Self-Organizing Man

Class and Gender Intersect, or Happy Birthday Karl Marx

Scott Turner Schofield on Coming Out as Middle Class

(This is shameless promotion for Scott and his book, published by Homofactus Press, which I co-own ;-))

In an original and hilarious rendering of his life, the first openly transgender performer to be commissioned by the National Performance Network, Scott Turner Schofield comes out as “middle class” in his award-winning performance piece, “Debutante Balls.”

Is it possible that being middle class is just like being transgender (minus all the pronoun confusion and Gay-Panic fear)? Stay with me here: When you can’t tell a person’s class status, just like when you can’t tell their gender identity, it is never polite to ask; and gender identity, like class status, is something that we discern by what we display, or don’t. I mean, we all know rich kids who go thrift-store shopping, right? Well, that one got a HUGE laugh at Vassar….

This section of his brilliant performance should be required discussion in queer and gender theories classes, as Schofield does a fine job complicating discussions of privacy, class, gender status, masculinity and transition.

Rarely has the otherwise silent underpinnings of middle-class life been render with such clarity or hilarity.

“Debutante Balls” is collected in Scott Turner Schofield’s first book, Two Truths and a Lie, published by Homofactus Press. “Scott does a damn fine job breaking down the inner working of middle-class life in a rather large Southern city as well as how class functions through silence. Scott’s work is so memorable because he tells stories from his own life, stories that are filled with irony and self-deprecating humor,” says Jay Sennett, publisher at Homofactus Press.

Two Truths and a Lie is is a memoir in the form of three solo plays written and performed by Scott Turner Schofield. From inside the often hilarious-but all too real-moments of his young life on the Homecoming Court and Debutante Ball circuit (in a dress), armed with only a decoder ring and a gifted tongue, Schofield comes out with truly unbelievable stories of a body in search of an identity. By turns slapstick and slap-to-the-face, this drama invites audiences and readers to explore gender, sex, sexuality, and self in their own first person.

We doubt Karl himself could have imagined the intersectionality of it all.

Posted by jay sennett at 1:12 am | Homofactus Press | No Comments »

Gender: Drop Dead!

The cartoon is a checklist for your gender. I recently learned that only a judge can declare me male, in a court of law. Or so it goes in Colorado.

The fact that I had to jump through so many hoops to change my birth certificate, only to find out that I’m administratively male, but (potentially) female in a legal sense, just pissed me right the F off.

So I created this cartoon, with some obsessive doodling around it. Doodling is good for work and the bus. And I think I channeled some hard core job stress right into this cartoon, too.

The cartoon reads, “Gender: Administrative: Male or Female. Legal: Male or Female. Personal Choice: Fuck Off!

And I dedicate this cartoon to the good folks at Guerilla Travolaka!

Posted by jay sennett at 11:34 pm | Cartoons | No Comments »

We Connive

I’ve been cartooning of late in the old-fashioned manner, pen and paper. The moleskine has proven useful, as I don’t have to rubber band everything together like I do with business cards. I’m glad I’m still cartooning. Keeping at it no matter what is easier than obsessing over whether I’m using the computer or a pen.

The cartoon says “We connive in our humiliations.” Right. And it’s so much easier to blame somebody else, too. But that’s another cartoon. Lately I’ve just been trying to get out of my own way.

Posted by jay sennett at 11:23 pm | Cartoons | No Comments »

Love 2.0

If you are “always on” (i.e. completely transparent) you will exist always in a state of Grace or complete vulnerability. In this way, no one can harm you. Thanks for the inspiration. The cartoon reads: “There are no rules that say you have to follow the rules.”

Posted by jay sennett at 1:18 pm | Cartoons, Features, The Good Life | 3 Comments »

Death by HMO

Posted by jay sennett at 1:15 am | Cartoons | No Comments »

What Happened?

Posted by jay sennett at 1:58 am | Cartoons | No Comments »

Do You Like?

Posted by jay sennett at 2:28 pm | Cartoons | No Comments »

Your Name is Safe

-Billy, age 4.

Posted by jay sennett at 1:32 pm | The Good Life | 2 Comments »

The Quantum Mechanics of a Pregnant Transman

Thomas Beattie is hot right now. Pregnant transmen boggle our imaginations. Pregnant? you say. And he says he is a man??

How can this be?!?

Mr. Beattie’s claims that the FtM community hasn’t been very supportive of him. While I’ve only read positive support for his decision (on Facebook in particular), I’ve seen this negative behavior before. Way back in the ’90s (which belies current statements that Thomas Beattie is the world’s first pregnant man) Matt Rice got stalked on-line by another FtM, enraged that Mr. Rice would choice to bear a child after declaring himself a man. Vague and not so vague threats were made.

That degree of hatred suggests to me that we’ve not really evolved beyond our own instilled binary notions of gender. That after all this time, after Kate Bornstein and Riki Ann Wilchens and Judith Butler and genderqueer, and fuck the binary, all of us - and most certainly transsexuals - believe that our biology is really real.

We believe that our biology - manifest in our bodies - really determines our gender.

But I want to delve into biology as it is manifest in our social and cultural practices. That is to say, I want to discuss how biology, and all of science, is socially constructed. The progressive left’s efforts at gender radicalism point out - rightfully so, I believe - that gender is largely a set of socially agreed upon scripts. Where transfolks and genderqueer people run into trouble is when we change those scripts.

But in this rubric, while we have popularized the phrase gender as performance almost ad naseum, we have not similarly popularized the phrase science as performance.

So I ask, why? Why, despite the efforts of feminist scholars Donna Haraway, sociologist Bruno Latour and others, do we on the progressive left still believe that science is a set of facts that exist outside the instruments we have used to discover this facts, that these facts exist throughout time (i.e. metahistorical), and that these facts do exist outside our thinking about them.

In essence, we’re still dating Newton (universalism) while Heisenberg (relativism) is our man.

Even as I write this last sentence, I’m thinking, “Oh God. Science! Math! Physics! Calculus! They are never going to read on.” We ignore science because we’re often not very good at it - if grades are the determining factor - but we do so at our own peril.

I wish not to be alarmist but rather to suggest that when we ignore science as part of the stories we tell about our gender, we fail ourselves. Failing to grasp all the plot points, and the complexities those plot points suss out, that adding this character Science to our story brings out, we resign ourselves to the very binary we seek to dismantle.

Over the next several posts I will talk about the history of science, the construction of scientific facts, the inaccuracy of terms like natural and biology, quantum mechanics, and how of this relates to Mr. Thomas Beattie.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Posted by jay sennett at 1:20 pm | Cartoons, Truth | 9 Comments »

A Move to Simpler Things

As you may have already guessed, I’ve revamped and streamlined my blog. I realized that I avoided blogging because the previous template was just too much. Over the last many weeks I’ve come to several realizations.

1. Sometimes simple is best. Complexity brings with it more choice. More choice can be taxing.

2. Each commitment brings with it additional responsibilities. No is the fastest way to maintain simplicity.

3. Fear is not a useful, long-term motivator. Scaring myself doesn’t really get me where I need to be, and I end up exhausting myself, too.

4. I like traveling by Amtrak. Everything is much slower on Amtrak than either flying or driving.

5. We’re here on earth to be kind to one another and help each other get where need to be.

6. Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” works in the city as well as the rural midwest.

7. I want to work my story, not find a story that fits my work.

8. I’m developing a passion for surrealist literature.

9. In the end, I will die and become one of the billions of nameless, faceless people who have gone before me. Despite the greater proliferation of information, I believe I will become, in death, more obscure than many who have come before me.

Posted by jay sennett at 3:45 pm | The Good Life | 3 Comments »

File This Under “Who Knew?”

April 1 is the official birthday of Homofactus Press. We’ll be three in about two and a half weeks. Had you told me five years ago I would grow up to become a publisher, I would have scoffed. But I’ve come to believe that our ragtag company of two - both working full time jobs elsewhere - are the poster kids for the whole industry around Start Where You’re At and See What Happens.

Who knew? Tonight our third (!) author (and Self-Organizing Men contributor) Scott Turner Schofield will debut his acclaimed solo plays. I’m tickled…..

Please join us in welcoming Atlanta-based performance artist Scott Turner Schofield to celebrate the release of his new book, Two Truths & a Lie at Atlanta’s Charis Books & More. Two Truths and a Lie is a memoir in the form of three solo plays written and performed by Scott Turner Schofield. From inside the often hilarious—but all too real—moments of his young life on the Homecoming Court and Debutante Ball circuit (in a dress), through a closet of suits to find one that fits, Schofield comes out with truly unbelievable stories of a body in search of an identity. By turns slapstick and slap-to-the-face, this drama invites audiences and readers to explore gender, sex, sexuality, and self in their own first person. Come see Turner perform excerpts of his memoir, then stick around for the Q & A and book-signing.

We believe we are lucky publishers! Scott chose us to publish his groundbreaking, funny, and poignant performance pieces. If you haven’t yet seen Scott in “Underground Transit,” “Debutante Balls,” or “127 EASY Steps,” read his words to get a feel for his inborn comedic timing. After reading his plays you will put seeing him perform as an “A” on your personal to-do list.

You can buy your own copy here.

You’ll be glad you did, as are we for publishing these timely, important, and unique ways to tell one person’s trans/gender queer/raced/classed/regionalized history.

Congratulations and Big Love!

Jay and Ms. H. (x-posted at www.homofactuspress.com)

Posted by jay sennett at 3:15 pm | Cartoons, Self-Organizing Men | 6 Comments »

I Need Your Help

Hey All!

I will be visiting Chicago March 27 and March 28 and would love to meet other FtMs/trans masculine folks, as well as friends, partners, and anyone else while I’m there. The big feminist bookstore in Chicago is not an option for doing a reading gig so I’d love the opportunity to read from Self-Organizing Men as well as talk about our current and upcoming books.

If you want to meet and/or know of places (people’s homes/coffee shops/etc.) where I can do a reading I surely do appreciate it. Leave your contact info in the comments.

Big love to all, Jay

P.S. I did contact Nick Winter at GenderWorks…..

Posted by jay sennett at 1:59 pm | Self-Organizing Men, The Good Life | 1 Comment »