Comments on: creating conscious gender

By: My identity: Gender « genderkid

My identity: Gender « genderkid — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:53:51 +0000

[...] the “trans” or “genderqueer” part of my identity is there to mark the consciousness of my gender. I am male-identified, but that’s a choice that I renew each and every day. [...]

By: Polly

Polly — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:45:31 +0000

Amen, sister-brother brother-sister! I wish I had more time at the moment to do more than tip the brim of my baseball cap to you. But I had to say as much. Such a fascinating conversation; such a wise take on it all. Many, many thanks for your wise and thoughtful voice.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:13:08 +0000

Wow! SS and Leo, together, thanks! Tremendous thoughts on sex/gender/priveledge, and then the link to race/class- woah…
I’ve got another deep question to ponder and explore.
J

By: babygrrlfemme

babygrrlfemme — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:23:00 +0000

Woah, it’s interesting what leo said about conscious race, class and gender. I’ve never quite given it words, but part of the conscious gender that i expect/desire in myself and my friends/lovers/etc has to do with privilege, too. because as a high femme, I do have some privilege in certain area. And my stone butch partner does, too, in different places. And I expect her to be aware of that, and aware of it’s effect on others, just as i am careful of my privilege, when to use it (in a female bathroom with her) and when not to (most of the rest of the time, as much as i can control that). I also ask that white queers be aware of their race privilege, and middle and upper class queers be aware of their class privilege. And THEN (to make it more complicated) I am also aware of my combo privileges, as a white, educated, middle class, able bodied, average sized femme, because those things separately are a lot of privilege, but together….. i don’t think they can even be taken apart from each other

By: Blue in the Sky

Blue in the Sky — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:53:12 +0000

Thank you for this. Everything you write leads me to do more thinking for myself and I really value that. I am grateful for you and your work.

By: leo

leo — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:37:07 +0000

this is a bit out of left field, perhaps, but your essay got me thinking… what about the other two elements of that holy trinity, race, class, & gender? is it possible or desirable to have a conscious race or class? and what does that look like? there’s something liberating, for me, about claiming a conscious gender of female masculinity, but i’m also white and middle-class, and the idea of a celebratory, conscious whiteness and middle-classness… well, it seems a bit creepy. unless my conscious race, for example, were simply conscious antiracism and an awareness of what being white means in this racist world. is that because of my different positions on the hierarchy in each category? (would a conscious straight male gender then be mainly about anti-sexism?) or is it because of some fundamental differences between how gender works and how the other two work? (like: class mobility is desirable, race mobility is either impossible or despised, gender mobility is this whole other complicated thing.)
not expecting any answers on this from you, ss! just my own musings as i consider what this gender thing really is, and how it fits into the whole experience of being human. thanks for a thought-provoking post.

By: Jess

Jess — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:02:23 +0000

Sinclair, your entries about gender are always food for thought. I thinks it’s great that you encourage all of us to explore these things on our own, especially or “conscious gender” as you put it.

My gender is very much a natural part of me, but I am purposely conscious of where it comes from and how it’s represented by me in my day to day.

Great topic!

Much respect, have a great weekend.

-The blogger formerly known as Jero. heh.

By: Tsugradstudent

Tsugradstudent — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 23:15:08 +0000

As an anthropology grad student, I find this discussion fascinating. My focus is on how inter-intra personal communication affect the balance of power in arenas where violence has occurred/is occurring. Thank you for some interesting reading.

By: miss sunday

miss sunday — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:48:50 +0000

kudos. i’ve been on a gender discussion roller coaster this week, and its really nice to read your thoughts.

thanks.

[My pleasure, & thanks for saying. PS, you're the 3,000th comment! - ss]