April 17, 2012
'Gender outlaw' asks students to question binaries

By Amanda Dyslin The Free Press

http://mankatofreepress.com/talkers/x101451378/-Gender-outlaw-asks-students-to-question-binaries

MANKATO — We live in a society where we are rich or poor, black or white, woman or man. But self-proclaimed "gender outlaw" Kate Bornstein says nothing about who we are is "either/or."

With class, for instance, there are numerous categories outside of rich and poor — working class, middle class, starving artists, homeless and many others. A person's race, age, sexuality, looks, ability, mental health, family/reproductive status, habitat, language, political ideology and gender are all just as complex, without definitive terms to define the same truth from one person to the next.

"Either/or is the language of bullies," Bornstein said to a room full of mostly students at Minnesota State University Tuesday night during the annual Carol Ortman Perkins Lecture.