Sounds odd, but I want to be a writer. I have been writing portion of books since the 7th grade. Never really got to get into it due to losing my work since I wrote pen and paper. Rain is very evil...
Other times I just got sidetracked by something more important and lost my ideas for the current book I was attempting to write. I have a idea now that I am writing and I hope I really stick with it. ^_^:

            Anyways, I had an idea hit me while I was thinking of writing. You can explore gender roles IRL, and online, but what about writing? You could write a short story, short book, or even a long book. Placing yourself as the main character in the story in the gender you wish to explore. Create yourself in this story how you want to be, create any scenarios, and many other things that I can't think of as of now. Though it can be pretty unrealistic, it can be a good way to get your mind thinking of many things or just be really fun if you like writing. ^.^

In a way, fiction writing is really nothing more than a big game of "what if". When you're all said and done, all you've really done is taken the best bits of that game and put them into a static form. I may take a slightly different approach to writing than most. Many of the combinations of character, plot, etc. that end up in my stories have been played out in my mind already. Call this daydreaming, call it fantasizing, heck, call it Harriet if you want, but that's my process. I can go through the same story 10, 20, 100 nights in a row. And because it's all in my mind, I have a much greater freedom (um, is that even English?), much more flexibility, to start over and change this thing or that without worrying about what's "already there". It's like the way a kid develops an idea over time.

And it's a wonderfully liberating way to explore gender roles and the like without worrying about what other people think of my "story", or having to worry so much about if things are real. It's a total gym workout for my mind. And yes, if putting it on paper first works for you, then that can get you to the same place. I've also discovered that this can give me more insight about myself, once I figure out what the story "means" to me.

And you're exploring the same area that I am!  I've already put a genderqueer character in one of my short stories and will be working with a longer novel-ish idea to have the main character deal with gender.

Though I don't know how to do it with taste.

You see, a lot of the focus of queer, or any art that is mentioned as part of a minority (african-american, female, queer, etc.) a lot of the time has that particular minority as a focus.  This, to me, is a stage that many literatures go through.  When a character appears and disappears and simply exists in a story, without explanation and without pandering, then I think a "minority" character is really a good thing.

Which is partially why I liked the movie Transamerica so much.  While the transsexual aspect of the main character is undeniable, for much of the movie it is a Macguffin, completely irrelevant unless you really think about it in a specific way.

Both of these steps are important.

But I'm a lit geek, too.  So write, then!  Publish it, too.  Even if it's on a blog it has an opportunity to be read and enjoyed and educate.  Even if it's smut.  Doesn't matter.

We're all going to die, and all that will remain are our creations.  These are art, children, inventions, ideas, or anything else.  Make a mark on the world.  At least then we'll know your name.

And that is not odd at all.  Heroes existed before they wrote about them, and many heroes will die forgotten, but without fighting and creating, then you don't even have a chance.

But that's just my opinion . . .

b/d

<--- Screenwriter.

It's fun to write characters in a way that lets you explore not just who they are, but how they think. Makes you think exactly how either a man or a woman would realistically handle a situation, and at least draws me closer to understanding more of myself.

b/d, I love that line about "heroes". Very inspiring.

I am writing quite a lot, from poetry to short stories and now I am trying to write actually two books. If I ever will finish them I am not sure
Anyway, in my writing I find the freedom to write fro,m the gender I feel at that moment. Unfortunately I have written almost everything in Dutch, and I find it difficult to translate.
One short story I did translate though. It is called 'The Angel and Gabriel' (angels are androgyne) and it is a love story, written from the male side of me, and it goes not just about love but also about the frustration of the limitation of gender. If you are interested in reading it, email me at sangre_y_leche@yahoo.com and I will send it to you. Beware, it has a violent touch.