frock magazine article photo of Janie Black

Catch Me in Frock Magazine

The current issue of Frock Magazine is out on the virtual newsstands, and there is a six-page spread by and about me, starting at page 58, called “Beauty on the Gender Line.” (The issue is #21, June/July 2013.)

To save you the trip – and a few of their maddeningly ill-advised edits of the article – I reproduce the contents here –

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blogger janie black and her computer

Therapy

It has been a bad week, blog-wise.

First, someone I thought was a friend expressed “sorrow” at my “gender struggle.”

Then, no less than four others responded to my next post with a recommendation that I get therapy, one of them going so far as to liken trying to find one’s way on her own to representing oneself in legal proceedings – invoking the well-known saying that a person who is her own lawyer has a fool for a client.

I also like sayings – and the more appropriate one for today is: if three people tell you you’re drunk, lie down.

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why

Why Do I Do This Gender Thing?

Why do I do this gender thing? This is a big question for me.

Many people have a ready answer, “I was born this way.” I am not sure I believe that about myself, and even if it is so, there is not enough there to stop and put the pen down.

I have noted the number of issues in my life that being Janie has addressed. She has added excitement and motivation to my life, she has increased my self-esteem, she has helped me break some debilitating patterns – and there is lots more I expect to come.

But, I have struggled with the idea that instead of this craziness, of dressing like a woman and having to deal with the doubts I have, the social risks, and other attendant lifestyle risks, that I should just “man up” and get help if necessary, but solve my problems in the “normal” way, through personal growth, and addressing the real concerns instead of doing an end-around.

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gender equality

The Fundamental Relationship Between Gender Equality and Attitudes to Transgenderism

Have you ever considered that much of the resistance to MTF transgenderism is based in male chauvinism and misogyny and their equally ugly feminist sisters?

There really shouldn’t be much resistance to a man wishing to become a woman if we really do believe in equality, and if both genders are perceived in a positive light. There is no advantage if women are not superior or entitled to special rights, and there is no shame if women are not inferior. There is no betrayal of one or invasion of the other if the opposite gender is not viewed with suspicion.

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mixed gender role

Converging Gender Roles – Crossover Was Inevitable

I realize that almost everyone adopts a gender role that is consistent with their sex, but is there any good reason why I should overrule my desire to do otherwise?

There are men and there are women; it should come as no surprise that there are people in between – both man and woman/neither man nor woman/man acting feminine/woman acting masculine/man looking like woman, etc.

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