Utterly Meaningless

Ugh. Won’t she go away already?

I bet trans*folk never figure into her rhetoric. Or even cross her mind, for that matter.

Two genders, my foot.

Well, I said “two genders.” She said that there would be gender equality with 50% feminists. I suppose she could have meant 50% of the feminist gender and 50% all others. Riiiiight. 🙂

Interesting that this should come up as I’ve been sort of thinking about the idea of gender a good bit lately. My own consideration of gender doesn’t really fit in here with the ideas of feminists and not feminists, and really, it’s the sort of thing I should write about at my own place, but I haven’t been very good at that lately. Maybe I’m spending too much time thinking about gender.

Also, I’m with Lisa, two genders my foot!

Do feet have gender? 😉

I also guess it never occurred to her that there are men who are feminists.

Hey sam, there’s a good bit of theory out there about how pushing for trans rights will further the cause of feminism (i.e. the eradication of sexism) a lot. Also, queer rights in general, especially marriage. Which would be a gay marriage: a FTM non-op married to a cisgendered man or FTM non-op married to a cisgendered woman? You see how silly the argument starts to look?

I used to have opinions about gender identity. Then I found out, at the age of 30 or so, that my first serious college boyfriend had divorced his wife and became a woman. She is in a permanent relationship with another transwoman. They identify as lesbians. Blew my little mind right away.

It’s not so bad. Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my head around it; sometimes I write her a letter and we groove out for a bit. She’s precious to put up with the dumb old ex who’s still sort of in shock. Really she’s the same free spirit and all-around massively decent person as always and I would fight anyone who said a damn thing to hurt her feelings.

Lisa–

For the unenlightened among us (i.e., me), could you please explain what FTM and cisgendered mean? In chemistry, cis is the opposite of trans. Is it the same nomenclature here?

Heh, sorry!

FTM – Female to Male
MTF – Male to Female
non-op – hasn’t had, and doesn’t plan to have, any transitioning operations.
cisgendered – not transgendered. It’s not my favorite word, but it’s the one most people use.

I also recommend being familiar with genderqueer and genderfuck – both of which are explained well over at wikipedia.

Let’s try this again..I once had an uber religious homeschool mom ask me this question:

“How can their marriage be legal if he was once a woman? That means they are both lesbians, not man and wife”

I tried to explain to her that once surgery is completed “she” is no longer female, but legally male and thus, their marriage is legal and they are not two lesbians.

She couldn’t grasp this concept. She said that while they changed the outside, they didn’t change the mind or the inside, which still makes her female in her mind.

My head just exploded and I ended the conversation. Delusions are not as wonderful as I thought.

Okay, let me get this straight.
We should encourage women to go back to work if they are on welfare, but cut funmding for daycare and Head Start programs that would make such a return possible.
We should disallow contraceptives and abortion, then cut SCHIP benefits for the babies that come from a lack of contraception.
Also, coorect me if I’m wrong, but aren’t most pro baseballl players male? And aren’t most teachers female? Who makes more money? Who should make more money?

You actually read Schlafly’s column? Call 911 immediately before your head explodes. 🙂