Author: zigzagreus

by

On Childhood Sexuality and Kink

During our last class meeting, we discussed how disabled people are infantilized and, by extension, de-sexualized by society. I noted that the pipeline (??)) from infantilization to asexualization itself assumes that children do not have sexuality, which is clearly untrue. Although it isn’t the most comfortable thing to discuss, our culture places a lot of social and commercial value on sex, and it’s misguided to think that children aren’t also affected by this.

I can at least speak for myself in saying that child me did have some sort of sexuality. Growing up, I was lucky to have a mom who basically told me that it was ok to do things with my body that felt good, as long as I did it in private by myself. This was maybe a limited form of sexuality though, as at that point I wasn’t really connecting physical pleasure with specific fantasies or thoughts.

Continue reading →
by

On the Medicalization of Transness

In 1966, Harry Benjamin published The Transsexual Phenomenon, one of the first works to address transness (Benjamin used the word “transsexualism”) as something other than a pathological mental disorder. Compared to modern queer theory this book got a lotttt of things wrong, but in 1966 it was a huge deal and it became the gold standard for medical professionals working with transgender patients. In The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto, Sandy Stone discusses the effect the textbook had on transgender medical care:

“And when the first transsexuals were evaluated for their suitability for surgery, their behavior matched up gratifyingly with Benjamin’s criteria. The researchers produced papers which reported on this, and which were used as bases for funding. It took a surprisingly long time–several years–for the researchers to realize that the reason the candidates’ behavioral profiles matched Benjamin’s so well was that the candidates, too, had read Benjamin’s book, which was passed from hand to hand within the transsexual community, and they were only too happy to provide the behavior that led to acceptance for surgery.”

Continue reading →
by

On Embodiment and Gender

As I understand it, the concept of embodiment seeks to move away from the Cartesian mind-body dualism, which posits that our minds and our physical bodies are distinct entities, and towards the idea that we are our bodies. We experience, know, and perceive the world through our bodies, and in return we are experienced and perceived by others through the lens of our bodies. An important factor in our body experience and the way our bodies are perceived is gender. Do I have a gender, or am I my gender? Do I have a body, or am I my body?

Continue reading →