How long is that train that you're trying to stop? I like the way Kate uses her fears and obsessions to spin off topics around here. Her latest (
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,30202.0.html ) got me to thinking about gender-variance, socio-cultural change and what the hope for the future of the intersection of those two things might look like.
I know that many of us have a hope, perhaps even a conviction, that we are approaching a time when to 'change' one's gender, live into it, do away with yours and everyone else's, and also do away with any of the distinctions that are so prevalent today in our gendered-lives will be the norm, not the exception.
What might be a realistic appraisal of how that will go and where. Are there clues about the possibilities of change, revolution and evolution that we can discern through what we see and experience right now?
I think there may well be.
Some might point to that 49 square-mile bastion of forward thinking, America's City on Some Hills, San Francisco, and report the prognosis looks very good. Others might live in a 49 square-mile colony of fundamentalist, evangelical Christians and see a scene that doesn't look quite so hopeful. I get the feeling that most of us live somewhere that can be characterized pretty well as being between those poles.
I think maybe the best indicator of how much change and in what direction may well come from our own experiences, our own inclinations.
TSes, Androgynes and CDs, as well as people who are openly lesbian, queer and gay, like to think of ourselves as at the 'cutting edge' of that change. So, how do we do? What do we do and why? Anyone "scared to death" or ambivalent about how they live? Seem to be.
I am beginning to wonder if we are going to have as much change as some of us think or have thought. Why? I look at my own life and the lives of other trans-folk. How long has it taken us to get comfortable with our own changes? How long did it take to embark on the journey toward change?
How many losses, in terms of other human beings have we had while making the changes we have made? How many others would you feel are possible? How much paranoia do you feel as you walk, talk, go about your day?
Some of us may well answer none, or at least very little. Others may answer that they are terrified, or at one of the degrees between terrified and no fear at all.
How would you like to be seen in future? As gender-variant? As a 'target' gender/sex? Why? How many men and women among us want other people to know that we 'have had sex-changes.' Is the *-asterisk a comfortable addition to your gender? Or lack of it?
That last, for me, is not at all. I didn't transition to be a *woman, or woman*. Nor do I have large plans for being that in the future. I have the sneaking suspicion that I am not alone in that respect.
So, how do we react and act on our own gender-variance, gender-congruity? Do we expect others to become as educated, comfortable and accepting as we are ourselves? And if we do, what does that bode for the state of the country or world in fifty years?
I simply think that as much as we wish and strive for changes that we also need to cast a fairly jaundiced eye toward some of our more hopeful hopes. SF has already reached a comfort-level to which Topeka and Pendleton, WA may not ever achieve.
These thoughts are not necessarily going to enter the world and become true. But, just think about this. At 80 mph how long does it require for a fully-loaded train to brake to a stop? How long does it require to then turn that entire train around and head it back in a different direction after it's stopped?
I believe there is hope for the future. Lots of hope. I just am not anticipating a sea-change within the next two or three generations.
*sigh*
Nichole
