• Why Being Nude Outside is Important

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    CAPTION FOR THE VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hi friends! Today I’m going to talk about why I think being naked outside is important.

    I’m obviously, as you can see, I’m naked outside right now. I think it’s important because if we can be in our bodies and be outside and be barefoot on the ground, that’s super healing in and of itself. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of grounding or earthing but sharing our energy with the Earth by physically touching it is very healing for our bodies, and I personally believe it’s important in healing our souls and our emotions and our mental space as well.

    Also, it just feels good to have the breeze on your skin and the sun warming your body. I think that phones and computers and technology and houses and buildings, society in general, we have kind of separated ourselves from the Earth and as an ecosexual personally, I think that that’s really sad and I want there to be a world where we can connect deeper to the Earth and to Nature and to ourselves. I think a part of that connection is through being naked outside.

    There’s no experience like it. You can only know what it’s like if you personally do it yourself. I definitely understand that it’s scary sometimes, especially if you’re naked in a place where you’re “not supposed to be naked”, and if somebody has maybe told you that you’re doing something wrong if you’re naked. We get a lot of messaging that our bodies are not good and that our nudity is not good and that it’s a bad thing and it’s shameful, but I want to push back on that and say that it’s society that is the not good thing when they’re telling us these things about our bodies that we’re not consenting to.

    Being naked outside is like nothing else. To me, if you can be naked outside, I take that chance every time I get. As you can see, I’m here right now, naked with the flowers. I just can’t describe it, you have to experience it for yourself. I feel like I can be more in my body when I’m naked because like there’s a little fly that just landed on my arm and I wouldn’t have noticed that if I had a shirt on. That little moment of seeing a fly, that wouldn’t have happened if I had clothes on. I wouldn’t have felt it. But because I’m naked, I have more sensory ability to be able to notice the things around me and be more present in my body. That might be part of my neurodivergence, it’s definitely a part of my ecosexuality. Yeah, I can be more in my body and more present with myself if I can be naked and I prefer to be outside for many reasons, but those are just some of them.

    If you would like a chance to be naked outside, we actually, it starts today when this video goes out, Conscious Creativity in Ypsilanti, Michigan, August 27th and 28th. So this video is going to go out on the 27th, so you have tomorrow, I guess to join us, if you would still like a chance to. Me and Lior Allay and Roarie Yum will be facilitating the two-day workshop on the 27th and 28th of August for taking self-portraits and creating group self-portraits together. If you would like to join us, I’ll have all the information below. I’m so excited! Please come make art with us! I hope you have a wonderful day and I’ll talk to you soon! Bye!

    I want to be a part of Conscious Creativity!


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  • 25 Ways To Express Your Ecosexuality

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    CAPTION FOR THE VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hello. Last week I talked about “you might be ecosexual if…” This week I’m kind of staying on that ecosexual theme and I have a list of 25 ways to express your Ecosexuality. This is a not a comprehensive list. It’s just 25 things that I came up with like, on the spot and feel free to do any of these things or none of them it’s totally up to you. This is just something I want to offer for you and all of these have a connection to Ecosexuality, even if you are like, “I don’t know how that is connected to ecosexuality.” If you are wondering how it is connected to ecosexuality, I’ll link my like whole huge post about Ecosexuality and the caption below so you can do a little more looking up on it if you’re like, “how does this relate to this?” Yeah, or you can ask me a question, like you can comment and be like, tell me more or you can email me. Yeah, I maybe I’ll make another video about it. Okay, here we go.

    CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ECOSEXUALITY

    I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget.

    25 ways to express your ecosexuality!

    Number 1, put your bare feet on the Earth. Please do it. It feels so good. Also like scientifically, it’s super good for you. Even if you did nothing else, putting your feet on the ground is so good for your physical, mental, spiritual health. And even if you’re not, woowoo, like you can look up like scientific things that say like, it helps with your blood pressure and it helps you feel less depressed but also science isn’t like the end-all be-all of like what is important to know. I have a lot of things to say about that, but that’s not for this video.

    Number 2, smell a flower or look at a flower. Or just yeah, enjoy flowers.

    Number 3, savor the flavor of a sweet fruit, especially like a juicy peach. I love peaches. Ah fruit. Actually, they have. Have you ever had cotton candy grapes? They exist, and they really do taste like cotton candy and oh my goodness. So yeah. Enjoy some sweet fruit because yeah, that is just a really enjoyable way to express your Ecosexuality.

    Number 4, sit quietly and listen to the sounds of birds and bugs. I am 100% convinced that that is sound healing. There’s a video on the internet of a frog singing, but it’s sitting in a puddle and you can see the ripples of sound going out from it because it’s sitting in a puddle. It is the most Magical video and it’s my favorite video that I’ve ever seen on the internet ever. I like, I’m not even kidding. I watch it on a regular basis. I saved it on my phone because like I need to see this all the time. Yeah. I’m convinced that the songs of creatures, including humans, but especially like birds and frogs for me personally are sound healing. And are like, little love notes from the universe and from the Earth and from the beings who are creating the songs. Okay.

    WATCH THE FROG VIDEO HERE!!!! AHHHHH!!! (Actually I’m pretty sure it’s a toad and not a frog but whatever)

    Number 5, watch the wind in the trees. I feel like this is kind of self-explanatory, but I super love trees a lot. As you can see I’ve like put a bunch of trees on myself permanently forever and ever, trees are important, and just seeing them and the way that they move in the wind… It’s magical.

    Number 6, take a hike and admire the life all around you. Let that sink in for a second. It just feels good for me to be outside. And walking around… I could walk forever. I feel like as a Sagittarius… yeah, I like hiking a lot.

    Number 7, swim naked especially if you can do it below a waterfall. Super magical. Skinny-dipping in general, feels really great but being in like a cold mountain river like near a waterfall. I can’t even explain how magical it is if you haven’t experienced that before.

    Number 8, follow the cycles of the Moon and learn how they connect to yourself and your feelings, and/or your body. So this is one that will take a little bit of time. It’s not like an immediate thing because usually noticing cycles will take at least a few months. So I have a journal and that helps me with that. Yeah

    Number 9, cuddle! Enjoy the feeling of physical touch with another being, whether it’s a human or an animal. Yeah, just use your senses. Any way you can use your senses. I’m just giving you a bunch of cute suggestions. But yeah, like just using your senses and being in your body is a great way to express your Ecosexuality.

    Number 10, honor the seasons of your life. We all must slow down and rest in order to be able to keep going. There is a reason that there are seasons on the planet. Like there’s, you know, spring summer fall winter. Because nothing can be going all the time forever infinitely, which is the same for us. We also need to take breaks. So honoring that and allowing yourself to slow down when you need to is a really big important thing. 

    Number 11, plant an herb, veggie or flower garden. Any kind of garden, just more plants, even if you don’t have land you can get a little house plant and nurture that.

    Number 12, talk to, hug, love on trees and plants and rocks, and I’m serious, like, I actually hug trees. It’s really wonderful. Just spending some time close to a tree even if you’re not touching it, if you’re like, “I don’t want to touch a tree”, even if you’re just like sitting underneath it for a while just kind of sharing your energy with it. Powerful.

    Number 13, pick up trash. Even if it’s not yours. This is something I do a lot. Sometimes I’ll even just carry a small trash bag with me when I go on walks because sometimes it’s really a mess and even if it’s not my trash, I think it’s important for there to not be trash everywhere, especially if I’m in nature. I feel like it’s just like a sign of basic respect to the planet to not have trash everywhere.

    Number 14, learn more about yourself without the constraints of societal expectations and norms. This is kind of a harder one and one that takes a lot of time and that’s okay. I have some stories about gender things and sexuality things and if you care to look for those, I can find them. Yeah, let me know in the comments if you want me to find them and then I’ll find them but it will take me a little bit I think. Yeah, but getting to know yourself is kind of important, but also kind of really difficult. 

    Number 15, protest for Black Lives Matter in any way you’re capable of, or maybe for land conservation, or maybe, for Reproductive Justice, whatever is important to you personally and is being attacked by the people that are in power at the moment. Yeah, it’s important to stand up for what is important to you and that is definitely an ecosexual act is if you’re trying to protect the things that you care about.

    Number 16, pay reparations to Black and Indigenous folks. This one goes a lot along with the one previous. But yeah, if you’re someone that has wealth, definitely redistribute it as much as you’re able to. I definitely strive to do that myself. I have a couple of recurring places that I donate to every month. And I donate to individuals in need as often as I’m able to, usually on a monthly basis too. Yeah, like if you have any kind of power, whether that’s financial power or any other kind of power, let’s use it for good.

    Number 17, play outside in whatever way feels fun and rejuvenating to you. Just running around or even even if just like sitting and reading as your way of playing and you’re like, “I don’t want to get dirty”, whatever feels good to you. Just be outside and some way that is enjoyable. 

    Number 18, get a house plant and become friends with it. I kind of talked about this when I was talking about making a garden. But yeah, if you don’t have the space for an actual Garden, you can still have plants around.

    Number 19, ride a bike. This is just another way to like, get outside.

    Number 20, protect clean water, and ban toxic pollutants. That’s kind of self-explanatory. We cannot exist without water and obviously if it is contaminated, we can’t survive on contaminated water.

    Number 21, invest in your local community in whatever way that means for you. Everybody has a different role to play and everybody has different abilities and financial access and needs and time that’s available. So whatever works for you, invest in your local community. 

    Number 22, have a picnic outside under a tree, even better if it’s with someone that you care about.

    Number 23, lay in the grass and look up at the clouds, or the stars, depending on what time of day. This is so calming to me and it kind of gives you like a dual benefit in like, you have something cool to look at and talk to about with someone you care about or if you’re by yourself, you can use your imagination and your lying on the ground, hopefully. Getting that grounding that Earthing, that connection to the Earth with your body. So good!

    Number 24, learn about permaculture. If you don’t know what a permaculture is. It’s basically like farming but in a way that is sustainable and able to be continued throughout time and without needing a whole bunch of maintenance constantly and definitely not using bunch of  toxic chemicals and fertilizers and shit. 

    Number 25, learn about animism. I kind of talked about animism a little bit. I don’t… was it this video or the last video? Either way, learn about am animism. It’s a, it’s beautiful.

    This video is really long already, so I’m going to stop here, but I love you. Thank you so much for being here. It means the world’s me that you keep coming back to my website, and I hope to see you again soon.


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  • You Might Be An Ecosexual If…

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    CAPTION FOR THE VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hello, good morning. Well, it might not be morning where you are, but it’s morning for me. I just woke up like less than 30 minutes ago, but I’m excited to talk to you about stuff right now, and I haven’t been excited for the past few days, for some reason. But I have the energy for it now so I’m excited to talk about stuff and share with you! I’ve kinda been doing themed months sortof for a little bit but I’m kinda gonna not be super themed for this month and that’s okay! Because I’m changing all the time and the only constant is change and I like to be flexible and I feel like if I’m too rigid with myself then it becomes not fun anymore, so I’m allowing myself flexibility because this is my website, and if I’m not flexible on my own website then how am I gonna be flexible anywhere else?

    So today I wanna share with you some information about how you might be an ecosexual if… and then I have a list for you. So if you’re brand new to my website and you’re like “what on Earth is an ecosexual?” The basic definition is someone who sees the Earth as a lover or a partner instead of as a resource to exploit. You can chew on that for a little bit. I’ll link it below, I have a whole page full of a bunch of videos all about ecosexuality so if you want to dive deeper into that I’ll link it in the caption below. If you’re like “I still don’t understand!” I literally have hours of me talking about this, so you can pause this and come back to it when you have a deeper understanding of what I’m talking about if you want. Or if you already know what I’m talking about, let’s go!

    CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ABOUT ECOSEXUALITY

    So I wrote a list so I won’t forget anything so I’m probably going to be reading it some, I have a big notebook, it’s so big it’s bigger than my head! So I was thinking because I feel like there’s a lot of people that are like “I think I might be an ecosexual but I’m not sure” and they come to me asking if they are… and I pretty much always tell them, that’s not my decision to label you. You get to decide what labels and descriptive words fit you the best and if something feels good then that is something for you, and if it doesn’t feel good, then ignore it, it doesn’t have to be you. You get to choose. So even if some of these things apply to you or you resonate with them, but you’re like “I don’t really feel like an ecosexual”, then that’s cool! You’re not. These are just ways that you might notice that you really care about the Earth. So here we go!

    You might be an ecosexual if…

    You had a meltdown as a child when you learned what extinction was. I know I certainly did, I remember sitting on the stairs in my parent’s house, which is here where I currently am. Just, you know, maybe 50 feet that way, on the stairs. I remember I was I don’t know, maybe 6 or 7, and I literally cried for HOURS just sitting on the stairs just miserable and overwhelmed with sadness about how extinction exists when I learned that it’s a thing. It broke my heart into a million pieces. You might be an ecosexual if you had a similar experience, because I definitely had that experience.

    You might be an ecosexual if you have a very strong connection to another living being such as another human or maybe a non human like a pet or an animal or a tree or a plant. If you feel really connected to another living being, you might be an ecosexual.

    You might be an ecosexual if you love the tender act of tending to a garden and you rejoice at the sight, smell, sound, taste and feeling of it. I don’t really have my own garden, but sometimes I help my mom with hers and she has gardens like all around the house and it makes me super joyful to see, especially in spring time like this time of year, everything’s coming back alive after being all like, gray, and brown and dead for the winter. I just get so joyful, seeing all the like, fresh green, baby leaves everywhere and like, flowers blooming, it just… it feels like I’m coming alive again, too.

    You might be an ecosexual if you have a spiritual connection with the Earth. I feel like my ecosexuality is connected to animism. It’s a different thing but it’s… they kind of really go hand-in-hand and if you don’t know what animism is, it’s basically kind of like a point of view. I don’t think it would be called like a religion because it’s  not organized like that, but it’s more of like a point of view or a way that you see life and it’s where you see everything as being its own like living being like… I see trees and rivers and rocks as being living beings, just as much as I see, like cats and dogs and horses and humans being living beings. And they all have some important reason for being here. My personal view as yeah, there’s a purpose for everything that is here because if its here, that means it has a purpose and even if it’s something we don’t understand, we don’t have to understand everything, but just the fact that it’s here, life wanted it to be here. And that’s why it’s here… even things like mosquitoes and slugs. I love slugs. I don’t like mosquitoes as much, but like, mosquitoes and like wasps and things that are not necessarily the most fun, but they do have a purpose. Even if we don’t understand what that purpose is. In my opinion.

    You might be an ecosexual if you prefer to spend time outdoors instead of inside, which is definitely me. And the only reason I’m not outside right now is because it’s kind of cold this morning and I just woke up and I don’t want to be like shivering while I’m trying to make a video. Yeah. So if you prefer being outside over being inside, you might be an ecosexual. 

    This one kind of really goes along with the last one, but you might be an ecosexual if you feel claustrophobic and kind of just generally uncomfortable in big cities, but feel really at home in  really rural areas where there’s more trees and more open like land that’s undeveloped. I actually have been in contact with City representatives for where I live to talk about how can they please stop developing all of this land around the city that I live in because literally, they’re cutting down our lungs, which are the trees and we’re going to like… we’re going to run it out of natural spaces if we keep it, developing it all and we need the natural spaces in order to be able to survive as like a species on this planet! I digress.

    You might be an ecosexual if you enjoy and receive pleasure from the Earth. And this one is kind of very broad and I definitely enjoy being outside and being connected to the Earth and I definitely receive pleasure from the Earth in so many ways, like just standing in the sunlight and having the sun on your face just feels so good to me as long as not like for hours and hours and get sunburned. Or just like being outside having my feet on the ground and just feeling the breeze on my skin. There’s… walking through a forest, the way it smells. Yeah, I just, I could talk about all the wonderful ways that I love the Earth, but we would be here for a really long time if I did that.

    So that is my list. It’s kind of short but that is my list of signs that you might be an ecosexual. If you would like to use the ecosexual label for yourself, feel free. If the ecosexual label does not feel right for you, you don’t have to use it. It’s that simple. You get to choose. These are just some small guidelines, maybe to help you think about it if you’re not sure and you’re kind of on the fence and this is, of course not an exhaustive list because there’s so many other signs that you might be an ecosexual, but that’s just what was on the top of my head at the time that I wrote it.

    I hope you have a great day. This video is getting long, so I’m going to end here. But I love you so much and thank you for being here. It means so much. I literally could not do what I do without you. So you are what makes all this happen. You’re basically like my life sponsors. Yeah, so thank you so much. I’m excited to keep creating things for you, and I love you, and I hope you have a great day!


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  • Queer Nature + EXCITING NEWS!

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    Hi! It’s actually been quite a while since I made a vlog for you, so I thought I’d come and say hi! It’s starting to rain a little bit, so hopefully it won’t get too much rain, but I have some exciting potential things that will be happening at the end of October that I will probably tell you more about later, but I want to give you a heads-up that like things are happening and I’m excited! So vague, right?

    But something I can tell you about is I made a little PowerPoint PDF thing. It’s actually maybe not that little, it’s like 23 pages, but it’s all about how queer nature is. It’s kind of like a mini book report on this book that I read that blew my mind in the best way! Yeah, I wanted to share this PDF with y’all and see what you think. I’m also considering maybe doing like a like mini webinar where I just like infodump about queer nature. If you’re interested in that, please let me know because I have been thinking about maybe doing that because I think it’d be fun and if you want to be live with me while I infodump about queer nature, then let me know and we can do that!

    I do want to tell you more about October. So I know one of them is for sure definitely happening, so I’m going to tell you about that one, but there’s another thing that’s happening at the end of October that’s like, most likely going to happen, but I don’t want to jinx it, so I’m going to wait to tell you that.

    So the one that I know is happening is there is this photography space in Charlotte called The Light Factory. They do gallery exhibitions, they do photography classes, they do workshops, all kinds of stuff, they do photo walks for the community where they just like, walk around Charlotte (and I’m getting bit by mosquitos). This is where they walk around Charlotte and do photography stuff, it’s pretty cool. They reached out to me to teach a self portrait workshop!!!!

    I remember, I was a teenager, dreaming of having art in the gallery there at The Light Factory. And I did, I was part of one of their group member shows way back in the day. Where basically anybody that wanted to share their art could put it in the member show, so it wasn’t like this juried fancy thing or anything, but that felt really cool and I was like in high school or college or something so it was several years ago.

    The Light Factory reached out to me!!! Probably because I have a couple friends who teach there already, so thank you friends!! They put in a good word for me! So The Light Factory is like “Hey Bunny do you want to teach a self portrait workshop?” and I’m like “hell yes I do!!!” So at the end of October… October 23rd? 24th? 23rd. I think it’s the 23rd, I will be teaching a workshop about self portraiture with them. I’m really excited. We’re going to do it outside at a park because I don’t want to do anything inside, because of lots of reasons, like covid is probably number 1 reason I don’t want to do stuff inside, and 2 because I just feel like self portraits are so much better in nature, you know me! So yeah, we’re gonna go to a park and I’m gonna teach a self portrait workshop and I’m really excited.

    So it’s like a big opportunity for me and I just feel super special that they reached out to me. Like wow… also maybe I should start actually applying to things because that would help me do more cool fun stuff like the self portrait workshop. Yeah, so I’m really excited. And yeah, originally we were going to do a full day workshop, but they are unable to pay my rate, so we’re going to do a short 2 hour workshop, because that is more aligned with what I’m able to provide based on what they’re able to pay me, because I really do want to create a relationship with The Light Factory. So I think even though I’m not getting paid at my full rate for this workshop, I think it’s a good opportunity for me to meet other artists in Charlotte get my foot in the door with The Light Factory, be able to put The Light Factory on my resume. Yeah, mostly I’m just excited to meet the other creative people.

    Sorry, like fly… Something’s flying around me! I totally forgot what I was saying. Yeah, so I’m really excited and I’m excited to share that with you, and I’m going to be sharing the link to the PDF for the queer nature below. You can download it if you want, I’m just going to share with you. But yeah, let me know if you want to do like a little webinar about queer nature because I’m obsessed, and yeah, I mean if you have been around for any amount of time, then you know that I love nature and queer nature is like the best way to affirm my queerness because like it’s super natural! Well, not Supernatural but it’s super space natural. It is very natural. Okay, I’m getting kind of goofy now.

    I’m gonna go hang out with my sister later today, meet her new doggy! And yeah, I think that’s all I have to share. So, yeah, thank you so much for being here. I love you so much.

    I have honestly been kind of struggling with what I want to share on my website now, since I’m not taking as many photos as I used to, but I also really want to start doing more educational kind of things and I just have to make up my mind and actually do something. I think that’s the problem because I have so many ideas! It’s hard to choose and then I don’t do any of them, and I’m like, why? So I need to just pick a thing and go! So that was my queer nature thing, I just picked that and did it, and now I am sharing with you. So, I hope you like it! Hope you have a great day! I love you so much, and I’ll talk to you soon!

    CLICK HERE FOR QUEER NATURE PDF


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  • Have you ever noticed…

    …that Tulip Poplar (scientific name: Liriodendron Tulipifera, Cherokee name: tsiyu) tree bark looks like a variety of vulvas?

    It’s so beautiful 😍

    I think I’m gonna start posting some of the random stuff here that I otherwise would keep to myself or post to instagram. I’m feeling increasingly frustrated with social media + want to invest my time here instead.

    …also now that I’ve started looking up the Indigenous names of plants I want to continue doing this!!! I feel very disconnected from my Choctaw + Cherokee ancestry + this is one way I can start to reconnect.

    The rest of my ancestry is primarily Irish + Scottish, I learned this only a couple of months ago! I want to learn more about that part of my ancestry too, like why they came here (to the US), what kinds of rituals they did, how they connected with the Earth + each other, who they prayed to…

    For a long time I had no idea what my ancestry was + I felt drawn to a lot of other cultures because they felt so rich + full of life… I wanted that too.

    I felt lost + like I didn’t know who “my people” were, where I came from. Now that I know, I can root into the practices of my ancestors, I can reconnect to that lost part of myself. I no longer have to reach for other culture’s practices that don’t belong to me, I can reach for practices that are in my DNA, within me. I am only beginning + it already feels more powerful + true.

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  • Nature is Queer!

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    Hi friends!

    So I have recently finished a book that I am obsessed about, obsessed with, and super excited about. It has totally affirmed all of my queerness in general, but sometimes, I somehow still feel like I need to be affirmed in my queerness even though I’m super queer and like, that’s awesome but we all need some affirmation sometimes, right?

    So I would love to share with you this book Evolution’s Rainbow from Joan Roughgarden who is a trans woman biologist. An amazing person who wrote this amazing book. So, it’s Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People.

    I love everything that I read in this book, I do feel like there were some kind of outdated terms in this book which kind of makes sense because it’s from 10 years ago. It’s been out for over 10 years. So, whatever potentially incorrect language is used in the book, I highly doubt like there was any kind of malice in using those terms. I would like to give Joan and the amount of time it’s been since Joan wrote his book, the benefit of the doubt that some of the like outdated language that was used wasn’t really on purpose. Language from 10 years ago, even if it’s not totally the way things would go today, but it’s nothing like super… what’s the word I’m looking for? Negative, I guess?

    Distracted me! Yay. But anyway, this book is amazing. I wanted to go over this little section called Gender Defined, because it’s real great and it’s probably one of my favorite parts of the book and it’s pretty close to the beginning. 

    If you’re curious about like gender or, not gender, about nature being super fucking queer this is your book. This is all the science behind how queer nature is, nature is super fucking queer. So queer! Like, of course, humans are queer, because queerness is all throughout the animal kingdom! I don’t even like that term, okay, let’s find another term… all throughout life on this planet!

    So I’m gonna read a little bit from this and let’s affirm your queerness too.

    All right, Gender Defined. 


    “Up to now, we’ve come up with two generalizations. One: most species reproduce sexually, and two: among the species that do reproduce sexually, gamete size obeys a near universal binary between very small: sperm, and large: egg. So that male and female can be defined biologically as the production of small and large gametes, respectively.  Beyond these two generalizations, the generalizing stops and diversity begins!

    The binary in gamete size doesn’t extend outward. The biggest error of biology today is uncritically assuming that gamete size binary implies a corresponding binary in body type, behavior, and life history.”

    (I’m going to read that sentence again because I think it is so important to really get in our brain. Here we go, reading a second time.)

    The biggest error of biology today is uncritically assuming that gamete size binary implies a corresponding binary in body type, behavior, and life history.

    No binary governs the whole individuals who make gametes, who bring them to one another for fertilization and who interact with one another to survive in a native social context. In fact, the very sexual process that maintains the rainbow of a species and facilitates long-term survival automatically brings a cornucopia of colorful, sexual behaviors.

    Gender, unlike gamete size, is not limited to two. Gender usually refers to the way a person expresses sexual identity in a cultural context. Gender reflects both the individual reaching out to cultural norms and society imposing expectations on the individual. Gender is usually thought to be uniquely human. Any species has sexes, but only people have genders.

    With your permission though, I’d like to widen the meaning of gender to refer to non-human species as well. As a definition, I suggest gender is the appearance, behavior, and life history of a sexed body. A body becomes sexed when classified with respect to the size of the gametes produced. Thus gender is appearance plus action, how an organism uses morphology, including color and shape, plus behavior to carry out a sexual role. Now we’re free to explore the zoological and botanical counterpart of human gender studies.

    So, we may ask how much variety occurs in gender expression among other species? Let’s take some favorite stereotypes and see. We will look mostly at vertebrae, but even more variety occurs with invertebrates and plants.”

    (All right, this is going to be a list and it’s really great. I want to make this into a like, infographic post because it’s so good.)


    An organism is solely male or female for life.

    No. The most common body form among plants and in perhaps half of the animal kingdom is for an individual to be both and female at the same time or at different times during its life. These individuals make both small and large gametes during their lives.

    Males are bigger than females, on the average.

    No, in lots of species, especially fish, the female is bigger than the male.

    Females, not males, give birth.

    No, in many species the female deposits the eggs in the pouch of the male, who incubates them until birth. In many species males, not females, tend the nest.

    Males have XY chromosomes and females, XX chromosomes.

    No, in birds including domesticated poultry like chickens the reverse is true. In many other species, males and females showed no difference in chromosomes. In all alligators and crocodiles, some turtles and lizards, and the occasional fish, sex is determined by the temperature at which the eggs are raised. A female can control the sex ratio among her offspring by laying eggs in a shady or sunny spot.

    Only two genders occur, corresponding to the two sexes.

    No, many species have three or more genders with individuals of each sex occurring in two or more forms. 

    Males and females look different from one another.

    No, in some species males and females are almost indistinguishable. In other species males occur in two or more forms, one of which resembles a female while the others are different from the female. 

    The male has a penis and the female lactates. (This is probably my favorite one!)

    No, in the spotted hyena, females have a penis-like structure externally identical to that of males, and in the fruit bat of Malaysia and Borneo, the males have milk producing mammary glands. 

    Males control females.

    (Obviously hell no.) In some species, females control males, and in many, mating is a dynamic interaction between female and male choice. Females may or may not prefer a dominant male. Period. (I added the period.)

    Females prefer monogamy and males want to play around.

    No, depending on the species, either or both sexes may play around. Lifelong monogamy is rare, and even within monogamous species, females may initiate divorce to acquire a higher ranking male.”

    Resources:

    Book:

    Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People by Joan Roughgarden

    Internet Articles:

    11 Animals That Can Change Their Sex by Sidney Stevens

    These are the only 3 animals on Earth who produce offspring this way by Molly Sequin

    Sex Redefined: The Idea of 2 Sexes is Overly Simplistic by Claire Ainsworth

    How Birds Become Male or Female, and Occasionally Both by Jenny Graves

    We Have the Wrong Idea About Males, Females, and Sex by David Robson

    Female Animals with Pseudo Penises by Katie Mach


    And this is in the animal kingdom, or in the life that is non-human on the world… okay!? Yeah so nature is queer as fuck. There’s like transgender hummingbirds. There are plants that are male in the morning and female in the evening, and others of those plants are the opposite, female in the morning and male in the afternoon. Even different genders throughout like one day

    There’s like fish that like are very, like queer, gender weird. At all the things I’m just… *makes excited face*

    Spotted hyena, all of them have penises. Also, it doesn’t say it in that section that I read to you, but in another section about those spotted hyenas, it’s probably, it’s one of my favorite things! Now I’m just like “haaa” …build expectation. 

    Female hyenas have penises too, they all have penises. The spotted hyena all have penises, and an erection is a sign of submission!!!!!!! In spotted hyena world!!!!

    Okay, I’m done. So nature’s queer, end of story. I love you. Let’s go. Let’s check out more queer nature things.

    Do you like this video? If you like this video, comment and let me know and I’ll make more queer nature videos. I love you!


    If you’d like to read this book yourself, the Bookshop link is below!
    (OR CLICK HERE)

    Bookshop allows us to support independent bookstores instead of putting more money into billionaire’s pockets.
    As an affiliate with Bookshop, I receive 10% as a commission (at no cost to you!), which I redistribute to the local Black Indigenous, + People of Color creative community here in Charlotte NC.


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  • Environmental Personhood

    Ever since I discovered the existence of environmental personhood I have been extremely interested in it + a huge advocate of it. The more we can do to grant nature personhood in the eyes of the law, the better. I’ve created this to share some basics about environmental personhood: what it is, examples of it around the world, + resources for further reading + exploration.

    What is environmental personhood?

    Definition of Environmental personhood:
    Environmental personhood is a legal concept which designates certain environmental entities the status of a legal person. This assigns to these entities, the rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities and legal liability of a legal personality.

    Example of environmental personhood: Ecuador
    Ecuador became the first country to include the rights of nature in its constitution. In 2007 there was a revolution “La Revolucion Ciudadana” + Rafael Correa became president. With the help of National Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador + other Indigenous groups, the country’s new constitution included a section titled “Rights of Nature” recognizing nature as a legal entity with rights.

    Example of environmental personhood: Bolivia
    Indigenous groups in Bolivia also demanded rights for nature and in 2010 the Bolivian government created the “Law of the Rights of Mother Earth” which included rights related to life, regeneration, biodiversity, water, clean air, balance, + restoration. It recognized Earth as “collective subject of public interest”. A more complete version of the law was created in 2012 called “The Framework Law of Mother Earth + Integral Development for Living Well”.

    Example of environmental personhood: New Zealand
    In 2014 Te Urewera, the ancestral home of the Tuhoe people (formerly a National Park) became New Zealand’s first environmental legal person. For over 140 years the Maori fought for recognition of the Whanganui river as their ancestor. In 2017 the river received legal status and harming the river would now be considered the same as harming the Maori. In 2018 Mount Taranaki, a volcano sacred to the Maori also became recognized as a legal person.

    Example of environmental personhood: Bangladesh
    In July 2019 all rivers in Bangladesh were granted the same legal rights as people. The goal is to protect the rivers from pollution, encroachments, + illegal dredging. Bangladesh’s National River Conservation Commission (NRCC) was appointed the legal guardian of rivers. Chairman Muzibur Rahman Howlader says “Protecting the rivers also means protecting the entire ecosystem”

    Example of environmental personhood: India
    In 2017 India ruled that the two rivers, Gangotri + Yamunotri are “living entities having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties + liabilities of a living person.” The ecosystem around the rivers was also awarded legal rights. In 2018 the animals in Haryana received the status of “legal person or entity” to promote the welfare of animals in the state. In 2020 Sukhna Lake was also given legal rights.

    Example of environmental personhood: Athens, Georgia
    There is a white oak in Athens, GA known as “The Tree That Owns Itself”. The deed reads: “For and in consideration of the great love I bear this tree and the great desire I have for its protection for all time, I convey entire possession of itself and all land within eight feet of the tree on all sides—William H. Jackson” Sadly, the tree fell in a windstorm in 1942. A seedling of the original tree was planted in its place and is known as “Son of the Tree That Owns Itself”.

    Example of environmental personhood: Eufala, Alabama
    There is an oak tree in Eufala, AL known as “The Tree That Owns Itself” aka the “Walker Oak”. A “deed of sentiment” was granted in 1935 stating that the tree was “a creation and gift of the Almighty, standing in our midst—to itself—to have and to hold itself, its branches, limbs, trunks and roots so long as it shall live.” In 1961 the oak fell in a windstorm. 10 days later, a local business planted a new oak in the same spot and ownership rights were transferred to the replacement tree.

    RESOURCES:

    pg 2: definition via wikipedia
    pg 3-7: Jurist.org “Environmental Personhood: Recent Developments + the Road Ahead” by Sanket Khandelwal
    pg 5: BBC “The New Zealand river that became a legal person” by Kate Evans
    pg 6: NPR “Should Rivers Have Same Legal Rights as Humans? A Growing Number of Voices Say Yes” by Ashley Westerman
    pg 8: Atlasobscura “The Tree That Owns Itself”
    pg 9: Atlasobscura “The Tree That Owns Itself (Alabama)”
    Additional reading: “Should Trees Have Standing? – Toward Legal Rights For Natural Objects” by Christopher D Stone


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  • FREE ARCHIVED BLOG & PHOTOSET

    I originally wrote this for Patreon on August 19th 2017. I no longer use Patreon and have replaced it with my website (here) but thought I would share some of my old blogs with you for FREE to show my appreciation for you visiting my website! <3

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    When I was in Philly last month I was able to catch up with my friend DWL Photo who I hadn’t seen since May 2016 when we met at #dancingbearsvacay! If you’ve been around for a while you might remember that intense & awesome artist’s retreat. Look back through the archives to May 2016 to see what happened. =] DWL and I shot several sets JUST FOR YOU, and I’m excited to share the first of them with you! We went to another part of Fairmount Park (the place is huge) that I hadn’t been to yet and explored and made a bunch of awesome images. At first I thought we wouldn’t be able to find a place secluded enough but we found several cool spots and didn’t have any issues with people spotting us.

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    I’ve put a bunch of random videos in the galleries for you this week! 2 videos of me singing in the car with AD, and 4 outdoor exploration videos!

    ——————————————

    I’m currently in Tampa! I drove 10 hours on Wednesday and I’m so relieved that I’m done with the marathon driving. I started shooting some self portraits and videos for you first thing on Thursday morning and plan to create even more for you during any free time I have here. Technically it’s Thursday morning right now as I’m typing this but since I’ll be driving home ALL DAY on Saturday, I’m prepping this week’s post early! I really like consistently posting every Saturday morning so I plan in advance if I need to and queue it for you if I’ll be busy when it’s supposed to post. =]

    I love y’all so much, thank you for being here with me. Thank you for your support and encouragement. I appreciate each and every one of you! <3

    All members have access to this complete 24 image digital photoset by clicking here, the 6 image film photoset by clicking here, the 2 videos of me singing in the car with AD by clicking here, and 4 outdoor exploration videos by clicking here.

    Not a member? Click here to sign up for instant access!

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  • FREE ARCHIVED BLOG & PHOTOSET

    I originally wrote this for Patreon on July 29th 2017. I no longer use Patreon and have replaced it with my website (here) but thought I would share some of my old blogs with you for FREE to show my appreciation for you visiting my website! <3

    ———-

    I modeled for Edgar while AD & I were in Chicago for my friend Becca’s wedding. He met us at our airbnb and I showed him around, which didn’t take long because it was a small place but had plenty of different areas to shoot in. We started our shoot in the bathroom, which had a really nice clawfoot bathtub and plenty of natural light. Edgar likes to bring his antique cameras with him for models to pose with. This is perfect for me since I’m a photographer as well as a model so it was fun playing with his beautiful old cameras!

    Enjoy this first set from Edgar, I have a few more sets to share with you in the future!

    ————————————————

    I’ve uploaded a few fun videos for you this week! The first one is a timelapse video of me doing yoga while wearing my Totoro onesie! There’s also 2 new aerial silks videos: straight leg scorpion from third wrap and cross back straddle from triple ankle wraps! Straight leg scorpion is one of my favorite moves because it’s SUPER HARD to do but I am actually kinda good at it! I’ll share the most difficult version of this move with y’all in the next few weeks. There’s also a video of my secret hiding place that I go to when I need some alone time outside. There’s a tree that has fallen over and has created a kind of mini tree cave. I love climbing up in the tree and being surrounded by it. It feels like home.

    All members have access to this complete 42 image photoset by clicking here, the Totoro onesie yoga timelapse by clicking here, the aerial silks videos by clicking here, and the secret hiding spot video by clicking here.

    Not a member? Click here to sign up for instant access!

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  • Tiffany Helms in the Ruins

    CAPTION FOR VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hi friends! So this week the photos that I’m sharing with you are photos that I took with Tiffany Helms, you saw a photoset I think it was 2 weeks ago that I shared with you of her. We took I think it was 3 or 4 different photosets so this is another photoset from that same day. These are the photos that we took in this ruins place that we hiked to that was really cool. I don’t exactly know what it used to be, but it was this cool place on Bainbridge Island. We parked… so we drove like 5-10 mins from her house on Bainbridge Island and parked at a parking lot for a park and walked around and went to this spot and it was awesome! We took a bunch of photos there and I actually also have some photos to share with you on another date, another time, that Tiffany’s partner Jeff Waters took of me and some of them Tiffany is also in. This is when I had really long hair and Tiffany also has long blonde hair so we looked very similar. We also are around the same size and height and stuff so that was pretty cool, I’ll share those with you later. These photos are photos I took of her in this ruins area. I think they’re super awesome and I love them and there’s this huge cool tree and it was just fun exploring this place so I’m excited to share those with you. There’s some BTS video and stuff too.

    I think… I think this week the first look stuff that I’m sharing is a photoset that was taken by Kara Perry of Embodoe (on instagram) with a roll of my images from my trip last summer, double exposures, so I took this roll of landscapes and Kara double exposed over it with her friend Embodoe, I think her name is Emily? But her IG name is Embodoe so that’s the name I’m going to be using especially since I’m going to be tagging her in this so you can go to her page and look at all the things. I think these photos are super awesome. Embodoe was wearing lingerie that was handmade here in NC by WhiskeyDog Wares so if you need some handmade underwear things or lingerie, totally check WhiskeyDog Wares out, her stuff is amazing. There’s also a couple other photosets that Kara took with my landscape film, double exposures that she took of other models wearing WhiskeyDog Wares that I’ll be sharing with you in the future also. They’re super awesome. I love Kara, I love WhiskeyDog Wares, I’m really excited that they were using some of my film for that.

    What else do I want to share with you? I’ve had a weird couple of days, the full moon on Monday… I don’t know, has me feeling kinda weird. I’ve felt very stuck this week and like I want to just sit around and not do anything. I’m going to sit down. Yeah I’ve felt stuck this week, I’ve felt like I don’t know what direction I want to go in, I don’t know what my goals are. It’s been great to slow down on the live things online so I can recalibrate and figure out where I want my time to go. Yeah I’m still figuring that out. I don’t know where I want my time to go. I’ve been working on a special secret project with Lior and Roarie this week. I don’t want to talk to much about it in case things… you know… but, enough about that. Conscious Creativity was INCREDIBLE and exceeded my expectations. That was last weekend on Saturday. If you joined us I am so thankful that you did, and I would love to hear from you on how it went for you and what your thoughts are on it, what you liked, what you didn’t like, what you’d like to see more of, anything you’d like to change. I had an incredible time, we planned it for 2 hours and it ended up being 3. I was blown away with all of the vulnerable sharing that everyone did and the discussion that we had and the valuable conversation and empathy that we had with each other. The way that we… everyone was so respectful of each other and valued each other as humans and it was so wonderful and I super loved all of the movement things we did together. I think that was a really fun way to connect online even though we’re not in person, still being in our bodies is great and it’s something that I want to continue doing.

    I’m not sure what’s coming up for the future still, I probably will never know, but I’m glad that I have the time and space now to really feel into what works for me. At this point I don’t know what that is yet, but I have the time and space to figure that out. I’m thankful for yall for being here with me. If you have anything that you’d like to contribute in terms of ideas or recommendations or comments about how I run this website, about how I show up online. I’m definitely really open to that. I value your input and I value your thoughts and preferences and I definitely want to consider that in the things that I do. I really appreciate all of you for being here with me and for continuing to show up every week and for supporting me and for enjoying the work that I put out. I really don’t know what’s next, I really don’t. I definitely want to do more events, more workshops, more group things. Obviously online is accessible and offline in person is a little out of reach at the moment with the state of the world, but I would really like to in the future open it back up to in person events again, because those are so transformative and incredible and I get so much out of those and I know that the people who participate in in person events really get a lot out of them too. So yeah, if you have anything to share with me about your experience here on my website as a member, your experience as a participant in any of the events I’ve put on, I’d love to hear what you have to say. If you have any ideas that you’d love to see from me, let me know. I do plan on doing more video content, I don’t know exactly what that means yet. I think I’d really like to make some mediation and relaxation kindof videos. I have a lot of nature video content that I could use for relaxing ASMR nature meditation chill video things, which is what I’m kinda thinking about recently. Yeah I’d love to have your feedback. I love you, thank you for being on this journey with me, and I’ll talk to you next week. =]

    Video members:
    click here to view the full photoset of Tiffany Helms at an abandoned location on Bainbridge Island during my cross country road trip last summer
    click here to view the BTS video + photos

    First Look members:
    click here to view the photoset of Embodoe wearing WhiskeyDog Wares taken by Kara Perry double exposed over images I took of Wyoming and NC waterfalls
    click here to view the videos from a walk through the woods

    Click here for the gallery passwords

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