The language of androgyny
A German speaker reaches across language barriers to find kindred souls. How have you noticed linguistic privilege affecting Genderfork or similar communities?
Posted by XylophoneGender on April 16th, 2009 at 04:00 pm
Category: video 5 comments »
April 16th, 2009 at 11:29 pm |
Sometimes I find it hard to express my thoughts on gender in Spanish, my mother tongue. I find that terms such as "genderqueer" and "queer" describe me best, and those are concepts that were invented in the English language. Maybe if people discussed gender online, in Spanish, terms like those would spring up.
I have found Spanish-speakers on English-language sites (here, for instance!), so I tried opening a genderqueer-themed blog in Spanish, hoping to participate in a gender community; but I didn't find any other like-minded bloggers. Maybe I should keep trying, in case someone out there finds me and strikes up a conversation.
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April 17th, 2009 at 4:42 pm |
I like the idea of documenting the journey. Because even androgyny takes a bit of a transition. It's generally not as drastic as the transitions that transgendered people go through, but it is still present.
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April 18th, 2009 at 7:02 am |
this person's thoughts really resonated with me… translated words hold a special power, they are raw, like taking an unfamiliar medium and using it to say something: you see what you have said in a different light… or like using a tool for something it's not meant to do: it's not quite right, but maybe you discover something new, possibilities that nobody thought of before…
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April 20th, 2009 at 2:25 am |
This is really awesome to read. I've been digging around Youtube for a while looking for spoken Spanish vlogs and come up with so little. Searching for things like "transhombre" or "transmujer" comes up with so little – and even then the videos are often objectified portrayals of TS women. If you find words & vocab in Spanish as it's evolving, please let me know. Buena suerte with your blog – where can I find it?
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genderkid replied:
April 28th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
"Trans man" and "trans woman" translate as "hombre trans" and "mujer trans"; searching for "hombre trans" on Youtube will lead you to at least one vlog-type type documentary.
There are awesome words and identities in Spanish; I just haven't found much about them online, which is my main source of info while I'm still under my parents' care. For instance, many people have reclaimed the term travesti (similar to "transvestite"), defining it for themselves; I'm still learning about that identity, which seems fabulous.
I've also met people who identify simply as "transsexual" or "trans" but who have really interesting genders — I'm starting to realize that an identity is more than just its name.
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