Reading: Gender Outlaw (Kate Bornstein) To contextualise: How Nonviolence Protects the State / Chapter 8 related tags: #HNvPtS
I cannot get over how much I wish they would've told Bornstein to just write footnotes or endnotes or something other than rewriting the text of this book. It's so infuriating because, in rewriting it, the revision becomes easier to find over the original and we lose a lot of random bits of history (and we lose random spaces that were willing to keep them so they could share them with those of us who weren't there).
The most recent example is in chapter 8. The original quotes and then reads:
The author of the “Helms Amendment” is definitely a gender defender! // “None of the funds authorized to be appropriated for the National Endowment for the Arts…may be used to promote, disseminate, or produce materials which in the judgment of the National Endowment for the Arts…may be considered obscene, including but not limited to, depictions of sadomasochism, homoeroticism, the sexual exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts and which, when taken as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.” // // —Senator Jesse Helms, Republican, North Carolina
I’m not included in Senator Helms’ amendment. I’m not included in most legislation these days. But me and my people, we’re the ones they’d want to legislate against, if they could even begin to conceive of us, because we’re the ones who threaten their manhood. People have underrated Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge, and the sequel Myron. In fact, the movie version of Myra Breckenridge has been called one of the worst movies of all time. I think it has a lot to do with the point Vidal makes: that the existence of transgendered people—people who exist sexually for pleasure, and not procreation—strikes terror at the heart of our puritanical Eurocentric culture. Vidal positions Myra as the voice and agent of doom for the traditional American male. I think he was on the mark, and I’d be proud to call Myra my sister.
I’m afraid that by spelling this all out the way I’m doing in this book, and the way other transgendered people are doing—I’m afraid we’ll tip our hands. Could be fun, though, and it’s much better than suffocating in the grip of the social disease called gender!
While the revised version reads:
Legislating who gets to use which bathrooms, locker rooms, and other binary-gendered spaces is the act of a Gender Defender.
// [Regarding] Single-Sex Multiple Occupancy Bathroom and Changing Facilities: Public agencies shall require every multiple occupancy bathroom or changing facility to be designated for and only used by persons based on their biological sex. // // (1) Biological sex: The physical condition of being male or female, which is stated on a person’s birth certificate. // // —General Assembly of North Carolina Second Extra Session 2016, House Bill 2
I just bet that some brave and mischievous lawyer is going to have a lot of fun parsing in court “the physical condition of being male or female” beyond penis-or-no-penis. And are trans people really that much of a threat to traditionally gendered people? I think a lot of folks have underrated Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge, and the sequel Myron. In fact, the movie version of Myra Breckinridge has been called one of the worst movies of all time. I think it has a lot to do with the point Vidal makes: that the sort of trans people who exist sexually for pleasure, and not procreation, strike terror at the heart of our puritanical Eurocentric culture. Vidal positions Myra as the voice and agent of doom for the traditional American male—aka “the real man.” I think he was on the mark, and I’m proud to call Myra my sister.
I think it's great to update to add more, but this... should've been added in another way that didn't obfuscate our shared history.
Here's an example of where I think the changes waters down the message. The original:
Movements tend to coalesce around a particular moment of rebellion. The transgender moment of rebellion has not yet come, and transgendered people are growing more and more restless. But the transgender Stonewall or Selma, Alabama is not going to come about by attacking the gay and lesbian community, or even lesbian separatists, outlaws like ourselves. In Selma, and at the Stonewall, members of the minority group stood up to the real forces of oppression: the police state.
Never mind that trans people were at Stonewall, an interesting fact to overlook in this book. Anyway, the revision:
Trans is the first marginalized activism to form itself and grow up in the early days of the internet. Maybe the instantaneous widespread communication that comes with the internet will preclude the need for a full-on physical rebellion. I sure hope so. Because in the past, social reform movements have tended to coalesce around a particular moment of rebellion. A unified trans moment of rebellion has not yet come, but trans people are growing more and more restless.
And look, the trans Stonewall or Selma, Alabama, is not going to come about by attacking members of our own trans family. And it won’t be a rebellion if trans people attack gays and lesbians—even lesbian separatists, who are clearly gender outlaws like ourselves. In Selma, and at the Stonewall, members of marginalized groups resorted to urban warfare in order to stand up to the more tangible force of oppression: the police state. It is my most sincere wish that trans activism will coalesce without bloodshed.
I think most of us wish for a bloodless revolution, but the path to even that bloodless revolution is littered with bodies. Sure, many of them didn't directly die by the hands of others, but... They're still gone. And that also doesn't take into consideration all the people who've died along the way for all the other dozens of reasons: disease (e.g., HIV/AIDS), hate crimes, lack of resources...
A bloodless revolution is still one built upon corpses and pain. Not acknowledging that does us all immense harm.