Comments on: Gender Identity, Gender Expression, Body Presentation and Sexual Attraction

By: Zan

Zan — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:03:58 +0000

Sorry I typed wrong You are awesome ( we are too, but anyway…

By: Zan

Zan — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:03:23 +0000

Awesome job. I love the way you present things in a logical yet humanistic point of view. I love the charts and dialog.
You are totally awesome Monica. Love, Zan

By: Zan

Zan — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:03:04 +0000

Awesome job. I love the way you present things in a logical yet humanistic point of view. I love the charts and dialog.
We are totally awesome Monica. Love, Zan

By: Polar

Polar — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:09:09 +0000

These would seem to be useful tools. However, i still catch myself in the trap of saying “I need to be a girl today!!!!” or, “Yuck, I have to be a guy today, I’ve got to get under the car today and rebuild the tranny (couldn’t resist that). Regardless, I tell myself that it’d be easier to ban “girl” and “guy”, and just be me, whatever that presentation might be on any given day.

Which brings us to the ultimate determinate: societal expectations and requirements. I dare say those have gone the wrong way since 1970, instead the right way. In 1979, I could wear women’s tops with my jeans, a bit of makeup, and people (girls, for sure) would say I looked cool. Today, I go to work in my favorite shirt, which is silk and has parrots all over it, and I get flak from coworkers that it looks a bit queer. I’m gonna wear it anyway, but I don’t think I’ll be wearing my fave women’s tops there anytime soon.

By: MonicaHelms

MonicaHelms — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:40:14 +0000

Holly,
I have always loved your viewpoint on “gender” and I only wish the rest of the human race could even begin to understand that. I feel that there has to be an intermediate step between the enlightenment you posess and the total binary viewpoint most everyone else has. How do we get to that step? We have to educate people on the fluidity of gender first before we can get people to stop thinking of “either/or.” We can use you as the goal we want the rest of humanity to reach. In the meantime, we can use these charts to help people reach that goal.

By: Holly Boswell

Holly Boswell — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:21:58 +0000

I no longer believe in the need for gender. In fact, I believe that the human construct of gender can only limit us, ultimately. I prefer to see humanity as “spiritual beings having a human experience”. Allowing our culture to genderize us can be dramatic and even fun, but I believe it does us a profound disservice as human beings.

When I commune within the “natural world” (i.e. literally romping in the woods with other animals and plants), there is no doubt for me that I am always much happier just being a human — without any trappings of gender. But of course, that’s just me.

I only offer my perspectives to promote the overall dialogue around these important issues we have all come to regard as “transgender” (a term I popularized after Virginia Prince’s earlier limited usage, now credited in the Oxford English Dictionary). Kate Bornstein said something like, “I will shed my genders like a snake shedding its skins”.

Thank you, Monica, for this forum.

Love and blessings to you all…

Holly