Gender

[Pathless]

Wanted to share a couple of interesting quotes I've come across in my reading this morning:

"I know that I will externally and internally always be a 'woman,' even though I'm not sure what a woman is or what a man is anymore. I'm just glad for the fact that many of us have both characteristics."

--Mara Oong

"I don't know if man or woman have ever been adequate ways to categorize people in such a way as to offer individuals the respect we each deserve. Certainly, the bipolar designation invisibilizes many unique qualities that people possess as individuals."

--Kate Bornstein

both quotes are from Kate Bornstein's book entitled My Gender Workbook.

Originally Posted by Muslimwoman

You have got to be kidding me, is this a real book?

Yes, yes it is!! Click here if you don't believe me!!

[Pathless]

Interesting long article about the intersection of racism and trans-ness:

AlterNet: Reproductive Justice and Gender: Becoming a Black Man

Excerpt:

Originally Posted by Daisy Hernandez

Before transitioning, Mitchell recalls being “cavalier and reckless” about what he did in public and about his interactions with police officers. “I didn’t think about it so much,” he says about cops. “At some point they would find out I was female” and that would diffuse the situation. Now, Mitchell finds that he doesn’t engage in small transgressions like jaywalking or spitting on the sidewalk. “I never know if they’re just waiting for something to happen to roll up, and I do not want find myself in custody. That would be just precarious and dangerous in so many ways.”

When living in San Francisco, he moved out of the historical gay neighborhood of the Castro because he got tired of being followed in stores. During the cross-country trip with his wife Krysia, he refrained from being affectionate with her in public. He didn’t want to run the risk of drawing attention to himself as a Black man and her as a mixed-race Latina who at times is perceived as white.

“More than a trans man, I’m a Black man,” Mitchell says. “I’d be in intensive care by the time they realized I was a trans man.”