Comments on: how not to write about a transgendered person

By: mcx

mcx — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:52:15 +0000

i had read this article a little while ago and had a bit of trouble really getting it. i mean i understood it and it makes complete sense, but i didn’t really feel it. had i read the kotaku article previous to yours i wouldn’t have found anything wrong with it. i have a lot of privileges and i am aware that i can be very insensitive in many ways that i’m privileged. anyway, i just finished reading part of a zine (“Shut Up & Love the Rain” by Robnoxious) and he’s explaining how his dad (he still refers to her as his dad) came out as transgender and throughout this story (and all the other times he speaks of his dad) he always refers to her with female pronouns. and somehow reading this it just kinda clicked for me. so yeah, if anyone is maybe having trouble with understanding the difference, try reading something written how it should be, with the person consistently referred to as their chosen gender; it might click for you.

By: Debutante

Debutante — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:32:36 +0000

You are called “Sir” because you aren’t a woman, you are a man. If you want to be both, then you should continue to be treated as both. Where do you get the audacity to think you can “Go into a womans bathroom, while being a male…”

By: strider

strider — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:16:02 +0000

then you say sorry for making the mistake and use the pronoun they tell you to use

By: asdfg

asdfg — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:38:07 +0000

True, but, hm. A better question might be, if I don’t know someone’s identity (either by not knowing them well enough, or at all), is it a terrible thing to refer to someone as what they appear to be?

By: auntie

auntie — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:20:54 +0000

gender isn’t physical, dude. gender is an identity.

By: asdfg

asdfg — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:14:19 +0000

When I refer to someone’s gender I mean the gender they physically are, is this a terrible thing?

By: MKS

MKS — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:46:13 +0000

i just want to congratulate xtc/Ante Flixelante on a successful blog, where all us freaks can get our freak on and express our silly and absurd and glamorous little peeves and desires and follies.

By: daphny

daphny — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 04:02:53 +0000

also putting more “i”s into your misguided fire analogy doesnt magically make it true, it makes it look like you’re plugging your ears and screaming FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE over and over while everyone tries to explain trans politics to you

By: daphny

daphny — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 03:58:07 +0000

hsahahahahahahaha did you just say a surgeon has more experience being trans than someone who is trans whoaaaaaaaaaa

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:18:45 +0000

“Case in point: it’s absurd to imply that belonging to a certain group of people necessitates any sort of experience.”

(a) It’s not absurd and I’m curious as to why you think it’s absurd, unless you’ve LITERALLY NEVER IMAGINED WHAT IT MIGHT LIKE TO BE IN DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES THAN YOUR OWN.

(b) Usually when people say “case in point,” they’re providing an example that proves their case in a pretty sound and commonsense way — as if the entire situation can be meaningfully encapsulated in a single point of data. This is not what you have done here! Can you see why?

And you can only move beyond the paradigm of oppressed/oppressor I guess when such power relations don’t exist. If you’re in the position of the oppressor you have the luxury of ignoring them, otherwise you don’t. Is this controversial? I mean do you get why your “shut up” is logically different from mine in this case? I am saying “you can’t comment usefully on how I as a trans person feel in this situation, therefore shut up.” You are saying “I’m sick of hearing about identity politics, therefore shut up.” I mean seriously do you see how that’s different