Keywords:
education, queer, clothing, resources
education, queer, clothing, resources
Transcript
Catherine: This sounds so funny, but I feel like educators have to be more queer. And I don’t mean as in sexually queer. What I mean is constantly going “why do we do this?, why do we do this?” because I feel like as queers that’s everything that we do and the reason why we seem so odd to everybody is because we’re constantly saying, “actually, we don’t have to do things this way”, right? And so, when it comes to educators, which I find very frustrating to deal with and I know that what’s funny is that educators find this frustrating, is that they keep on saying, “but that’s the way that it’s done, and that’s the protocol and that’s the thing that we have to do in order to – there’s very strict guidelines as to how things are done. Sometimes the protocol is so intense that I’m like, “what was that for in the first place? I’m just not sure”. Everything from bathroom locks, like you know, the protocol in regards to – you have to make sure that you do this and then you do this – like it just seems so unending, like what the protocol is, that um, it just seems so silly and petty. Now if they put that much effort into things like “why do we have girls not wear tank tops?”, like what exactly – it’s between this piece of fabric to this piece of fabric that, “oh! I’m a rapist I’m not gonna rape her now, because she has sleeves”. Like something magical that happens when a girl wears cap sleeves.
...
Catherine: We were laughing at the orientation for the school, ‘cause they were trying to get kids to – you know how I guess middle school is trying to prepare them for high school right? so we’re all in there trying to transition our kids from like junior school to middle school and I remember the – the guidance councillor was a woman and she said, “okay ladies, now let’s remember, we gotta keep it professional” and I thought, I wanted to stand up and be like “are you saying that sex workers aren’t professional ‘cause they’re professional.
Nazbah: Yah. That’s work.
Catherine: ‘Cause that’s work. Let me tell you cause sometimes it’s more work than someone who’s doing pencil pushing up at Queen’s Park is that that person is like just filing, filing, filing versus the person who’s running their website, buying their condoms.
Nazbah: Running a business.
Catherine: That’s a lot of freakin’ work being a sex worker. And, uh, I just find it so funny, it’s like “that’s professional”, you know, and professional might mean being in a g-string, going around a pole.
Nazbah: Yah.
Catherine: And this is what – I just want people to be able to say “why do we use this language?” and so I would like – I would like teachers in education to be more queer in that way, to say “why – why did this student come to me with a different project about indigenous history? Why does this student – why does this seven-year-old seem to know more about reservations than I do?” All of these are questions, whereas I feel like teachers, like all educators are in the position of being like “I need to know, I need to know” and I feel like the question should be like “no, I need to ask, I need to ask”. And I think that that’s a really big problem with education right now. And it’s so funny because I am an educator, like I am a theatre educator, and a lot of my educating is teaching people to keep on questioning and to reclaim the question.
...
Catherine: The cool thing though about all the queer community is the fact that if they were to utilize us more with our critical thinking, like if educators were to utilize us in the way that we can actually give ideas about how we run our communities and we ask ourselves questions, I think we can teach a lot about like – when it comes to the overhaul, the way our community is would be a fantastic model. The thing is a lot of them are in academia, and that’s what’s so –that’s what’s so funny.
Catherine: This sounds so funny, but I feel like educators have to be more queer. And I don’t mean as in sexually queer. What I mean is constantly going “why do we do this?, why do we do this?” because I feel like as queers that’s everything that we do and the reason why we seem so odd to everybody is because we’re constantly saying, “actually, we don’t have to do things this way”, right? And so, when it comes to educators, which I find very frustrating to deal with and I know that what’s funny is that educators find this frustrating, is that they keep on saying, “but that’s the way that it’s done, and that’s the protocol and that’s the thing that we have to do in order to – there’s very strict guidelines as to how things are done. Sometimes the protocol is so intense that I’m like, “what was that for in the first place? I’m just not sure”. Everything from bathroom locks, like you know, the protocol in regards to – you have to make sure that you do this and then you do this – like it just seems so unending, like what the protocol is, that um, it just seems so silly and petty. Now if they put that much effort into things like “why do we have girls not wear tank tops?”, like what exactly – it’s between this piece of fabric to this piece of fabric that, “oh! I’m a rapist I’m not gonna rape her now, because she has sleeves”. Like something magical that happens when a girl wears cap sleeves.
...
Catherine: We were laughing at the orientation for the school, ‘cause they were trying to get kids to – you know how I guess middle school is trying to prepare them for high school right? so we’re all in there trying to transition our kids from like junior school to middle school and I remember the – the guidance councillor was a woman and she said, “okay ladies, now let’s remember, we gotta keep it professional” and I thought, I wanted to stand up and be like “are you saying that sex workers aren’t professional ‘cause they’re professional.
Nazbah: Yah. That’s work.
Catherine: ‘Cause that’s work. Let me tell you cause sometimes it’s more work than someone who’s doing pencil pushing up at Queen’s Park is that that person is like just filing, filing, filing versus the person who’s running their website, buying their condoms.
Nazbah: Running a business.
Catherine: That’s a lot of freakin’ work being a sex worker. And, uh, I just find it so funny, it’s like “that’s professional”, you know, and professional might mean being in a g-string, going around a pole.
Nazbah: Yah.
Catherine: And this is what – I just want people to be able to say “why do we use this language?” and so I would like – I would like teachers in education to be more queer in that way, to say “why – why did this student come to me with a different project about indigenous history? Why does this student – why does this seven-year-old seem to know more about reservations than I do?” All of these are questions, whereas I feel like teachers, like all educators are in the position of being like “I need to know, I need to know” and I feel like the question should be like “no, I need to ask, I need to ask”. And I think that that’s a really big problem with education right now. And it’s so funny because I am an educator, like I am a theatre educator, and a lot of my educating is teaching people to keep on questioning and to reclaim the question.
...
Catherine: The cool thing though about all the queer community is the fact that if they were to utilize us more with our critical thinking, like if educators were to utilize us in the way that we can actually give ideas about how we run our communities and we ask ourselves questions, I think we can teach a lot about like – when it comes to the overhaul, the way our community is would be a fantastic model. The thing is a lot of them are in academia, and that’s what’s so –that’s what’s so funny.