Again, I realize I haven't posted in a while. This may be a trend. However, I haven't forgotten this blog exists and I really do my best to update with meaningful posts when I can. You all can yell at me when it becomes "So I got called 'Sir' again today. Lol!"
At any rate, today I have a thought that has always lurked in the back of my mind and was brought to the fore by reading about ABC's new show "Work It." Work It is a show about two men who are convinced that the recession is just about not needing men for jobs. So the obvious solution is to dress like women to get jobs! And this entire premise is supposed to be funny - just the fact that men are dressing like women. The jokes are all based on this, the fact that men are entering the female space and needing to assimilate, blah, blah, blah.
Alright, so what does this have to do with me and the trans* community? Well, inadvertently or not, ABC is turning being a woman into a joke. The moment this happens, society finds it easier to target those of us who are women, those of us who are gender non-conforming and those of us trying to authentically live our lives as women regardless of the way we were born. Why? I honestly don't know. Perhaps it's because society still views women as less-than. Who knows? I don't get why it's funny either. To be honest, it just gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach because that's how society views people like me right now - as a poser. We aren't *really* men or women, us transfolk, we're just pretending. Anyway, that's a subject for a different post, perhaps when I feel more like complaining....
The biggest struggle for me at the moment is that feeling of guilt. By wanting to be read as male, am I just playing right into that horrible vision that men are inherently better? I understand that there is a line between male supremacy and simply being male, just as by being white I'm not automatically going to join the KKK. An extreme comparison, I suppose, but perhaps it can help me to remember that if we truly believe every gender and every race is equal, I have nothing to fear by identifying as either one or both. At least, nothing to fear inside my own head. After all, by even worrying about that, I'm making men less than women, and that's detrimental to the cause I'm trying to pursue.
We all have our struggles and, apart from trans* issues, one of mine is being coherent. So, if I don't make sense or you need clarification, leave a comment and I'll do my best to try to make it clearer.
