obviously the gender binary constricts, contorts, oppresses.
everyone should be liberated from cultural expectations of gender.
some of us though do not need internal liberation, only external license.
we have instinctively trans-cended the oppression.
we don't fit in with cultural gender expectations (which are crap).
we don't fit in with orthodox sexuality (which is so narrow).
the most oppressive societal attitude though is that towards people who don't fit in.
those who don't fit in should be the educators.
we are special.
if you are trans you can never be either an ordinary woman or an ordinary man. you can only be special.
that the world doesn't acknowledge us as special is a fault of the world.
we just have to appreciate our own specialness without the world's assistance.
"I grew up poor, hated, the victim of physical, emotional, and sexual violence, and I know that suffering does not ennoble. It destroys. To resist destruction, self-hatred, or lifelong hopelessness, we have to throw off the conditioning of being despised, the fear of becoming the they that is talked about so dismissively, to refuse lying myths and easy moralities, to see ourselves as human, flawed, and extraordinary. All of us—extraordinary." – Dorothy Allison (1993)
ReplyDeleteThat quote just seemed appropriate really :)
we are, J, oh we are!
ReplyDeleteGreat quote - thanks! xx