Another weekend over, another Monday looming and here goes another waffling blog entry.
So, I have been reading lots of blogs about gender identity lately. Perhaps I should just say identity, without tagging it with gender too. It gets so very confusing. I’m going to reiterate my own views here, simply for the sake of hearing my own voice (in typeface, at least), which is – I’d prefer a gender continuum to the gender binary. I don’t give a shit whether you call me sir, ma’am, or, as I’ve frequently encountered, “Are you a man or a woman??” – I just wish people would lose a few preconceptions and that whole rigid binary thing.
Haven’t people noticed that the world is an evolving and surprising sort of a place? Haven’t Thai ladyboys taught people not to make assumptions about genitals? Have the black power movement and feminism not taught us to be a bit more tolerant?
Nope.
I’ve read stuff by butch lesbians who identify as masculine, some who identify and transgender (but not trans man) – basically I have read a whole bunch of stuff by cis women claiming to be just about every gender you could imagine and a good few you’ve never heard of. I like it. I like it a lot. Whatever challenges the mainstream and general perception is alright by me. Whatever label anyone wants to apply to themselves is worthy of my respect.
I don’t think we need to abolish the binary, just accept that it really isn’t all that there is. I have also been reading a lot of transgender stuff and finding it fascinating too. Some people take the “fuck your gender binary” approach and some seem to be journeying very purposefully towards one end of it or the other.
It all gives the academics a lot to talk about anyway.
February 7th, 2010 at 20:10
he she ze
whatevers clever
February 8th, 2010 at 19:31
me!
February 7th, 2010 at 20:17
gender can be a fun space to explore, and life wouldn’t be what it is without all the wonderful beautiful variations!!
February 8th, 2010 at 19:32
very true
February 8th, 2010 at 02:07
Y say Y am meta-gyndered. Isn’t gender a social construct of patriarchy, anyway? After all, everyone starts as a womyn embryo unless/until given a testosterone bath.
And Y avoid using the letter ‘I’ to represent MYSelf since it’s a picture of an erect phallus (like the washington monument, ha ha). You can tell this is so, because when the small ‘i’ is called for, it has to have that dot of semen to show it’s potent even when it’s small. At the same tyme, Y and y look like anyone. Bonus: ‘Y’ begs the question, just like you do, SYr.
:-P
February 8th, 2010 at 19:34
erect phallus? blee.
February 10th, 2010 at 22:39
“After all, everyone starts as a womyn embryo unless/until given a testosterone bath.”
that is the most interesting thing i read in a while!
February 9th, 2010 at 05:45
Blee? What’s the etymoloGY on that?
February 9th, 2010 at 10:16
none, it falls under entymology
February 9th, 2010 at 21:43
We are just way too binary.
February 10th, 2010 at 19:21
agreed. +moomin into the mix too ;)
February 10th, 2010 at 04:57
well it better bloody well give me a job in the distant future. it seems like even though all those people you mentioned in this post want to get rid of gender “categories” yet they still try to label themselves something or other. why can’t people stop categorising themselves? then again these days its almost like in the scene you don’t have any authority on anything gender if you happen to be ‘straight’ never mind how much judith butler & friends you have read in academia and never ever mind how much you can relate. (whatever that means).
February 10th, 2010 at 19:24
of course you’ll get a job, hag, ur freaking sharp as a RAZOR. one that hasn’t been used by an emo yet. a new one. eh, just call yourself pomosexual instead of heterosexual, that’ll shut most people up…
February 10th, 2010 at 20:10
or just sexual. that’ll make many friends.
February 10th, 2010 at 20:13
edit: friends among cats.
February 10th, 2010 at 20:42
Guess Y need the rosetta stone on Afrikaans. Dyke hag, did you mean by ‘cats’ to say ‘pussies’? You guys use a lot of words Y never heard, too.
Did you ever hear MY word raSor?
http://fyrequeen.blogspot.com/2009/09/rasor.html
Y admit that Y make up a lot of words. Like gyndered.
When living in Oakland, CA, Y awoke at about 3:30 am to the unforgettable sound of a drunken woman weaving down the sidewalk shouting: I’m tri-sexual. I’ll try anything.
Of course, that was a long time ago, and now it’s an old joke.
February 10th, 2010 at 22:34
nah, just real cats (animals). with that i wanted to express that i will very likely end up as a lonely cat lady at some point in the future.
as for the tri-sexual: i’ve heard that on ‘Sex and the City’ for the first time when i was 16, so i can’t talk! hehe
February 10th, 2010 at 23:25
did i give you permission to talk to other lesbians? huh??
;))
February 12th, 2010 at 04:58
WE hereby give dyke hag permission to talk to all lesbians, labians, cats, pussies, and BuLLgodS.
February 10th, 2010 at 23:55
im sure some of those lesbians would disapprove of you calling them lesbians
February 11th, 2010 at 00:04
*insert meaningful hand gesture here* o.0
February 11th, 2010 at 00:14
i hope the gesture is not phallic
February 11th, 2010 at 00:15
no, it was the V shaped one. that’s v for vagina.
December 4th, 2010 at 00:48
It distresses me to think of people within an already misunderstood group arguing about who’s got the right thinking about gender and identity. If we want this culture to be more accepting of a continuom then we should lighten up on each other. We can’t really afford to alienate people that this culture villifies so well every day.