(no subject)

[the_fantastic_ms_fox]

More Naval-Gazing feom GDST 200

(the class is on gender, but the below extends to all manner of things)

When is one’s gender and its history someone else’s business? Colman is upset to discover that his father is biofemale. Chatroom clients are perturbed by the idea that Kate Bornstein may not share zir persona’s gender. After the newspaper outed Brandon teena, two men raped him, then later later killed him, his girlfriend and one of his friends.

Whose business is one’s gender identity? If one has a right to one’s own gender expression, and if one’s gender expression is socially validated, then one has a right to do what is necessary to feel legitimated, and this can extend to being acknowledged as a member of one’s preferred gender. If obfuscating (or lying about) one’s past is the only way to do this, is it then fair? Is it wise?

One constructs one’s identity in large part through gendered relations, some with strong ties to the act of reproduction: father and son; wife and husband. Colman presumes that he is the biological male adopted (and therefore non-biological) child of a biological man and a heterosexual woman who have been up front with him about his origins – with the exception of his father’s ancestry. He defines himself by these points and when they are called into question, so is Colman’s identity. Is it then fair to him that his parents overlook his father’s biological sex? If it’s unfair, is it then laudable that Colman knows about his adopted status? Consider how different Trumpet would have been had Colman grew up assuming that Millie and Joss were his biological parents, only to have his father’s death prove that this impossible. Consider also an alternate Trumpet where only Millie ever knew.

            Should Millie and/or Joss then have told Colman about Joss’ biological sex? If so, when? The younger Colman is when he finds out, the less shocked he’d be, but the more likely it is that he’d let it slip, causing harm to his father, his mother, and even himself. If not, then what information do we owe to which relations?

If we divulge our sexual history solely as a hedge against infection, then chatrooms need no pre-briefing. Given that gender carries no risk of infection, is it then not our lover’s business? And if it’s not our lover’s business, is it anyone else’s at all? Or is gender actually inherently safe? If there’s a physical, social, or psychological risk attached to getting involved with someone of a certain gender present or past, then maybe others have a right to know – or a right to never know. If finding out that one’s parent, friend or lover has always been trans causes psychological harm, should the trans person mitigate this harm by coming out early? Alternatively, if being the child, lover or friend of a trans person is dangerous, then does the transgendered person have an obligation to carry their secret to the grave?