Saturday, September 20, 2008

Open Forum: Is the Community Comprised of Hypocrites?

We claim to pride ourselves on diversity and promote the notion of acceptance of others. Are we really hypocrites in disguise behind the banner of a rainbow?

We dispel myths and claim to hate labels but we also embrace all these things we so often argue against. The community claims that we don't need to follow heteronormative thinking and that we don't define ourselves by our genders. Among lesbians you see butch and femme, and among gay men there are tops and bottoms. Doesn't this follow the heternormative philosophy of a dominant "man" and a more passive "woman" role. If we claim to despise categorization and labels why do so many gay men and lesbians label themselves?

Bisexuals claim they can see the stigmatization of not being gay nor straight but somewhere in between. Do they lose this sense of empathy with sexual minorities if they partner with someone of the opposite sex? Do they gain a sense of heterosexual privilege?

Transgender people are fighting for recognition of diversity among gender identities. You hear that its not about the genitals but about the mind and spirit of the person that makes the gender. Is there hypocrisy among the gender variant folks as well? There are different labels such as pre-op, post-op, and non-op. You have terms such as "passable" to imply that the person transitioned so well that they could pass for the other gender. If the genitals and look don't matter, why are there these categories to identify others?

Intersexuals want acceptance of their biological make-up which is not male or female, and want more sensitivity towards gender variance. But, do some go out of their way to make a distinction between their "biological" condition and what many claim is a "psychological" condition for transgender people?

Asexuals don't like the fact that everything in society is labeled and thought of in a sexual context, when in their world sexuality does not play a vital role. But when they discuss asexuality in regards to an orientation aren't they just as much playing into the notion that sexuality is a driving force of life?

This post is controversial, and forgive me if anyone gets offended by it. I am knit-picking a little bit at everyone in order to engage in a healthy conversation that I think is boiling within the topic of queer theory lately.

5 comments:

Charles CĂ©leste Hutchins said...

Oh my gods, a blog post from the 1970's! I didn't even think they had blogs back then!

Queers United said...

LOL what???

Nicky said...

Well as for intersex, it's more of making the distinction of the difference. It's mainly because the Transgender community has a nasty habbit of trying to co-opt the intersex, claiming the intersex brain theory is valid and claiming they have something in common.

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Well, I'm a straight-leaning bisexual female, married to a gay-leaning bisexual male.

I've found that when I go onto 'lesbian' websites, there's a lot distaste for people in my situation. This frustrates me, because I'm monogamous. Because I only sleep with a man (my husband), then I'm not 'really' queer. Damn it, just because I'm married doesn't mean that women don't turn me on!

And I'm obviously not trying to trick anyone into a relationship. I don't expect anyone to come into my life as a distant second, just so that I can get my jollies, and entertain me when I'm bored. Why must I be treated like I am?

And then there's my poor husband. He's tall, handsome, next to no body hair, and in his early 20s. And he's a bottom. But he's also very masculine, and in the military. So while he fixes cars, loves playing sports games, hanging and having a beer, is muscular... he's usually pretty passive in bed. He loves feeling like he's with someone stronger than him. What stereotype could we fit all of that into?

I hate stereotypes.

Anonymous said...

We claim to pride ourselves on diversity and promote the notion of acceptance of others. Are we really hypocrites in disguise behind the banner of a rainbow?

Having been blackballed by a few people on your blogroll because of past personal events made public by self loathing online bitchy queens and net nazi's, the answer is yes.

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