Happy (ho)MOvember!
Recovered from Halloween? Good. Moving on.
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Happy MOvember first!
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Wait, you haven’t heard? These guys replaced the N with an M and made Movember? Whaaa?!?!?
Check out this video I made for a full explanation of Movember and the horrors that will follow (on my face!). (Ps: watch it til the end. There are some bonus features just for you!)
Now that you know the what, the who, the why—why not support me by going to http://mobro.co/jvanfosson!
Then, PLEASE share this on your blog, with your family, with your friends, and on all your social networking sites.
Keep your eyes posted here for more behind-the-scenes moustache-related pictures and stitching!
Related articles
- Moustache Madness: Movember Emphasizes Fun, Not Guilt, To Raise Millions For Cancer Programs (fastcompany.com)
- Movember & The Facial Growth Starts (sparkthedebate.blogspot.com)
- Movember: Fundraiser started as fashion statement (healthzone.ca)
- Movember 2011 (sarabozich.com)
Take That, Hitler!
Remember how I said domestigay was also political in the beginning?
No?
Well, I did. See here.
I haven’t done much politics. Politics are scary. Politics are stressful. I love them and will now embrace my domestigay political side.
Something amazing has surfaced. Have you heard about it? I’ve seen it all over the internet. It is the story of a man from Britain in a World War II concentration camp. So what? I would ask my students. He is a man who cross stitched. But not just any cross stitch—subversive cross stitch. Now we all know, how much I love and adore subversive cross stitch, but this is the pinnacle of subversiveness.
Major Alexis Casdgli, according to The Guardian, was given a piece of canvas. Using the threads of a pullover that had seen better days he began to stitch a basic cross stitch sampler. Nothing too subversive about that. But wait, oh loyal domestigay reader! The clever chap inserted Morse Code in the sampler that, when decoded, says, “God Save the King” and, my personal favorite, “Fuck Hitler.”
This is subversive cross stitch at its finest. This piece, along with a piece from Casdgli’s son (Captain Anthony Casdgli) will be on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Mr. X Stitch saw this piece and has a wonderful picture of the subversive stitch over on his blog. It is quite amazing. Especially when you think of the limited resources. The Guardian wonderfully quotes the son saying, “He would say after the war that the Red Cross saved his life but his embroidery saved his sanity.” Agreed.
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Which brings me to my current work-in-progress (WIP). Can you guess what it is? It is domestigay-good. I promise!
Related articles
- Subversive Cross-Stitch by a Prisoner of War (neatorama.com)
- Encrypted WW2 Cross Stitch (craftzine.com)
Man-Survival-Kits, Military Men, and Domestigay
Domestigay supports our troops. Contrary to popular belief, gays do support American troops. Gay people are not, as the Palins, Bachmanns, and Bushes of the world will lead many to believe, terrorists. In fact glbtq people and military people get along quite nicely. Take a look domestigator Amanda. Amanda and some of her very macho, heterosexual military friends have man nights. Man night could get rowdy, so check out the very amazing “man-survival-kit” they made for her!
This kit includes everything an honorary man kit should include: meat, Jim Bean, gun, duct tape, official man card, glitter, and garlic. Yes, that’s right these men actually MADE this amazing man kit. I was quite confused about the glitter and garlic so Amanda explained to me that the glitter is to attract gays and the garlic is to repel them. I appreciate their naivete. But fellas, if you attract a gay person with glitter then throw garlic at him, there is a good chance he will take the garlic and whip up some sort of Italian dish or garlic roasted Asiago focaccia bread while listening to disco music and throwing his own glitter. Amanda and the men get together and she cooks and bakes for them while they watch man movies and engage in other heterosexual male activities together. Amanda is there for it all. Here is the domestigay lesbian and three of her burly men!
Amanda writes that the two guys standing are military and the guy next to the cookies is Navy. I love this domestigay’s apron, “Do you smell something BURNING?” Why, yes I do, and it is the hotness radiating from this picture. What’s hotter than a lesbian baking for a group of military men?
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This post is quite inspirational. I think it is time to create an official domestigay (or just gay) survival kit. What would you include in it? Leave your comments below or on Facebook!
Thanks for the wonderful pictures and great domestigating, Amanda!
- Share Your Domestigayting Projects (domestigay.net)
Share Your Domestigayting Projects
Recently I have had many readers of domestigay asking if they can submit pictures and projects to domestigay. The short answer is: YES! The long answer is: ABSOLUTELY!
A big part of the domestigay project is to foster a sense of community among glbtq and crafting/domestic cultures (not exclusively either). I welcome all domestic projects and I welcome all gay projects to be featured on this website. I especially welcome domestigay projects with a gay flair and gay projects that are domestically wonderful.
So, now that you know you can submit, the next logical question is how to submit photos and projects. To begin, even after this post is long gone, all this information can be found on the CONTACT ME! page.
- You could e-mail me at domestigay@gmail.com
- You could send me a message/post on the domestigay wall on Facebook (and like the domestigay Facebook page, while you are there)
- You could begin the conversation and send pictures on twitter (@domestigay)
- You could send a telegram
- You could send an owl
- You could send snail mail
- You could put a message in a bottle and throw it in Lake Michigan
- You could send a messenger on horseback
- You could phone me
- You could send a MMS or text message
There you go. Ten simple ways to submit YOUR work to domestigay. As a quick disclaimer, I will only use your first name unless you specify otherwise.
So what domestigay projects are YOU working on? Start sending them in!
Honorary Domestigator: Cary Grant
Did you know that Cary Grant knitted? If you have ever watched Mr. Lucky (1943) you knew that. Cary Grant is an honorary Domestigay. Take a look at this video.
What Mr. Grant contributes to the Domestigay project is that domestic arts can be masculine, political, and still fun. Even though Grant is not a homosexual, he certainly adds an element of class to knitting to which, I think, we all can aspire. He does, after all, knit in a suit. But he knits to call attention the ways the domestic supports the war and the ways gender gets broken down through certain positions. He also has other men learn to knit. Community, politics, and classiness are all part of the Domestigay philosophy and Grant exhibits all of these (and more) here.
Now, if only I can figure out how to effing knit. I think it is time to see if Kalamazoo has any knitting courses. Maybe I can get someone like Mrs. Van Every to teach me. I think I have quite “clever hands,” which she says are perfect for knitting!
Do you have a recommendation for an honorary Domestigator? Send me an e-mail at: domestigay@gmail.com or message me on Facebook or leave a comment!
What is Domestigay? And how do I use it?
Be Domestigay Proud!
Good question. Given my love for language, let’s begin with a definition and usage lesson.
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Do·mes·ti·gay /noun/ 1. A domestic homosexual 2. The intersections among queer sexualities, domesticity, and activism 3. An attempt to confront and combat heterosexism through domestic production. 4. A movement in the domestic arts and queer community that attempts to interrogate heterosexist assumptions that continue to make homosexuality monstrous to both heterosexual and homosexual identities.
Do·mes·ti·gay·tic /adjective/ 1. Characterized as exhibiting qualities that directly challenge heterosexism through the domestic arts (i.e., embroidery, cross stitch, baking, knitting, etc.). 2. Of or pertaining to the queer household.
Do·mes·ti·gay·te / verb / -gay·ted, -gay·ting 1. To engage in subversive and queered domesticity. 2. To challenge heterosexist thinking through the domestic arts (i.e., embroidery, cross stitch, baking, knitting, etc.) 3. To rewrite the heterosexual narrative of domesticity in a suspect or queered way. 4. To live a domestigaytic life.
Do·mes·ti·gay·tor /noun/ 1. A person who engages in actions indicative of domestigay philosophies. 2. A person who domestigaytes their life.
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I am starting this project because, despite recent successes in the queer community, I have realized that lgbtq rights have a long way to go and heterosexism is alive and well. This realization is something that I have been living with for quite awhile but I have not known how to go about actually engaging and creating these discourses in a meaningful way. Recently, however, I have been thinking about the crafting skills I have picked up in the last few months. I concluded that there is something quite powerful about the domestic arts and queer culture working together. Typically, I (and many other people I have talked to about this) have thought of queer culture as the antithesis to domestic arts. In reality, queer culture and domestic arts are the perfect places to work toward combating heterosexism in a constructive, subversive, and, I think, non-threatening way. (Seriously, when is the last time anyone went running out of the room screaming at an embroidered tea towel?) With this new understanding and vocabulary of domestigay I move forward to better understand both queer culture, domestic arts, and how these two areas can be most effectively used for activist and subversive projects. I ask you, loyal reader (If you read this far, you are quite loyal), to join me and became one of the few, the proud, the domestigays.
Domestigay 
