I see a couple of the other guest bloggers this week have already started, so I figured twas time for me to get cracking myself with an introduction. I do this with some anxiety, since my introductory thread last year All Went A Bit Wrong…
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Queen Emily. I blog mostly at Questioning Transphobia, though I occasionally pop in at Hoyden About Town. I’m a Greek-Australian trans woman currently living in the US, in a queer relationship, unemployed academic and eater of jellybeans.
I’m likely to write about trans people and outing, institutionalised transmisogyny, trans women’s relationships to feminism, and the problems with neo-liberal assumptions in feminist blogging. Oh, and the magnificence of Canadian electropop band Dragonette.
In terms of my moderating style, I don’t think I’m too tough. However. I’d like to re-iterate my basic principles from last year for what kinds of comments are problematic:
Un-gendering. Trans people are the sexes and genders they say they are. A story about a trans woman means female pronouns, and male pronouns for one about a trans man. Don’t use third gender pronouns (eg “ze” and “hir”) on a binary identified person. For genderqueer people, they may use third gender pronouns, or they may not. If you’re not sure ask (but don’t be surprised if you get an exasperated response, this may be the eleventy billionth time).
Thread drift. Ok, any thread is going to have a bit of drift, but it can be remarkably hard to get cis people to focus on actual instances of discrimination against trans people. Not every thread is appropriate for a trans 101 question. If I’m talking about immigration, I don’t want to have to stop that necessary conversation by answering what “cis” means or why I felt the need to transition. If someone repeatedly insists on making a thread about themselves and not the subject at hand, I’ll probably begin with the mocking and end with the banning if it continues long enough.
Transphobic bingo. Feminist transphobia has a long and not so distinguished history. Some common memes include: “really a man/woman,” “but why do they have to modify their bodies,” “reifying gender binaries!11“, “trans women has patriarchal privilege,” “my theories are more important than your lived experience (aka Is it Theory Wank Time Yet?)” and “I’m not cis, I’m normal.” And any objectifying questions/comments about trans bodies (cis people have a disconcerting habit of focusing on trans genitals) will probably go straight to reject pile.
And that’s that. Hopefully we’ll have a fun two weeks together… now, if you have any questions about whether I’d take a pill to not be trans… don’t ask them!