-so of owning a mobile-phone-with-camera.  “Snapaholism: cheaper and more cheerful than Shopaholism” says I…  [* Person is Not a Rude Word – do use it! ]

After the first evening get-together at New Writing South(on 30th July), I needed to de-stress with a photo shoot of night-lit shop windows and pubs in the North Laine.  These created pleasing ‘mosaics’ in my Samsung Galaxy SIII mobile photo ‘Gallery’ (camera:12megapixel) – which Anthony L recommended that I continue to ‘create’ for this QinB project (no chance of my not doing so…)

I’ve also continued snapping - for the duration of this project & beyond - my theme of flora&architecture-around-the-City and my Trans*-related own-project of photographing the interiors&facilities of access toilets as (usually) gender-neutral / unisex spaces in our society’s infrastructure. Also, and gladly, from Anthony’s suggestion, I’ve added more self-portraiture with mirrors in same venues – only now wearing my “Trans* Person” lanyard (‘tranny lanny’) as fashioned for Brighton & Hoves first Trans* Pride (26-28th July).

Coming out of the 1st-of-four Saturday workshops, I espied (and snapped) a TKMaxx shopping trolley (all red to totally dominate a pic!) and found myself de-stressing by going shopping at said bargain emporium for stripe-or-otherwise socks (sometimes the shopping just has to be done…)

   

I have enjoyed much of the group interactivity: our scrabbling for and then choosing our group name from suggested scrap-paper-scribblings (see action shot below); our self-portraits snapping at the PhotoMatic/FotoMagic booth in the Laine’s Snoopers Paradise; and  - not least - and our quaffing of coffee and cake/pastry…

     

[see my own ‘Person is Not a Rude Word’ blagspot for shots of refreshments and other assorted NotGoingShopping offerings…]

http://offthetrolleyproductions.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/acronyms-can-be-subhumane/

[More comfort items & activities required after my mobile’s external SDcard went rogue and ‘ate up’ whole series of snaps (100+)… PhotoMatic’s ‘Fear & e-Smoking in Las Vegas’ half-survived at least]

Being social on NSG’s F’bk page turned out to be pretty hyper-angst-inducive… After the second of two Sunday mornings’ downloading images and wordplay tumbling about in my non-neuro-typical brain, I found myself destressing again with 21-shot-mosaic-snappery - around the Duke of York’s cinema - which then became a fotovideo [which can be viewed via blog link above].  This I entitled “ID-(e)-a-List” as I found the images to be indicative of the 3rd week’s ‘homework’ of exploring self-identity; it was also an experiment in iMovie with adding multiple title texts (as my ‘fibrofogged’ mind had forgotten how to overlay text - plus how to online-search how to do that…)

We went off into our 4th week of exploration with the question of being ‘queer’ versus being ‘LGBT’ community/persons.  I don’t have a sense of LGBT community – and find the acronym limiting and ‘PC’ convenient; for me, even if appropriate, the acronym would be more accurately written as GLT&B for the amount of utterance and recogition of the component ‘parties’ within the so-called community – and reflecting the current & continuing state-of-play of gay-cis-male & “pink£pound” dominance in society. [Plus U R more likely to hear “ladies” than “lesbians” spoken these days: eek…]

As others have reflected in their photography and interests within the NGS ‘camera club’ (and on this blog), we all are loosely-connected persons living as individualistic lives as heterosexual and/or cisgendered persons do within the wider community of Brighton (&Hove), England, GB, UK, etc…

I definitely fit into the “queer”  or - more suitably as transintersexual person? – “qwe’re” defining-label on every front of my being: as emotionally pan- but physically A-sexual, I express myself outside LGB; as Aspergic I experience myself as not neuro-typical; as fibromyalgic and bi-polar I qualify as ‘disabled’ and, thereby, outside the ‘able-bodied’ and 3-in-4 ‘able-minded’ population; as hormones+surgery-transitioned transintersexual I’m not yet generally acknowledged under the Trans* umbrella… Being (ethnically) white and (by upbringing) middle class I do otherwise ‘anchor’ to the mainstream and dominant!

- see more of my take on sexuality-versus-gender acronym-ing in my blog’s intro pages1&2

http://offthetrolleyproductions.wordpress.com/about-this-tgqi-person-pt-1/
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And so… back to not-going-shopping: yay!

Luc(e)Rs