Self-Organizing Man

Az over at Robots, Dream Lyrics and Desire raises some great and fascinating questions in this post about how trans is trans enough.  In addition to mentioning my ordinary man project, which comes with some constructive criticisms, the comments exchange with az has been thought-provoking.

Az is a great theoretician and as an australian brings different perspectives to conversations about embodying gender, class, race and other topics of concern to me.

What I am struck by is how much richer my perspectives have become since az commented on my blog back a few weeks, which then sent me in search of az’s blog. 

I am also struck by how decisions  I have made about what I will discuss on my blog are interpreted by others.  (You’ll have to read az’s full post to see what I mean…)

When I conceived of the ordinary man project, I wanted to showcase men who had been on hormones for some time.  I felt then, and still believe now, that transsexuals have been moved to the margin in political and social discussions in the u.s. 

Yet I am also seen as an ubertrans person since the litmus test of some trans people is represented by someone like me, who has had all the right surgeries….

Alas, I think totalizing theory can never happen.  All I can know is at best partial.

Trans has also been racialized as a white phenomenon and also a queer one,in the sense that the transgender movement (does such a thing exist??) grew out of predominantly queer and lesbian spaces here in the u.s.

Ever more these days, I find talking about identities and theory a challenging.  As my fiction writing skills grow, I prefer stories, both true and false. 

Discussions about "trans enough" seem to me to speak to volumes of unacknowledged internalized self hatred reinforced by a hiearchical pecking order apparent in trans communities, where I do think, some of us are more trans than others.

What would happen if our social justice politics shifted from an identity based one, as in am I "trans enough," to  a behavior based one, as in am I "compassionate enough"?