I write about non-binary gender identities and music. I'm a synth musician and netlabel owner at Vulpiano Records. AA grad in LGBT Studies and Library Technology as of this spring. I am an avid reader, post-punk enthusiast, and new aesthetic curator.
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gqid:
Xジェンダー (x-jendā) is the most common term I’ve found in my research thus far on an identity that is neither man nor woman in Japan, comparable to the English-language terms genderqueer or the more neutral term non-binary. Collected here are a list of some of the most informative and engaging sites I could find on the subject, some provided with annotations.
Intersections: An Introduction to X-Jendā: Examining a New Gender Identity in Japan: This was one of the only pieces I could find in English about the term, so I would heartily recommend checking it out for a comprehensive look that explains the identity within the framework of Japanese terminology and culture and outlines a history of the word’s usage and other similar terms.
クイアな必然 (Kuia na Hitsuzen; A Queer Inevitability): This is the blog of Nosuma, who identifies as Xジェンダー and as XTX specifically; compare with uses of FTM, MTF. Also, please note that the terms FTM and MTF are presently very common in discourse around gender identity in Japan, even more so than transgender man and transgender woman. They are also an artist and have designed a series of shirts defining Xジェンダー at their Atelier Saranse shop.
虹色ろんど (Nijiro Rondo; Iridescence Rondo): This is a blog by Seiji, who is quite humorous and often adds illustrations to his blog articles. Seiji describes himself as identifying as FTM in a more lengthy biographical description and オナベ野郎 (Onabe Yarou; a Male-Identified Rascal) in the fill-in box for their gender identity - yes, although you’re required to pick male or female to start, Ameba lets you fill your gender in with text afterward! Seiji has done blog posts defining gender terms, such as this piece, a Sexual Minority Glossary, which defines such terms as coming out, neko and tachi (terms often used in the lesbian community to denote passiveness or activeness in sexual intercourse), danāzu (trans men who are attracted to other trans men), femme, and 熊系 (kumakei, bear system, preference for the bear type in the gay community), and this entry which explains the difference between FTM, FTX, and related terms.
ちぃのGID-MtFの４ｺﾏﾌﾞﾛｸﾞ(Chii no GiD-MtF no 4 Koma Burogu; Chii’s 4-Frame Comic GiD-MtF Blog): Although focusing on MTF identity typically, this particular comic and article discusses Xジェンダー: [4ｺﾏ]☆Ｘジェンダー☆. Chii describes the differences between 中性 (chūsei) and 両性 (ryōsei), wanting to identify between man and woman (男と女の中間でありたい！) and wanting to identify as both man and woman (男女どちらの性でもありたい！) respectively and relates an anecdote about an Ｘジェンダー person in junior high who was uncomfortable wearing their high school uniform because it was in a girls’ style.
Xジェンダー Groups on Ameba: Groups available range from the large, with over 15,000 members such as 性別?そんなの知りません!(笑) (Seibetsu? Son’na no shirimasen! (Wara); Gender identity? I don’t know what that is! (Laughs)) that encompass a variety of gender identities, including binary associated ones, to the small Xジェンダーの憩いのお部屋 (X-jendā no Ikoi no Oheya; An X-Gender Room for Relaxation), which I should note is also managed by Nosuma (mentioned above). Member blogs are listed under メンバーのブログ within each group and include many entries by people who identify outside of the binary. See also the Xジェンダー Group on Mixi.
Euphoria: ～Xｼﾞｪﾝﾀﾞ-中心の総合情報サイト～ (Euphoria: X-jendā Chūshin no Sōgō Jōhō Saito; Euphoria: Comprehensive Information Site on X-Gender): This site includes a glossary of terms concerning gender, sex, and sexuality and detailed information on FTX identity.
Xが集まれる場所 (X ga Atsumaru Basho; X Gathering Place): Relatively new site gathering information about Xジェンダー and related terms, including books and links.
Xジェンダー＠Wiki (X-Gender Wiki)
Hi there - Thanks for getting in touch!
A few ideas: 1) Covering important literary figures and activists / maybe a book club, lots of book resources over here: http://genderqueerid.com/gq-links (My Gender Workbook is a fun one to explore), 2) ”101” type content, perhaps going over gender theory / terminology - this is a good beginning site for that: http://transwhat.org/, 3) group discussion of “what is gender?” (seems like a simple question, but can generate a lot of discussion!)
What have you covered so far?
~Marilyn
Anna Anthropy has created something beautiful and moving here, and I just wish everyone could play it to understand what it is to be trans just a little bit better :)
This was really moving! I wish there were more conceptual / art games like this.
gqid:
An incredible passage, ‘Guiding Assumptions’, from Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice 2:
- Sex, gender, and sexual orientation are separate though interconnected identities.
- The binary gender system is limiting to all people (not just transgender-identified and intersex individuals).
- Transgender experience exists in relation to cultural constructions of gender. In other words, we cannot understand transgender without also understanding the sex/gender system.
- Although gender is socially constructed, the experiences of it are very real.
- Language is limiting, but we are nevertheless dependent on it.
- Everyone is an expert on hir, his, or her own identity, and has the right to self-definition.
- There is a diversity of transgender identities, and those identities are always evolving and changing.
- All transgender identities are valid transgender identities. No transgender identity (e.g. transsexual, transgender, or genderqueer) is “more transgender” or more “really transgender” than other identities, and no transgender expression is “more authentic” than another. Rather, they are different ways of transgressing gender.
- Not everyone who identifies as transgender wants or intends to transition physically to a different sex.
- Not every transgender person is an expert on gender theory or gender oppression; not every transgender person is a gender radical or activist.
- The problem with gender oppression is the oppression, not the transgender people.
- There is no end to learning about transgender experiences.
This Novemember 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hate and prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence. [tdor.org]
(Source: hedlunds, via cocteautwin)
Submission from neonsigh:
[SSEX BBOX] - Kelly Lovemonster on Being Genderqueer
SSEX BBOX is: 1. a verite style internet documentary series about sexuality, 2. a queer quarterly magazine. The project consists in revealing some of the various sides of sexuality in our days. In different societies and cities like SÃO PAULO, BARCELONA, BERLIN AND SAN FRANCISCO.
Check us out on Tumblr!: http://ssexbbox.tumblr.com/
gqid:
^ Please click-through to read in full!
Some key revisions:
• Psychotherapy is no longer a requirement to receive hormones and surgery, although it is suggested.
“It used to be a minimum amount of psychotherapy was needed. An assessment is still required but that can be done by the prescribing hormone provider,” Bockting explained.
• A number of community health centers in the U.S. have developed protocols for providing hormone therapy based an approach known as the Informed Consent Model. These protocols are consistent with version 7 revisions of WPATH’s standards of care.
“The SOC are flexible clinical guidelines; they allow for tailoring of interventions to the needs of the individual receiving services and for tailoring of protocols to the approach and setting in which these services are provided,” Coleman explained.
“Access is more open and acknowledges transgender care is being provided in community health centers. This certainly makes it easier to access hormones,” Bockting added.
• There are now different standards for surgery, as well. For example, a transgender man who wants a hysterectomy no longer has to live one year as a male in order to receive the surgery. Likewise, a transgender woman who wants her testicles removed does not have to live one year as a female.
For people who want genital reconstructive surgery, however, the standards of care recommend living a year in the role of the gender they are transitioning.
• Another major change, Bockting explained, is that the standards “allow for a broader spectrum of identities – they are no longer so binary.”
“There is no one way of being transgender and it doesn’t have to mirror the idea of a change of their sex,” Bockting explained.
“These standards allow for a gender queer person to have breasts removed without ever taking hormones,” he said.
[SSEX BBOX] [HOME RUN]
Time: September 8, 2011 at 8pm to September 9, 2011 at 1am
Location: El Rio
Street: 3158 Mission Street between Cesar Chavez and Valencia
City: San Francisco
Website: http://www.elriosf.com/about/
http://ssexbbox.com/
Description:
A benefit for [SSEX BBOX] web series!
DJS + PERFORMANCES + QUEERS!!!
8PM - 1AM - DONATIONS $3 TO $10
DJ BootyKlap (Party Hole)
»>BRING YR FINE THREADS AND STRUT YR STUFF FOR OUR PHOTOBOOTH!
RSVP: Facebook, Fetlife, Openly, or just come!
Center for Sex & Culture intern Marilyn Roxie interviewed Carol Queen, author, sexologist, and founder of the Center, in March 2011 for an LGBT American History class assignment. Here now are the contents of the interview, ranging from youth group organization in the ’70s to sex-positivity, from her involvement with Good Vibrations to the founding for the Center for Sex & Culture, plus a guest appearance from her partner, Robert Morgan Lawrence!:
Marilyn Roxie: In the ‘70s, you had founded a gay youth organization and I wanted to know what was the process for starting that out and how did you get going on that?
Carol Queen: Well, in 1975, actually 1974, I was 17 and I started college a year early, and I wanted to go to college and come out. I was already bi-identified and really there was nothing for me to connect with in my small mountain town that I grew up in Oregon, except figuring out who the gay teachers were and trying to get them to give me support and that, then as now, is dicey because teachers are often a little fearful of reaching out to queer kids. So, I mean I did get some support, but I went to college, and at college it turned out, not only was the bisexuality part a little challenging to people, but, I was too young to go to the bar, which is where all the other people really came together and connected. The bar scene, this was in Eugene, Oregon in the ‘70s, and it was not the only LGBT space in town, but it was almost the only LGBT space.
Carol Queen is someone who I have really admired and respected. If you’re into gender or sexuality studies / sexology / LGBT studies / queer issues / sex-positivity, check out this interview!
should really follow The Center for Sex and Culture, in CA founded by Carol Queen and Robert Lawerence. Two of my biggest role models.
We appreciate the signal boost! Thanks Megan.
Now available on Spotify!: http://bit.ly/o1mCaF 100 tracks and counting…examples of what’s included: Depeche Mode, Bronski Beat, Yaz, Divine, Grace Jones, Soft Cell, ABBA, Dead or Alive, Madonna, various Hi-NRG and disco classics.
This mix includes tracks by queer (LGBTQ) artists and/or popular in gay dance clubs past and present and/or with queer themes. Sources include Queer Music Heritage, various gay club compilations like Free to Be and Gay Happening, individual lists from Rate Your Music and assorted top lists, plus my own knowledge about music which would be relevant here. Many of these dance tracks are associated with the gay male community specifically - if you know of other danceable tracks relevant to anyone under the queer umbrella that aren’t in this playlist, please recommend them to me! Hope you enjoy.
^ I don’t feel like I’ve transitioned per se, but I can definitely say that understanding gender and sexuality in general has made me more comfortable with adorning what are typically understood as feminine garments, and even appreciating female beauty aesthetics, than I was when I began identifying with male and thought that I had to drop all of that stuff in order to ‘really be’ myself - definitely not true!
(Source: ftmconfessions, via anythingnonbinary-deactivated20)
Currently writing an essay for my film class called ‘The Subversion of Bugs Bunny’. It’s more likely than you think.