Quickies: 02/01/2012
By Happy February, all!
A very tasty infographic from It’s Pronounced Metrosexual: LOOK AT THE WEE GENDERBREAD PERSON IT IS SO CUTE. Look for a post next week from our very own Will about the construction of physical sex! (*NOTE: We have received a report that there may be malware embedded somewhere on the link to the genderbread person. Please make sure you have updated your virus protection software and, as always, be careful what you click!)
Here is a handy reminder that justice exists.
NSWATM has a helpful post concerning Tim Gunn’s sex life.
Just in case you need to appeal to some authority or another over this Komen/Planned Parenthood crap, here is a post from a doctor.
The latest in comic book character genderswap news: Maya Nord takes on JLI.
The Senate Judiciary Committee considers reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act this week. Here is a post from Ms. on why VAWA is a queer issue.
Featured Image from It’s Pronounced Metrosexual.
OMG that gingerbread man is the best thing ever. NOM. Delicious and informative!
um, i actually have a TON of issues with the gingerbread man. it’s cute, but beyond that, the only thing i appreciate about it is that it recognizes that there are many dimensions of gender. specific things i take issue with:
-the “sex” continuum is super problematic in that it effectively erases trans people. “sex” involves MANY discrete physical variables, and not everyone who falls “in between” male and female is intersex.
-“genderqueer” is a relatively new and broad term, but in the vast majority of cases i’ve seen it used (and the way i use it for myself), it lies OUTSIDE of the binary altogether. this chart has no place for those who identify as bigender or agender (many people who don’t identify as male or female use one of these patterns, not some compromise between binary poles!)
-the entire description of “gender identity” is completely fucked up. it’s really not that complicated- your gender identity simply is male, female, genderqueer, bigender, agender, xylophone, or whatever you say it is. but the author insists on importing into this section elements of sex (“your chromosomal configuration and hormone levels”) AND gender expression (“there are many traits and dispositions i possess that slide me left on the scale”). WTF???
-after he’s suposedly done all this work to show that gender is a multifaceted thing, he jumps right back into binary gender mode for the sexual orientation continuum. how, pray tell, does one determine their sexual orientation if they fall “in between” man and woman, or if they’d be considered, for instance, “male” on the “sex” continuum but “woman” on the “gender identity” continuum? would being attracted to binary cis people make such people heterosexual? homosexual? bisexual? (see how messed up this is?)
that’s why i suggest we introduce people to the idea that sex, gender, and sexuality have many, many dimensions, without insisting on creating continuums for each. continuums are better than binaries, but that’s not saying much.
I totally agree with everything you’ve said. I also have some other issues with it that you haven’t brought up. I’ll be writing up a critique of it this weekend and hopefully it will go up some time next week. 😉
oh, fantastic! i look forward to reading your critique. if anything, i will give the designer of the graphic and author of the post credit for actively working on revising it himself. he was responsive to my comments on his website (changing the gender identity written description) and is working on an entirely new diagram: http://itspronouncedmetrosexual.com/2012/02/improving-the-genderbread-person-i-need-your-help/
Yeah, I agree as well. I think I got carried away by the cuteness, and I thought it made a good start for people that hadn’t even thought about the fact that gender and sexuality might be different things. But yes, there are many many improvements that can be made and I look forward to Will’s post on this!