Profile: Katelyn/Joey
You can call me… Katelyn, Kat, Joey, Joey D. or J.D.
I identify as… Gender Ambidextrous. Both, Neither, Somewhere in between. Masculine with just a dash of femininity for good measure. I love sports and photography and art and science. I LOVE science. I’m a geek, a dork, a freak, and (most importantly) I win life.
As far as third-person pronouns go, … All of them, none of them, whatever you want. I’ve heard them all: him, her, it, she, he, they, that. I answer to just about everything these days.
I’m attracted to… feminine women, masculine women, men who know the difference between Schrodinger and Schopenhauer, tattoos, piercings, crazy hairstyles, funky hair colors, and anyone who bends the lines of traditional gender norms.
When people talk about me, I want them to… realize who I am, not what I am, even if I myself don’t always know. I want them to see my laugh, my smile, my wit, and my charm. I want them to see who I am beneath the lackluster veneer that we call “gender.”
I want people to understand… that the world doesn’t have to be so strict and that any time you give something two sides, be it a war, a debate, gender, or politics, there will always be places where they overlap and where people stand in the middle. That life isn’t so serious and that spending all of our time fighting over how people “should” be/look/act/etc. instead of accepting them for who they are is only going to make our one chance on this earth a waste of time. Why make ourselves miserable when there’s so much else we can do?
About Katelyn
I’m a genderqueer from a small town where the only thing people understand about genderqueer is the word “queer.” So naturally I’ve been labeled a lesbian by default. Or was until last week when some friends finally got the message and took a vote in which they renamed me Joey. Needless to say I’m rather pleased. My dad has called me his son-daughter for years so I think he more or less understands. Most likely less. I’m just a he/she/it who likes to have fun and rock out with my friends.
» Define yourself. «
Category: profiles 7 comments »
November 6th, 2010 at 7:40 am |
I love that your friends communally renamed you! :D
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November 6th, 2010 at 10:47 am |
Gender as a “lackluster veneer”… I like it!
Congrats on the renaming, by the way.
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November 6th, 2010 at 4:13 pm |
Your relaxed optimism is refreshing. Keep living it!
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November 6th, 2010 at 6:30 pm |
Pleased to met you Joey. Small towns can be cruel places to live. Good you have friends who are beginning to come to an understanding of you.
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J.D. replied:
November 7th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
I actually didn’t mention for some reason, but the photo on here (its a bit dated…almost a year old now) was taken at my school’s Homecoming. The first ever homecoming where two female-bodied individuals were able to go together as a couple. I had to fight like crazy, but it was so worth it. College is a heck of a lot more laid back about things than high school was. I’m glad to be out, but I’m hoping I can still manage to make people think more critically about gender (and everything else) everywhere I go.
PS- Thank you so much everyone for the congratulations. The renaming was a wonderful show of support from my friends and I’ll always attempt to be relaxed and optimistic as long as there are always reasons to be.
Peace,
Joey Douglas
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November 6th, 2010 at 10:26 pm |
I’m glad your dad is supportive. Needless to say, a lot of dad’s aren’t.
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J.D. replied:
November 7th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
well he is but he isn’t, he’s just really not surprised by anything I do anymore.
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