One of the things that fascinates me about what's happening now is the sense I have that people like Rob think this is all something new: that this generation has invented/discovered gender bending and that they need to tutor everyone else regarding these issues. Of course, they're not curious at all. If they were, they'd learn that in f…
One of the things that fascinates me about what's happening now is the sense I have that people like Rob think this is all something new: that this generation has invented/discovered gender bending and that they need to tutor everyone else regarding these issues. Of course, they're not curious at all. If they were, they'd learn that in fact these debates were going on forty, fifty years ago. In lesbian spaces, among other places. Many conversation about pronouns, the idea of indeterminate gender, etc. Furious debates. Earnest sharing. The history of gender throughout the world. Third-spirit, etc. Many books were written. History. Speculative fiction. Theory. But, there was no internet. It was a demi-monde, and these books and conversations were not readily available to the general public. So perhaps the current ignorance is understandable, if not excusable.
I never felt that the word "woman" was particularly descriptive of my experience, although I was and am a feminist. For years I would regularly be challenged when I used women's restrooms in public, because I was an androgynous lesbian who looked more like a young gay man than a woman, (through no particular effort on my part). I also got hit on and harassed, of course, which led to some amusing encounters. Nothing says "cognitive dissonance" like having a redneck in a pickup truck yell "faggot" and throw a beer can at you, then getting hit on by a woman who thinks you're a man, when you're a young lesbian making your way in the world. Anyway, I have followed with alarmed interest the devolution of trans ideology, especially as it seems to be eating up young women--who otherwise would probably be lesbians--at an alarming rate.
One of the things that fascinates me about what's happening now is the sense I have that people like Rob think this is all something new: that this generation has invented/discovered gender bending and that they need to tutor everyone else regarding these issues. Of course, they're not curious at all. If they were, they'd learn that in fact these debates were going on forty, fifty years ago. In lesbian spaces, among other places. Many conversation about pronouns, the idea of indeterminate gender, etc. Furious debates. Earnest sharing. The history of gender throughout the world. Third-spirit, etc. Many books were written. History. Speculative fiction. Theory. But, there was no internet. It was a demi-monde, and these books and conversations were not readily available to the general public. So perhaps the current ignorance is understandable, if not excusable.
I never felt that the word "woman" was particularly descriptive of my experience, although I was and am a feminist. For years I would regularly be challenged when I used women's restrooms in public, because I was an androgynous lesbian who looked more like a young gay man than a woman, (through no particular effort on my part). I also got hit on and harassed, of course, which led to some amusing encounters. Nothing says "cognitive dissonance" like having a redneck in a pickup truck yell "faggot" and throw a beer can at you, then getting hit on by a woman who thinks you're a man, when you're a young lesbian making your way in the world. Anyway, I have followed with alarmed interest the devolution of trans ideology, especially as it seems to be eating up young women--who otherwise would probably be lesbians--at an alarming rate.