After her presentation during the seminar at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in 2007, the transsexual Bárbara Graner asked, “I don´t understand why genital surgery permits a woman to be called a woman. Why can only a vagina prove that you are a woman? Why is femininity only attached to genital organs?” She said this, stood up out of her chair, bat her fists loudly on the table and proclaimed, “I am a woman! I feel like a woman, so I am a woman!”
<snip>
To be a woman
Moderators: KimberlyS, CathyAnn
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DonnaT
- Miss Great Goddess
- Posts: 8222
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- Location: No. Virginia
To be a woman
http://www.clam.org.br/publique/cgi/cgi ... iew&sid=40
DonnaT
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Joselle
- Miss Sapphire Goddess
- Posts: 90
- Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:23 am
- Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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CJ
- Miss Diamond Goddess
- Posts: 3562
- Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2003 11:12 pm
- Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Why do we have to define a person by what they have down there?
Hi all,
Joselle,
We don't. But we do define men or women "by what they have down there." By definition, anatomical sex refers to an individual's primary and secondary sexual characteristics. You're born with a penis; you're a boy. You're born with a vagina; you're a girl. There's no real getting around this. We mustn't confuse or conflate anatomical sex with gender. Forums such as this one exist because there's resistance to the idea that having a penis or a vagina will, or should, determine your social lot in life, not to the idea that being born with the former makes you a man or with the latter a woman. Sex IS between the legs while gender remains between the ears. It's the idea that gender is between the legs that we must combat.
As an adjunct to this view of our genitals, I find it telling that, say, women who sport an artificial penis during sexual play are generally seen as having gained some aura of power while men who sport an artificial vagina (yes, there is such an accessory), are generally considered to have sacrificed that same aura, to have emasculated themselves (in the general sense), to have stepped down on the social ladder. It's telling of the long road women still have to travel in our culture in order to be considered equal in standing to men. And, this, just because they were born with a vagina. Freud once opined that "anatomy is destiny"; we have to fight this kind of Victorian thinking. Anatomy is just anatomy; destiny is whatever future we have the strength or ability to choose or to fashion for ourselves.
This type of identity politics has been all the rage over the last couple of decades. Anyone who fights the good fight is part of the "Q" in "GLBTQ," regardless of their anatomical sex, sexual orientation, or (trans)gender status. Human is human, despite the fact that, again, men are born with a penis and women with a vagina.
Love,
CJ
Hi all,
Joselle,
We don't. But we do define men or women "by what they have down there." By definition, anatomical sex refers to an individual's primary and secondary sexual characteristics. You're born with a penis; you're a boy. You're born with a vagina; you're a girl. There's no real getting around this. We mustn't confuse or conflate anatomical sex with gender. Forums such as this one exist because there's resistance to the idea that having a penis or a vagina will, or should, determine your social lot in life, not to the idea that being born with the former makes you a man or with the latter a woman. Sex IS between the legs while gender remains between the ears. It's the idea that gender is between the legs that we must combat.
As an adjunct to this view of our genitals, I find it telling that, say, women who sport an artificial penis during sexual play are generally seen as having gained some aura of power while men who sport an artificial vagina (yes, there is such an accessory), are generally considered to have sacrificed that same aura, to have emasculated themselves (in the general sense), to have stepped down on the social ladder. It's telling of the long road women still have to travel in our culture in order to be considered equal in standing to men. And, this, just because they were born with a vagina. Freud once opined that "anatomy is destiny"; we have to fight this kind of Victorian thinking. Anatomy is just anatomy; destiny is whatever future we have the strength or ability to choose or to fashion for ourselves.
This type of identity politics has been all the rage over the last couple of decades. Anyone who fights the good fight is part of the "Q" in "GLBTQ," regardless of their anatomical sex, sexual orientation, or (trans)gender status. Human is human, despite the fact that, again, men are born with a penis and women with a vagina.
Love,
CJ
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Lydia
- We Will Never Forget You - Rest in Peace
- Posts: 859
- Joined: Sat Aug 28, 2004 11:43 am
- Location: Sarasota, Florida
Well said, CJ,
I’d like to amplify your comments on the subject of human behavior in general.
Some species are born or hatched in an advanced stage of development. A newborn horse or deer, for example, comes into the world running. Literally within minutes of parturition, this baby is up and walking with all its senses operation, ready to follow mamma and suckle. The term used is “precocial”. The newborn has already spent a substantial part of its development in a regulated, stable environment, i.e., in the womb.
At the other extreme would be a mouse or rat, born blind, hairless, barely mobile, termed “altricial”. Its continued development still has a long way to go before it even looks like a proper rodent. Primates produce some of the most altricial young (aside from opossums, kangaroos, and other marsupials - a special case). Of all primates, a human baby is born virtually as an advanced embryo. Although its term of life in the womb seems long, the stage of development at parturition is primitive indeed. It is faced, at this primitive form, with the challenge of a plethora of new and variable environmental conditions. All this happens at a critical stage in its life when minute environmental changes affect development of the nervous and sensory systems. Human behavior is thus plastic and highly variable, in spite of the inherent stability of its genetic makeup.
Precocial or altricial, these different conditions are adaptive. The early ability of horses and similar species to run enables them to follow the herd, so to speak, and escape potential predators. While the altricial human baby has the opportunity to develop the highly variable behavior necessary for the survival of the species.
It is not surprising, therefore, that among us here there is such a variety of behavioral traits - all this in spite of the seeming rigidity of our individual genetic sex and anatomy.
Vive les differences!
Hugs,
Lydia
I’d like to amplify your comments on the subject of human behavior in general.
Some species are born or hatched in an advanced stage of development. A newborn horse or deer, for example, comes into the world running. Literally within minutes of parturition, this baby is up and walking with all its senses operation, ready to follow mamma and suckle. The term used is “precocial”. The newborn has already spent a substantial part of its development in a regulated, stable environment, i.e., in the womb.
At the other extreme would be a mouse or rat, born blind, hairless, barely mobile, termed “altricial”. Its continued development still has a long way to go before it even looks like a proper rodent. Primates produce some of the most altricial young (aside from opossums, kangaroos, and other marsupials - a special case). Of all primates, a human baby is born virtually as an advanced embryo. Although its term of life in the womb seems long, the stage of development at parturition is primitive indeed. It is faced, at this primitive form, with the challenge of a plethora of new and variable environmental conditions. All this happens at a critical stage in its life when minute environmental changes affect development of the nervous and sensory systems. Human behavior is thus plastic and highly variable, in spite of the inherent stability of its genetic makeup.
Precocial or altricial, these different conditions are adaptive. The early ability of horses and similar species to run enables them to follow the herd, so to speak, and escape potential predators. While the altricial human baby has the opportunity to develop the highly variable behavior necessary for the survival of the species.
It is not surprising, therefore, that among us here there is such a variety of behavioral traits - all this in spite of the seeming rigidity of our individual genetic sex and anatomy.
Vive les differences!
Hugs,
Lydia
"There comes a time ... when you must grasp the bull by the tail and face the situation."