Introductory Thoughts

In the course of discussions of identity and gender politics, it is often a feature of those discussions that “communities” are formed and defined. It provides a somewhat less unwieldy way to describe the lives, fears, hopes and aspirations of the individuals that make up a particular community of human beings. That said it is also a messy way to describe the complexity of being a part of human society. It is a particular and curious feature of the Transgender Community that any memoirist’s efforts, no matter how accomplished (or execrable), will come under intense and often blistering scrutiny. It is not difficult to imagine why that is. The writer is often struggling to explain, in the first person, a very complex sociological and psychological phenomena to a cis-gendered* world while she or he is yet experiencing it. This while often being thrashed with little sticks by the very community of which she or he is a part. They, of course are reasoning that her story will be largely misconstrued by a largely uncomprehending public and make a rather large muddle of their stories too. Hence the beating administered with little sticks.

How successful the writer will prove to be in untangling all this will certainly depend upon her skill but I think more so upon her humility (if not her thick skin). This is tough stuff to talk about, to make clear and comprehensible, but it can be even tougher to live with.

With regard to Identity . . .

As it relates to transpeople generally, as far as I am concerned, in these pages you are exactly what and who you say you are at the point in time you say it. Transfolk known to the general public get to be exactly who they say they are, and not what a generally ignorant and far too often malicious public thinks they are. Those rare folks that regularly traverse back and forth across the gender divide – well, you’re on your own – but I’ll try hard to keep up. I think I have come to understand why someone would present as genderqueer* or deliberately androgynous and I deeply respect that expression of their humanity as “right” for them and by extension “right” for the rest of us.

I hope that through the pages of this book you will gain a broader and more dimensional view of the lives of transgender people. Over the course of half a lifetime I have been, and continue to be, ignorant about a great many things. I accept that as one of several inescapable fates of being entwined within this mortal coil. However, rather than being insulted when my ignorance has been (and continues to be) pointed out by others, I’ve worked to challenge myself to learn without prejudging where the inquiry undertaken to resolve my ignorance might lead.

I issue to you my reader the same challenge.

I suppose, this boils down to our individual struggles to view the world as it is and not how we wish it to be. If you were hoping for a world described as neatly bifurcated into black and white, I’m sorry to disappoint you. However, since we all put our pants on a leg at a time I am confident that you’ll be up to the challenge. The world is cast in many lovely shades of gray . . . it’s where I live and I’ll let you in on a little secret . . .

It’s where you live too




*“Cis-gendered” describes the world of "Muggles" who do not concern themselves with questions of, “am I a Woman or am I a Man?” despite, in my case, the excess of physical evidence to the contrary. In fact, it is doubtful if such questions ever rise to the level of conscious thought for the cis-gendered . . . lucky buggers though they be.

* “Genderqueer” describes a person who publicly “plays” with the outward manifestations of his/her gender in an attempt to establish that the so-called gender binary really is fundamentally bullshit.

© 2009 Renée Thomas all rights reserved