I was scrolling through my Facebook feed one average day recently, when all of a sudden I was confronted with a post condemning the recent passage of a bill protecting the rights of transgender youth. The same bill all my other friends, primarily queer and trans, were celebrating. The post was by someone I went to graduate school with… for gender studies. I … [Read more...]
Living the Contradictions: How My Disability Changes the Way My Masculinity is Perceived
When I was in the Job Corps and had to choose a trade to learn, I chose the one that most of the male students and the masculine-identified AFAB ones did: construction. It was, to the sensibilities of a bunch of working-class 16-to-24-year-olds, the only trade offered that was macho enough. And I sucked at it. I was clumsy. Motor coordination and balance have always been … [Read more...]
How Your Everyday Language Reinforces Homophobia & Transphobia – Part 2
*The first part of this necessary conversation by Ramona Rio can be found here. Politically and personally, there is a continued conversation about the nuances between cis gender identities and trans identities. Specifically, conversations about words and language used to deconstruct patriarchy and recenter womanhood have simultaneously been conversations about dismantling … [Read more...]
8 Ways Non-Binary People Rock!
Those of us who have genders that leap ecstatically out of the gender binary are stellar beings that disrupt, re-define, and challenge traditional conceptions of gender identity and expression, and there are just about as many ways to express and live a non-binary gender identity as there are stars in the sky. Let's explore some of the ways that non-binary people push … [Read more...]
Who Can and Cannot be Feminine… Without Giving Up Their Safety?
Before being out as feminine, in order to maintain any sense of safety (no matter how fragile), I was always expected and only allowed to express my femininity with certain restrictions, and these restrictions changed depending on who I was with and where I was. This often made things not only confusing, but miserable. It was difficult to keep up with who I was supposed to … [Read more...]
A Response to Chimamanda: Trans Womanhood Is Not for Cis Women to Define
When I first heard that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had said something unsavory about trans women, I avoided the news. I didn't click on it. I tried not think about it. I had read Americanah, watched an interview or two, saw her talk "The Danger of Single Story." I fondly followed her work and her outspoken position on feminism. As someone whose politics revolve around my love … [Read more...]
