Greetings wonderful Gfork Community!

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Emma, and I recently signed on as the Volunteer Coordinator for this amazing site (don’t panic everybody, the Dopp hasn’t gone anywhere. I’m additional!).  This means I get to hang out, read the posts, talk with our current set of Amazing Volunteers and try and help keep everything running just as smooth as can be.

We’ve been taking stock and discovering that things behind the scenes are shifting around a little bit – as they are wont to do – and we’ve realized that we need a little more help. We would love to bring in a few more folks to volunteer with us; mostly we need help gathering photos and quotes, but there is probably more that could be done (anybody have any spectacular ideas?).

SO! If you’ve been visiting Genderfork for a while, and you’d love to get your hands dirty and help out with the content, now’s the time to speak up! Here’s what you do:

Contact us at: volunteering – at – genderfork – dot – com and tell us a little bit about yourself. Specifically:

• What you wanna help out with!
• Why you wanna help!
• What experience with tech stuff and/or blogging you’ve already got.
• Where you live on the Internet (blogs, tumblrs, your band’s old myspace, whatever …)
• Do you have any experience with moderating, mediating, or organizing?
• How much time you can to give to us (on an ongoing weekly or monthly basis)
• And, you know, that other REALLY IMPORTANT thing that you need to share with us about yourself (we don’t know what that is yet, but we can’t wait to find out!)

Just a heads-up: please don’t expect an immediate response from us. There may be a bunch of you, or I might be swamped with my day job, or there could be other stuff going on that slows this process down. We’ll get through ‘em all, but responses may take some time.

I am really looking forward to meeting you, though.

Thanks in advance!

Your Friend Neighborhood Volunteer-Scout (aka Emma)

Hey Everyone,

Thank you so much for all your support for the Genderplayful Marketplace idea. We’ve launched the fundraiser, and already raised $2400 in the first week (plus $335 for the PayPal Haters Fund) from a combined total of 91 backers.

*pause* Did you get that? If you’re skimming, take a second to go read that last line again. None of those numbers are typos. This. Is. Real.

For those who are hearing about this for the first time, here’s the spiel:

What’s the Genderplayful Marketplace?

Genderplayful is a plan for an online clothing marketplace that celebrates diversity in gender presentation and body types. This is for anyone who can’t easily find what they’re looking for in a typical clothing store, with special support for androgynous, unisex, butch, dapper, femme, gender-bending, gender-transgressive, and gender-fanflippingtastic clothing solutions for all kinds of bodies.

Genderplayful cares about custom solutions, and the marketplace will host a lively community that finds and creates those solutions together. Vendors will include indie designers, crafters, clothing makers, tailors, and people selling things from their closets and local thrift stores. Community members will pool notes on what they’re excited about, and vendors will take cues from buyers on what to create more of. The goal is to create a culture-rich gorgeous Internet bazaar for the playful, the exquisite, and the just trying to get dressed in the morning.

About the Fundraiser

If Genderplayful can raise $5,000 in community funding by January 15, 2011, founder Sarah Dopp will commit to making the project a reality. Anything above that baseline number will go toward making the project happen faster and better. (Really, she needs more like $50,000, but she’d rather do it cheaply than wait to do it perfectly.) All financial backers will receive perks based on their contribution level.

Wanna donate?

You can do that right here:

And please spread the word! The more supporters we can rally early on, the stronger this community project will be. The main event is taking place over here: http://genderplayful.tumblr.com

Thank you so much for all your support everybody!

So much love,
Sarah Dopp
founder of Genderfork.com and the Genderplayful Marketplace

Update! We’re over here now: http://genderplayful.tumblr.com

~~~

Hello Gorgeous Genderforkers!

This is Sarah Dopp, your humble Genderfork founder, and I want to run an idea by you.

I’d like to start a new project: a genderplayful, body-positive, fashion-savvy online marketplace. This would be a space where people sell to each other (like Ebay and Etsy), with a focused emphasis on solving all of our wardrobe problems. Together.

We’d pull in a mix of indie clothing designers, body-savvy tailors for custom alterations, small business clothing shops, crafters, and folks who want to share things from their closet. All with a celebratory and problem-solving emphasis on creating clothes that fit our genders, styles, and bodies.

Allow me to elaborate on this (while naked):

Sounding like a good idea so far? Do you want it? Do your toes start tingling when you think about this, like mine are right now?

If so, then here’s how this can play out. I have the management, web development, and community-building skills to make this happen. What I don’t have yet are the time or the money (well, really just the money, since money buys time). But I have a plan to get them: a public fundraiser, plus a loan from my family.

The key to securing those funds is being able to prove that this project is important. That’s where I need your help.

If you want this project to happen, there are three powerful, important, super-helpful things you can do right now to push it forward:

1) Make a video of yourself telling a camera why this is so important. This will have a HUGE impact on the public fundraising. If I can edit together a collage video showing many people asking for this, you know it will hit home. (More info on how to get your video to me is over here.)

2) Write out why this matters to you. Explain it to the outside world: why does this need to happen? You can leave it as a comment below, or send it in an email to genderplayful@gmail.com, and I will use your stories to make a stronger case for the project.

3) Get someone else to help. If you know someone who is comfortable in front of a camera, please personally appeal to them to make a short video for this. If you have a blog and you know your readers would love this project, please ask them to step up and share their stories. If you have a friend who absolutely needs this to happen, make sure they know it’s in the works, and how they can help.

I’m seriously excited about this. I’ve been working on the plan for a year, and it’s time to swing it into motion. But it (really, seriously) won’t happen unless I can prove that you need it, so it’s time to get noisy about the idea. Let’s show ‘em all how it is.

Thank you so much for all your support.

Lots of love,
Sarah

p.s. The Genderfork staff and I have agreed that this should be a separate project from Genderfork. Genderfork will stay the same.

Hey Everyone,

So, this is kinda awkward.

Someone recently contacted us via one of our submission forms, asking that we not run their profile.

Problem is, all they gave us was their first name (it started with “F”), and we have several profiles in our submission pile under that first name. It wouldn’t really be fair to remove them all because those other people still want to show up on the site.

So… to the person who recently made that request: can you contact us again? This time, give us some more identifying info about your profile, so we can figure out which one was yours? If you included an email address, that would help, too.

We totally want to respect your privacy and remove it from the submission piles. We just need a little more help.

Thanks!

~Sarah

Hey Everyone,

You can probably see that a facebook “like” button just showed up on all our posts (at least, if you’re viewing at http://www.genderfork.com directly, it did). People have asked for ways to show they like something without having to leave a full comment. Facebook’s solution is kinda interesting because it lets you see which of your friends have liked it, but doesn’t show the identities of people who aren’t your friends on Facebook.

So… keep it or kill it? Do you like the Facebook solution? Or is just adding clutter?

Tell me below.

Thanks!

Sarah

p.s. if you’re looking to expand your facebook-based genderforkian community, try chiming in on the conversations over here: http://www.facebook.com/genderfork

EDIT: We’re ALSO now talking about a like/dislike rating system on comments now. See comment discussion on this post for more details.

POLL TIME!: Weigh in with your votes below, here:

[Image source: Whitezine]

Hey everyone,

I’ve got a few talks coming up (one’s at Oberlin College this Wednesday — 4pm, Wilder 101 — poke me for more details) in which I plan on reading a series of posts from Genderfork. But jeez — can you imagine someone in my shoes trying to pick out what to read? It’s like choosing your favorite ten children when you have 3,000 of them.

Help me out? Tell me which posts on Genderfork that have been the most powerful and heart-rocking for you. What does the world need to hear the loudest from us, from a microphone?

Leave comments, quotes, links, tweets, and love letters below.

Thank you so much,
Sarah Dopp
founder of Genderfork

p.s. Favorite photos are welcome too. I can’t use those in this week’s talk, but I think maybe I can in the next one that’s brewing.

Yes, yes, I know, you’ve been nudging me for this for OVER A YEAR! Well, we finally built it. I present to you with…

*drum roll please*

The Official Genderfork Photo Submission Form

*happy dance!!!!*

We’re also including the option for you to add a description to the photo, so readers will know what you especially want them to pay attention to.

Special thanks to Photo Curator Adisson who’ll be taking the reins on this one.

And thank you all for your amazing contributions, everyone!

Lots of love,
Sarah Dopp
Founder/Director of Genderfork

Hey Peeps!

We just added a new form to our “Participate” section (it’s on the sidebar) called Ask Genderfork!

Our kick-ass volunteer Booda noticed we were getting a stack of submissions that were really just questions directed back at the community, so we figured, cool, let’s make a whole inbox for that! And here it is. If you’re looking for tips and resources or just want some straight up advice, go use this form like it’s a direct line to a whole lot of smart friends.

This stream of awesomeness will be edited and curated by our fabulous volunteer Zory, who is also master of the Recommendations. (Really ya’ll, Zory freakin rocks.)

» Ask Genderfork «

Hey Loves,

A reader just contacted me to discuss how invisible femme gender roles are in the queer community, and what we might be able to do about that. We talked about the possibility of creating a new community expression space that specifically focuses on and celebrates femme identity.

Is this something you’re craving, too? Would you be interested in helping to shape/organize it?

If so, please send me an email at: [ sarah at genderfork dot com ]

… and put “femme identity” in the subject line so I don’t lose it. I’ll get you in the loop.

Lots of love,
Sarah

Hey Beautifuls,

In case you haven’t already slyly discovered it from our sidebar, we have a LIVELY wonderful community going on over at http://www.facebook.com/genderfork. It’s an auto-generated feed of the content from this blog PLUS the content from our Twitter feed (displaying as “status updates”) PLUS whatever random photos and links people fans are contributing with Facebook’s tools.

My favorite part, which is harder to replicate in a blog or Twitter feed right now, is the “Like” button. When the other volunteers and I scan the page and see “23 people liked this” under a post, we know we’re onto something. Please keep giving us this awesome feedback.

PLUS it’s easy to find and connect with other Genderforkians in the land of Facebook. If someone strikes your fancy, try adding them as a friend and including a note that says “Hey, I found you through Genderfork… you seem awesome! I’m _____. We have a lot in common.” Or, you know, something phrased less awkwardly than I would say it.

Anyway, come play! http://www.facebook.com/genderfork

Love,
Sarah Dopp
(the quiet happy founder of this here community space)

I just received this request for help. Can you offer support or advice?

I am an androgynous female; I identify as female or androgynous most of the time. And I have a problem at school I’m seeking to rectify.

For graduation, we have robes. Girls wear white and boys wear green. When asked if that was mandatory, we were told it was. Any switching? No. I know there is at least one other person upset about this. It’s not purely a gender issue, but also an issue of separating the genders — mandatory separation of genders — which upsets the feminists in some of us females. Combine that with the fact that the white robes come with a ton of regulations (you can only wear white under them) and the fact that girls have a much stricter dress code (we must wear stockings), quite a few people are up in arms.

My request is for help from people with more experience with these things than I have. I need help getting support, building a convincing argument, just getting help making sure both genders are allowed to wear what they want to wear, to express their gender the way they wish to, and not feel closeted by this. I know if I have to walk across the stage on my graduation day in a white robe, it will break my heart. It seems trivial, but it’s a trivial issue in the first place that the school is reacting in an unreasonable, disrespectful, and unyielding way. I’m asking you, and the community to please help giving any advice at all you can.

Thank you,
Ellie

You can respond in a comment below or email Ellie directly:
ellieforpeace at gmail.com.

Thanks for your support,
Sarah

Hey Everyone! I’m in Chicago right now — just helped out with the fabulous BlogHer 2009 conference — and I met a woman who’s story brought me to tears. Her name’s Jen, she lives in the Chicago area, and she has a transgender daughter who is five years old.

This child, despite being raised as a boy, has insisted since her fourth birthday that she is a girl. It took some time for everyone to catch up, but as of a month ago, this child’s gender is being recognized within her family, and she’s being loved dearly for who she is.

She’s lonely, though. She’s about to start school, and many of her friends have stopped playing with her. She wants to know that she’s not the only one like herself, and her mother is searching for her community.

Jen’s aware of the Gender Spectrum conference coming up in Seattle on September 4th — and they’ll probably go — but it’s neither close enough nor soon enough.

If anyone can help connect this family to the community it needs (meeting another young transgender girl in Chicago would be phenomenal, but I’m sure there are also other friends to be had), please email me (sarah at genderfork dot com) or reach out to Jen directly at ecochicorganizer.com.

Thank you.

Love,
Sarah

Hey Everyone,

I’ve been getting nudges from different angles to talk more about where to buy good genderqueer clothing… but i’m not really sure where to send people.  Can you recommend a few useful online stores?

Use the “Recommend” form and we’ll make a proper blog post out of it.

Thanks!

~Sarah

Hey Everyone,

We’re having a minor glitch with some content not appearing. Should have it resolved within a day or two.  Sorry for the strangeness.  Thanks for the patience. :)

xo,
Sarah

Update: FIXED! Sorry about that! Carry on!

Check it out! I just created a Twitter account for Genderfork. There are just so many amazing messages coming in from the Share form, I wanted to give them a broader outlet. So I’ll be posting a few quotes a day over there. If you’re already on twitter, please give it a follow.

And if you’re not on Twitter yet, and you’re reading this site to feel more connected with a supportive community, you might want to consider joining. It’s a great space for extended conversation, and you might even find some new pals among the folks who follow Genderfork.

Enjoy!

Love,
Sarah

Hey Genderforkers!

I’ve been running low on photography juice lately. Can you help me out? Here’s how to get published on Genderfork:

1) Take beautiful pictures of people who are androgynous/gender-variant/gender-playful. (hint: I try to avoid showing the same person more than once.)

2) Upload them to Flickr.com.

3) Tag them all “androgyny” and “genderfork” (and whatever else you want to tag them).

4) Make sure the “Blog This” button appears at the top of your photos when strangers view them. (This is one of your account settings. Flickr asks, “Who can blog your photos?” The answer I’m looking for is “Anyone!”)

5) Tell your photographer friends to do this, too.

Thanks!

Love,
Sarah