Actually FEMALE-bodied Stars w/ Cellulite
After I serve up special audio essay (Henry Kissinger had a Boob Job!) Zack Ford and I discuss BODIES. How do we talk about bodies? What is intersexuality? What are some challenges transgender people face? Can a man have an abortion? We lay it all out on the table and just talk about all our hesitations and yet curiosities with bodies, mixed with some recent news. Take a listen, and then tell us your hangups and joys when it comes to bodies!
The Queer and Queerer Podcast Episode 47!
Listen to this week’s episode:
(Please click here to listen on iPad/iPhone or download.)
Here’s some more information about what we talked about this week:
» Peterson Toscano’s A Musing: Henry Kissinger had a Boob Job!
» Intersex Society of North America
» Abortion not a women’s issue? Feministing: Behind the backlash: what’s so scary about deconstructing the gender binary?
» Malaysia’s got an anti-gay camp for boys, but it’s illegal.
» Texas considers banning trans marriage. But in Texas, different kinds of trans marriages are legal because of Littleton v. Prange.
» PBS’s In The Life highlights transgender Injustice at Every Turn.
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Peterson Toscano's A Musing 
Abortion as a women’s issue is problematic for trans men (and trans women, and infertile cis women); making anything a “[one group] issue” discounts the impacts on any people that don’t fall within that group .. and more importantly, discounts the contributions that can (and should and need to) be made by everyone to resolve difficult issues.
At one point in the podcast, it is asked: why is the gender binary so important? Why do so many people assume and defend a binary, including those who have reason to question it, like lesbians and gay men?
From a certain perspective, lesbians and gay men are in the very same boat with straights; a threat to the gender binary is a threat to their identity. How could you even define “gay” without reference to an assumed gender binary? “I’m only attracted to people whose genitals look like mine”? “I’m only attracted to people who share my same social role”? Neither of these seem to describe what really happens–we’re often attracted to people long before seeing their genitals, and despite wide differences, or changes, in social roles (even gender roles) within the preferred sex. It becomes nonsensical.
There is not only one alternative (as is perhaps the secret fear of the binary defenders), to invalidate all the identities or police them according to some arbitrarily decided “most correct” definition. There is also the option for people to choose to elevate those commonalities that transcend category (we all want love, safety, freedom, companionship, meaningful work; we all have graces and flaws and quirks and preferences and needs to negotiate with others), and consider our variations in sex and gender and sexuality no more or less important than our variations in religion, ethnic background, blood type, body shape, dis/ability, vocation, age, family relationship, dietary requirements, or any of the endless other attributes that compose each of our individual identities. Just release the assumption that any one aspect of identity is THE most fundamental, fixed and defining in importance.