Dec
01
The other day, I saw a crime show on television called “Perception.” The basic premise of the particular episode in question involved a doctor who was “curing” men of their gay-ness by giving them a pleasure-inducing drug and having them have sex with women while feeling that pleasure. The idea was to create a permanent association between hetero sex and pleasure.
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Nov
20
Gender is the simplest thing in the world – until you (or others in your life) start questioning it. Then, there is no end of questioning, no end of wondering, of guilt, of fear, of discrimination.
Sometimes, we make the simple complicated. And sometimes, someone can find the words to cut through all the garbage and make what seems so very complicated quite simple. It all looks effortless, but we know better 😉
I commend you to this video. Watch it and share it. Simple wisdom is such a rare thing.
Oct
06
When I first started out as Janie, I heard that many people considered t-girls misogynistic. I couldn’t believe my ears, feeling that imitation is the highest form of flattery.
But, I do understand now.
There is a cohort of “t-girls” who disrespect themselves and in so doing disrespect women.
They assume the role of womanhood mainly for the purpose of co-opting feminine values in the service of their own masculine desires.
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Oct
03
I am pretty hard on myself. But sometimes, the judgments I pass on myself have implications for my understanding of being a tgirl generally.
I sometimes see masculinity in myself in place of my femininity, and I recoil. I know I can fix it through an adjustment of clothing, makeup, hairstyle or attitude, and everything will be ok.
But, what if I couldn’t?
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Oct
01
I am still having trouble conceptualizing my feelings about gender in certain respects.
We are all, to some extent, a blend of the masculine and the feminine, and transfolk more emphatically so.
But I find certain manifestations of this hard to understand, even as I accept the person’s right to be the way they are.
I know I have mentioned this before but I think I have a bit of a better handle on it now: the way I perceive a photo of a man with a beard, wearing a dress. I am sorry, but I find it to be off-putting. This is just an honest reaction. Obviously his concept of what’s attractive and mine are quite different. Nothing wrong with that.
But, it sets me to wondering why I find his choices so unattractive…
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Sep
24
An Oklahoma judge has twice now refused to grant a name change to a transsexual on the basis that it would be assisting “that which is fraudulent.”
In his esteemed opinion, SRS doesn’t change DNA and therefore attempting to appear as a woman while still a man is fraudulent.
In case that doesn’t convince you, he quoted the bible for the authority that God intended men to stay men and women to stay women.
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Sep
10
Y’know, I asked the question a few posts back on the essence of womanhood, or what it means to be a woman, but then I barely touched on the answer.
There are those who focus on body parts. Others insist that it is chromosomes that matter.
I think that on a practical basis, both miss the point.
The way I see it, a person who goes out in the world as a woman, behaves as women are known to behave, accepts the privileges and restrictions that pertain to women… that person is, for all practical purposes, a woman.
Of course, male-bodied individuals who wish to assume this role cannot conceive children, but many women-born-women cannot either.
Is there a good reason to restrict our conception of women to those with the right body parts or chromosomes? I don’t really see it.
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08
I just love this video!
(And here’s a little vid behind the scenes:)
I think it’s a rotten ad for whatever they are trying to sell, but as a depiction of someone who can be either gender at the flip of a switch, it totally rocks my world!
You can see how the slightest change in posture and attitude of this transgender model turns what is obviously a beautiful woman into what is equally clearly a handsome man.
That’s the way I see it anyway. I’m sure others will say this model is either androgynous or both genders at once.
I disagree. But regardless of the paradigm, it looks to me to be a very positive depiction of the blurring line between the genders. It has to make some people sit up and take notice, perhaps open some minds as to what people can be like and how attractive it can be.
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Sep
06
I enjoy the nostalgia of watching television shows that I loved way back when.
One of those was a short-lived series called Banacek, in which George Peppard played a brilliant, suave, rich, arrogantly charming insurance investigator, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in each episode for recovering insured items worth millions for their insurers and their hapless investigators.
I ate that stuff up as a young man. But as a not-so-young woman…
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Aug
31
One of the things I kinda glossed over last time (Impressions – The Message of Our Presentation) were the different roles each of us plays.
A woman may be an executive during the day and a casual jeans and T (shirt) girl in the evening, or even a sexy model on weekends.
Someone meeting her in any one of her roles may not imagine the other roles she plays, and may be turned off or taken aback by some of the possibilities…
…of course, not likely to the extent they might be should they run across the woman they met with yesterday walking down the street today as a man.
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