Shapeshifters

Custom, hand-made binders and sports bras

Social Responsibility

Trans Day of Remembrance.

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Hello, fam.

It’s November 20th.

Every time the news hits that we’ve lost another, the community takes a blow. Today is the day we slow down, breathe, and absorb the damage. Acknowledge that we are hurting, because so many of us have been killed.

I want to link a few things, in the hopes that they will help someone.

This year’s list of names is here.

For movement: How We Can End the Violence Against Trans Women of Color, a 13-step plan by Raquel Willis. If you are moved to take action and support our trans sisters today, here’s a good place to start.

For reverence: The Transgender Rite of Ancestor Elevation is a shared ritual to honor the dead.

I’ve never been very good at eulogies. You’d think I’d get better with practice. There is someone I think about every year on this day — I go back and reread her tumblr. It’s archived now.

There is someone else who I worry about, and wonder, because I don’t know what happened. I don’t want to say her name on the internet, but I hold it in my heart.

Here are some other things I am reading today, and have read, and will reread, that let me feel connected to others in all the things I’m feeling. It is important to know that we are not alone.

Abeni Jones – Trans Radiance: Sharing Food As An Act Of Love. Mutual support.

Kai Cheng Thom – I Hope We Choose Love. Hope, life, futures. If you have the means to buy this book, it is worth every cent.

Ari Banias – The Room In Spite Of. Both as a piece in itself, and as a series of links to so many other powerful, wonderful poets.

“ I’m saying now, though the saying alone can’t prevent it, I don’t want to be the one smiling in the brochure while my friends are wiped out. Don’t pave the road that leads to a fake entrance using my body, using any of my names.

What I also mean is (“I don’t need to be strong, I need for the world to stop being so fucking weak, that my sisters are being swallowed up before my eyes.” Mark Aguhar). “

Hold together, today. Reach out to each other, if you can. We love you.

Out in the Open.

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Happy fall, shapeshifters! Today I’m gonna talk about something real close to my heart.

When we achieved escape velocity from the greater NYC orbit back in early 2016, we landed in Brattleboro, Vermont. It’s mid-size, as they go, “rural” to a big city but “in town” if you live up the mountain. We loved it from the start, but I won’t lie: I worried about finding other people who were Not Straight.

I didn’t need to. We went to a Pride Family Picnic in June, found out about the local queer game night, and made friends right away. The next year I joined a trans book club and went to a rural queer summit, where I got to talk about how bees have three genders with current and potential gay beekeepers.

The year after was 2018. Life got harder for trans people last year, and our local community had our backs. We rallied, went to protests, built networks. That fall at the summit I learned about community organizing and sustainable local farming — and more about beekeeping, within a social justice framework.

All of these amazing, wonderful, friend-connecting and community-making things were and are enabled, run, and/or sparked by Out in the Open, our local LGBT nonprofit. Though they’re based in Brattleboro, they do work all through northern New England, connecting rural LGBT folks and building community, visibility, knowledge, and power.

I should say we, now: last year I joined the board, and now I put some hours of my spare time into helping this really essential org do its local community thing.

The 2019 summit is this weekend. I’m going to run a sewing skillshare and participate in a play reading.

This post has two purposes: first, I want to encourage all of you, no matter where you live, to reach out and look around and see if there’s an organization like this near you. There is really nothing like feeling safe while you do totally ordinary friendmaking things like herbalism walks, or board games, or community theater. Or, for that matter, going to a protest to stand tall and claim your basic human rights.

“But Eli,” you say, “we don’t all live in New England. There’s nothing like that outside of your socialist-liberal northeastern bubble.”

To which I say, we’ve donated binders this year to orgs in Wisconsin and North Carolina, so, maybe! Maybe not. But if you check, you might find a Social Justice Center that hosts LGBT groups, or an old Gay Men’s Club with a defunct website that’s quietly expanded its membership. You never quite know. We’re all over the map, after all.

The second reason for this post is to let you know that Out in the Open has a quilt raffle going on right now, and every ticket is a chance to win this ridiculously heartwarming rainbow quilt. Tickets are $5, with discounts for multiples. You can buy one here, if you like. All money goes to the organization that helped Shapeshifters find a home.

It’s so cozy. And well-made! If we win it, I’m going to live under this thing all winter.
It’s so cozy. And well-made! If we win it, I’m going to live under this thing all winter.

We’re switching to recyclable packaging.

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Hey y’all. It’s Climate Strike day.

If you’re out there on the streets, in the cities, if you’re turning down your lights and turning up the noise, our power to you.

I spent the morning reading about sustainable packaging. EcoEnclose has an amazing resource center – if you sell things, or are thinking about doing so, I highly recommend taking a look.

I think I shipped the first Shapeshifters binders in bubble mailers I bought at CVS. Once we had more than a few orders, we picked up a case of the cheapest possible thin plastic (poly) mailers off of Amazon. Overhead costs were hard, and we worked with anything to get us by in those days. Still could’ve thought about it more, though.

Been thinking about it a lot since.

Today we’re using up the last of our cheap poly mailers. I went back and forth for awhile on whether to replace them with 100% recycled poly mailers (lighter, makes a market for other recycling, less carbon footprint to make) or 100% recycled paper mailers (much easier to recycle, biodegradable, won’t end up in the ocean.)

Here’s the thing: we’re here for you. We want to make buying a custom, well-fit garment as easy and accessible as possible for all of you. And though poly bags can be recycled, they need to be brought to a drop-off point at a grocery store or the like, and that’s out of reach for a lot of folks and a pain for many more.

So.

Starting October, Shapeshifters products will be shipped in paper mailers with paper stick-on labels. The whole package will be fully curbside-recyclable and biodegradable. As always, the exterior will be unmarked, with the same Vermont return address and no company name.

Everyone can make changes. Every change counts. We can all get there, making changes where we can, pushing on every front.

We’re working on other steps, too, harder changes that will take longer and have greater impact. We’re planning for a future, and that means breaking habits and fixing problems.

Remember when I said here’s to five thousand more?

I meant it.

“Skin-Tone Binders”

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Funny thing happened in August, friends.

We put the Nude binders on sale.

And our income tanked.

Nobody seemed to see the sale posts. Facebook barred me from uploading a short video thanking customers. Twitter was suddenly full of glitches and empty of retweets.

It took several days to figure it out: the word “nude” is completely verboten. A URL with “nude” in it is dead in the water. I can’t prove it, but I’m fairly sure we were showing up lower in Google search results. I’m sure having an ~obscenity flag~ put next to our [LGBT Business tags] did not help, either.

So that’s why they’re all labeled “skin-tone”, now.

Two days after we made that change, the numbers bounced back up.

FOSTA/SESTA has hurt many, many people way more than us. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be a sex worker on the internet right now. But I thought you all might want to know how the wider culture of greater internet censorship is hurting us, too; we’re delaying a new hire, working late hours, and making hard choices on the personal budget side besides.

All this because the Google-Twitter-Facebook triumvarate has decided to err on the side of “everything is obscenity, except, perhaps, the actual porn bots.” And, of course, because these three companies own the internet now.

Accessibility at Conventions

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Hey, shapeshifters!

    Conventions are super fun, but they’re also stressful, even if you’re thin, neurotypical, and able-bodied.

    As those of you who’ve seen us at events know, part of our regular setup is a popup tent we use as a fitting room. The trouble with that tent: it’s rather small, and doesn’t do well at accommodating larger folks, disabled folks, and folks who have trouble with small spaces. We’ve been lucky at most of our events to have been set up close to a restroom, but we don’t like having to direct people thataways, especially not our mobility-impaired customers.

    That’s why we’ve finally replaced our old 3’x3’x6′ popup tent for a much larger, much roomier 5.5’x5.5’x7′ tent! It’s wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair or a chair, tall enough for most people to still be able to get their arms over their head, and has enough space inside that hopefully most people won’t feel too cramped.

    Of course, if you prefer trying your binder on in the bathroom, you’re still welcome to do so. We just want to make the process as easy as possible for everyone.

    If you want to come check out this glorious tent in person (or, you know, check out our binders), take a look at our Convention Schedule to see if we’re going to be at a convention near you! Don’t see one you can make it to? Feel free to contact us and tell us about a convention you’d like to see us at — we’re always looking for interesting nerdy and trans events to visit!

-Poppy

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