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

[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.