Gender and Life's Paths: Dec 16, 2008

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Dude Starr Interview on BENDER TV Melbourne

"This is the Version of the interview which went to air on Bent TV did with me over the Midsumma tour. Filmed @ Revolver Feb 8th 2007."

DreadfulCircusFreak

Kate Bornstein Weighs In on Last Night's Trannytastic Terminator

by Charlie Jane Anders

December 16, 2008

Terminator universe. We asked transgender activist and author Kate Bornstein for her opinion of the episode.

For those of you who don't know her, Kate Bornstein is the author of two books on gender issues, Gender Outlaw and My Gender Workbook. Plus two other books, Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn Erotic Adventure and Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws. She's also a playwright and performance artist.

I already wrote about my thoughts on last night's episode here. Among a whole host of UFO freaks, the episode introduced us to Eileen (aka "Abraham"), a blogger about UFO conspiracy stuff who has worked with a mysteriously advanced metal. At my urging, Kate watched the episode, and she was pretty thrilled with it. . . .Read More

Transsexual sues over discrimination

December 11, 2008

by ANDREW WOLFE Staff Writer

CONCORD – A Milford woman charges that PC Connection refused to hire her for a sales job after learning that she'd applied to the company as a man seven years earlier.

Brianna Cook filed the suit against PC Connection, of Merrimack, on Dec. 1 in U.S. District Court in Concord. The company has yet to respond.

Cook is a post-operative transsexual with experience in marketing communications and sales, both as a man and as a woman, her suit states.

She claims PC Connection officials implied that her hiring was assured, and that a company recruiter later told her she was eventually rejected because she hadn't disclosed that she had previously applied to the company as a man.

Cook and her lawyer, Mary Notaris, of Salem, accuse the company of gender discrimination in violation of state and federal law and seek punitive damages, as well as compensation for lost wages and mental anguish. . . .Read More

Internet: Nearly Half of Women Surveyed Choose Internet Over Sex

by Kristy Erdodi - December 16, 2008

Close to half of women surveyed said that they would choose to abandon sex for two weeks rather than give up their Internet access.

Almost half of women questioned by Harris Interactive said that they would choose to abandon sex for two weeks, over sacrificing their internet access, according to a study released Monday by Intel, which delegated the survey.

The survey results, comprised of 2,119 adult respondents surveyed last month in the U.S., make up part of Intel's broader commissioned study on Americans' reliance on the internet in today's economy.

Although nearly 46 percent of women respondents showed their willingness to give up sex life over Web access, only 30 percent of men surveyed would do the same. . . .Read More

Buddhism: Your Daily Meditation

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.- Buddha

Gender variance or nonconformity is found wherever one finds people.

A closer view reveals many variations in gender expression. Note “sex” refers to biology, genes, hormones, body development, whereas “gender” is social role, cultural expectations for appearance and behavior. Gender expression varies over time and throughout cultures and may vary in the lifetimes of individuals. We sometimes hear “male or female”, “masculine or feminine”, as defining “the binary”. Typically, many want males masculine and females feminine, in a world where being androgenous or a hybrid may actually work better. Yet many individuals, for example, parents, teachers, and friends, including some with gender issues, crave the binary. In the case of a significantly gender variant person, gender expression often does not match the social or binary gender role assigned at birth. Nevertheless, the person's expressed gender may feel correct or natural. Thus a gender nonconforming person, maybe someone who even sees themselves as “non-binary”, may feel very uncomfortable with the gender expression expected by parents and significant others. Fortunately, there are a growing number of resources to help those interested understand gender, development, change and adaptation. And there are creative paths one may explore to hopefully find comfort, experience a measure of peace and happiness, and in the process find the gender expression that works best. Here I offer some news, information, resources, opinions and POVs to help you learn more about gender expression and life situations. We now know there are a variety of paths individuals discover that may contribute to positive life changes.

Books you may find interesting:

Benjamin, Harry. (1966). The Transsexual Phenomenon. New York: The Julian Press, Inc. Full text and photographs available as an electronic book: http://www.symposium.com/ijt/benjamin/

Blanchard, Ray and Steiner, Betty W. (1990). Clinical Management of Gender Identity Disorders in Children and Adults. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, Inc.

Bolin, Anne. (1988). In Search of Eve: Transsexual Rites of Passage. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin and Garvey.

Boenke, Mary, (Ed). (2003). Trans Forming Families. Hardy, VA: Oak Knoll Press.

Bornstein, Kate. (1994). Gender Outlaw: On men, women and the rest of us. Routledge: New York & London.

Brill, Stephanie & Pepper, Rachel. (2008). The Transgender Child. San Francisco: Cleis Press.

Brown, Mildred L. & Rounsley, Chloe Ann. (1996). True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brownmiller, Susan. (1984). Femininity. New York: Linden / Simon Schuster.

Buss, David M. (1994). The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating. New York: Basic Books.

Califia, Pat. (1997). Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism. San Francisco: Cleis Press.

Cameron, Loren. (1996). Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits. San Francisco: Cleis Press.

Colapinto, John. (2000). As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl. New York: HarperCollins.

Cromwell, Jason. (1999). Transmen and FTMs: Identities, Bodies, Genders and Sexualities. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Devor, Holly. (1989). Gender Blending: Confronting The Limits of Duality. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Devor, Holly. (1997). Female to Male Transsexuals in Society. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Docter, Richard F. (1988). Transvestites and Transsexuals: Toward a Theory of Cross-Gender Behavior. New York: Plenum Press.

Ehrensaft, Diane. (2011). Gender Born, Gender Made. New York: The Experiment, LLC.

Green, Jamison. (2004). Becoming a Visible Man. Nashville:Vanderbilt Univerrsity Press.

Griggs, Claudine. (1996). Passage through Trinidad: Journal of a Surgical Sex Change. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co.

Griggs, Claudine. (1998). S/He: Changing Sex and Changing Clothes. Oxford: Berg.

HBIGDA, Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders, Sixth Version. (2001). http://www.hbigda.org/socv6.html#top

Kessler, Suzanne and McKenna, Wendy. (1978). Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Serano, Julia. (2007). Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Women on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. San Francisco: Seal Press.

Stuart, Kim Elizabeth. (1983). The Uninvited Dilemma: A Question of Gender. Portland, Oregon: Metamorphous Press, Inc.

Available from Metamorphous Press, Inc. P.O. Box 10616, Portland, Oregon 97210-0616. Fax (503) 223-9117 or Toll Free 1-800-937-7771

Sullivan, Lou. (1990). Information for the Female to Male Cross Dresser and Transsexual. Seattle, Washington: Ingersoll Gender Center.

Available from Ingersoll Gender Center. 1812 E. Madison Seattle, Washington 98122-2843. (206) 329-665

Williams, Walter L. (1986). The Spirit and The Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Boston: Beacon Press.

Zucker, Kenneth J. and Bradley, Susan J. (1995). Gender Identity Disorder and Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents. New York: Guilford.

Gender and Life's Paths

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Dude Starr Interview on BENDER TV Melbourne

Kate Bornstein Weighs In on Last Night's Trannytastic Terminator

Transsexual sues over discrimination

Internet: Nearly Half of Women Surveyed Choose Internet Over Sex

Buddhism: Your Daily Meditation

Gender variance or nonconformity is found wherever one finds people.

What's important?

Three ways to reach me:

About me:

Design concept © (2006) by Rebecca Auge. No claim to other authors' works is intended or implied.

Blog archive:

Some Links for More Information:

Books you may find interesting: