I do not own it.
Someone wrote…
I don’t like the concept of “my gender” because it is not something that I own or possess, rather, it is something that comes and goes. I do not own it, and in turn, it does not own me.
What’s your experience?
Posted by julian on September 10th, 2010 at 08:00 am
Category: your voice 7 comments »
September 10th, 2010 at 9:41 am |
I love this! Very taoist, in a way. Regardless, this is amazing!
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September 10th, 2010 at 11:09 am |
I agree. I love the way you put this. I much prefer to rent gender as it feels applicable, or perhaps rather let it rent space in my body and mind when it comes and goes.
Gender is not a possession or possessor. It is a mere drifter, renting space by the hour or by the day, coming and going as it pleases.
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September 10th, 2010 at 6:06 pm |
This makes so much sense to me, and hopefully it’ll dispel my frustration with being able to pin down my gender definitively.
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September 11th, 2010 at 10:17 am |
I own my gender, and accordingly, I can do whatever I like with it. I’m free to remodel it as I see fit. (Wouldn’t it bite if I had to get permission from the landlord to repaint?)
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September 13th, 2010 at 9:48 am |
Thirty spokes make the wheel’s hub;
It is the center hole that makes them useful.
Shape clay into a vessel,
And it is the space within that makes it useful.
With the doors and windows of a house,
That they are holes is what makes them useful.
Male and Female may describe aspects of a person,
Not the essence of who this person is.
Thus are we helped by what is not to use what is.
Adulterated Lao Tzu….
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September 14th, 2010 at 3:14 pm |
for me… my gender is very much tied up the a matter of reclaiming something that … one way or another… the world told me i couldn’t be or have… because i’d been born with certain attributes. the words “my gender” feel very powerful to me. it’s like i reclaim something very precious by describing it in that way. i own it. no one else does. and you can try and argue with me on it but its mine. though its fluid, though its not a fixed point, and at times impossible for even i to grasp: the freedom for it to be that way is mine entirely mine.
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September 14th, 2010 at 3:41 pm |
Bits of my gender belong to the innumerable people and outfits and demeanors and ideas. While all of these have been useful to me, some of the most invaluable are listed below:
Poisen Ivy as played by Uma Therman
Snow White
David Bowie
Bond Girls
Tuesday Addams
Margot from “The Royal Tenembaums”
Marylin Monroe in “Some Like It Hot”… Tony Curtis, from “Some Like It Hot”.
Maid Marion
“guyliner” guys
Several anime characters…
Alexander Mcqueen collection 2005
Lyra
Milla Jovovich in 5th “Element”
loud, overdone trannys everywhere
countless strangers
one or two close friends
and, of course, my mother and father
Many thanks to all of the above for inspiring me and making me feel so comfortable in my own skin, and wardrobe.
My whole gender is copyrighted to myself, circa 2009.
And “me” occupies the space between the spokes. If you know what I mean.
:)
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