My Cunt is Built Like a Wound that Won't Heal

[bcholmes]

Hmm.

Trannychaser by Annalee Newitz.

Feministe talks about it.

No comment, yet.

Comments

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

If she had written the same thing about race, people would be up in arms.

It made me uncomfortable in a way that transgendered people don't. I find it in uncomfortable when one person's being, is someone else's fetish. Probably because as a POC, I am someone's fetish, and it makes me uncomfortable.

N.

[expanding-x-man.livejournal.com]

This is an old article I believe. I remember when it appeared (the Newitz article) and I shook my head and thought that things were just as I always suspected they were, people didn't get it. What made it worse was that people THOUGHT they got "it", but did not get it. I mean, the idea that transsexuals are not doing transition to be "transgressive" but to be themselves, and generally, not to queer gender, but to be men or women. On the other hand, apparently, Newitz was or is, attracted to those who don't want to be either, and who do want to "queer gender". I guess. So, I also thought the article had little to do with me, or with most transsexuals, but only underlined that most cis people from queerer parts who imagined themselves as our allies, were not allies to us at all, but to those they found pleasing because they were somehow, "transgressive." I actually find it hard to believe that people, adults, not adolescents, sleep wtih people on the basis of being "transgressive". I have never been too "adult" myself, but this sort of thing has given me pause. It is abjectly silly and completely myopic in some respects, as per many trans people's actual lives and not our imagined lives as transgressive icons. This kind of thing makes me think I have nothing in common with these transgression chasers and more in common with people who are ordinary and not pretending to be otherwise for effect. Or, I would hope so.

[heyfoureyes.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, apparently, Newitz was or is, attracted to those who don't want to be either, and who do want to "queer gender". I guess.

California, dude.

[expanding-x-man.livejournal.com]

Yea, we are still the land of fruit and nuts and nutty fruity chasers! : )

[rbowspryte.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can say comes from actual experience. Fetishization is demeaning and the whole thing eventually passes once the eroticism of the circumstance has been explored.

Eventually the whole thing becomes really unhealthy and makes you feel less than human.

I liked the comment What gets me is like any fetishization of a subclass she fails to recognize most of her attraction comes from feeling like a rebel to be able to love a lesser class. I somehow doubt she would be as interested in transpeople if they were not regaled to a freakish or lower status by most of society. It just lets her point to herself and say “look no transphobia here because I am sleeping with them”. How disgusting.

The last line especually. I find a hell of a lot of transphobic tropes even among queers. A ton!

[lollo.livejournal.com]

This is a rare moment for me. I rarely comment on Trans stuff. It is too volatile a subject. So...

I thought she was being honest about her attractions and she acknowledged her shortcomings and her strengths equally. An entertaining article, but not someone I would ever want to date.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I'm in a lot of sympathy with everyone here. I think piny's critique at Feministe is incisive and accurate. I think Annalee (whom I know slightly) opened herself up for that kind of critique by engaging in political analysis of her sexual attraction. I wonder if/when she will respond, especially given how old the piece is.

And I believe that we are attracted to whomever or whatever we are attracted to, and I defend everyone's right to speak about these attractions. (If you don't want them analyzed, it helps not to analyze them yourself.)

Finally, I find it interesting that much of this analysis rests on attraction to a subclass ("feeling like a rebel to be able to love a lesser class"), while in the fat community, the same analysis often turns on refusal to love a lesser class ("I can't help it; I'm just not into fat women.") So there's a legitimate critique of those who buy into the mainstream myths and a legitimate critique of those who don't.

[badgerbag.livejournal.com]

Maaaan.... I don't even feel like I can comment, but I might approach this sideways... somehow.

[heyfoureyes.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I feel some sympathy for Annalee. She's revealing her own analysis of her experience, trying to understand and accept her own erotic history, why she personally finds who she does attractive. I don't think she's really arguing for a universal erotic interpretation of transsexualism, or that all trans folk should stick to a certain identity.

[heyfoureyes.livejournal.com]

. . . but yes, if I replace 'trans' for race I read it very differently.

[badgerbag.livejournal.com]

Well it is not the same at all. And I think it is possible to say that I'm often attracted to transwomen without objectifying all transwomen.

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about this for a few days. And I know what you're saying is right. "Attracted to" does not equate to "objectifying"; it's simply just the way things are. Some people are attracted to fat, some to thin; some to tall, some to short; some to blonde, some to brunette. I see this as something very similar. I think that it gets into "objectification" when someone will refuse to be with someone that they're otherwise attracted to because that person lacks a specific characteristic. Or to see someone that you're otherwise not attracted to as someone you'd have sex with simply because that characteristic. It's taking a characteristic and sexualizing it, more or less, that is the crux of objectification. At least in my mind.

I've got other ideas about how objectification (and the socialization that fosters it) is responsible the seeming disparity in the willing of men to admit to bisexual urges, too. Then again, I think that my opinions rarely mesh with most in the trans community when it comes to issues like these. Maybe it's because I view my gender in a way different than many of my friends in the community do. I'm not sure. Maybe it's just that I'm sick of letting others define my gender for me, or stressing about how they would define it.

Sorry for the ramble, it's just that the knee-jerk "oh, Newitz is being a horrible objectifier!" bothered me, and it was nice to see that someone else posted a comment that seemed to want to take another approach to the subject as well.

Sigh

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

"My Cunt is Built Like a Wound that Won't Heal"

All the staff at Phuket International Hospital referred to my neo-vagina as a "wound". Very strange. Have only browsed through both articles but I already know that there's a couple of friends I want to send those links to non facebook.

Here's an odd admission, but of the few people I find attractive (when I do) they also tend to be trans. So far that has just disturbed me, but I don't know if it's internalised transphobia, some sort of hangover from hetero agendas of validation, or if I'm just fucked in the head.

Re: Sigh

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

Um, what I mean is - DESIRE has been all too complicated for me, for the longest time.

Re: My Cunt is Built Like a Wound that Won't Heal

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

*ick*. that article is old; i remember seeing it some years ago. didn't read the feministe reaction; no time tonight.

but man, i hope annalee newitz has grown up since. fetishizing a group of people because they make annalee feel like an ever-so-transgressive rebel in bed is ... crude and immature. and you know what, annalee? you have no standing whatsoever to reclaim "trannychaser"; you are part of the oppressing class, and your very behaviour marks trans people as "other". you really think the lot of us like your fetishization much better than the mainstream attitude of considering us to be sick? think again.