Thread: "Real Girls"
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Old 05-20-2009
puck puck is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
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puck is infamous around these parts
Default semantic games

Quote:
Originally Posted by smc View Post
The problem with what Puck writes begins with the two words in this sentence that I have highlighted in boldface: "If a guy sees a person with a skirt, nice looks, long hair, he's going to ASSUME that that person is a woman with the appropriate anatomy."

Puck's premise is that the absence of this "appropriate anatomy" is the root of a "deception" -- a word based on an active verb, deceit. And what is the action? It is the willful effort to convince someone to believe that which is not true.

I contend that Puck's entire premise is wrong. Let's make this more concrete and abstract -- and please excuse me, Bionca, for including you in this exercise but since you have posted so eloquently I am hopeful it will be okay. Here goes: Do you, Puck, contend that Bionca (for example) is not truly a woman? Do you contend that when she self-identifies as a woman she is untruthful? If the answer is yes to either of these questions, then I ask what gives Puck (or anyone, for that matter) the right to make that determination for Bionca. Who are any of us to decide for any transgendered person what is the "appropriate anatomy"?

A premise such as Puck's is not only wrong, but it contributes to the violence in a rather insidious (or perhaps not so subtle) way. Not only does it dehumanize the victim (by creating a category that seems other than "normal" -- in this case, missing the "appropriate anatomy"), but it is a rationalization of the violence itself. Since words can be as violent as fists, as a rationalization it becomes a form of the violence.

Until we stop giving any aid and comfort to the attackers of transgendered people, even in the form of explanations such as the one Puck offers, we are complicit. Rationalizing an attacker's behavior -- even if we ourselves would never throw the punch -- must stop!
SMC, There are several problems with your rebuttal. If you just think about ordinary life you will find that we all rely on ASSUMPTIONS rather than reinvent the wheel every time we do something. We assume drivers will stop at red lights. We assume that the can of food we open will be safe to eat. Perhaps a better word would have been trust, for that is what it is. We trust in things in our daily life to be what they have been represented to be, now and in the past. I know, assume can make an ass of you and me, but those cases are sporadic.
I can question whether Bionca is truly a woman, because I have absolutely no idea what it is to be a woman and I doubt that most women would satisfactorily answer that question. What is it to be a man? Hard, authoritative, brutal, etc? We largely identify males by the physical appearance for a start.
Appropriate anatomy--maybe a poor choice of words but here is the point. If I see a man with pants on and shoes I assume he has legs and feet--but of course, at some point I could be wrong--he could be a double amputee, I which case my face would be hanging on the ground is shame for the mistake, but 99.9% of the time, I am going to be right in that assumption.
Yes, apropriate anatomy. If I ask someone to define a woman anatomically, they will point out among other thigs, breasts and vagina which are the visible traits of being a mwoman and female in gender.
Do you assume that every woman you meet is a transgendered person? That would be really awkward for both of you. Like the rest of us, your rely on assumptions about gender every day in order lnot to have to ask everyone you meet to either drop their pants or hike up their skirt.
Yes, words and labels can hurt the same as fists but that is not what my post was about. If I look at two people, one in skirt and blouse, and one in pants and jacket, I MUST make the standard assumption that they are who they outwardly represent. It is up to those individuals to tell me otherwise. Few of us can read minds.
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