Blog
On ‘Cistem Failure’ by Marquis Bey
Book #1 in my 2023 Trans Rights Readathon week. Marquis Bey says that cisgender is a “categorical ruse disingenuously hailing those who nevertheless do not and cannot sit comfortably within it.”
A philosopher discusses gender
Transgressive by Rachel Anne Williams. Fabulous trans philosophy book. Trans people can be men, women, or something else, and no one should be subject to cis normativity.
Trans exiteration
I hear an -iteration with an ex- on it. I’m bad at moving forward. I’m a hanger-on to the past.
I am not taking complaints about my face
Why the term ‘womanface’ is wrong. How is having a womanface or a manface different from having a face? What must I stop doing? I am trans and I woke up with my face. This is my manface?
The freedom to be left alone
We should have the choice, but we don’t always have it. In the past, when prompted to think about whether I’m ‘out’ or ‘queer,’ I’ve thought about the transgressive sense and about the meaning of visibility.
The system always leaves someone out
It doesn’t mean the person is strange. Any time we make a system of classification, someone won’t fit. This exclusion might say more about our need to classify people than about them.
Baldness isn’t just physical
It’s also performative. Labels describe how we live. Even when they describe reality, they’re about perceptions and performances. How we live interprets who we are.
When labels don’t feel right
She had two moms, and she didn’t like the word ‘straight’. If we have a stake in a shared outcome, we might avoid declaring how we’re different and separate from others, especially to imply our superiority.
People have been mad about ‘cisgender’ since at least 2007
If someone wants a world where no one is marked as cis, they must simultaneously fight for a world where no one is marked as trans.