written to my friend bryce-- not edited
I believe that since our language (and social structures i.e bathrooms, grade school lines, hair cut styles, gendered products, etc) are so intrinsically married to the concept of a binary, that anything else just seems ridiculous. When in fact, "anything else" is only ridiculous to some peoples imaginations because their imaginations have been held captive by the unending weight that is our two-sex/gender binary system. When we are children, we are immediately told who we are, what colors we like, what toys we enjoy playing with, what hairstyles look appropriate and so on. though, our imagination tells us differently. Our imagination, when children, allows us to be whoever we fancy to be on that particular day. If I wanted to be a teenage mutant ninja turtle, than so be it. Mighty Morphing Power Ranger, check. Princesses, monsters, birds, boys, girls, something in between...our imagination was endless. Though, I believe something happens, and this something is not only intentional, but so blatant and obvious to the naked eye that we have come to collectively make its presence unknown. How could a society not believe in social conditioning and gender terrorism when it is right in front of our faces every day of our lives. You can't piss in a public space without feeling the weight of its burden. And squeezed right in between this repressive stranglehold on our imaginations are the intersexed and transgendered bodies of our generation. My imagination tells me that if our language and social structures reflected what only seemed so obvious it was silly to think otherwise when we were 3 years old, then surgery would not be as big of a deal as it is. Little children like myself, born with "larger that normal clitorises" wouldn't be subjected to the knife. Little children with "micro-penises" and hypospadias would be left to urinate and fuck however they chose. Not forced to pick a gender, their imagination could run wild. Trans children could just be. Sure, I believe that in this gender-utopic vision of a society that some people would still choose surgery. Get rid of those breasts if you never wanted them, create a new vagina, do what you got to do. But my point is this, since our language and social structures are currently set up to manipulate our bodies into conforming to one or the other, we are stripped of our autonomy when it comes to these choices about our bodies, or sex, our genders and our selves. Do away with it, and then lets see what unfolds. Allow ourselves to be, and I believe the unnecessary surgeries on intersex children and the self-elected surgeries trans people choose to undergo will take on new meaning. What will a surgeon be "fixing" with an intersex infant if there is no gender binary for them to aspire towards? If normal has no place? If multiple genders and shifting identities became a part of our everyday vernacular, then I also feel, and I take a risk when saying this, that not as many trans people would feel the pressure to undergo risky surgery that could potential lead to nerve damage, scar tissue, and even death. I believe that the ultimate sacrifice that we make for the current gendered structure of our language and society is going under the knife--whether we choose to or not. Damn the binary and those who support it's weight by not only maintaining it, but enforcing it with the sharp blades of their scalpels and knives. Give us a space inbetween, outside, and all around to exist because this shit on either side is starting to get stale.