Hello Mx

There can be no doubt that we've made some progress.  There have been significant shifts in the media portrayal of those who identify as sitting somewhere above or beyond the gender binary.  I was reminded of this at a conference organised and attended by those interested in supporting those for whom the trans* identity appeals. 

 

For far too long, those of us who did not subscribe to, or comfortably fit into, the boxes hitherto afforded to us have been pathologised as deluded or perverted.  It is no longer inconceivable to have experiences that validate, or even honour an alternative identity. 

 

Gender is the poetry each of us makes out of the language we are taught.

Leslie Feinberg, Trans Liberation: Between Pink or Blue

 

 

Gender is, after all, what resides between your ears, not your legs.  It is not fixed and can be fluid.  It might be best regarded as a relationship.  And, for some, may be the journey of a life time.  It has, I think, very little, if anything, to do with anatomy or physicality.  Though these can make gender far more straightforward...

 

Identity and expression are two very different things.  And this is where there is still an enormous amount of awareness raising to be done.  We assume too much, and do so far too quickly. 

 

The first question we usually ask new parents is: 'is it a boy or a girl?' 

There is a great answer to that one: 'We don't know; it hasn't told us yet.' 

Personally, I don't think any question containing an either/or deserves a serious answer, and that includes the question of gender. 

Kate Bornstein, Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the rest of us

 

 

Please don't call me 'Sir'.  Thank you for not calling me 'Madam'.  Gendered forms of address are rarely necessary, and carry with them an inherent risk.  I look forward to the day when we have a greater opportunity to self select our title, and to a time where this preference might be regarded as flexible as it truly is.  Hello 'Mx'.

 

As far as I'm concerned, being any gender is a drag.

Patti Smith

 

 

The soul has no gender.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes