What’s Goin’ On, WordPress?
Comments (2) Anyone else recently upgrade to WordPress 2.8 and lose the ability to use visual text editing instead of HTML? As fun as manually doing paragraph and link tags is, I’d prefer to use my fancy GUI…
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Trans Health
By Rebecca, June 13, 2009 5:41 pm
This post from Questioning Transphobia came across my RSS reader today and I wanted to share it with you. From the post:
There’s no question that there’s very little empirical medical evidence available on the various specific health risks faced by trans women. And although these results are as depressing as they’re scary as they’re alarming – we’re at twice the risk of dying from heart disease or a stroke and eight times more likely to commit suicide – there’s no doubt in my mind that much, much more research in this area is needed urgently.
This makes me think about Cedar’s Cis Privilege Checklist
:
I expect that medical therapies offered to me have been the subject of rigorous medical studies & approval processes.
I expect that medical studies are being done to improve & approve treatments available for people with my conditions.
Because, as this study shows, neither of those points are true for trans men and women. I don’t know what the long-term effects of estrogen or testosterone blockers will be on my body, and very few people are particularly interested in finding out.
On the Edge of Trolling, Pt 3
By Rebecca, June 13, 2009 12:19 am
A brief comment was posted for the final installment of On the Edge of Trolling. (At least until I get some more ‘lovely’ comments like these have been!). This one was from to The Great Trans Feminist Blogging Shakeup of 2009 and, of the series, comes the closet to simply being an outright troll:
sorry, but cis trumps. Born this way. You chose the new territory, so perhaps you’ll be able to be a feminist in time, but right away? No way
Once again, I think I’m just going to quote myself:
Neither Dictionary.com, nor Wikipedia, nor Stanford, nor any other resource I could find indicates feminism is a philosophy exclusive to women, or people raised as women. Feminism, at least the feminism I identify with, isn’t a womyn-born-womyn space, and doesn’t benefit only women. CrimethInc says it better than I could but, in short, for every girl who was told she couldn’t be a firefighter there is a boy who was told he couldn’t be a ballerina. Yes, women are ultimately the victims of sexism and the benefactors of feminism more often than men, but it’s naive to think sexism doesn’t cut both ways and its elimination wouldn’t benefit people other than those who have “been oppressed because of their genitalia or reproductive organs.” (Which, by the way, trans women have too.)
And that’s that.
On the Edge of Trolling, Pt 2
By Rebecca, June 12, 2009 9:17 pm
Welcome back! In our last episode I mentioned that I’d received a few comments that stradled the line of what trolling means. Rather than just approve or ignore them, I’m responding to them in a more open format. Enjoy!
Anonymous’ second comment was to The Transphobic, Cissexist People in our Lives. It’s a little long, so I’m going to break it up and respond section by section.
So this is something that makes me angry… Trans people, specifically the M to F people, saying they are feminists. They weren’t raised as women, they were never oppressed because of their genitalia or reproductive organs, never told they couldn’t be firefighters. Perhaps they were told they couldn’t play with dolls?
I don’t understand why they think they expect to be automatically considered “women” when they are obviously MID-TRANSITION. You are, by definition, IN THE MIDDLE, not on either side.
So claiming to be a feminist!? is distasteful to me, at the very least, because you want to shuck your privileges as a male and then whine about how hard women have it. When YOU WERE NOT BORN THAT WAY. You have CHOSEN to become a woman, so STOP THE FUCKING WHINING.
On the Edge of Trolling, Pt 1
By Rebecca, June 11, 2009 12:39 am
The definition of Troll from Urban Dictionary:
One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.
Someone decided to grace a few of my posts with some comments that I would consider on the edge of trolling. That is, I think she believes what she’s saying and I’m not convinced she’s trying to cause “maximum disruption and argument,” but she’s definitely being rude and disruptive. Rather than approve her comments, or even just simply ignore them, I’m going to focus some posts on them and try to respond to what they’re saying as best I can. The goal of this is more to get my thoughts in order – and to hear from the peanut gallery – than to engage her in a discussion which her tone has indicate she isn’t willing to have.
First up, Anonymous posted a comment to Are You Undergoing a Transgender Experience:
I’m sorry, but it’s not rude to ask those kinds of questions– grow some thicker skin. You decided to do this, become a woman, and so– figure it the fuck out and stop crying about it.
And if you don’t pass, then figure that out too. You’re the one who wants this .
What do I want Judaism to be?
By Rebecca, June 10, 2009 11:12 pm
Daisy, the always-interesting author of Dear Diaspora, posted some of her thoughts on Judaism. She begins:
Something has been weighing on my mind lately. I am now more or less an adult, with the duties of an adult, and I realize that it is now up to me and my peers to take on the task of continuing Judaism. It is with us that Judaism will adapt and thrive or stagnate and die; it us up to us to create a new Jewish generation, or to allow our numbers to dwindle. The task of survival is ours, and the ship is ours to steer. We can make of this inheritance what we want.
She continues on the importance of Judaism to her, and how she feels about continuing to discover what the ‘next generation’ of Judaism will look like, and ends with some questions for other Jews. I’m still struggling with my Jewish identity, and figured I’d try to go through Daisy’s questions in hopes of getting my own thoughts together…
What do you like about Judaism and Jewish culture? What do you dislike?
I like the feeling that, in the very liberal form of Judaism in which I was raised, it’s possible to modify and change rituals and ceremonies to speak to what is important to whomever is performing them.
As an example, at this past Passover, the Seder I went to consisted of Passover Jeopardy, led by the hostess, followed immediately by dinner. Likewise, the year before, the Seder consisted of people going around the table and giving voice to oppressions which still exist today. In both situations, I felt a connection with Jewish history without feeling obligated to engage in a long ritual in which I, personally, don’t find much value.
Hair removal followup
By Rebecca, June 10, 2009 10:38 pm
I’ve seen some searches coming in lately about laser hair removal, as well as the No! No! hair removal system, and I wanted to post an update.
First, should you spend money on a No! No!?
No. No. You should not.
(Sorry, I had to.)
I’m not convinced that it can’t work, but it must take forever and was difficult and unsatisfying to use. I don’t think it contributed to any hair removal for me, and buffing afterwards did not leave me smooth and clean as promised. It also ended up smelling like burnt hair, which wasn’t particularly pleasant. (As a side note, if you want my No! No! let me know and I’d be happy to hand it over.)
So what should you do instead?
So I’m Not Just Overly Sensitive
By Rebecca, June 8, 2009 9:59 pm
I was watching some TV with one of my roommates the other day and she was flipping between (among other things) Bridget Jones II: Tumbling Over the Edge of Reason and Into the Pit of Obnoxiousness. There’s a scene near the end (spoiler altert!) where one of the characters professes her not-very-well-hidden love of Bridget Jones. Jone’s reply, after a particularly ridiculous kiss, is “I’m afraid it’s still men in general, Mark Darcy in particular that I love. But if I ever decide to punt for the other side, there’s no one for me but you.”
I mentioned to my roommate that – if a girl ever professes their love for her – she should not respond like that, as it’s rather condescending.
She said, “No, I think it’s flattering!”
A Matter of Perspective
By Rebecca, June 5, 2009 8:33 pm
I realized something while talking with my therapist this week. We were talking about my motivations for transitioning, and how I felt about the transition thus far, as well as looking into the future.
I started to say, “The transition has never been about moving away from something, it’s been about moving toward something.” But that’s really not true – for much of my time transitioning, the idea of being a woman seemed so impossible, so far away, that I wasn’t really moving toward it with any expectation of it really happening. Rather, I was so miserable where I was that the mere glimmer of hope around the concept of transitioning seemed worth it. (I still sometimes feel that way, but less so than I used to.)
And so each step forward was another round of the same process: “I’m scared about (going back into therapy/going on hormones/living part time as Rebecca/living full time as Rebecca), but I’m so miserable now that anything would make me less miserable.” I wasn’t moving toward something at all; I was moving away from misery.
And yet, that’s not where I am anymore. And I didn’t even notice the change.
I realized, as I was talking to my therapist, that I’m no longer simply moving away from being unhappy – I’m moving toward an identity that makes me happy. It’s perhaps simply a difference in perspective, but I was really surprised to hear myself say it.
The Common Whooping Troll
By Rebecca, June 3, 2009 10:04 pm
Wow! I must be doing something right to warrant a “You can’t be a feminist if you’re trans! Waaaaaah!’ comment! Gold stars for everyone.
Themocracy