Archive for the ‘Features’ Category
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
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 [1]. The cartoon reads: "There are no rules that say you have to follow the rules."
[1] http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004439.html
Posted in Cartoons, Features, The Good Life | 4 Comments »
Friday, January 4th, 2008
I believe that men can and do benefit from the subjection of women. What interests me is how it is that men remain silent in the face of their daughters or sisters abuse. Setting aside the sure percentage of men who think women deserve it, I wonder if the group of men who may want to intervene don’t intervene because they are afraid they will get beat up, too.
The times when I have confronted bullies, I’ve been terrified. Maybe he’ll come after me, too, I think. Male violence works to keep us all in place, perpetrators and victims alike. But letting another man beat up a woman won't keep us safe. It just delays the more than likely chance that we may be victimized by another man.
But this reality should not keep us from working to end male violence. Why does work around ending domestic violence address helping the victim, with no collective, ongoing, state and federally funded response for abusers? Many men agree that rape and domestic violence are wrong. Sitting around, though, and doing nothing or attributing this behavior to some misguided notions of evolutionary biology sends the strong message to women and these abusive men that we are totally down with what you are doing….And I’m glad it’s not me you’re beating up.
Ending violence against women is an excellent place to begin the work of dismantling violence. But we should also be working to end bullying schools, homophobia and corporal punishment as a way of dealing with bad boys. Our own well-being depends on it.
Posted in Features, Self-Organizing Men | 1 Comment »
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
Thursdays are Bespoke, where I share my interests in hand-made clothing, traditional menswear, the history of masculine dress, men's fashion and what clothing and style means for me as a white transsexual man.
For some time now I have been in the market for a bespoke jacket. I wanted a jacket since suit-wearing is not something I do very often here in Ann Arbor.
The jacket need to reflect my sense of myself as a part-of-yet-apart-from white male dress. White male dress is defined by me as wrinkled khakis or jeans, sneakers, and some kind of button-down wrinkled shirt. Knowing what I want and going for it are two entirely different actions. I had made appointments with a few tailors, only to cancel them. Fear shot through me. The cost did not throw me so much as entering into a space that has been defined as entirely male for more than three hundred years.
But I kept at it, until one day I was perusing the boards at The London Lounge [1] and saw a picture of a different jacket tailored by Mr. Richard Anderson of Richard Anderson, Ltd [2]. I clicked on casual coats and saw the above picture and knew in an instant fell fast and hard.
I emailed Richard Anderson and received an almost instantaneous reply from Mr. Brian Lishak, Richard Anderson’s business partner. We discussed particulars, and I then set up an appointment for September 2006. I drove to Chicago, met with Richard, who spent two hours with me discussing the ins and outs of Savile Row, bespoke clothing, and what sets Richard Anderson apart.
The one button stance (the stance describes how buttons a coat/jacket stands with) is one of its unique features. “Nothing extraneous,” said Brian. I agree. But as I had gone mad cotton/cashmere/courdoroy material that creates the jacket, I had to go with four buttons!
After much deliberation I chose light blue with a hot pink lining. “Lovely,” declared Mr. Lishak. His obvious appreciation is one of the many reasons I love Savile Row. A man can actually wear a hot pink lining in his jacket and receive appreciation in response.
I’ll returned for my first paper fitting in late January 2007 and another fitting in June. I was unable to attend a final fitting in October. I've emailed Mr. Lishak in the hopes that they can drop ship the jacket to me before his next visit to Chicago. I shall keep you posted.
[1] http://www.thelondonlounge.net
[2] http://www.richardandersonltd.com/index.php
Posted in A Bespoke Body, Features | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
So I lied. Kind of. While I stated that loving myself is my top resolution for 2008 [1], I confess to having one more: to slow down.
I've become all-too aware of how much I have let busyness rule my life. This realization provided me with motivation to do less in 2008 [2]. One way to begin the process of doing less is to slow down.
I've found three tools that I will be (and already have started) using in order to slow down, really, really slow.
1. Contain the Email ~ I'm only checking personal email once a day. I can't conceive of anything arriving in my inbox that requires me an immediate answer. I resolutely did not check my personal email before lunch. As I listened to the iPod and walked around campus taking in the beautiful, winter snowscape, a little voice kept urging me to check my email when I get back! Check my email when I get back. Why? To distract myself. One of the reasons I'm slowing down is to see how distracted I really am.
2. Stop Multitasking ~ Do you read blogs while you eat lunch? Answer email while you're on the phone? Chow down on popcorn, M&Ms and other junk food while watching television? I do. And I'm vowing not to this year. Today I ate my lunch, slowly, one bit at a time. It took me about 25 minutes to do it. Usually I wolf down my food in under 10 minutes. By slowing down, I think I'm going to learn that I eat more than I really need to and most of what I read I don't remember. I'm not really reading it in the first place, just filling up the time waiting for that All Important Big Thing to happen. Meanwhile, life zooms on by.
3. Focus on Breathing ~ As I walked, I focused on feeling both my inhalation and expiration. Sounds easy. But try sitting in a favorite chair and focus only on this: breathe in, breathe out. If, like me, you are a thinking and feeling human being, in less than one expiration, the monkey mind sets in, screaming "go," "move," "do something now!!!" Just keep breathing.
One of the most important reasons for me to slow down is that I want to address a persistent feeling of unhappiness I've had throughout 2007. I can most accurately characterize it as a lack of gratitude. A lack of gratitude arises because I'm not paying attention. I'm not paying attention because I'm moving too quickly, multi-tasking, etc. Thus, slowing down may be a ticket to more joy.
What other tools do you use to slow down?
[1] http://jaysennett.com/2008/01/01/new-years-resolution-2008/
[2] http://jaysennett.com/2007/12/31/5-powerful-reasons-to-do-less-in-2008/
Posted in Features, The Good Life | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
I vow to accept my most hated and imperfect body to fullest extend possible, knowing that radical self-acceptance ~ not in any kind of cheesy self-improvement model promoted by the diet industries ~ is the foundation of all transformative revolutions.
In achieving a bespoke body, my mind is still the number place where acceptance of my imperfect body begins.
There are two reasons to work towards self-acceptance.
1. Others Become More Fabulous ~ Greater self-acceptance leads to greater acceptance of others. Try it. See for yourself. If it doesn't work, you can always go back to self-loathing and the federal-express-straight-to-hell lifestyle offered by it.
2. You Become More Fabulous ~ The hippest, happiest people really like and accept themselves. They understand that they won't always be happy, that happiness is transitory. But they understand that self-acceptance can be inviolate and absolute; that their bodies are what they are: unique and wonderful. And that is very sexy. I would venture to say that the greater the self-acceptance, the sexier you will appear, which will lead to more sex, money, whatever you want. Again, try it. I am.
If it, like no. 1, does not work, I'm going back to feeling contemptible and acting shamefully. Otherwise, I'm working for a greater good in myself and towards others.
Namaste and Happy New Year to Everyone
Posted in A Bespoke Body, Features | 3 Comments »
Monday, December 31st, 2007
I've spent 2007 attempting to responsibly act regarding my money and my stuff. The first 11 months of the year I tried various organizational tools to help me Get Things Done [1] ala David Allen [2]. Vitalist [3] and Remember the Milk [4] were helpful.
But I had fallen prey to an-all-too common GTD behavior: I was spending more time updating my lists than actually doing the things on my list.
So I pared back by moving everything to a lo-fi list using a moleskin and Behance's stunning, wonderful swag [5]. I highly recommend their tools if you are a pencil and paper kind of trannie, queer or genderqueer. The fact that I don't have to fire up the laptop every time I want to check my grocery list is worth the cost alone. Plus, Behance really convinced me that using beautiful tools enahce's my creative output. Don't know if that is true for you, but it certainly is for me.
Behance's tools make me happy to write down my to-do items, happy to review them and happy to check them off. And what's more, I actually save the lists as a reminder of things I've done. A quick review of the lists whenever I'm not motivated can help me get motivated.
But even with these inspired and inspiring tools, what has really helped me get organized is doing less. The art of doing less has been an kind of awareness-shift for me, and I'm going to work very hard on doing less in 2008.
Here's why:
1. Spiritual Growth ~ Don't know about you, but I'm the perfect workaholic tranny activist. This past weekend I vowed that I would neither turn on my laptop nor work on work. Instead, I finished up a funky-looking frame for postcards from our Ireland trip. Now, this frame has been on my to-do list since about September of 2006. With always working, though, it kept getting pushed back to someday. But by not working on working, I was free to finish this project. As an experiment, I just watched my mind and feelings as I puttered around the basement finishing up the frame. What I observed knocked me off center.
I work because I hate unstructured time. In fact, I fear unstructured time. By doing less I've gotten in touch with a core fear. Namely, that I am nothing and will amount nothing in my life. Knowing this fear is within me, I can work to more fully integrateit into my psyche and be okay here and now.
2. Personal Care ~ You know, the dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning just really aren't that important because, you know, I'm working on the Revolution! The dishes piled up and so did the laundry and I possessed a nagging sense that these tasks were somehow the work of Ms. H. since she wanted a clean house. Such a lie! Such bull pucky! I've always wanted a clean house but somehow I had positioned cleaning as diametrically opposed to work. So I've spent this past week between jesus' birthday and new year's eve cleaning as I go, wiping down the kitchen counters every night before I go to bed and doing the laundry regularly. By doing less, I can take better care of the messes I make. This helps me feel less flustered, angry, more integrated.
3. Political Revolution ~ I can hear all of you saying what does political change have to do with doing less. A lot. By more meaningfully integrating personal care as part of my responsible work in this lifetime, I'm creating less messes. I'm also taking one hundred percent responsibility for cleaning them up. This helps reduce a behavior I call "shitting in bed, kicking it on the floor and expecting somebody else to clean it up." In our North American society, how many of us unconsciously act like it is somebody else's job to fix the crap in our life?
By doing less, I create less crap, can clean up the crap I create and more fully and responsibly enter into my next crap-making endeavor.
4. Time for Lovers, Family, Friends ~ This one seems like a no brainer. But for a workaholic like me, doing less means doing the difficult work of maintaining my connections with Ms. H., my family and dear friends. In the end, they are the ones thatcare for me as I age, spend time with me when I am sick or troubled, support me through the ups and downs. An empty email inbox can't do that.
Now, I'm totally down with an empty inbox, but if I'm frittering away time checking email fifty or more times a day instead of calling my family every once in awhile, I've lost sight of the profound fact that Ms. H. and my family love me. By doing less I'm willing to face all the difficulties and ickiness that is sometimes part of relationships. Most importantly, though, by doing less I have to face the fact that they do love me, which for me, is one of the top three most difficult facts for me to accept in life. It's probably no. 1, actually.
5. Time for Hobbies ~ Do activists have hobbies? I surely don't. Everything gets subsumed under the Cause and the Revolution. Hobbies are Frivolous. So by doing less, I'm actually learning to engage in activities for the simple pleasure they bring me. Shocking. And I'm learning to deal with how very awkward I feel about engaging in activities that are not good for the Cause, my Health or the Work, they are just good for me, because they make me happy.
Bonus: Bigger Bang for Your Buck ~ One of the main problems with staying busy, busy, busy, is that I've frittered away time on low-hanging fruit. Not focusing on the big ticket items like this blog, Homofactus Press, working on my novels and short stories, my various speaking-gig presentations and my cartoons, just about guarantees a kind of successful mediocrity. By doing less, I am working more productively on those tasks that are most important. I am also learning to view email and such as the work to be completed around the big tasks, not instead of.
Happy New Year!
[1] http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/08/getting-started-with-getting-things-done
[2] http://www.davidco.com/
[3] http://vitalist.com/
[4] http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
[5] http://www.behance.com/Outfitter#cat2
Posted in Cartoons, Features, The Good Life | 4 Comments »
Thursday, December 27th, 2007
Nina at Queercents [1] recently asked me Ten Money Questions [2].
Besides being a shameless plug to read yet more about me, I encourage all seven of my dearly devoted readers to check out Queercents.
A whole lotta queers have money issues, problems, etc. Nina and her pals do a fantastic job looking at money from all kinds of angles, from getting out of debt to the spirituality of money.
Rock on!
[1] http://www.queercents.com/
[2] http://www.queercents.com/2007/04/06/ten-money-questions-for-jay-sennett/
Posted in Features, The Good Life | 3 Comments »
Saturday, July 14th, 2007
Via Sokari [1]. Please repost. North American queers, especially.
Last Sunday two more South African lesbians were brutally raped and murdered in Medowlands, Soweto. Sizakele Sigasa, lesbian activist and outreach worker with the Positive Women’s Network (PWN), and her friend, Salome Masooa, were first tortured and then murdered.
Sizakele was found with her hands tied together by her underpants and her ankles tied together by her shoelaces, with three bullet holes in her head and three in her collarbone.
Their rape and murders are part of a continuing and growing epidemic of hate crimes against lesbians. In June, Simangele Nhlapho , a member of a support group for women living with HIV run by PWN, was, along with her two year old daughter, raped and murdered. Her daughter’s legs were also broken. In April this year, 16 year-old Madoe Mafubedu, was raped and repeatedly stabbed until she died. There have been no arrests for any of these crimes and other sexual assault cases, all documented, against lesbians particularly Black lesbians in the townships. These hate crimes are part of the endemic misogyny and homophobia as well as the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS in South Africa that is destroying lives. Women comprise 58% of those living with HIV. The cause are many and complex….
gender discrimination often leaves them unable to negotiate condom use or disclose their status to their families and partners (who are often infected as well). Many women today are still afraid to be tested, and women receiving antiretroviral treatment have been known to hide their medicines under their beds for fear of bearing the brunt of physical abuse and alienation. Every six hours in South Africa a woman is killed by a male partner; every 26 minutes a woman is raped.
The Joint Working Group has issued a Press Statement demanding justice for these rapes and killings.
Lesbian Killing: We Demand Justice!
(July 9, 2007) The South African lesbian and gay communities through the Joint Working Group* and partner organisations STRONGLY CONDEMN the killing of Sizakele Sigasa (34) and Salome Masooa (23) from a township in Johannesburg. They were found (Sunday 8th July) murdered, execution style, in a nearby field in Meadowlands; a shocking image that is not so new in South Africa in the light of the recent increasein violence and rape against women either identified as, suspected of or supporting lesbian and gay rights.
Gays and lesbians are men and women, human beings who deserve equal rights and treatment not to be ridiculed or called names, beaten, tortured, raped or killed. These gross human rights violations are not just inhuman and barbaric - they must not be tolerated! Sizakele and Salomes killers, like everyone else, HAD NO RIGHT TO THREATEN OR KILL THEM!!
Violence against lesbians and gays is unSouth African. Here, oppression and discrimination have no place, still there are parents who reject or kick children out to the streets; siblings, friends and communities who hurt, beat, rape, torture and even kill lesbians and gays. If they survive all this, they face further victimisation at in the hands of the police and even the courts THIS IS NOT JUSTICE AT ALL. People who inflict harm upon and even kill lesbians and gays (or anyone else) do not belong in South Africa. Leaders and communities that do not oppose violence against gays, lesbians, women, children, rape survivors and HIV+ people do not belong here.
1) We call on the Meadowlands Police Services to investigate this matter efficiently and rigorously;
2) We call on other state bodies and communities to support the families by working with the Police and the Prosecuting Authorities towards ensuring that the killers are brought to book.
We express our deepest condolences to the bereaved families and friends. We offer our support to the colleagues and comrades as they mourn the death of these two precious women.
MEMORIAL SERVICE: Thursday 12 July 2007, 12h00-15h00 (Epelegeng Centre)
FUNERAL: Saturday, 14 July 2007, 12h00 (Meadowlands Community Centre)
(Contact: Busi Kheswa, Gay and Lesbian Memory In Action, 011-717/4239/1963
Prudence Mabele, Positive Womens Network, 078 383 9529
[1] http://www.blacklooks.org/2007/07/a_time_of_hurt_lesbians_raped_tortured_and_murdered.html
Posted in Features | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
In case you weren't paying attention....sounds kinda like the U.S. relationship with, oh, say, three-quarters of the world!
PINK PANTHERS Portugal
Press release
Anti-gay violence in Moscow , while Socrates was in town
EUROPEAN UNION SILENCES HUMAN RIGHTS FOR THE SAKE OF BUSINESS
The movement Panteras Rosa, Frente de Combate à LesbiGayTransfobia protests against Russian authorities, for the shameful way they acted refusing to intervene both when the Moscow City Council prohibited the LGBT March and when peaceful demonstrators were violently attacked yesterday
However, even more shameful than the impunity of ultra-religious and right-wing people, who attacked this demonstration, is the unbearable silence of the EU, who, in the name of commercial agreements being arranged with Russia , is keeping violations of human rights silent.
The presence and silence of José Sócrates, the Portuguese prime minister, who was in Moscow and is about to take EU presidency, are telling about the double standard of the EU, whose rhetoric seems to be using human rights only when financial interests are not at stake.
In the European Year of Equal Opportunities, widely celebrated by the European governments, the lack of attitude on the part of the Portuguese prime minister is a particularly hypocrite sign which reveals what is about to be the Portuguese Presidency of the EU, in terms of promoting and defending human rights worldwide.
The 27th of May was a day of shame for the Russian authorities. But it was also a day of shame for José Sócrates and for the EU. And we will not forget it.
Panteras Rosa
http://www.panterasrosa.com
www.panterasrosa.blogspot.com
Posted in Features | Comments Off
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Making different choices with our money with regard to environmental impact challenges most of us. But perhaps those choices will be made for us.Patagonia [1] on increasing transportation costs:
At Patagonia we have started to prepare for what we think will become a more locally based economy. The global economy based on cheap transportation is unsustainable. Our present mode of production includes buying organic cotton in Turkey, shipping the bales to Thailand to be processed into fabric, shipping the fabric to Texas to be cut and then to Mexico to be sewn and then onto our warehouse in Reno and then to our stores and dealers and finally to our customers' homes. Shipping costs may soon start to outstrip the cost of material and labor. We must begin to find a way to produce our goods locally. by Yvon Chouinard [2] (Founder and Owner of Patagonia)
Of course, these increases affect book prices as transportation costs get folded into a per item cost of a book. (At HfP [3], we paid close to forty dollars U.S. to have 100 books sent to Ypsilanti from Tennessee).
What I ponder, though, is what will happen to the millions of working poor in the U.S., who shop at places like Wal-Mart and Kmart. I think many shop there because that is what they can afford, and I don't for one minute believe Target is any better on the environment or kinder to its workers.
But producing locally - at least in my local area - is always more expensive than any overseas -manufactured item.
How, precisely, does Chouinard's desire to reduce greenhouse gases impact a working mother (10/hour) with three kids? Or a couple (let's assume any couple and one of them works for a company that has domestic partner benefits) where one must carry the other on their healthcare insurance? Next year I will have to pay about $265.00 pretax to carry Ms. H. on my healthcare insurance.
I certainly understand the working mother and I can make very different choices with what remains of our disposal income. Yet I know that producing locally will alter, perhaps forever, what I consume.
As an artist, I suspect more of time will be spent in community with local folks, rather than travelling around the country. I also think I will buy far less of what I want and only what I need.
[1] http://www.patagonia.com/
[2] http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/product/collection.jsp?OPTION=COLLECTIONS_DISPLAY_HANDLER&catcode=MAIN.CLOTHING_GEAR.EXTRAS.BOOKS#sku.BK501
[3] http://jaysennett.com/cgi-bin/mt/www.homofactuspress.com
Posted in Features | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 14th, 2006
Our art matters, right?
I think it does. Which is why I started Homofactus Press. I just got sick of not seeing books I wanted to read, so I decided to create the books instead. Easier than bitching that Random House [1], or Alyson [2] doesn't do it for me, right?
Homofactus Press [3] relies on great writers and great readers for its success. In return, I give my writers great royalties (gross not net), so I can actually create - in some small way - the circumstances that allow trans and queer artists to make a living from their art. Fucking shocking, I know. Particularly for the Arts Hating America.
For my readers, I have wanted to create circumstances where you are involved deeply in our cultural creations. How many times have you read a book that moved you (you loved it, hated it, found a typo, a historical error) and wanted to say something to the author or publisher, but couldn't?
Welcome to Homofactus Press [3], where you can say something. As often as you like, too.
In order to give you, dear readers, a better idea about what I'm doing with Homofactus Press, I'm giving out free samples of Self-Organizing Men [5].
(Free Book Cover Shot Here! [6])
Anybody want a chance to read/review an article or two or three that will appear in the anthology? Then you can find out what the whole "our art matters" schtick means first hand.
Three things are needed. The fourth is voluntary.
1. You have to be a blogger at least 18 years of age with a regularly updated blog at least 3 months old.
2. You send me an email (jay at jaysennett dot com) with the words "Participatory Art Experience 6669" in the title (the "6669" number makes it easier to keep track of the e-mails and makes them harder to get lost etc.). Please include your full name, a statement attesting to your age, date of birth and your blog URL.
3. Please read the article(s). If you find any typos, etc., let me know by email or blog post.
4. Then, if you want - and only if you want to - blog about what you've read, what you think, like, don't like. Just say it on your blog. Then send a link/trackback here [7].
You're under no obligation to blog about what you read of course. I just think making it "Bloggers Only" destroys mainstream publishers' ideas about how books sell.
If we know what we want and need in the arts why turn over critical review to somebody with an axe to grind? To somebody who thinks we're born in the wrong bodies, that we're exotic, unusual, or superhuman? To somebody who answers to an editor who answers to advertisers?
I would love it if this "blogvertising" works. But of course, I can't do it alone; I need the complicity of other bloggers. What if, say, not one or two of you end up blogging about it, but a couple of dozen? What will be the rippling effect?
Arts started out being made by the people, for the people. After all, there were'nt any art critics, or galleries or publishers in Lascaux, France.
HfP books will sell because of you lovely readers and bloggers. Share your honesty. And if we're lucky enough, maybe you'll share your love, too.
It'll be interesting to hear what the blogosphere has to say. I hope to hear from you. Thanks again.
[1] http://www.jaysennett.com/cgi-bin/mt/www.randomhouse.com
[2] http://www.jaysennett.com/cgi-bin/mt/www.alyson.com
[3] http://www.homofactuspress.com/
[4] http://www.homofactuspress.com/
[5] http://www.homofactuspress.com/2006/06/self_organizing_men_contributo.htm
[6] http://www.adventuresinboyhood.com/whensitting.html
[7] http://www.homofactuspress.com/2006/06/participatory_art_experience_6.htm
Posted in Features, Political Art | 7 Comments »
Friday, March 24th, 2006
Sexiness, righteous anger, sound bites (blog bites?) sell in the blogosphere. I seem to spend too much of my life energy trying to find Something Really Important to Blog About. Those posts get hits. Those types of posts are also the ones I tend to read. But posts about the ordinariness of life, emotions like rage and anger and hatred and disappointment, they don't sell.
Yet these posts that bring me back to myself: the beating of my heat; the fullness in my bladder; my right thumb; the ancient rememberance that my social justice work is about healing, healing myself first and foremost. And from this strong place of myself, I remember again the Work: extending my hands, keeping them open, ready for another person or even an animal to grasp them.
All the work I do is simply to help me keep my hands open.
Posted in Features, The Good Life | 7 Comments »
Thursday, August 25th, 2005
I've learned much since I sang [1] the praises of Publish and Be Damned [2] awhile back.
To truly be considered a publisher by the industry, one needs to own the ISBN number, which can be purchased by R.R. Bowker. Thusly, while Scott Turow may own the copyright to his works, his publisher (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux / Time Warner Books) owns the rights to said books. The publisher determines when and how the book will be distributed, whether new editions will be published, and how much Turow receives in royalties.
In all but a few cases (Nora Roberts, J. K. Rowling), writers are tenants on the publishing plantations of the world. Writers, like muscians, are intellectual sharecroppers.
The writers write the words the publishers then distribute. In return, the publisher may offer money up front and percentage of profits after expenses. Up-front money ranges from a few thousand dollars to a million. Publishers expect a book or books in return for this money. They may also offer royalties, a percentage of the book's sales after expenses.
Royalties range (as of what I know today) from 1% to 10%. And the 10% offering comes from small, liberal independent presses, not the big publishers.
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/jay_sennetts_blog/2005/07/selfpublishing_.html#more
[2] http://jaysennett.comwww.pabd.com
Posted in Features, The Good Life | Comments Off
Tuesday, August 9th, 2005
A while back I reviewed [1] and praised Deborah Rudacille's book, The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism and Transgender Rights [2]. I raved about her conclusion where she argues that the rise of transsexualism may be linked to increased chemicals in our environment.
Now USA Today asks [3]: Are Our Products Our Enemy?
EDCs [4] may play a role in increased rates of testicular and breast cancers.
Environmental clean-up is a good thing. But not if it is at my expense nor if people like me are used to underscore the horrors of environmental degradation.
I don't know quite how to address the possibility [5] that we trannies and intersex folks exist because of the law of unintended consequences [6].
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/jay_sennetts_blog/2005/05/the_riddle_of_g.html
[2] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375421629/qid=1115216094/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-9992366-7916158?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
[3] http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-08-02-chemicals-hormones-cover_x.htm
[4] http://website.lineone.net/~mwarhurst/
[5] http://gendertree.com/When%20Does%20it%20Happen.htm
[6] http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/UnintendedConsequences.html
Posted in Features | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2005
John Hawkes, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Wisconsin-Madison, has created a wonderful blog [1] about paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution.
The content to noise ratio is low. His explanations can be understood by the lay person.
Why do I care about any of this stuff?
The science and technology worlds are abuzz right now. Discussions about genetic engineering [2], human evolution [3] and regenerative medicine [4] can be found all over the blogosphere.
Pundits [5] and whack-jobs abound. What I have found almost exclusively true is that pundits and whack-jobs alike make sweeping [6] references to how sex, among other things, will be changed by parents at birth - by manipulating genes - without discussing transsexuals (Cyborg Democracy [7] is a notable exception). Some also claim that robotics will become part of human biology, without referencing how robotics are used by people with disabilities everyday (Cyborg Democracy [7] is, not unexpectedly, remiss).
They live in the future without acknowledging the past or the present. Yes, parents may manipulate the genes of their child - changing an XY to an XX - but then what happens if the fetus is bathed in a sea of androgenizing [9] hormones? Evidence [10] suggests the parents may get a girl wanting to become a boy.
Why should any of us care about these issues?
Because we transsexuals have much to say about the coping systems thrown up by society around science and technology's gift to us, hormones and advances in plastic surgery.
If science and technology is a bus, and ethics is the driver, then our society is not capable of controlling the bus. Our frameworks for making difficult, ambiguous ethical decisions lags far, far behind our scientific achievements. Abortion is one example. Our society fights over a definition of when life begins. Is it at the moment of conception? Three months? Nine months? Five years?
Transsexualism is another. What is gender? Genes? Hormones? The brain? Physical and mental impairments are a third. What is quality of life? How do we determine it? How do we define sanity?
Science has forced us to make arbitrary decisions. We continue to draw lines in the sand. The decisions and discussions that go into determining where to place the stick are ones we transsexuals, among others, must participate in and fight to be heard. (The appalling dismissal [11] of activists with disabilities as non-experts in the Terry Schiavo case suggest we have our work cut out for us.)
Otherwise we are left with policymakers in Washington who make the following legal determinations about gender (in the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act [12] of 2005):
WOMAN- The term `woman' means a female human being who is capable of becoming pregnant, whether or not she has reached the age of majority.
I'm scared. Are you?
Fortunately people like John Hawkes provide a balanced approach to these complex questions. On the topic of transhumans or post-humans, Hawkes has much to say here. [13]
He concludes with his own prediction for our collective human future.
A prediction for the future: our genomes increasingly confirm the maxim that every person is a work of art.
Indeed. Which is why we must begin these conversations, no matter how rudimentary our understanding of science, no matter how much we don't get it, no matter how frightening the future of humans may seem.
We bring too much to the table to opt out.
[1] http://johnhawks.net/weblog/
[2] http://www.geneforum.org/
[3] http://www.corante.com/loom/
[4] http://anti-ageing.us/blogger.html
[5] http://www.futurepundit.com/
[6] http://www.morethanhuman.org/
[7] http://cyborgdemocracy.net/blogger.html
[8] http://cyborgdemocracy.net/blogger.html
[9] http://e.hormone.tulane.edu/edc.html
[10] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375421629/qid=1116425568/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i4_xgl14/002-5447606-0412006?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
[11] http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/
[12] http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typepad.com/life_law_gender/politics/index.html
[13] http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/future/msnbc_human_evolution_crossroads_2005.html
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