Finding myself falling victim to, “Cereal box reading syndrome,” the almost insatiable appetite for

desiring something or anything to read, resulting in us reading the cereal box, I found myself reading the
crossed out blurb on the first page of our reading, Trans in the USA. The publication ended with “Minot,
ND June 2008,” although the author’s name was not present, I can’t help but think I know who authored
the piece.

Reading through Ryan’s piece, Trans in the USA, I couldn’t help but notice what seems like a “Prejudice
of Difference.” In growing up Joelle Ryan writes about being the victim of persecution because of being
different than either side of the binary establishment made up of ‘boys’ and ‘girls’. Struggling with
gender identity issues made Joelle the odd person out, or the focus of everyone else’s harassment and
torture throughout youth. As Joelle moved from high school to college, the choice had been made to
practice self-oppression of an honest to one’s self, gender identity. This lead to a different form of
ostracism when she found herself having to work at the University she attended, while the rest of her
classmates had much more fertile money trees growing back home. This time she found herself the
victim of discrimination due to socio-economic stance as opposed to any sort of proclamation of gender
identity that didn’t fall within the binary system.

The Prejudice of Difference is simply that, when you find yourself being that one unusual element in the
crowd, you can be almost certain to find yourself as the odd person out, the harassed or tortured one.
Having grown up with undiagnosed high functioning autism, probably attributed significantly to me
being that ‘odd person out.’ The realization came when helping to diagnose my son with high
functioning autism roughly three years later. Much like Ryan, I too felt different growing up, but failed
to understand why and this lead to being the one that was singled out from the majority. I highly
suspect this contributed greatly to being such an advocate for women, LGBT’s as well as any other
individuals finding themselves to be victims of oppression.

Thinking back to a conversation with a fellow toon, reminds me of how Ryan must have felt growing up,
when he inquired as to what biological sex is the driver of my toon, like many players do. My response
was, “if Gender Studies has taught us anything, it’s that the world does not boil down to a simple binary
system.” What I look like on the outside does not dictate what I am like on the inside.