Mycroft Masada is a nonbinary trans and queer Jewish leader with 30 years of experience who moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland (Montgomery County near Washington DC) from their lifelong home of Boston in 2014. A TransEpiscopal Steering Committee member and former Congregation Am Tikva board member, Mycroft is particularly called to pursue LGBTQ+ and fat justice, and is an advocate, organizer, consultant, educator, trainer, writer and artist. They are married to Julia McCrossin, the mas(s)culine fatshion blogger, and with her they co-parent a dogter. Their central online home is MasadArts.blogspot.com.


Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | My artwork (stationery, jewelry & more)

Friday, February 14, 2014

Westminster Flabby

OMG. It’s even eerier than we thought.                                    
Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (Downton Abbey) is on the left, Ursula, the Pugston Terrier (Westminster Flabby) is on the right…or is it the other way ‘round?

We finally came up with the perfect fat community name for our home -- largely (ha) thanks to Julia -- Westminster FlabbyMany thanks to our friends in the New England fat community and beyond for all the inspiration.

Happy Valentines Day 2014!

Happy Valentines Day 2014!

We are celebrating our 5th Valentines together and 1st one living together! 

Here are our Valentines from Julia’s mum (from a Little Debbie box). 



Thursday, February 6, 2014

HRC's George Washington University Alumni Reception

My partner Julia McCrossin is an alum of George Washington University – she graduated from GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences in 2008 and 2011 – and thus was invited to the Human Rights Campaign's 6th annual GW Alumni Reception tonight, and I was her guest.  This was actually the first GW alum event for both of us.  And our first queer event since we started living together – I’m a lifelong resident of metro Boston and Julia of metro DC, and after 4 ½ years of long-distance partnership, I moved to DC at the end of last month.  Due to my move I actually didn’t have an appropriate outfit unpacked yet – but this was a perfect excuse to visit the local Goodwill, where I was lucky enough to find the perfect things.  

This year’s topic was trans rights, which is largely what sold us.  

The event took place at HRC’s headquarters here in DC – the Equality Center.  Our efforts to make sure we were on time made us early, so we got to give ourselves a good tour of the space, which we hadn’t been to before.  Do you know they have their own custom bike racks on the sidewalk?  Versions of the HRC logo, and in the blue and yellow no less.

At 6:30 the cocktail reception began; we had some good conversation with Kimberly Acquaviva, Associate Professor and Director of Faculty Affairs at GW’s School of Nursing (1 of the 3 panelists), another queer woman professor, a trans woman alum, and a gay lawyer alum.  Mara Keisling, (founding) Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (another panelist) visited our table, and remembered me, which was nice -- we’ve been in the same spaces a few times, but I don’t know that we’ve actually met, at least not for quite a while.  

At 7:00 there was a panel discussion, including questions and answers, with Mara (this was a change from Lisa Mottet, NCTE’s Deputy Executive Director, but in this case it was a win-win), Kimberly, and Sterling Washington (CCAS '95), Director of the Mayor's Office of GLBT Affairs.  There were also remarks from alum Michael R. Komo (CCAS BA '11, GSPM MS '12) and current student Emily A. Smith (ESIA BA '15).     

A bit after 8:00 it was time for more networking, and we did a bit, but left fairly early because we were tired and it was something of a schlep to get home.  

There was a photographer, and I had our picture taken in front of the logo-ed wall provided for the occasion, but I can’t figure out if or where the pictures are posted.  I will ask when I post this.  

There were at least a few dozen attendees.  The event was free; we were encouraged to support GW’s LGBT Resource Center.  

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

CFP - Special Issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight & Society on Religion & Fat


CFP (Call For Proposals)

Special Issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society on Religion and Fat, guest edited by Lynne Gerber, Susan Hill and LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant.

This special issue of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society explores the relationship between religion and fat. The editors invite papers on a variety of topics that address, for example, how particular religious traditions engage the fat body, or how religions define, circumscribe and/or understand fatness. We seek to answer questions such as: How is the fat body read in religious ways? What kinds of socio-cultural spaces do religions offer fat people?

Potential topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Fat bodies as religious bodies
• The use of fat or fatness in religious texts
• Use of fat in theological discourse
• Fat in world religions
• Religious and/or moral dimensions of fat or fatness in popular culture
• Fat bodies and lived religion
• Religion and weight loss/weight gain
• The fat body as moral or immoral body in religious texts or objects

To be considered for inclusion in this special issue, please send a 200-250 word abstract and a current c.v. to Susan Hill (susan.hill@uni.edu) by March 31, 2014. Any questions about the topic can be directed to this e-mail, as well.

Final submissions should be between 3000-6000 words, including all notes and references. If you wish to include reproductions of visual images with your essay, you will need to receive permission to do so from the artists/copyright holders of the image(s). All authors will need to sign a form that transfers copyright of their article to the publisher, Taylor & Francis/Routledge.

Fat Studies is the first academic journal in the field of scholarship that critically examines theory, research, practices, and programs related to body weight and appearance. Content includes original research and overviews exploring the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability, and socioeconomic status. Articles critically examine representations of fat in health and medical sciences, the Health at Every Size model, the pharmaceutical industry, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, legal issues, literature, pedagogy, art, theater, popular culture, media studies, and activism.

Fat Studies is an interdisciplinary, international field of scholarship that critically examines societal attitudes and practices about body weight and appearance. Fat Studies advocates equality for all people regardless of body size. It explores the way fat people are oppressed, the reasons why, who benefits from that oppression and how to liberate fat people from oppression. Fat Studies seeks to challenge and remove the negative associations that society has about fat and the fat body. It regards weight, like height, as a human characteristic that varies widely across any population. Fat Studies is similar to academic disciplines that focus on race, ethnicity, gender, or age.