In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Month: May 2006

Because I Like The Weird News

Wal-Mart worker finds man glued to toilet.

SALISBURY, Md. – A 20-year-old was found by a Wal-Mart employee in the bathroom Sunday night after he sat down and was glued to the toilet seat.

The man, whose name was not released by police, was taken to the hospital late Sunday night, said Lt. Cheryl Rantz of the Salisbury Police Department.

“The man had gone into the bathroom and sat down,” she said. “He was banging on the wall when the employee came in.”

Rantz said the man was treated and released.

The mind reels.

Rude Questions

So Jay commented in this post about the questions that do not offend him:

I hate answering any and all questions about trans related stuff when asked by any person who hasn’t had similar experiences, or provided care for someone who has. I include in this group those folks claiming a some form of trans identity who do not desire medical modalities.

This is not how I feel.

When any person from what I loosely define as my community asks about medical issues, I tend to assume that they need to know. My personal experience probably accounts for some of my amiability; no-ho/no-op transpeople tend to be much more respectful in their queries than, say, Larry King. I understand that even for someone who does their homework, it can be very confusing to sort through available information on transition. These questions also tend to come in an atmosphere of greater respect. I know that I won’t be the only one in the room who sees these questions as a potential invasion of privacy.

But even from outsiders, there are virtually no questions that are offensive per se–setting aside the rhetorical or dishonest kind. I tend to base my willingness to talk much more on context. How well do I know this person? What other kind of interest has this person shown in me? Where are we? What other resources do they have available to them? How has their experience shaped their level of knowledge of transsexuality? Do they see me as an individual, or as an emissary?

All etiquette issues aside, if someone seems aware of that context, I have much more confidence in their ability to understand my answers. It’ll be much easier to explain “marginalization” if they don’t see their unfamiliarity as inevitable. It’ll be much easier to explain “social stigma” if they don’t assume I want to be outed. It’ll be much easier to explain “respect and privacy” if they already know not to ask about my genitalia over dinner.

But I don’t really feel angry at the people who ask stupid questions. I’m bothered by the context of the interaction. Most of the time, I do answer these questions, even when they seem rude. I’m more worried that my openness will make people believe that someone like Jay has the same preferences, or that my answers will be taken as representative.

Beyond Chastity Belts

He’s not saying anything that pro-choicers haven’t been saying for decades, but I’m glad to see our position getting more space on the NYTimes op/ed pages — especially when it’s put as succinctly and effectively as it is here. Way to go, Nick Kristof. The whole op/ed is below the fold, and all emphasis is mine. And thanks to Jules for letting me steal from her TimesSelect, since my law-student ass is too poor to pay for it myself.

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But Republicans Love Tradition

Speaking of that burning hypocrisy when it comes to the national anthem, it’s worth noting that the idea of a Spanish-language Star Spangled Banner is nothing new — in fact, one was commissioned by the federal government in 1919. Oh, and our own State Department has four different versions of it.

But OMG this has never happened before they’re taking over they’re coming like cancerous cells this is so offensive who’s assimilating whom?

Xenophobes can be so silly.

To quote one of their own, we have to learn our history, we have to learn our principles.

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Common Vocabulary

So I seem to have internalized the belief that transition is all about The Surgery. I’ve burdened my upcoming surgery with all kinds of worry, all related to Being a Transsexual and What That Means. As I make preparations, this little voice keeps going, This is it! This is the point of no return! No going back now! No changing your mind! This is forever! Forever and ever! The rest of your life! Buh-bye normalcy! I know that this concern is normal, and probably healthier than ignoring the social ramifications of transsexuality. But I wish my personal anxiety gremlin would go nurture a complex about the three-hundred-forty-eight times I did not take my daily multivitamin last year, or something. It’s also pretty senseless to make The Surgery the dividing line; I passed the point where I could comfortably quit and go back a long time ago. In some ways, The Surgery will make transsexuality a less immediate presence in my life.

Anyway, I was discussing that worry with my therapist, whom I see because my health plan’s care for transsexuals is loosely based on the HBSOC. Her response sort of blew my mind. She told me (I’m paraphrasing, and claim responsibility for whatever clumsiness and insensitivity is apparent here) that, well, I had to remember that I had a disease. I was being treated for that disease, and would go on to live a long, healthy, and happy life, but transsexuality was the disorder and transition the treatment.

Now, I should say here that she has never given me any reason to believe she considers the disorder aspect to be related to anything but discomfort. If my happiness involved making my body visibly gendervariant, or if I held very firmly to a genderqueer identity, she would not pressure me to discard those needs but would help me realize them. She did not bat an eye when I raised the possibility that bottom surgery would make me dysphoric, and she would be wholly supportive if I told her I wanted to give birth. Neither of those desires constitutes a disorder of any kind.

But still. Still! A disease!

Grog commented about the GID diagnosis in this comments thread:

2) The DSM contention is one of ‘normalization’. There are many who percieve the presence of GID as a diagnosis in the DSM as describing a TS as “disordered”, when in fact they do not perceive themselves to be “disordered”.

I’ve always looked upon the DSM as a tool to give mental health professionals a common vocabulary, and the presence of a diagnostic category in there does not mean that there is an “illness” per se, merely a behaviour that warrants description in its own right.

And, terminology aside, this is pretty much how my therapist seems to see the matter.

The Hypocrisy! It Burns!

Well, well, well. Remember my post on Bush’s denunciation of the Spanish version of “The Star-Spangled Banner?” He huffed that people who come here should learn English and like it:

“I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English,” Bush said.

Weeeeell. According to Kevin Phillips’ American Dynasty, seems old Georgie Boy used to sing a different tune:

When visiting cities like Chicago, Milwaukee or Philadelphia, in pivotal states, he would drop in at Hispanic festivals and parites, sometimes joining in singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in Spanish, sometimes partying with a “Viva Bush” mariachi band flown in from Texas.

So, How Many Times Did Casino Jack Visit the White House?

Looks like we’re about to find out.

The Secret Service has agreed to turn over White House visitor logs that will show how often convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff met with Bush administration officials – and with whom he met.

Visitor logs are a wonderful thing. My firm had a case in arbitration last year in which we represented a guy trying to get a rather sizeable finder’s fee for introducing new sources of capital to the company he consulted for. One of those new sources of capital came in the form of a buyer for the entire company. The company didn’t want to pay the finder’s fee, denying that the principals of the company had met with the investment banker who the consultant had introduced them to. Documentary evidence was thin, but we got our hands on the visitor logs of the building where the meeting was held, and the principals had to admit that they’d been at the meeting.

So, I eagerly await the production of the White House logs, especially the parts that show who Jack Abramoff met with.

The Social Construction of Disability

The point made over and over again in the disability-rights literature I’ve read is that the problem isn’t the impairment, but the disability. Lady Bracknell elucidates the distinction here:

1. we have some degree of physical or mental functional loss or difference (we have impairments); and
2. we are excluded from full participation in society because we have impairments (we are disabled).

Autism? Impairment. School officials assuming that you cannot learn in a mainstreamed classroom setting? Disability.

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