Comments for Gorgon Queen

Comment on The Stoic Gorgon by Zoe Brain

Zoe Brain — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:07:36 +0000

“For instance, to a radical feminist I am the patriarchy because I express gender, whereas to a transsexual fundamentalist I am a fake because I supposedly deconstruct gender. And choosing to express gender, I find that what transwomen are permitted to be is narrowly and arbitrarily defined by the agenda of the beholder… which really means that what women are is being narrowly defined, since natal women get an automatic pass, but transwomen have to meet criteria.”

Exactly.

As for movements…I’ve become something of an activist, despite not wishing to be, because I’ve been forced into it. Some of that is fighting for my own personal human rights (like a passport…). But much of it these days is because I’m a neocon, a believer in Personal Responsibility (capitalised). Had I not been TS/IS, I wouldn’t have been so involved, but it would have been a matter of degree, not kind. TS people get a raw deal, and I’m incapable of just letting “other people” do something about it. Not when I’m in a very good position to help, and others are not. It’s my turn to put my head up over the trench wall this time.

But mainly, as La Glitch said, just living is enough. Being. Just by that, you’re an example and a “teachable moment”.

Comment on The Stoic Gorgon by La Glitch

La Glitch — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 13:05:24 +0000

i automatically switch off every time i’m reading a thread anywhere and somebody starts detailing their life-story experience. i mean, i don’t care. really, i don’t. it always seems a way of making the thread in question about *them*, and reeks of self-validation. ‘the lady doth protest too much’, and all that.

trans-politics has been tiring me for a while as well. the whole HBS rumpus, well, i read through some of the fights. even considered getting involved, but it seemed like such a waste of energy. it tired me out just listening and staying silent. i dread to think how much time and momentum i would have lost if i got my teeth into it, because if i’d got involved it would have wound me up to that level. aloof i may try to be, but involved i most certainly am. especially when others, such as crowds in the recent ding-dongs, try to suggest ‘this be the way it is’.

i don’t think activism has to be loud, or ego-centric, you know. i once considered just getting out of the house and walking down the street a form of activism. ‘i’m still here. i still *dare* to be here’. while i’m grappling with my own connection to and involvement with the trans-community, and i am even though i might not have been explicit of late, this is the thing i’m holding onto. you don’t need bombast, you don’t even need to raise your voice, you just need to be, consistently, stubbornly, and gracefully, *there*.

and if you need a break once in a while, hell, who is anybody to argue.

Comment on And on that note… by emma

emma — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:39:25 +0000

Pausing to think is part of the dynamic of discourse. That seems to be forgotten, the more intensely desperate the cacophy of self interests become. Words, like music, often benefit from the measure of silence included. The placement of the caesura fulfills the sense of an entire verse line.

Enjoy the break, for as long as you need. Only you can enable it as exile.

Comment on And on that note… by dentedbluemercedes

dentedbluemercedes — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:53:06 +0000

Sometimes, too much involvement in the blogwars and the weekly Running of the Trolls can be more draining than it’s worth. But I hope you don’t become too scarce. This is one of those situations where you have to pick your activism, pace yourself, and take a break from a subject occasionally, before it saps all your strength.

Hm. Come to think of it, it was you reminding me of this, not too long ago.

Take care, hon.

Comment on The Stoic Gorgon by Stassa

Stassa — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:21:39 +0000

You must know that I had a great laugh every time one of the fundamentalists tried to troll you into “coming clean” about your transition experience. Or, when they were so certain you’re one with the actholes? That was really good internet.

I’m sure though you didn’t just do it to make a point and prove that you (”one” can let your ideas speak for you (duh) instead of having to justify your views with “I’m this” or “I’m that” and “therefore I know what I’m talking about.”

I think, you also partly did it because you have a major personal investment in seeing valuable ideas expressed clearly and reaching as many people as possible (and doing to them what ideas do to people.)

And also because you have a mean streak and you just love seing idiots suffer. Or you’re just fascinated by the way they keep bumping their heads on the same glass pane, over and over.

::evil grin::

Comment on The Stoic Gorgon by And on that note… « Gorgon Queen

And on that note… « Gorgon Queen — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:56:00 +0000

[...] And on that note… One of the ways I keep my sanity is my limiting my incursions into the online trans world, the motherlode of high weirdness only briefly touched on in the previous entry. [...]

Comment on A Unifying Force by emma

emma — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:21:25 +0000

‘Their little universe’ is a wonderful key phrase to sum up the delusion of any fundamentalism. Pity they don’t see that “the” universe not only doesn’t need to recognize their possessiveness, but continues to function without even considering it.

Comment on The central importance of love by Stassa

Stassa — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:51:14 +0000

He he. Nobody can call me a pseudo- intellectual for long… Truth is there’s quite a bit of pseudo-intellectualisering in the world of transpolitics, and on the side of the “good guys” (god make them!) A lot of it revolves around coming up with catchphrases (like mine) instead of honest debate. Which is one reason why I enjoyed our recent tag-team, ’cause you recognise that relying on slogans is lazy-assery too. I’m sad I couldn’t join you in the transadvocate debates btw

Comment on A Unifying Force by gorgonqueen

gorgonqueen — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:39:36 +0000

I think it’s bigger than that, Callan. I think it’s more than queerness, and one’s willingness to own it. I think it’s about a basic mental type that cuts across social, political and gender types… the pinched, authoritarian martinet who can’t stand anything in their little universe being out of place. It’s what makes them all basically the same, regardless of whatever little identity fortress they huddle in.

And that’s what’s interesting about being trans… it apparently challenges everybody.

Comment on A Unifying Force by Callan

Callan — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:08:05 +0000

I am reminded of Katherine Hawkins’ mother, who announced to the crowd “My daughter got rid of all her ambiguities and contradictions — and dumped them right onto us.”

Maybe the real label on the box is “The fears I hold about my own queerness.” So much easier to simplify by try to break the mirrors rather than come to grips with our own human reflection.