u235

This is an interesting article: The trouble when Jane becomes Jack http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/fashion/20gender.html. The main focus of the piece is the topic of women becoming men. Yes, women physically undertaking the necessary medical steps of going from female to male: mastectomies, hormone treatment, and possibly even adding (as Gene Wilder once poetically called it) a "schvansenschtukel". The most fascinating part of this article is the reaction of the lesbian society. In a nutshell, while it's ok to ~want to be a man, it's very much ~not ok to become one. Partners break up, women who raise child together break the family. Why?

One woman in the article says that while she's attracted to butch women, the underlying fact is that she likes women. I guess it's great for her partner to slap on a fake mustache or goatee, she can love that, she can kiss that, she can even fuck that - but when the facial hair becomes genuine then the romance is over.

Ok, even I had a hart time typing that with a straight face.

So that's the article in a nutshell, complete with snippets of interviews of women who have become, or broken up with transgendered ... uh ... people. Now, it's time for the editorial - the part that makes this a blog and not just a review of something someone else wrote.

What I take away from this is that love for these women IS only skin deep. In the most superficial sense these lesbians "loved" it when their partner wore a fake beard and a strap-on, but couldn't love the same person when they took the step of making it real.

Don't get me wrong, in no way do I think there's a problem if someone who, deep down is totally convinced that they were born the wrong gender, takes the radical steps to switch over. In fact it makes complete sense to me that someone who has been longing, emulating what that feels "right" to them, eventually becomes that image in flesh. I see nothing perverse about it, in fact I find it honest. These people weren't wannabes or posers, they were genuine in their commitment to become a member of the opposite sex. Genuine enough to undergo permanent (and I imagine painful) surgeries, to take pills regularly, convince counselors that this is what they really wanted. My problem isn't with them, it's with the lesbians.

Ok, maybe it's not with all lesbians. Women who love female form, well ok, it's not my cup of tea but I can understand it. It's the butch-loving lesbians that are crying foul when their bull dyke partners become men. Explain precisely how you can love someone who's packaged like a man but not love that same person (who USED to be a woman) when they become one? It's not like they don't remember being a woman. It's not like they don't have XX genes. It's just that the packaging is now permanent. Hello hypocrisy?

It may not be the case in all butch/femme relationships, but if I were a bull I'd check out if my lady's love were more than just skin deep before I committed to a serious relationship with them "Hey baby, would you still love me if I were a man....?"