I know Norrie (formerly Norrie May Welby) drives a lot of traditional transsexual people batshit, but still, I think she’s pretty groovy. I definitely like “spansexual” instead of “transsexual” to describe him, too.
As long as people understand this is a very different trans experience than the “usual” transition narrative, and that transitioned people can still get the gender marker of their choice, I’m glad she gets to be who she wants legally and otherwise.
More genders, no gender, please. “NS” for “not specified” seems like a good third gender/no gender option for ID.
“Norrie explained that she then began to question gender itself, the simple male/female dichotomy.”
Ah, confusion reigns in the media, as usual. The simple male/female dichotomy definitely exists. “Female” and “male” are designations of sex, based on external genitalia, confirmed by internal genitalia. In general, males have penises and produce sperm, females have vaginas, produce eggs, and give birth.
It’s a whole different thing to question gender. Sure, why not question gender? I don’t think gender is all performance, but it’s not that far off. There have always been people who deviated from accepted gender norms, long before anyone invented a word for it and started to consider it some sort of condition.
The only thing binary about gender is that there are two stereotypes, feminine and masculine. As I said, people have been repudiating the so-called gender binary since it first existed. But sexual dimorphism, with some exceptions, lives on regardless.
Good for her. I’ve noticed lately that I don’t fit easily inside many of the now ossifying trans narratives out there, and it’s left me feeling lonely and like an outsider, AGAIN, fer Chrissakes.
Just good for her.
It mystifies me that many trans people can simultaneously insist that others accept their own asserted identities (as they should), and then turn around and insist that the other person is wrong. How can they demand of others what they won’t grant to others?
Go, Norrie. Her advocacy moves us another step toward a society which can deal with something more complex than a gender binary.
Grace