Talk:Alok Vaid-Menon

Criticism

Text proposal

Alok has faced criticism because of the following excerpt from a post they had made on the Facebook page of DarkMatter (an art and activist collaboration with Janani Balasubramanian):

These days the narrative is that freaky transgender people (or as they say "crossdressers") will come into your bathrooms and abuse innocent little girls.

This type of legal/carceral culture relies on is two things: the construction of morally abhorrent perpetrators/scapegoats AND the production of pure, innocent victims. In this case, as in so many cases in the past, those victims are archetypical (white)(cis) innocent little girls. We totally need to challenge the white Christian supremacist, right-wing rhetoric around trans bodies, absolutely. But we also need to seriously need to overhaul the idea that there is a perfect victim anywhere.

I believe in the radical notion that little girls, like the rest of us, are complicated people. There are no fairy tales and no princesses here. Little girls are also queer, trans, kinky, deviant, kind, mean, beautiful, ugly, tremendous, and peculiar. Your kids aren't as straight and narrow as you think they are. Like everybody else. I've been a cute little girl. And a gender nonconforming young adult. Let me tell you, everywhere along that spectrum, I've been complicated and strange.

That's a single source that may not meet WP:RS guidelines. Have any other sources? OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 20:25, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Here's a blog post from 2017 — "The Politically Correct Defense of Gender Identity is Concealing Much Worse", which links to a thread from 2016 on DataLounge (an Internet forum, whose core community of predominantly anonymous posters share news, opinions, gossip, personal histories, and political views from a gay and lesbian perspective). It also has a link to the apology Alok had posted afterwards which has now been deleted.

Here's an article from 2021 published in The Jewish Voice — "Twitter Blacklists Former GOP Candidate Lauren Witzke for Condemning Sexualization of Minors", which talks about Alok's statements. RT has written about it too — "Ex-Republican Senate candidate Witzke banned from Twitter after calling trans activist ‘DEMONIC’ ".

See the 'Controversy' section. Yuyutsu Ho (talk) 11:51, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

Those are all rather partisan sources. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 16:36, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

I've removed the controversy section as it lacked a reliable secondary source about Alok Vaid-Menon (coverage of Lauren Witzke getting banned on Twitter belongs in her article, not here), and per the biographies of living persons policy such a source is required here. WP:CSECTION and the policy on undue weight are also relevant here. GreenComputer (talk) 17:05, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

References

Under "Publications" can you please add Alok's most recent self-published book:

Your Wound, My Garden (2021)

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/style/alok-vaid-menon-artist-nonbinary-poet-activist.html

Tamieparkersong (talk) 15:32, 5 December 2021 (UTC)

 Done Spencer^T•C 06:26, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 24 January 2023

Unless written by or quoted from Alok Vaud-Menon, please remove the word ‘perceived’ from the following: “Their artistry responds to perceived violence against trans and gender non-conforming people, calling for freedom from constraining gender norms.”

Thank you. 2001:569:5815:7500:54B7:91C:251D:4AE (talk) 13:20, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

 Done: As much as removing "perceived" might involve the assumption that this artist's views corresponds to facts, including it creates the insinuation that violence against gender non-conforming people is purely imaginary. small jars tc 15:20, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 June 2023

It is not true and violates the guidelines of wikipedia to state the following:

"Growing up, Alok was bullied for their race and gender expression.[8]"

if you go to the link, no where in the line does it say bullying took place. If this is not removed as well as other incorrect statements, this will be reported to Wikipedia to censor the author. Rikochetrt (talk) 04:44, 26 June 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: The source provided does support that statement. From the source:

Some of my earliest memories were my classmates commenting on how strange/wrong/ugly/smelly my people were. We’re talking at four years old being told: ‘Why don’t you wash your body, so that brown dirt can come off?’
Rather than being a site of refuge and comfort, the Indian community became one of the fiercest spaces of gender policing. As a response to racism my community responded with heteronormativity – ‘maybe if we don’t look or act different they will leave us alone.’

Tollens (talk) 06:27, 26 June 2023 (UTC)

@Rikochetrt: You mention 'other incorrect statements', could you please specify exactly which statements you are referring to? Tollens (talk) 06:31, 26 June 2023 (UTC)

Inconsistent name convention

The article goes back and forth between referencing the subject as "Vaid-Menon" and "Alok". Aside from the initial full name listing, as well as the mention of how their first name is stylized, shouldn't all other references should be to "Vaid-Menon"? 2603:8001:2A00:7428:B8BC:5BD3:A724:EEAA (talk) 02:20, 20 August 2023 (UTC)