15-04-2015, 12:39 AM
Hi,
I am the author of the blog that you are discussing.
I want to clarify what I meant when talking about a particular flavor of transgender as being a construct of Western queer culture. That article is in particular talking about a recent cultural phenomena in the ftm-spectrum community that occurs mostly among young people and is part of online cultures such as tumblr and can be found in women's colleges and various queer communities, i.e. the ones where queer means mostly female-assigned and young.
I am very aware of the existence of cross-gender behaviors and roles in many other cultures both modern and ancient.
What I am trying to say is this:
cross-gender behavior exists in all cultures
cross-gender roles exist in many cultures (i.e. hijra, two spirit, followers of cybele etc.)
the concept of "transgender" and particularly "transsexualism" is a Western cultural idea that is based in more universal thoughts and feelings, concieving of it as a medical condition and in identity terms as Western culture tends to do.
This particular subtype of transsexualism that I was referring to in the article is a cultural phenomena that arose in ~2005 and is part of a subset of queer youth culture.
To make another analogy with homosexuality:
Homosexual behavior and orientation exist in all cultures
Gay identity is a product of Western culture's response to homosexuality.
Queer identity of the 2010s is not the same as Gay identity and in fact is becoming increasingly divorced from homosexuality at all, becoming almost purely a cultural expression of a certain aesthetic and values around gender and sexuality.
I am the author of the blog that you are discussing.
I want to clarify what I meant when talking about a particular flavor of transgender as being a construct of Western queer culture. That article is in particular talking about a recent cultural phenomena in the ftm-spectrum community that occurs mostly among young people and is part of online cultures such as tumblr and can be found in women's colleges and various queer communities, i.e. the ones where queer means mostly female-assigned and young.
I am very aware of the existence of cross-gender behaviors and roles in many other cultures both modern and ancient.
What I am trying to say is this:
cross-gender behavior exists in all cultures
cross-gender roles exist in many cultures (i.e. hijra, two spirit, followers of cybele etc.)
the concept of "transgender" and particularly "transsexualism" is a Western cultural idea that is based in more universal thoughts and feelings, concieving of it as a medical condition and in identity terms as Western culture tends to do.
This particular subtype of transsexualism that I was referring to in the article is a cultural phenomena that arose in ~2005 and is part of a subset of queer youth culture.
To make another analogy with homosexuality:
Homosexual behavior and orientation exist in all cultures
Gay identity is a product of Western culture's response to homosexuality.
Queer identity of the 2010s is not the same as Gay identity and in fact is becoming increasingly divorced from homosexuality at all, becoming almost purely a cultural expression of a certain aesthetic and values around gender and sexuality.