unicorn.heels

Photo

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:37:43 -0600

The Trans Women's Anti-Violence Project: Tennessee state Rep. Richard Floyd, "I Would Stomp A Mudhole In A Transgender Person"

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:39:49 -0600

The Trans Women's Anti-Violence Project: Tennessee state Rep. Richard Floyd, "I Would Stomp A Mudhole In A Transgender Person":

abaldwin360:

This is Richard Floyd, Tennessee State Representative and sponsor of the Bathroom Harassment Act, a bill that would fine transgender people $50 for using restrooms and dressing rooms.

True to his name, the man is a dick. Here’s a direct quote from this shining example of…

Mohandas Gandhi: Dear Customer who stuck up for his little brother,

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:52:44 -0600

Mohandas Gandhi: Dear Customer who stuck up for his little brother,:

sweetupndown:

you thought I didn’t really notice. But I did. I wanted to high-five you.

Yesterday I had a pair of brothers in my store. One was maybe between 15-17. He was a wrestler at the local high school. Kind of tall, stocky and handsome. He had a younger brother, who was maybe about…

la-vox: According the logic used in this ad, being a women...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:16:49 -0600

la-vox:

According the logic used in this ad, being a women depends on having a period. So women past menopause are no longer women as they do not menstruate. Women who suffer from medical conditions and do not menstruate are not real women either. Transwomen, as they do not menstruate, are not real. And no matter what they say, transmen are not men because they do menstruate.

This is not okay.

An Alternate Script

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:12:00 -0600

I can’t stop thinking about the latest transphobic ad.

It’s not the transphobia. It’s not how it rubs in that I don’t get periods, have no ovaries, and can never have kids. It’s not quite even the discussion about trans-versus-drag that some try to bring up.

Well, it’s kind of that. But not really.

Really, it’s that it’s a short story with major flaws. How can I resist rewriting it?

And what’s the biggest flaw? Well, most people don’t know the difference between a man in drag and a trans woman.

What if the story could enlighten them?

The Script

A MAN and a WOMAN approach the mirror. They start putting on makeup. Eyelashes. Lipstick.

The woman searches through her purse. She can’t find what she’s looking for.

The man pulls out a tampon from his own purse and offers it to her.

The woman cringes. “Thanks, but… I’m transgender. No periods.” (quieter, bitter) “No babies.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry! That’s so sad…”

“You didn’t know…”

It’s still got issues… I’m not up on etiquette, but personally, I’d be a little freaked out if someone offered me a tampon, for a multitude of reasons. A dude in the ladies’ restroom (one in drag notwithstanding) might freak me out even more.

Still, I think it is far more perfect than the ad that aired, even though I’m missing the ending.

You know, the part that sells the product. I’m not too inclined to write it, though. I don’t want to sell this product.

An Aside

I have negative attitudes towards men in drag. I don’t understand it, and too often—partially due to people’s confusion of drag and trans—feel attacked by it.

Is this normal? Appropriate? Inappropriate?

In any case, I tried to keep that bias out of this writing.

Differences in Definitions

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 05:00:06 -0600

Is gender something I have? Or, is gender something I do? Or is a gender a group to which I belong?

It depends on who you ask. There are so many definitions.

Perhaps we are born with a gender that, if we’re lucky, matches the gender role which we will express with our gender expression. Gender identity is a superfluous term, as it just means gender.

Or, perhaps we are born with gender identities, that, if we’re lucky, matches the gender we’re expected to do (gender, here, being a verb, as taught to me in my women’s studies classes).

Or maybe we belong to a gender, which has society-given gender roles, which we want to conform to (as humans always yearn to conform), through gender expression.

Or, is gender in itself the set of societal roles and expected behaviors? In which case, gender role is the superfluous term.

Often, the differences in definitions are even much subtler than these.

Yet, so many conflicts can go back and forth forever due to simple difference of definitions for terms. They’ll fight and fight, until they finally realize they’ve been saying the same thing, just in different languages.

Or else, they give up.

My excuse for liking trans topics

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:06:06 -0600

I make no secret in my day-to-day life that I am very interested in trans-related topics. Sometimes, people find this odd, especially since I am still in the closet about being trans myself.

For awhile, I’d just say “I know some people…” and go quiet like I didn’t want to talk about it.

No longer.

Now, I have a “best friend” who is trans.

It’s true: I am my best friend. I am trans.

The people who know me well enough to know of my friends already know about me.

So there’s my handy, convenient excuse.

My Best Friend

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 05:05:05 -0600

I have a best friend.

One day, she’s going to move to an exciting city. Perhaps somewhere in New England: Boston… New York… Perhaps somewhere on the West Coast.

She’s going to be liked and respected.

She’s going to be smart. An expert in her field.

People will see her how she’ll see herself: as a beautiful woman, intelligent and happy.

They don’t see her that way right now. Right now, they think she’s a man, because that’s what she appears to be. But it is not forever, and one day…

One day, she’ll move; she’ll be herself; she’ll be free.

She won’t be my best friend anymore. She’ll have lots of other friends.

She’ll just be me.

Why is it that feminists

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:29:24 -0600

transadrian:

The supposed morally superior, fighting against injustice camp is always the most ready to be cruel and intolerant not just to me personally, but to other Trans* people too?

MtFs are just men who objectify women? FtMs are just butch lesbians who hate their bodies?

Not all feminists. Pretty sure it’s a very small minority.

And often, they almost seem antifeminist… so I’m not sure they are actually feminists, even if they call themselves such.

invisiblemoose: Boosting the signal on this. My friend Tamsyn...

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:10:00 -0600

invisiblemoose:

Boosting the signal on this. My friend Tamsyn got a ‘misfortune cookie’ with her pizza from Hell that that told her she would ‘marry a transgender’. If you think this is belittling and dehumanizing then you might like to know that feedback@hell.co.nz is where you can share your thoughts on this.

Trans-exclusionary spaces

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 05:05:06 -0600

There is a difference between a woman born with female primary sex characteristics and one born without.

Women born with female primary sex characteristics will indeed be more likely to share some experiences that women born without them will not.

But to say that the reason trans women are excluded from certain events and spaces is due to the lack of these shared experiences is bullshit.

Why?

Well, what are the experiences?

Experience being “raised as a girl”? Some trans women are raised from the time they are four or five—when gender identity first develops—as girls.
Never having experienced male privilege? See above.
Experiencing menstruation? Some women—assigned female at birth and all that!—don’t get periods due to one issue or another.

The “shared experiences” excuse, when using “trans women” as the category to exclude, just does not hold water.

It’s transphobia, plain and simple.

I’m never sure if my inclination to dislike single-sex groups is due to a dislike of...

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:05:06 -0600

I’m never sure if my inclination to dislike single-sex groups is due to a dislike of discrimination of any form (even when it makes some technical or practical sense), or because I feel excluded from groups to which I feel I belong.

Will I, after transitioning, grow to appreciate them?

Homophobia

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:07:00 -0600

“Am I attracted to girls?” I ask myself, fearfully.

“And why am I afraid of that?” I respond, uncertainly.

Do I have internalized homophobia coming to play? A fear of being even less “normal?” An internalized transphobic image of the man-in-women’s-clothing attracted to women?

Regret Theory

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:06:06 -0600

If anything, that anyone can fully regret transitioning is evidence that gender identity exists.

If transsexuality were purely a result of psychology, then one who transitioned and regretted it could psychologically make themselves at home in the alternate gender.

If it’s all psychological, what difference does it make? The only major consequences—assuming no disastrous happenings during surgery—would have to stem from:

The unnecessary cost of surgery.
The loss of male privilege (if going from male to female).
The loss of fertility.

Yet, all those who yell about regrets don’t yell about the cost, nor about the loss of privilege.

Amazingly, they rarely even yell about how they’ve lost the ability to have kids!

They yell about how it feels wrong, how it feels like they’re “playing a role.”

Funnily enough, that’s exactly how I feel, and I’m pre-transition. Maybe they should instead look into where their therapy—if they had any—failed in identifying their gender identity.

Sexism can exist at many levels. Women face sexism at all...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 05:05:05 -0600

Sexism can exist at many levels. Women face sexism at all levels, even if progress has been made on the most basic.

I'm Transphobic, Too

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:06:05 -0600

You can say “I can’t be transphobic! I have lots of trans friends!”

You can say the same about homophobia, about racism, about pretty much anything. But the second sentence is unrelated to the first.

How do I know?

I am trans, and I am transphobic.

Not a lot, but—from time to time—a little. There are some internalized negative attitudes I do my best to fight.

“You can have surgery, but nothing can change the fact that male is XY and female is XX.”

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:06:06 -0600

I’ve read that line several times, but it doesn’t make sense. What’s XXY, then? And is an XY born with a female body still male?

Society adds a lot of meaning to body parts, but really, they don’t matter at all. Bodies are bodies.

I just need a vagina because the penis makes no sense.

Sure, you could argue that trans women are just gay men in an Egyptian river, or that trans men are...

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:06:05 -0600

Sure, you could argue that trans women are just gay men in an Egyptian river, or that trans men are denying their true nature as lesbian women.

Sure, the opposite could be argued just as easily: that gay men are just women and lesbian women are really men.

Sure, painting with such a broad brush completely fails to address the trans lesbian women and the trans gay men, but since when has logic stopped anyone?

Admitting the possibility that perhaps—just maybe—gender identity and sexual orientation are different things is just too simple, logical, and elegant.

Best stay away from that.

The Dangers of Reading Privilege Checklists: Hypotheticals

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 05:07:05 -0600

If I was ever accused of PMS for “[telling] someone to RTFM,” I’d probably respond:

For me, that’s technically impossible. Thanks for the reminder.

Forget the misogyny (though that’s bad enough). I don’t need my lack of ovaries rubbed in.

I get it! Trans women aren’t women because “woman” is just a social construct! One...

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:06:05 -0600

I get it!

Trans women aren’t women because “woman” is just a social construct!

One which trans women fit.

Wait. Now I’m confused.