🚀 go-pugleaf

Michelle Steiner (steiner@best.com) wrote:
> In article <Eg1pxoNb43uB089yn@vaxxine.com>, lmasters@vaxxine.com (Laura
> Masters) wrote:

> >So now with your nose all out of joint you are slandering me all over the
> >net, and basically behaving like a spoiled little boy.  Let me guess, Joan
> >Tine, Nikki, Dana Hamm and Cuntwoman --the three worst transbashers on the
> >net-- put you up to this didn't they?

> Why did you include Joan in that?  From what I've seen, she doesn't
> disagree with you any more than I do, but she's a lot more vocal in
> her criticism of your technique and presentation on the net.  I
> can't comment on Nikki; I don't recall what she's been writing, but
> you're right on the mark about those other two.

> Hamm and Karen say that they offer support, yet all I've seen from
> them is abuse.  John Haugh is firmly in their camp, and is as prone
> to abusing as they are.  I doubt that there is anything that they
> are not below doing.

> But Joan Tine?  No way.

Riki Wilchins said something last night which got me thinking: she
always goes to the most "out" of the "out" camps in any situation.  At
MWMF she identified herself as pre-op, 'cuz pre-ops were strengstens
verboten and being denied entry.  Or she'll call herself a
crossdresser, or go stand with the people who are lowest on the local
totem pole, both out of principle, and out of practical policy. Now, I
understand activism needs to get the most reaction for the most
efficient input, but this technique also has an important and
beneficial side effect for the viewer and for the actor: it reminds us
that it's not the person, it's the rationale of the situation or the
argument being put forward.

I judge Masters harshly as a _person_ because she is ignorant and has
no breeding.  I give her short shrift as an individual because she is
a poor strategist: she has to fight every battle, even those which
exist only in her mind.  She can't let _anything_ go, which is a sign
of too much punishment absorbed over too long a period.  Political
power may grow from the muzzle of a gun, but if the person with the
gun can't spell his own name, he is incapable of producing any social
change other than cold bodies.  This is a paradox, but it is true, for
the same reason Heinlein said "war is as personal as a punch in the
nose".  Force isn't violence.  Hammering a nail isn't violence, and
marching with signs or filing briefs are not violent acts.  Holding a
world view which contains mechanisms for flushing "different"
individuals out of the system IS violence.  Changing that system is
not war: it's medicine.

But Riki said something else which I found illuminating: it isn't the
transsexual who has the greatest potential for fixing what is wrong
with our society's construction of gender: it is the male cross
dresser, when and if he comes out of his closet, and talks to other
men.  Only a man in a dress has the ability to communicate to other
men _as_ a man who has a different take on _being_ a man.  The male
crossdresser may arguably be the only sane figure on the landscape: he
seeks to re-unite his being with what was ripped away in adolescence
and reclaim his female part.  To that I have to add my oft-repeated
homily, that while gender dysphoria isn't an illness, it's no
guarantee of sanity either.  It doesn't vaccinate you against
paranoia.

So there is surely some Zen role for the (sane) Lauras of this world,
but their venue of action isn't in our community it's in the male
strongholds.  I'd feel safer if we decided to do a little blockbusting
in Joe Ball's Greasy Spoon if I was sitting next to Laura than in a
posse of exclusively passable TS sisters, for the simple reason that
Laura scares hell out of me, and if she looks anything like she
sounds, she's useful for area security, *besides* being my choice for
group spokesperson if Joe Balls wants to interlocute.  Laura is so
predominantly male in her microcode that she would undoubtedly relate
better to Joe and put him more at his ease than I ever could.  Joe
_needs_ to be confronted with one of his own in a dress.  He can
understand Laura better than he could ever understand me, and vice
versa, especially if Laura is up front about the erotic nature of the
Act.  It's not so much that TV/CD is such an erotic act, but rather
than in our spavined society, EVERY act is one of obsessive sexuality,
packaged in denial.  This wound needs to be opened, irrigated, and
cauterized.  And how better to fix a wound in a fetish-blinded society
than by showing up in a leather suit with a smoking branding iron?
Consistency.  Consistency in all things:).

We all have a job to do, is the short of it.  We all ought to be able
to help do it.  But little will get done unless we can all recognize
each others potential for helping.

As to Dana and Drumwomyn...are they even still _around_?  I figured
they have new aliases and a new group to assault now.  Am I not
getting all the messages at snugbug again?  Related question: did they
ever form their alt.indignation.orthodox.ts group?

Egregious as I find Laura, I find the power of Riki's strategy much
more important, and any TS who would be unable to blythely claim
identity as a CD, a drag queen, or a TV just to get the maximum rise
out of some closed mind probably needs to re-examine their political
understandings.  And any TS who would be personally shamed or revolted
by the prospect needs to get their humanity and sense of self in
order.  We have a lot of work to do, and very little of it is on each
other.  The fact that our real enemies are concepts and thoughts is a
hard thing to bear, and we tend to strike at each other because it is
so _hard_ to find the enemy, fix the enemy, and fight the enemy.  But
we have to, the clock is operating.

                        *    *    *    *

The older I get the clearer one image is in my mind: my daughters and
sons.  Every gathering I attend, I see so many beautiful young girls
and a sprinking of finely-sculpted young boys, as perfect and precious
as if God made them in the gender they present.  They are our
children, the offspring of the thing which defines our life.  We can
reap lots of moral duty points by doing what we can to fix the world
they and theirs will inherit, so they can walk down the streets we
walk down today and not feel the hurt we do.

I've been bothered by questions of "when does this shame, fear, and
fight-or-flight stuff go away, or at least get more managable?"  It
seems that it _doesn't_ go away.  There are people accomplishing good
work who are just as scared as I am.  This is good news.  It means we
don't have to keep waiting.

Love,

Joan
-- 
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Wombat! Transexual Menace! Vicus Lusorum! Curry!
Theoni Srith Nanklaren/Bubblegum Crisis/Rollerblade Macro EQ 
Quare tristis es anima mea, et quare conturbas me?