Thanks for reading!
- Andrea James
- Uncategorized
- Jan 11, 2010
- Emotional, guestblog
What a pleasure and a delight it’s been to guestblog here! With the holidays and my job and everything, it went very quickly. I was unable to get to a number of topics I thought might be of interest, such as: controversy as a marketing tool, the anesthetic shamans of philosophy (Benjamin Paul Blood and William James), X-ray hair removal, the work of Dmitri K. Belyaev, the connection between transgenderism and transhumanism, some amazing trans historical figures, other trends on Facebook and Wikipedia, an interview with my Googlegängers, the history of the Chicago River… perhaps another time or another place. The hardest part for me was to let so many amazing insightful reader comments (both agreements and disagreements) pass unacknowledged. My thanks to each of you for taking the time to read and comment! A couple more things…
Image: Yours truly backstage at last year’s Trans March.
I hope my posts got you to think about things you
hadn’t previously considered and made you aware of new points
of view. Many of you raised my awareness. I believe 95% of all
discussion is preaching to the choir and talking to like-minded
people, rather than reaching out to other people in ways that
will actually shake things up. I consider myself a muckraker of
the old-school variety, one who “comforts th’ afflicted,
afflicts th’ comfortable.” I encourage each of you to do some
muckraking of your own around whatever topic is important to
you, and to afflict people when they start getting too
comfortable (yourself included). I also encourage each of you
to do something creative every day.
In my lifetime,
transgender Americans were routinely rounded up by the police,
and that’s still the case in parts of the world. That recent
history makes me very aware of how our culture tries to
demonize, criminalize and pathologize difference, and how much
of that centers around reproductive ideologies (steeped in
religious or scientific language, sometimes both). In other
times and places, trans and gender-variant people have had an
important and valued place in society. For reasons not yet
clear, trans people are often especially adept at languages
(especially music, writing, linguistics, and computing
languages). My friend Lynn
Conway, a historically significant figure in the
history of computing, maintains a great (but far from complete)
list of successful
trans women and successful
trans men.
If you ever want to know anything
about hair
removal, please stop by HairFacts and
HairTell,
and if you or a friend ever need information on the practical
aspects of gender transition, please stop by Transsexual Road
Map. This year marks my 15th anniversary of providing
this free information online.
My business partner
Calpernia
Addams and I speak all over the country, so, have us
visit your campus or group!
I thought I’d sign off with what I consider the
ultimate Unicorn Chaser: Mr. Winkle as a baby unicorn (available
here)! Thanks once again!