Notice

[baratron]

Following Some Events at BiCon, there are various rants taking place in various places about pronouns for transgendered people and how the hell are you supposed to know if they're transgender if they're wearing normal clothes? Here is my comment:

As a cisgendered female, I have the right to wear trousers, t-shirts, no makeup and stompy boots. Why should a transgendered female have to dress any differently?

Or in other words, "It's a girl's t-shirt".

Comments

This may make me staggeringly unpopular..

[syllopsium.livejournal.com]

Additionally may also be slightly surprising given some of the things I wear, and various background things.

In my opinion :

Wear what you want
If someone appears to be strongly female gendered, refer to them as female.
If someone appears to be strongly male gendered, refer to them as male.
If it is debateable, play the pronoun game.
Sometimes this will be adjusted according to environment.

If, after that, you as a cis/transgendered person are misidentified and this is upsetting, this is *your problem*. If the person misidentifying you is corrected, but maliciously continues to misidentify you, this is their problem.

This really sucks if it is difficult to present yourself in the way you would prefer to be presented. Unfortunately the reality is that the world will not revolve around you, and that it's easier for one person to become comfortable with their own gender.

Having said the above, the general populace should be more accepting of non binary gender. It would make a lot of people much more comfortable with their assigned sex and gender mix.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Having thought about it a bit more, I actually think that clothing may be a reasonable indicator of someone's gender - in the world outside BiCon! In the wider world, recognising that the majority of "normal" people only recognise two genders, people are more likely to dress in a more feminine or masculine way in an attempt to "pass" as one of them. Is it a good thing that people feel they need to pass? No, not really, but it's better than being beaten up physically or verbally.

At BiCon, using clothing to guess gender is absolutely useless. How many men wearing make up are there in the bi community? It's safe, we're accepting - feel free to wear nail varnish and eyeliner if that's the kind of guy you are! And I saw at least three men with strong male identities wearing dresses on Saturday night. A person could argue that drag is a transgender act, but to me it depends on whether the guy concerned is wearing the dress to explore being a woman/his feminine side or whether it's to emphasise his masculinity.

Re: This may make me staggeringly unpopular..

[x-mass.livejournal.com]

so because i wear "men's clothes" i should be referred to as male???

if the police can cope why cant everyone else

Re: This may make me staggeringly unpopular..

[syllopsium.livejournal.com]

That's not what I said.

Re: This may make me staggeringly unpopular..

[x-mass.livejournal.com]

then i'm confused and please have my apologies
kate

Re: This may make me staggeringly unpopular..

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I wear men's socks. OH NOES I'M A SOCK TRANSVESTITE!

syllopsium said:
Wear what you want
If someone appears to be strongly female gendered, refer to them as female.
If someone appears to be strongly male gendered, refer to them as male.

Personally, I see you as strongly female gendered, so your clothing is as irrelevant as my socks. Which is the point I'd been trying to make in my original post :)

Re: This may make me staggeringly unpopular..

[a-musing-amazon.livejournal.com]

Mostly nitoda knits my socks. I've never asked her what their gender is but they are really nice and do fit my feet very well.

If you asked nicely maybe she could knit you some too and save you the embarrassment of having to out yourself as a sock transvestite in M&S - though I suppose you just tell them that you are buying for wuzzie ;-).