Sex Ed, Wednesday, Period 2
As usual, the desks in the classroom had been pushed to the side and replaced by a small circle of comfy chairs,couches and beanbags. Didi perched comfortably in a red beanbag more or less at the front of the circle.
“Hey,” she said. “So we’ve covered the mechanics of sex and birth control and all that, but one thing we haven’t talked about much yet are sexual and gender identity. Which are not the same thing.”
"Believe it or not, we started you off with the easy shite." John, no. "So here it goes: You've got sex, which is the biological sexual organs you're born with. And no, that's not just boy or girl, because some people are both or neither. There's gender identity, which is basically your concept of self and your self-perception, which, again, is not on a binary. Gender expression is how you choose to express that gender identity, and that does not have to conform to any fucking societally expected behaviours as to 'masculine' or 'feminine' either."
He looked around the room and shrugged his shoulders at anyone staring at him. "What? I might be a cis bloke --which means I identify as the gender as my biological sex --but that doesn't mean I'm oblivious. I was in a punk band, and punk was pretty much this time period's early genderfuckery experimental playground."
Didi explained further, giving a quick set of examples.
“Some of you may not have heard of some of this before, or might not have had to think about it,” she said by way of wrap-up. “That’s okay. It’s also okay to try on different gender identities before you find the one that suits you, or to change your pronouns or the way you dress to match. One thing that’s not okay? Telling someone else how they should feel about their gender, or arguing about what their identity is. I promise you, they’ve given it more thought than you have. Besides, the way they identify almost certainly doesn’t hurt you in the slightest.”
"Unless they're hitting you with a baseball bat that has 'I told you a hundred times I prefer they/them pronouns, stop misgendering me on purpose' engraved upon it, in which case, yes, it might hurt you physically but it hurts them emotionally and you fucking deserve it." John, NO
“Please don’t take that as a license to hit people with a baseball bat,” Didi requested sweetly. “This class does not condone violence.”
Constantine did his best to look angelic, and smartly, kept his mouth shut.
She cleared her throat. “Anyhow, we have two options for activities today. First, there’s a table of namecards and examples of pronouns over there. If you want to, you can make a namecard that list your pronoun, whether they’re traditionally female or male, or neutral, or something else entirely.”
"For those that aren't feeling the crafts today -- or if you finish fast and want to jump in, we don't care -- it's a bit of sharing: talking about ways in which you do and don't conform to societal stereotypes of your sex or gender."
“Hey,” she said. “So we’ve covered the mechanics of sex and birth control and all that, but one thing we haven’t talked about much yet are sexual and gender identity. Which are not the same thing.”
"Believe it or not, we started you off with the easy shite." John, no. "So here it goes: You've got sex, which is the biological sexual organs you're born with. And no, that's not just boy or girl, because some people are both or neither. There's gender identity, which is basically your concept of self and your self-perception, which, again, is not on a binary. Gender expression is how you choose to express that gender identity, and that does not have to conform to any fucking societally expected behaviours as to 'masculine' or 'feminine' either."
He looked around the room and shrugged his shoulders at anyone staring at him. "What? I might be a cis bloke --which means I identify as the gender as my biological sex --but that doesn't mean I'm oblivious. I was in a punk band, and punk was pretty much this time period's early genderfuckery experimental playground."
Didi explained further, giving a quick set of examples.
“Some of you may not have heard of some of this before, or might not have had to think about it,” she said by way of wrap-up. “That’s okay. It’s also okay to try on different gender identities before you find the one that suits you, or to change your pronouns or the way you dress to match. One thing that’s not okay? Telling someone else how they should feel about their gender, or arguing about what their identity is. I promise you, they’ve given it more thought than you have. Besides, the way they identify almost certainly doesn’t hurt you in the slightest.”
"Unless they're hitting you with a baseball bat that has 'I told you a hundred times I prefer they/them pronouns, stop misgendering me on purpose' engraved upon it, in which case, yes, it might hurt you physically but it hurts them emotionally and you fucking deserve it." John, NO
“Please don’t take that as a license to hit people with a baseball bat,” Didi requested sweetly. “This class does not condone violence.”
Constantine did his best to look angelic, and smartly, kept his mouth shut.
She cleared her throat. “Anyhow, we have two options for activities today. First, there’s a table of namecards and examples of pronouns over there. If you want to, you can make a namecard that list your pronoun, whether they’re traditionally female or male, or neutral, or something else entirely.”
"For those that aren't feeling the crafts today -- or if you finish fast and want to jump in, we don't care -- it's a bit of sharing: talking about ways in which you do and don't conform to societal stereotypes of your sex or gender."