More Than Bodies

[Shana A]

More Than Bodies
April 11, 2012 at 9:00 am Natalie Reed

http://freethoughtblogs.com/nataliereed/2012/04/11/more-than-bodies/

There's a lot that's frustrating about the way the discourse on ->-bleeped-<- and transsexuality is framed in our deeply cisnormative culture. So much that it sometimes feels impossible to ever really get through it. I often feel neck deep in this, all these little problems, misconceptions, ways of structuring the conversation, unsubstantiated and unexamined assumptions, foundations of positioning not-quite-so-unbiased perspectives as "objective", "neutral", "common sense", the "natural" jump-off point for chatting about who and what and why we are and mean.

And I can't possibly cover it all. Lord knows I've been trying, but I can't. There's just too much to unpack. Is GID really a disorder? A disorder of what? Before / after pictures. "Real" names. "Passing" (and what, "failing"?). Detransitions. Regret. Gatekeeping. Autonomy. The endless questions. The questions as the assertion of the power dynamic. The Other. The self-consciousness. Self-consciousness as an extension of oppression. Morphological privileges. "Male" bodies and "female" bodies, cells, tissues (bulls--t)."Fascinating". "Disgusting". "Special". "Unnatural". Is biology destiny? Is neurobiology destiny? Is destiny biology? Born this way! Social constructs! Stochastic gendering! "Objective" genders? "Biological realities"? "Appropriation"? "Invasion"? "Comfort levels"? "Labels"? "Buying into stereotypes"? Self-definition. Erasure. Ridicule. Violence. One in twelve. One in eight. One in five, one in five. 44%, 96%, 0.3%. Who is feminism "for"? Second wave, third wave, fourth wave. Bois and grrls. Please Select Sex: M/F. Is being trans an identity, a condition, a burden, a blessing? Cissexism, cisnormativity, cissupremacy. "But, like, how do you know?" Our "responsibilities"! Our sexualities! Our sexual responsibilities! Our "faith" in gender. Our "rebellion" from gender. Our "sins" and "arrogance" and "delusion" and "self-hatred" and whatever you need to think to not think about us. Our marking as "trans", ever transitional, ever in movement, across, never at home. Exiles.

[Jamie D]

This passage made me laugh out loud:

Imagine if all human beings were similarly reduced to their bodies and genders when being discussed or interviewed:

"Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who was born with a 46 XY karyotype, identifies as male, and has two functional testes, is speaking this weekend in Renton, WA"

"So, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, do you have any plans for your vagina this year?"


I never thought of it in those terms.

[Shantel]

This passage made me laugh out loud:

Imagine if all human beings were similarly reduced to their bodies and genders when being discussed or interviewed:

"Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who was born with a 46 XY karyotype, identifies as male, and has two functional testes, is speaking this weekend in Renton, WA"

"So, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, do you have any plans for your vagina this year?"
I never thought of it in those terms.

Yes it is laughable and extremely humorous, and yet we see so many cis women getting big breast implants, breast lifts, tummy tucks, etc. thinking that they will be regarded as more attractive by the opposite gender who in turn regards them as having "a nice rack" thus they become regarded by cis males as the sum total of their parts!