something about Vanni
 

:newbie:
hello everyone, i am Vanessa Emma Goldman. Vanessa because it is a pretty name that has the same initial as my male birth name, Emma Goldman because she (the anarchist/socialist/feminist who lived from the 1860s-1940) was a totally kick ass woman who i try to be like as much as i can! people call me Vanni.

i am a transitioning male->female person who is attracted to women. i like all kinds of women but really like women who defy the stereotypes, so...women athletes, feminist folksingers, butches and genderqueer women are all particularly attractive to me, but really i love all women!

i am very into radical left politics, if you couldn't guess that from me naming myself after a very well known radical left woman! basically i am dedicated to the destruction of patriarchy and the world capitalist system, and to building a world where all people are able to reach their full potential and are free to be whoever they may be. and where all have access to the basics of a good life, and no one has to go without so that a few can have way more than they need. Listen to John Lennon's song Imagine for a good nutshell view of what i believe.

at the moment i am very involved with TransGender Michigan as a board member. TGMI is the main trans activist group in my home state. i am a librarian at the University of Michigan, and i have gotten to know many wonderful people at the campus LGBT and Women's Centres and get involved with their activities. i also use much of my book buying money to add books to the library collection on LGBT and feminist topics as well as progressive topics in general.

i am a major fan of women's sports, and if you hang out with me long enough you will hear a lot about Deanna Nolan (my pick for Greatest Basketball Player Ever, even better than Michael Whatshisname, you know, the guy who used to play for the Chicago Bulls?) and U of Michigan women's sports, especially the softball program led by Coach Carol Hutchins.

i also love good music..Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, REM, and Steffie Loveless and the Dirty Virgins to name a few...the last one being a Ferndale, Michigan based band led by my friend Steffie. i am a stage performer with the DVs, specifically i wear a cheerleader uniform in maize and blue (U of Michigan colors, of course!) and dance and do cheer moves to the songs.

i also do a lot of reading, which might explain why i ended up becoming an Academic Librarian!

anyway, that is a bit about me! nice to be here and i look forward to meeting some new friends!

Welcome.

Nice to meet you!

hello Semantics, and nice to meet you too!!!!!(f):3femme::hk34:

Welcome Vanessa!

Anyone who works in books and media all day is a-ok with me! Is it true that Librarians read all the time? :)

hello Medusa, and thanks for the message!! well, yes, we Librarians do tend to read a lot! i have come up with an alternate job title for myself...Library Research Instructrix! i read that "instructrix" is an old timey term for a woman teacher, and well, the word just sounds SO sexy!!!!

It IS sexy! It kinda evokes the sexy bespectacled school marm image but maybe one who wears a little leather ;)

Welcome, Vanessa!

We have much of the same taste in music, as well as being fans of women's sports. I'm a big fan of the WTA (tennis), although I don't play myself.

I'm originally from that certain city in Ohio, with that college U of M plays once a year.

I think Emma Goldman herself is buried in Chicago, in a cemetery full of other labor activists.

Hi Vanni!! Welcome to BFP!!!

Welcome Vanessa (Instructrix - love the term) to The Planet.
I know you will find yourself loving it here...
I look forward to reading you.

Vanessa is a lovely name and the strength of Emma Goldman - Great combination of energy.

Julie

well hello there! I have a submissive who is MtF and a dear friend (who is also a subsmissive) who is also MtF. Its great to see your presence here! Instructrix? Very charming, my dear! I posted on your photo too...love them long lovely legs! Welcome to our wonderful planet! Thinking about coming to our reunion?

Hello Vanessa Emma Goldman, a.k.a. Instructrix. Welcome to The Planet. Glad you found us. Enjoy!

Hey, Vanessa. i used to work at the UGLi. As a grunt though, not a librarian. An academic librarian gig at UofM is a good life, it always looked to me.

Re Emma, i heard that a Berkman offspring or great nephew or some scion of the Berkman family is now a Catholic theologian -- a moral philosopher. Totally against abortion and contraception, one would imagine. Boggles the mind.

Anyway, i miss Ann Arbor. It's a great place to live.

Welcome to the planet.

thanks June, nice to meet you!!!! have some Kool Aid....:koolaid:

hi, Martina! i love the name by the way, it reminds me of one of the greatest Women Athletes of all time, the tennis player Martina Navratilova (whose last name i may have spelled wrong!).

oh my about Emma's descendant being conservative...Emma must be rolling over in her grave over that one.

i love Ann Arbor too! my job is at the Flint campus but i volunteer for committee work in Ann Arbor so i have an excuse to go there regularly! also i love to go see the women's sports teams play. i used to go to the football games but the tickets are so damn expensive anymore! were you a student there? i got my master's degree in library science there in 1990, i was there for Bo Schembechler's last season as football coach. and the star of the women's basketball team at the time (Carol Szezechowski) was from my hometown! if there had been a WNBA then, she probably would have been good enough to play in it!

i lived in one of the student co-ops, which was a really nice thing as it was a mix of people from the USA and many from other countries who come to the U for their education. Flint campus is getting more like that, we are really growing and helping to bring some life back to the old auto factory town that does not have too many factories anymore.

well, nice to meet you and let's keep in touch!

Welcome to BFP Vanessa!

thanks Guihong! i have some other friends who live in or near Columbus!!!:rrose:

i am really missing my Detroit Shock since they left for Oklahoma, and my fave player (Deanna Nolan of Flint) only plays in Russia now. the Shock won three championships in the 2000s, Detroit's so-called pro football team has not won one since 1957...the Shock should have stayed and the Lions should have gone away IMO!!!!

thanks, Bulldog! i love your quote from Reverend King, he was a wise person and we need to heed his words now more than ever.