Seeester!

[bcholmes]

As a transsexual writer, I cannot communicate how deep my frustration and anger runs over the incessant querying of the roots of transsexual identity. Over and over again we are not allowed to identify ourselves as transsexual without explaining how we came to understand ourselves that way.

[...]

When I hear the question directed at me, "When did you first wear a dress?" I want to yell, "Fuck off! I was talking about George W. and Admiral Poindexter."

-- Diana Courvant, "Thoughts on 'Now That You're a White Man'"

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Hey! Diana used to be my housemate. Cool!

[cigfrain.livejournal.com]

you know, as powerful as i found the entire essay on many points, and as socially useful i found the ideas and projects ze is affiliated with, the deeper i got, the closer i came to the old "white MTFs are just another representation of The Man" shtick.

i'm middle aged. i'm middle class. i'm a functioning capitalist. i'm as much genderqueer as i am anything else. "transgender" is not a frightening/oppressive code word for me. and i'm neither IS nor FTM.

guess i'm just not hip, yo.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... Is this a question that ALWAYS comes in the early part of a aquaintence or does it sometimes pop out month or years later? I'm wondering if this is just a "first thing that pops into thier heads" thing that some people are just too impulsive not to ask.

[cigfrain.livejournal.com]

in retrospect, while i agree with the political point being made - that the validity of full, authentic trans expression seems to be secondary to the cozy reiteration of the classic "trans narrative" - i have problems with it, beyond its utility as a rhetorical device.

i teach a trans 101 seminar for health volunteers, once every two months. every single time i do it, one of the participants will ask me - usually in private conversation, but sometimes in open circle - "when i first..." yadda yadda. and never once, have i felt impatient answering it. it may be the thousandth time *i've* touched on the question, but it's usually the first time for them, and as an out trans person, i take that as part of the territory. while i work for it as i can, where i can, the day that trans people are simply part of the landscape, just another kind of person who doesn't have to "explain" hirself all the time, is a long way off. and until that time, the day i stop explaining, stop trying to work for exactly that, is the day i go stealth.

which ain't bloody likely.
so i don't whine about it.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i love the quote you've pulled out here, and i think it's a brilliant point.

some of the rest of it makes my teeth itch, though.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I agree with that.