Shattering the Gender Boxes

[DonnaT]

http://www.louisvillecardinal.com/2.474 ... -1.2335922

Story on trans issues and college

[Anita]

Hi Donna--
Thanks for the link. Two of my bandmates here in San Francisco originally came from Louisville, so I note the origin of the article. For those who haven't read it, it follows an FtM student on a day at classes at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.

From the article:

"A lot of my [persona] has to do with having other people see me that may be going through the same struggle, and be able to identify with me, or see that I'm surviving in society&-that I'm not upset or depressed," said Donovan.

"My life isn't horrible. I'm functioning as a trans-person. And when you lose that visibility, it's hard for people to see those examples. So if I were just to say, ‘No, I'm a man,' or just pass 100 percent of the time, I would be doing a disservice to my identity."

Wow, the description of trans life on campus is daunting enough. I can't imagine having to go through that whole gauntlet at say, 19--the dorms, the bathrooms, dating, and on and on. It takes courage to be young AND to be trans.

But as to Tyler's quote; in my own experience, it takes more energy to not pass, and serve as a role model. If I'm feeling tired and I need to go out for some reason, you can bet I'll dress lower-profile.

Education and high visibility is a job that a younger person might be more inclined to take on.

[Absaroka]

It's an interesting article. However I had a comment on the Nancy Drew fixing her car subject.

Something that conveniently gets left out of gender attributes is the subject of class. Yes it might be considered atypical for an upper class girl to know how to fix her car, and might be felt to need a sentance in a story about her taking an auto mechanics class. However for a farm girl to know how to do this might not be considered unusual.

A great example of this in the media is The Beverly Hillbillies, for those who can remember it. Granny was an excellent shot with a rifle and about as meek and mild as an angry tiger. Yet she was never considered masculine, just poor and uncultured.

There is in fact a bit of an aura of superiority in literature about women of lower class, women who are able to do all the things the rich ladies can't do because they are too ladylike. And so Nancy Drew, in knowing how to fix her car, is transcending only the boundaries of upper class women, and is perhaps just transcending a class boundary.

My mother's and grandmothers experience can illustrate some of this. Growing up in the North Woods near the Great Lakes, my mom came to think of chopping wood as women's work. And my grandmother considered just about everything else to be womens work, including hunting and fishing (their equivalent of shopping for food) since her husband was gone for long periods of time. She would have considered women who didn't need to know how to do these things as fortunate, but also as somewhat frivolous.

Thanks for posting the article Donna

Zari

[Leeza]

May of the women I have met out in the rural areas I have lived in could male a fantistic meal and keep a clean house and dress to kill.

More often though you would see them in jeans and boot working in the fields, taking care of livestock, or fixing equiptment Several of them ran successful farming or ranching operations.

My Mom raised a large garden, did woodworking, and ran a beauty shop.

I have come to believe that the women of this are took the attitude that womens work was anything needed to keep the home going. And for many of them that meant doing a lot of things that may have been considered "mens work".

I think that men have drawn a diffentive line of what they think is women's work or men work. Women just do what is neededto be done.

Leeza