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SN Y - r O A T R AN SEXU AL

TH E OTH ER S O N , T # I , " I WA S JU ST TAL KIN G TO A C H AN GE ffAY AND...,,

1. There is an excellent term in medicine for this kind ofpractice: iatrogenic.latrogenic medicine, such as blood-letting by leachesor tleatment with arsenic,actually creates sometimes the very one it is intended to treat. I believe any catdisorder and disease, egorical system of knowledge that creates and maintains people like me as a"pathology" ought to be described as an iatrogenic epistemology and named for what it does: i.e., naturalizing some bodies by creating mine as a kind of disease.

with that you arehaving strangeconversations Tr:me, this suggests .{our pocket*ot"y. No one IS a change'One can askfor change' tires' changeclothes' changesides' *u"n .hung., exchange,change BE changeto I minor key,and havea changeof life, but one cannot a change. DON'T #2. "You LooK JUsr As GooDAs I Do'" we Of courseI do. And this is preciselythe stateof graceto which But more than likely,you do both of us an injustice' all aspire.

has friend DavidValentine coinedthe verb to tribify (Tqi-behfMy u.,thro-upologist

fi) to name this propensity of social scientists to naturalize their own gender and geni-

Ki CI.flho. a wonderful counterexample of engaged and relevant academic inquiry, see *fia-urt.'sremarkable"Genderb*?s[! a l i c S p a c e "i n E n v ir o n m e n ta n d Pla n n in g D: So cie r y n d S pace14 (1996): 2Zl -240' she issue of transviolence, but only to tease out and interconnect wider ifriiliiElcritical issues of all gender-based violence. In addition, she does so without stigmatizing her transgender subjects.The focus ofher study is the workings ofthe gender regime itielf-the ways violence is used to regulate gender in public space-and not just transpeople as (detached) subjects.

tals while treating mine as if they were the product of some quaint practiceby an or ..iexotic" foreigntribe.

le,Ge#Cl'3S4:EISCslulIo"lgLPlL

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DON'T #3. "Wgtt-, I wANTYou ro KNowrHAT l cERTAtNLY

C ON S ID E R Y OU A WO MA N ."

sourceof wondermentthat well-intentioned, It is a never-ending a and otherwisevery well-brought-uppeoplesaythis to me' with selflight of total sincerity shining in their eyesfor which any

il ruk

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proveto be unfounded:(a) b y,ar"J tions whichl upor- closerinspection, my gender a subject 'Js'*'i is aboutwhichreasonable people might be t tl-'"-t, expected to reasonably differ; (b) mv gender i. a i.,r,;. rhar ic c,rrexpected reasonablydiffer; (b) m ggnderis topic f."i_-u mv der
.,'Y$9//\

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trespecting cocker spanielwould kill. *"1, Unfortunately,this assurance turns on at least four assump-

DON,T #8. DON,T #9.

" C N U Y O U H AVE AN OR GASM ? ,' , , Y O V M U S T H AVE H AD A L OT OF C OU R AGE TO

F A C E S U R G E R Y . ',

W something about which I suffer rather a great deal it, is

"

that is cur-

of anxiety and aboutwhich I am seeking somereassururr*;and (d) you, since you are a nontransexual, are in just the providential position of providing me with this reassurance so desperately I seek.

DON,T#a. q THINK YoU'RE MUCH WoMAN ANY oF As A As

MY FRIENDS."

rvVhat treat for them. Especially a your male friends. DON'T #5. "I WoULD NEVERHAVE GUESSED WERE YoU .A This'phrase usuallyaccompanied a look of the utmost is by incre_ duliry followed closelyby a searching, penetrating,and largelysotto voce reappraisalof all the things you thought you knew about me (or, perhaps,only all the times we slept tolether). Unfortunately, this utteranceassumes that your creduiity, n-odoubt a topic of .rrd_ lessfascination to you, is of equal interest to me. Since there are tens of thousandsof us (maybein your building alone!),_the fact that someof qs caq "pass"(a nasLconcept if "u"r"tfuxerg;-l nontransexuals you are

To have the actual surgery,I just had to be able to breathe deeply' count at leastpartwaybackward from one hundred, and fall asleep with some semblanceof dignity. In all of thesetasksI was reliably to aidedby enoughanesthesia subduea smallwaterbuffalo.It would also have helped had I ten-to-twenty thousand dollars in spare change (see#1 above).Unfortunately' while I was thus drifting majesticallyoff to sleep,I found I also had to be able to watch my friends, most of my lovers, all of my family, and any lesbian who used the term politically correctin any context other than a Lily Tomlin joke, fade out of my existenceforever.Also, I found that I That is the hard refrainsof DON'Ts #1-8,above. woke up to endless part. The surgery I could probably do againbefore breakfast' goNcERN lr's ANYoNE's DON'T # lO. "l DoN'TTHINK
WH A T , S B E T WE E N Y O UR L EGS' U N L ESS TH EY'R E SL EEPIN G WI T H Y O U . , ,

DON,T#6. "Cnn you HAVE oRGAsM?,, AN Yes, but only when I'm askedthis question. DON,T#7.. "cnn YoU HAVE oRGAsM?,, AN

ffi ffi

Well, yes.But you,like me, might be surprised at the profound lack some people display to even this tender area,as of fastidiousness my weekly trips to the accoutrement racks at the PleasureChest I'm and Eve'sGarden confirm. In any case, quite certain that whateveris betweenyour legs,evenduring thosehot, sticky,yucky days of summer,is totally abovereproachand perfectly charming, while what'sbetweenmine, evenon the very best of days,is, well, let'sjust not talk about it.
D O N 'T # t I . " l T H I N K TR AN sEXU AL S AR E JU sr M EN l N DRAG.,,

Of courseyou do, and you re entitled to your opinion. You can even be justifiably proud to think so. Do not, however,voice this sentiment while surrounded by a room full of men who really are in

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drag (for instance, the next Fantasy at Ball).Also,be certainto note the exception to this rule, which is, of course,female-to-male transexuals, who are really,well, just women in drag. We all know how naturally distasteful it is when men wear dresses women or wearpants.Do not, however, voicethis sentimentwhile surrounded by a room of S/M dykesin full leather and sruds. you,REA TRANsEXUAL. DON'T #f 2. "l HEAR WHENDrDyou
HAVE SURGERY?, ,

soy mtirely of compressed by-products.And you look just like a REAL ,Mnsexual.Oh,I'm so sorry I didnt rcaItzethat was an insult.

T R A H S E X U A L I K N O W .''

Yes, and I hear you're a homosexual:when did you first suck cock? Ohhhh-it's not abour sex. 'l DON'T #13. "l THrNK TRANsExuALrry A KrNDoF oF AS s
I BrRTH DEFEC T. , ,
i

tt

,,

do I. I wasborn into the wrong culture. \So DON'T #14. "How DtDyou KNowyou,REA woMAN?r'

'Wes, isn't it arnazingthat when you came out to your mother, and ysu were the only homosexualsheknew. Ho-hum. The fact that I that: (a) you am the only transexual you know only emphasizes probably know a few hundred of us but you don't know you know ue,and we won't tell you that you do; (b) there are tens of thousandsof us, and more all the time; (c) we are secretlyplotting to take over the planet Earth, and infiltrating your prevailing nontransexualculture is just the first step;and (d) while we arewaiting t8 take over your planet we are amusing ourselvesat your expense by seeingjust how much we can fuck with your heads.

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)l

'i|'

How didJgz hro}1]'ou were a woman?Ah-hmm: breastsand vagina.Well,lffivery handsome, bearded, muscular young men of my acquaintance who beganlife with the very sameequipment,sothat'snot particularly compellingevidence, is it?...I see,insideYOU just know. Call me sometime,we'll have lunch.
DON,T # T5. "Ts I T TRUE THAT TRANSEX U A L S A R E . w o M E N TRAPPED IN M EN' S BO DI ES' ?' '

Yes, that's right. In my own case, they had to call in both the Fire Departmentand the EMS and eventhen it took them hours to cut me out. Luckily I had myWalkman and somewqnderful ludy Garland tapes,so it wasn't too awful a wait.
DO N, T # 16. " Yo u L o o K J U S T L IKE A REALwonanu." \'-

How splendid,especially when you recall I'm composedalmost