Genderplay- The beginning

Driving in the car today, I finally decided what to do my research project on: Gender play.
It’s another aspect of critically analyzing gender and the social structures that make up gender. Also, it’s a very important topic for myself because trans-issues, issues surrounding transgendered peoples, trans-sexuality and being trans-minded came to the forefront of my consciousness about two years ago.

Up until that point, I knew the rest of the letterers in the LGBTQ sandwich, but T alluded me. I assumed, incorrectly, that a transsexual was a man who liked women’s clothes- a transvestite, or possibly a drag queen who lived as a woman 6 out of the 7 days a week. Once again, not the case, but there was nothing to challenge my assumption and since I was already deeply involved in the queer community I didn’t think anything could surprise me.

Until him. He and I had run into each other a few times and I’d looked. Then I’d done a double take each time, b/c I was certain he was a lesbian. But… where have the boobs gone? I brushed it out of my skull until he and I finally met, at the College GLBTA association. We talked, we made friends, and as they say, the rest was history. He was transgendered. An individual who completely believes they were born into the body of the wrong sex (gender), often diagnosed or referenced as Gender Identity Disorder by psychologists. It also happens to be the only mental diagnosis in which surgery as treatment is an option. He really jump started my interest not only in trans-issues, but in Women’s studies all together.

He, and others, also taught me how to play with gender and not be worried if people didn’t pick the gender I self identified with to define me. Now for most people, gender is so well constructed and preformed it becomes invisible, to them and to the general society, if they fit into one of the two gender categories of male or female. Since this class is about the critical analysis of Race, Class, Gender and sexuality, I decided for my research project to continue the deconstruction of gender- moving it from these binaries of male and female and challenging myself and others to engage in some gender play.

How does one play with gender? Well for each person, different things come into play. When one is in a transgendered body, playing with gender is even more difficult than if one happens to feel comfortable in their gender construction. Playing with gender, always sounded like a fabulous game of twister in drag, with sequins, bouffant hair and yellow, purple, pink and blue dots -until the concept of deconstruction factored in. Then “gender fucking” seems the more appropriate term, as deconstruction or readjustment theories conceptualize the poverty and violence enacted upon trans- bodies. How do people who play with gender die? A mass percentage of transgendered individuals, with statistics based on Male to Female(MTF) transitioned individuals, work in high risk jobs such as prostitution, activism or drug dealing. Why do I throw activism into the mix?

These are the voices I’m going to be calling on. Transgendered individuals working towards getting a degree, gender-queer college students who get awkward stares as they debate which bathroom to use, People who question gender as a construct and take a political stance against identifying, against checking the box of male or female. This is the place where discrimination on campus begins, the application form. Are you male or are you female? Are you White, non-white or other?

So, for my research, I plan to interview at least 2 individuals, one pre-op(before operation) transsexual, and another healing from Sexual Reassignment Surgery(SRS), as well as writing up two surveys. One will be open ended questions and distributed to interested transgendered people online so the survey will listen to the voices of persons not usually heard and the second survey will be distributed on campus, I’m not yet sure in what volume, allowing people a chance to play with gender and respond. I will suggest some gender play activities, such as trying on heels, wearing baggy jeans and a sweatshirt, going into the wrong bathroom, or for the very brave, cutting their hair, all optional situations stepping out of comfort zones but that are written to be as safe as possible.

Another resource I plan to call on, are my own experiences in gender play. The change reflected in my visual aid of how I looked before and now, and the process of stripping away what happens to an individuals femininity when she shaves her head, for illness, for religion, for rebellion.
Then my last resources are my two favorite transgendered activists: Leslie Feinburg, the author of “Stone Butch Blues,” who self identifies as a masculinized female and prefers gender neutral pronouns such as zir and hir for reference, and Kate Borenstein, author of “Gender Outlaw” and a long-time performance artist who encourages playing with gender for everyone.

Works Cited:
Feinburg, Leslie
Borenstein, Kate