As an extreme liberal, I never thought I would say this. But please, enough articles on identity politics. The authoritarian global creep is far more urgent (and deep down that is only about money and power, however much the corrupt leaders target minorities). And global warming is putting life itself on earth is in peril - all life forms are threatened, no matter how much skin pigment. This obsessive narcissistic naval gazing about "identity"is deflecting far more important issues. I do not care who you sleep with, how much skin pigment you have, etc. We just need to get along to save humanity and the planet.
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People change from one sex to another sex only in fiction. In real life, humans are not among the species that can change sex. They can adopt a new “gender identity,” but that has no effect on their actual sex. If men could become women and women could become men, there would be no transgender issue, would there?
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This is an excellent, well balanced essay that has expanded my reading horizons. We need transgender novels, those with at least one main character who undergoes the hero's journey of self discovery through the struggles of transition to personal freedom, to begin moving more into the mainstream of fiction. As they do gain wider and wider audiences, perhaps in time society will move from the current state of oppressive opposition to (at least grudging) acceptance.
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Is there a universal human subject? And what is subjectivity in a capitalist system considering that capitalism is narcissistic in its very essence (being founded on self-interest and private property)? To what extent is your identity a lived fiction? And don't we all exist on a spectrum of change–of our bodies as of our identities–some just more than others? And isn't it a form of necessary normalization to accept that such desire exists in all of us? Keep in mind that for all of us as strongly as you embrace some desires you resist others; as strongly as you embrace some identities you resist others...
http://schismletternetpress.blogspot.com/2018/09/an-imaginary-conversati...
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Fictional gender-bending is much older than Ovid's "Metamorphoses"--Tiresias is changed from male to female and back again, to settle a bet between Hera and Zeus. To pick the most obvious example.
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@Hortense Good point. I seem to recall an attempt at gender bending by Achilles' mother in Homer's Illiad. Didn't Achilles' mother try to keep him out of the army by disguising him as a woman?
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According to the New York Times, transgender Americans total around 0.6% of the population.
I am fully in sympathy with equal rights for transgender Americans and loathe the Trump administration for many reasons, not least its latest ugly threats to legally redefine gender.
What I don't understand is the New York Times devotion to transgender issues, which seems thoroughly out of proportion both with the group's population share and the many existential issues faced by all Americans, regardless of gender.
Perhaps this could be elucidated without a heaping dose of personal vituperation. In which case - please.
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@manta666 - Perhaps because it's fascinating to some of us. (And perhaps it is to you as well -- you took the time to research a comment on it.) As a devotee of all literature, without labels, I click on all Times articles involving books, writers, libraries, bookstores or just about language. Let's stop being slavish to percentages and these labels and enjoy what we read for the love of it. This is a well researched story about some writers I've not heard about and am now curious to read. I celebrate their words! (Full disclosure - I am a past board member of Lambda Literary Foundation, I own a bookstore and am very prejudicial towards their work.)
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@manta666
I agree, I am a person of the far left and I don't understand this front page coverage of such a small and unusual demographic. It is right and good that mainstream publications illuminate fringe populations but "trans lit" sounds like a speciality anthology published by some campus small press.
I feel the same way about the mainstreaming of male drag culture. It's easily understood how it came to be but in our "enlightened" times I can't see how it's not an absolute affront to women.
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@manta666 A really easy way to understand this is to ask yourself if it's important to care about people who are not you, or identical to you in whatever parameters you select. If your answer is no, there is no response to your question that will satisfy you. If it's yes, ta-da! You figured it out!
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I'm glad you are both highlighting new voices and styles in trans* literature, and mentioning some of the people who helped stretch the boundaries.
The Lambda Literary Foundation realized that trans* literature were wide-ranging and multi-faceted and has added many categories in their annual Lammy awards.
I saw a great deal of speculative/sci-fi trans work when I was editing Best Lesbian Erotica, and seen some authors who have grown into stars in their genres.
You can always see what's coming down the road by checking out the smaller and independent presses. Some authors even publish themselves to great acclaim.
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In regard to their 'preferred pronoun' - It's important to use the pronoun each person chooses. It's not a preference. It's a choice.
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The recent explosion of trans literature, cinema, and drama is welcome and fascinating. It's opened us up to unexpected perspectives and novel ways of living, bringing a freshness and new bouyancy to old, tired genres.
The one (and only) stumbling block for me is the use of plural pronouns to do the work of singular, gender-specific pronouns.
There is no question that our language needs an expanded dictionary to embrace that sector of our population that identifies as gender-fluid. Accordingly, new terms must be sought and put into wide use to meet this need.
However, expanding the dictionary doesn't require strangling our grammar to the point of creating honest confusion about numbers of actors. When a single individual refers back to the self with a plural pronoun, we readers look for the additional actors implied by the plural form. This is a distraction from whatever point is being made by or about the gender-fluid person.
I would like to see scholars and gender-nonconforming people put their collective heads together to devise a fully declined (nominative, possessive, objective cases) pronoun system for use by and about gender-fluid persons.
Is anyone working on this currently?
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