Big Queer Blog - Comments

tshai: Come to Jamaica and Feel Harassed

nospam@example.com (tshai) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:04:25 -0400

i am a Jamaican and i am straight and i support gay rights.personally i believe there is good and bad in everything, i do not see it as a sin and that's my opinion, there are so many gays in Jamaica an most of the hate filled homophobes are self hating gay men, they beat their own and even kill their own , and have sex with their own in the dark to hide what they call their sins, i understand everyone is not going to agree with homosexuality and thats ok no need to force things on ppl and they don't want their children expose to it, that their opinion also. but what i wish for is for Jamaicans to stop worry about others sexuality and worry about their own lives and future and think about bettering themselves and getting food on the table and other serious issues.

true: S/he's Not Heavy, Zie's My Non-Gendered Sibling: Why Gender-Neutral Pronouns Don't Work for Me

nospam@example.com (true) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:23:02 -0400

You forgot to mention that in China they no longer have a gender-neutral pronoun in writing. Ever since the mid 20th century (not sure on exact date), "tā" is now written with three different characters, one for "he": 他, one for "she": 她, and one for "it": 它, even though they are in fact all the same word. Actually, there's two more characters for "ta" as well, one for use with animals and one for gods. The characters for ta-he and ta-she incorporate the characters for "man" and woman".

It's not about whether or not you feel comfortable using zie and zir/hir/zem (I've heard several versons of the accusative pronoun). It's about how the people who prefer to be referred to as zie feel when people call them he or she. A transgender person may not like the idea that everyone zie meets is assigning zir a set of social roles and rules that zie does not necessarily conform to. By asking people to refer to zir as 'zie', zie takes the power to define zeir(???) own gender and therefore role in society.

You refer to the pronoun 'zie' as an artificial and ineffective construct, as having no relation to culture. However, I've personally only ever heard it used by young people, usually under 25. And for such a recent coinage, it has great currency. It's used by lgbt communities and co-operatives all over California (where I live), and from what I understand the rest of the country. To me it seems remarkable that this word has spread as rapidly as it has. Pronouns are considered by linguists to be a "closed class" of words. New pronouns simply do not come into being very quickly, and it's even more rare for one to simply come into being fully formed. Consider the Spanish pronouns 'vosotros', 'nosotros' and 'Usted', all of which are fairy recent coinages, and all of which are ultimately contractions of two words, being 'vos+otros', 'nos+otros' and 'vuestra+merced', respectively. All of these words took centuries to catch on, but today are used by millions of people. By comparison, zie is a completely new word rather than a transparent contraction, and its usage therefore has to be explained to anyone who has not heard it before, at least until it becomes widespread enough that people begin to learn it in childhood just like their other pronouns. Given these additional difficulties that zie faces, it's astonishing to me that it's already spread so far.

Before you criticize any effort to speak with an egalitarian pronoun, consider how we've already changed. You mentioned the invention of 'Ms.' to be used instead of Mrs. and Miss, but you failed to mention the great impact this had on women, who were no longer defined by their marital status on every letter they wrote, every form they filled out, and so on. In addition to this, female professionals have benefitted from the use of gender-neutral titles for practically every job in the world, a shift that only began a generation ago but which today helps women to be judged based on their job rather than their gender. These transitions a NEW and only a few decades ago, many people said that they were destined to failure. To me it just goes to show how much we underestimate ourselves. Language is the most basic element of a culture. Clearly, it can adapt to changing culture extremely rapidly.

Given the holes in your argument regarding the inefficacy of zie and the idea of a grammatical third or neutral gender, I'm left to wonder if you are not simply discomforted by the idea of a third or neutral gender in society.

gay weddings: Judge Rules DOMA Unconstitutional

nospam@example.com (gay weddings) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 07:06:50 -0500

Thank god for Mass. Let's just hope by the time it gets to the supreme court the court will be ready to pass it so we can have equal rights.

LaLaTink: I "Heart" Hunter

nospam@example.com (LaLaTink) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:51:40 -0500

I never hated him. I also never got why people hated him as I always loved hiw sarcasm and humor shrugs to each their own I guess.

Ivan: HRC: Homosexual Men Tortured and Killed in Iraq

nospam@example.com (Ivan) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:38:05 -0500

Well, i think its religion,coz education can only give u knowledge of the world. The religion is the thing that gives u all the understanding in the society of whats right and whats wrong. The religious fanatism is what need to b banned all around the globe,for eternally trying to eliminate the different ppl! F$#king obnoxious

Cory: L...is for Lame?

nospam@example.com (Cory) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:33:58 -0500

shane always has bad hair days. seriously, she looks like the grudge sometimes. and she totally isnt a femme either. i mean, look at her.

Isaac and Perseid: Big Queer New Year

nospam@example.com (Isaac and Perseid) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:01:08 -0400

Absolutely agree! Have been thinking the same all week (Pride is around the corner. Yes, as far away from June 28th as weather-permitting. Thank you, milk toast, depoliticising gays (and queers!)

Chris: Coming Out

nospam@example.com (Chris) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:25:06 -0400

As a star trek fan myself I was always confused by peoples inability to tolerate something about people all around them, friends and family. I think growing up in a TNG house gave me a very open perspective on life. And I think that as more and more people grow up with us being loud and proud the divide will grow much smaller.

SFGAM Gay Community: HRC: Homosexual Men Tortured and Killed in Iraq

nospam@example.com (SFGAM Gay Community) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:08:16 -0400

Hi,
I hate this acts and really tired of hearing this kind of situation happening in those countries. They are simply primitive people. I don't know if this is a result of their religion or because a very poor education.

thanks!

ManPuppy Men: Judge Rules DOMA Unconstitutional

nospam@example.com (ManPuppy Men) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:29:39 -0400

We remember a conversation in a bar with an older gay man in the late 1980's. He was adamant that gays would NEVER be allowed to marry anywhere in the United States, that we were lucky enough to have evolved to the point where we didn't have to be buzzed in the front door of the bar after giving the secret passsword.

I hope he's still alive and is witnessing the miracle of change we're making happen. Stay outraged, and keep fighting the good fight.

Autumn Sandeen: 'Transgender' vs. 'transgendered' the great nomenclature debate engaged

nospam@example.com (Autumn Sandeen) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:01:12 -0400

Well, in accordance with both the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), "transgender" is an adjective.

GLAAD goes further in its grammatical definitions of the term, indicating on page 10 of its GLAAD Media Reference Guide that "transgendered" is "problematic". (- http://www.glaad.org/document.doc?id=99 -)

Because I try to stay within journalism standards, I tend to stick to what the styleguides tell me is the standardize way to use terminology -- that is, for example, why I personally use "LGBT" instead of "GLBT."

Aaron M.: Maine Voters Speak Out

nospam@example.com (Aaron M.) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:22:24 -0400

you know what's also insulting? a gay rights movement that only focuses on the rights of the most wealthy and most privileged of the community.

for a revolutionary perspective on queer issues, click here! http://marxistfeminists.wordpress.com/

Reneta: What is the trouble with transgender studies?

nospam@example.com (Reneta) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:34:14 -0400

I, as a transwoman would never adopt a critical view of someone who wants to intellectually debate the validity of any theory, or the manner in which it is presented. However, that in mind, I strongly disagree with a good chuck of the dichotomy of gender as described by people like Butler, and all her folk. The problem I had had as a transgendered person in current society is not the theories but the usage of those theories by professionals and amateurs alike.

I see frequent misuse of terminology used by all kinds of people even transgender/transsexual people. Transgender issues aside, I find that knowledge is pointless if it is written in a language that prohibits understanding. I could write an entire book about gender identity, but if I put it in a made up language that only I could read, it would be pointless. When you make a subset of information, theory, or knowledge accessible to only a few people it makes it impossible for the information to be disseminated and applied fairly. Knowledge is power, and the knowing can use it to exercise control over the unknowing.

People have a tendency to follow the person who "seems" to know what's going on, rather than the actual fact holder. It comes in the sense that you use another's ignorance to insult them, or manipulate them. Some of those types have even been know to use knowledge to dissuade someone from doing something they know will be in that person's best interest.

This kind of thinking comes into play when physicians scare their patients into submission over seeking a potentially dangerous, but life saving therapy or treatment, mostly because the physician feels they know what's better, or best for you. Just because someone is educated doesn't give them automatic discernment over your condition, and it's best treatment. When an endocrinologists refers to trans patients as crossdressers, there is a serious issue that needs to be addressed along that line.

Unfortunately, is endemic of the design, and as you pointed out, is because the greater Gender Academic Body (GAB) as I call them, are all cisgendered, or overwhelmingly so. But the failure goes further into media popularized views, and that it is such a small group in comparison to the populace.

The iconic theories of people like Butler are ultimately misleading, and result in chronic pathologies of transsexed and intersexed people. It ends up being an uphill battle to get people to branch their understanding from pseudo-false rationalizations of gender identity, especially when it seems impossible to get one gender to understand what it is like to be the other with the same body.

The overall issue is gender is an individual experience, and can only be equally conveyed with other people of that gender format. Everyone experiences gender differently because of sexist rationalization. By an large no normal man or woman will ever know what it's like to be the other gender, and that is the greater part of our world. In my opinion, apart from the works indiscernible to the layman, the issue comes from a lack of union of information, and belief about what gender is, and thus what a transgender is.

Overall the biggest beast to slay in books and Butler-like theories is that overwhelmingly "SEX" is the accepted mode of identification, and "Gender" is the contested ambiguity. I'd beg to say that 50 - 75% of the general populace cannot view gender without associating it to sex, or required designation of sex over gender. If gender was the accepted mode of viewing a person, then a transwoman's experience of woman would be very similar minus surgical, or other medical treatment required to meld the physical and mental aspect.

In an ideal world there wouldn't be transwomen, and women, transmen, and men as trans status would rarely be the observed quality. What I am getting at, is trans is a suffix label that others use to separate or segregate, and it's simply inappropriate for the individual. Butler, and previous theorist on gender are the reason for the pathology and suggested illness of transfolk, and also a potential cause for the comorbidity of transsexuals.

It's like the concept some people speak to, that if you treat a human like an animal, he we become like an animal (mostly in reference to people in prison). I feel strongly that the social isolation, and trauma suffered by transfolk is the reason for the other mental illnesses associate and the reason why people feel transsexuals are mentally ill. I second this with a lack of doctors, professors and therapists who are transgender in the community by and large for this issue. As a whole I find it difficult to explain your gender to a cisgendered person, more so over to a person of an opposite gender to you.

Almost half of all trangender/transsexuals have a comorbid psychological condition, but is Gender Dysphoria the reason, or the social pangs of being gender variant. 50 - 60% of transsexuals become less religious after becoming aware of their gender variance. We all know we can't control it, and it's difficult to live in a system in direct opposition to this feeling. What this points too, is that the isolation and shame, and social elements of being transgender is actually the resonating factor of comorbidity in such. Blankets of knowledge set at a level that requires a triple doctorate to understand is facilitating the problem.

But correcting this alone will not fix the dilemma is causes. What is needed aside from clear, understandable and concise information about transpeople, and gender variance, is a consolidated idea and belief that gender supersedes sex; as it is proven many times over, the reverse is seldom flawless. Gender identity though usually congruent with sex, usually always manifests immutably.

Michael P.Ferguson: He Has Two Father's - The Song

nospam@example.com (Michael P.Ferguson) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:30:13 -0400

I'd attribute the lack of acceptance to ignorance, yes, but much more so to psyco-emotional immaturity. And then there's pure egotism: "I'm normal, they're not!"

Pathetic.

Kevin: 'Transgender' vs. 'transgendered' the great nomenclature debate engaged

nospam@example.com (Kevin) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:53:30 -0400

Transgender is a noun, like man and woman. We would not say that someone is manned or womanned. Likewise, we would not say that someone is maled or femaled. A person may be male, female, intesex, transgender, and so forth.