In a discussion on the message boards, one of our veteran posters was told that she has “a foot in both worlds” and sometimes I wonder if that’s not, in some small way, the basis for transphobia. You know, like loyalty oaths, or pennant races or elections – you’re supposed to pick a team and stick with it.
I wonder if the whole “traitor” suspicion in some ways underpins transphobia.
The very same idea – the foot in both worlds – is viewed as a source of “magic” and “theatre” in Marjorie Garber’s Vested Interests, too. On the positive tip, it can be seen as “divine” or “prophetic” in discussions of ‘third sex’ people like the berdache, where being of more than one gender perforce means knowing more than a singly-gendered person. The IDEA, then, is well-documented: trans people have one foot in both worlds.
But I really do wonder if the dark side of that same coin is the suspect nature of someone who doesn’t/won’t pick a team.