Don't let your schooling interfere with your education.
~ Pete Seeger

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Sex and Gender

An interesting dialogue is starting up between Jose (mentioned in a previous post) and I, here and here, for those readers who are interested in gender dysphoria and the meaning of sex and gender. Any transpeople out there want to chime in?

(Warning - I don't believe Jose will see you. Don't expect it. Any comment, on his blog or mine, should be made for the sake of other readers; however, I do request that you seek to understand Jose and not condemn him.)

3 comments:

Fannie Wolfe said...

Argh! LOL. :-)

I'm having a similar discussion with Chairm over at David Benkof's blog.

Hang in there sister!

Seda said...

Fannie,
You bet!

I read your converation, but won't comment much on it here as I don't want Opine dissecting your conversation on this post. I will say, though, that my understanding of sex is, like yours, the biological male and female; but gender, to me, is your subjective sense of yourself. It's not a role so much as an internal self-identity, the sense that you have of yourself as a man or woman - or neither.

It ain't always easy, but I hope that out of all this comes better understanding and peace.

Fannie Wolfe said...

I like how you put that. I would agree with you that gender is our more internal self-identity. I don't believe in "roles," I think it is society that has created artificial "roles" for us based on our genitalia.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
~Helen Keller

Reading List for Information about Transpeople

  • Becoming a Visible Man, by Jamison Green
  • Conundrum, by Jan Morris
  • Gender Outlaw, by Kate Bornstein
  • My Husband Betty, by Helen Boyd
  • Right Side Out, by Annah Moore
  • She's Not There, by Jennifer Boylan
  • The Riddle of Gender, by Deborah Rudacille
  • Trans Liberation, by Leslie Feinberg
  • Transgender Emergence, by Arlene Istar Lev
  • Transgender Warriors, by Leslie Feinberg
  • Transition and Beyond, by Reid Vanderburgh
  • True Selves, by Mildred Brown
  • What Becomes You, by Aaron Link Raz and Hilda Raz
  • Whipping Girl, by Julia Serano

I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men's hands even at the height
of their arc of anger
because we have finally realized there is just one flesh to wound
and it is His - the Christ's, our
Beloved's.
~Hafiz