Gender questions again.. y'know, same ol' same ol'

[andytuba]

So, we all know that everyone has some yin and some yang to them, some more than others. I'm wondering what my ratio is again. It's been a while since I've played the genderfuck game

Comments

[lesisputnik]

"That said, I do have a long-standing ideological dispute with the binary division/two-ended spectrum of gender, but it's an ingrained habit from which I don't see too much of an out."

I agree. Although I'm pretty damn vanilla it's something I spend a decent chunk of my time thinking about. Gender binary, bah!

I do think it's interesting that you divide the groups into "colorguard girls" "queer folk" and "whatever people." This straight chick takes a bit of an offense to that - the straight girly girls can't handle it, queer people are down with it because they're down with the diversity (coughcoughcough) and everyone else has mixed reactions based on degree of genderfuckery. I'm always a bit bothered by the whole "the queer community is accepting, unlike you damn breeders" mentality, because it's just as essentializing as any other ridiculously overgeneralizing stereotype. I know that's probably not what you meant, of course, but as the token awkward ally it's something I'm intensely attuned to. I also find the "some straight; some allies" comment rather telling - "allies" are actually a subset of "straight," but your treatment sets them up as exclusive categories, which makes sense from neither a symbolic logic angle nor a gut feeling one.

Sorry I went off on a weird tangent here - I just get really uncomfortable when presented with false binaries/dichotomies, and the queer/straight one is particularly pernicious, especially when it's couched in implications of homophobia and acceptance (or the lack thereof).

Anyway. I'm really intrigued by more subtle genderfuckery, namely playing around with public social/gender roles. It kind of drives the boys I date nuts when I won't stop commenting on who's holding whose arm and who's walking on the outside of the sidewalk, but I find it pretty intensely amusing. Then again I'm also at strangely ill-ease trying to reconcile my shoes-and-skirts obsession with my tank tops-and-jeans, robot-wrangling side.

[andytuba]

You're right with calling me on labelling and stereotyping people and all that illogicity; thanks for mentioning it. I'm tryna practice that, being more general and accepting of individual people rather than categorizing and assuming that people totally represent their class. Donno, I feel kinda trapped in that mindset, of working within classes and types; even when I consciously fight against it, that bottle is still contained within the box: I'm trying to buck the stereotypes rather than just being an individual.

I'm not sure what to expect of people, though. My current philosophy is to not expect the best of people, so I'll be happily surprised when they turn out to be A-OK; but am I setting myself up for disappointment? What do you expect of people on this sort of thing?

Love, me
P.S. I also get a giggle out of seeing who's paired with whom, not just in terms of gender but in terms of how the different kinds of people come together.

P.P.S. Next time you go out wrangling robots, please to put on YouTube!