My exciting and kinky world of trans-inclusion.
I'm following up on the letter I sent out earlier to a woman's kink thingy.
What amuses me about all of this is:
[edit: I'm leaving the remaining typos in to remind myself why I shouldn't write important letters when I should be sleeping]
1. With this dyke event, where variant gender-expresion is presumably welcome (short hair, comfortable shoes), I'm going to bat to have body-variance included
2. At the women's centre, where they are pretty darn good about body-variance (i.e. intersex, MtF), I am (actually, I should say "was, and may again after the CFS stuff is done") trying to get gender expression included so the space users will stop bothering women with short hair.
So we have people who belong to the one, who would wonder whether they're welcome, and fully welcome, at the other. Maybe I should introduce them.
Man, this shit makes me tense. It just pokes a stick in me. Boundaries. Boundaries.
Anyway. The letters. I guess I'm putting them here to prove I exist, that I am doing this. I think that probing for these answers is the right thing to do, but I feel like I'm being a jackass.
What I want is a clear answer, and it annys me and scares me when I can't get one (confer: BC vital statistics and changing gender). With a clear answer, I do not have to worry about me or one of my friends getting a hurtful response where they thought theywere welcome. I might even be able to look forward to expanding the social bounds and esources of somethnig that I care about (see examples one and two above).
Hi [original name removed begause I don't know if they want it on my LJ] Martha Stewart,
Thank you very much for not just your feedback, and fielding these questions to the meeting. I'm very happy with your policy on one and three. Number four isn't the ideal for me, but I get that this event is women-centred, so that's within what I feel comfortable helping with.
I'm not sure that I understand the committee's answer to number two, and I really would like to make sure that my understanding is the same as the committee's, before I relay my understanding to anyone else. I can interpret it in a couple of ways. I hope that this means that anyone who can enter is as wecome to take off their pants for a good smacking as anyone else, so long as they are mindful of others' boundaries (i.e. basic courtesy).
This could also be interpreted as an oblique reference that equates genitals with gender; cisfemale-looking bits with women('s-space) and not-so-cisfemales-looking bits with compromising women('s space).
So what is meant by this?
I get that some people may have their boundaries more easily triggered by less-cisfemale-looking bits than they do by more cisfemale-looking bits, but I hope that this guideline is not intended to place a special social-spatial onus (or restriction) on female-assigned people who've taken T or had bottom surgery, or intersexed or pre/non transsexed women, much I would not expect there to be a special onus of caution or restriction on full participation directed at cis-female identified participants who look less traditionally feminine than others (i.e. short haircuts).
Can you clarify?
- Amy
- Amy
Martha S wrote: HI Amy we had a meeting tonight and here are the answers (within asterisk) to your questions.
I have some deets based on stories from other events and some personal experience that I'd like to know before I start inviting my friends:
1. Someone shows up at the door wearing what could be construed as either dykey or hipster male clothes, and they look/sound male, and have male ID. If asked, they say 'I'm changing my sex.' Can they come in without supplying any special documentation? (in contrast to other events that require female ID or a doctor's note or something)
**yes they can come in**
2. Can everyone take their pants off? (in contrast to 'only ciswomen, post-op MtFs and pre/non-bottom-op FtMs
and female-bodided genderqueers can take their pants off')
**We welcome our trangendered sisters and brothers and ask that those who attend do so with an awaremenss of the nature of the event and the desire to respectfully share in the women-centered space.**
3. Is there anything that someone can do if other participants are (subtly) harrassing them? (in contrast to 'everyone can come in, but the participants will police them')
**yes, talk to the DM**
4. Can all genderqueers come in? (in contrast to 'genderqueers welcome - but only with female ID.') - I understand that this might sound nitpicky, but I know some genderqueers who're irked when they're divided into male/female - plus I know one or two dyke-identified m-t-genderqueers and the policy as it stands sort of includes them but might not, so I wanted to check.
** our event is open to past, present and future women.**
Cheers
Martha
I'm sorry this is so thorough, and thank you for bearing with me. As long as the answers to these are 'yes,' or closely related thereto, I am totally up for helping out. And if you don't mind, I'd really like to distribute some kind of clarification along with the announcment of this event though the SFU queer-centre mail-lists. This way, T* students know not just that Really Good Friday is on, but that they're welcome - some have found other events to be welcoming in theory, but not in practice, and won't come if they think it might be like their past experiences (same goes for their friends and lovers).
Thanks,
Amy
What amuses me about all of this is:
[edit: I'm leaving the remaining typos in to remind myself why I shouldn't write important letters when I should be sleeping]
1. With this dyke event, where variant gender-expresion is presumably welcome (short hair, comfortable shoes), I'm going to bat to have body-variance included
2. At the women's centre, where they are pretty darn good about body-variance (i.e. intersex, MtF), I am (actually, I should say "was, and may again after the CFS stuff is done") trying to get gender expression included so the space users will stop bothering women with short hair.
So we have people who belong to the one, who would wonder whether they're welcome, and fully welcome, at the other. Maybe I should introduce them.
Man, this shit makes me tense. It just pokes a stick in me. Boundaries. Boundaries.
Anyway. The letters. I guess I'm putting them here to prove I exist, that I am doing this. I think that probing for these answers is the right thing to do, but I feel like I'm being a jackass.
What I want is a clear answer, and it annys me and scares me when I can't get one (confer: BC vital statistics and changing gender). With a clear answer, I do not have to worry about me or one of my friends getting a hurtful response where they thought theywere welcome. I might even be able to look forward to expanding the social bounds and esources of somethnig that I care about (see examples one and two above).
Hi [original name removed begause I don't know if they want it on my LJ] Martha Stewart,
Thank you very much for not just your feedback, and fielding these questions to the meeting. I'm very happy with your policy on one and three. Number four isn't the ideal for me, but I get that this event is women-centred, so that's within what I feel comfortable helping with.
I'm not sure that I understand the committee's answer to number two, and I really would like to make sure that my understanding is the same as the committee's, before I relay my understanding to anyone else. I can interpret it in a couple of ways. I hope that this means that anyone who can enter is as wecome to take off their pants for a good smacking as anyone else, so long as they are mindful of others' boundaries (i.e. basic courtesy).
This could also be interpreted as an oblique reference that equates genitals with gender; cisfemale-looking bits with women('s-space) and not-so-cisfemales-looking bits with compromising women('s space).
So what is meant by this?
I get that some people may have their boundaries more easily triggered by less-cisfemale-looking bits than they do by more cisfemale-looking bits, but I hope that this guideline is not intended to place a special social-spatial onus (or restriction) on female-assigned people who've taken T or had bottom surgery, or intersexed or pre/non transsexed women, much I would not expect there to be a special onus of caution or restriction on full participation directed at cis-female identified participants who look less traditionally feminine than others (i.e. short haircuts).
Can you clarify?
- Amy
- Amy
Martha S wrote: HI Amy we had a meeting tonight and here are the answers (within asterisk) to your questions.
I have some deets based on stories from other events and some personal experience that I'd like to know before I start inviting my friends:
1. Someone shows up at the door wearing what could be construed as either dykey or hipster male clothes, and they look/sound male, and have male ID. If asked, they say 'I'm changing my sex.' Can they come in without supplying any special documentation? (in contrast to other events that require female ID or a doctor's note or something)
**yes they can come in**
2. Can everyone take their pants off? (in contrast to 'only ciswomen, post-op MtFs and pre/non-bottom-op FtMs
and female-bodided genderqueers can take their pants off')
**We welcome our trangendered sisters and brothers and ask that those who attend do so with an awaremenss of the nature of the event and the desire to respectfully share in the women-centered space.**
3. Is there anything that someone can do if other participants are (subtly) harrassing them? (in contrast to 'everyone can come in, but the participants will police them')
**yes, talk to the DM**
4. Can all genderqueers come in? (in contrast to 'genderqueers welcome - but only with female ID.') - I understand that this might sound nitpicky, but I know some genderqueers who're irked when they're divided into male/female - plus I know one or two dyke-identified m-t-genderqueers and the policy as it stands sort of includes them but might not, so I wanted to check.
** our event is open to past, present and future women.**
Cheers
Martha
I'm sorry this is so thorough, and thank you for bearing with me. As long as the answers to these are 'yes,' or closely related thereto, I am totally up for helping out. And if you don't mind, I'd really like to distribute some kind of clarification along with the announcment of this event though the SFU queer-centre mail-lists. This way, T* students know not just that Really Good Friday is on, but that they're welcome - some have found other events to be welcoming in theory, but not in practice, and won't come if they think it might be like their past experiences (same goes for their friends and lovers).
Thanks,
Amy