When
you first see a person, you automatically take in their attributes and compare
them against your framework for identifying people. This is natural, stemming from the nature of
our conceptual faculty. From there, you
draw conclusions about a person based on how you’ve experienced these categories. You interact with the new person on the basis
of these conclusions. This is
problematic to the extent that these conclusions are false for the new person. This is the epistemic basis of racism,
sexism, etc.
The
problem of being transgender/transsexual is not even that people draw false
conclusions; it’s deeper. It is that
people don’t even conceptualize me properly, and when it comes to people, if the
premises are false, the conclusions are necessarily false. I can’t clear my face every day, because it
irritates my skin, so I will often go through my day with facial hair, which
outs me as male bodied. Because I’m male
bodied, it is assumed that I’m a man, and since I’m attracted to men, I’m a gay
male. This is my gender attribution. For most
people, gender attribution and gender identity match. Mine doesn’t.
Because
I’m attributed as a “guy”, I therefore have to come out as—well, what? I’m not a woman either. And these are the only two categories most
people recognize. My project is even
harder than just passing as a woman; I have to revolutionize the very conceptual
framework that says there are only two ways to present your gender. I have to come out as a gender outlaw every
time I carry a purse when I haven’t cleared my face. Every time I wear a skirt and sing tenor;
every time I talk about my past as a gay male; every time I talk about the
straight boys I’m crushing on, I fight
against every tide of attribution that says I shouldn’t exist.
And
so here I am, out and proud: a gender outlaw.
Catch me if you can.
Xavia Publius
Xavia Publius
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