Profiles on Genderfork

Thank you all for the generous feedback you have given me about Genderfork so far. (Some of you have even sent me tips and suggestions for interesting photos. That helps me out a lot — thank you!) I’m giddy with gratitude that this site has survived its first few critical months as a blog, and I can feel it starting to take on a personality of its own — something very sweet and very firey.

That personality has recently sparked up some new content, and I’m now ready to share it with you. It’s time to launch Profiles on Genderfork.

The inspiration for this undertaking came out of a workshop on Writing With and About Gender with S. Bear Bergman. We were discussing how frustrating it can be to not know how people want to be treated. A brilliant writer named Lynn Kendall suggested that we start polling or interviewing people and sharing that information online. At first I thought this was an impossible task, but then the longer I sat with it, the more it seemed reasonable and useful — and like something Genderfork could actually try to take on.

So I’ve asked some people with ambiguous gender presentations to answer a few questions about themselves:

My name is ____.

My preferred third person pronouns are ______.

I identify as _____.

I’m attracted to _____.

When people talk about me, I want them to _______.

I want people to understand _______.

Pairing these statements with a photograph of themselves, these courageous individuals are offering up a public and intimate representation of a marginalized population. I am deeply honored that they have chosen to share themselves here.

The goal of these profiles is to offer insight into how these people see themselves and how they want to be treated. They will all be different, but we will notice common threads. Some of these people will name themselves while others will prefer to remain anonymous. Some will stick to the format I suggested while others will need to break it. It’s all okay.

Anyone whose gender presentation doesn’t fully make sense to society is welcome here. If you would like to add your voice to this project, please email me: andi [at] genderfork [dot] com. I would be honored to give you a place to share your story.

And now, please straighten your bow tie and prepare your curtsy, because there’s someone very special I would like you to meet. It is with great respect and appreciation that I bring you the first profile.


Posted by on December 17th, 2007 at 09:42 am

Category: profiles One comment »

One Response to “Profiles on Genderfork”

  1. Koan

    Andi, from the first, I had no doubt that Genderfork would survive “its first few critical months as a blog” – because you were (and are) addressing subject matter that needs addressing, from a perspective that I, for one, didn’t see it being covered from, before.

    This new addition, of profiles, is yet more evidence of that, in my opinion. Individual voices, telling individual stories, from individual viewpoints, each unique, yet united by the common thread of diversity (if that isn’t a contradiction).

    I respect, and applaud, all that you’re doing here.

    [Reply]


Leave a Reply


Can I show your picture? If you have a Gravatar associated with this email address, it will be displayed as your photo. If not, I'll just put a picture of a fork next to your comment. Everybody likes forks.

Be nice. Judgmental comments will be quietly deleted and blacklisted. There's plenty of room for those elsewhere on the web.

For legal reasons, you must be age 13 or older to post a comment on Genderfork.

You can use some HTML tags for formatting, e.g. <em>...</em> for emphasis (italics) or <strong>...</strong> for strong emphasis (bold) or <a href="http://(url)">...</a> for links.


Back to top