ju’s Reviews > Burn the Binary! - Selected Writings on the Politics of Trans, Genderqueer and Nonbinary > Status Update

"The question is whether language is transparent. Does it faithfully reveal the world, as though beneath a clear sheet of glass, or does it first create the world we say it reveals?"

"I have too often been obliged to speak my name in and through the political category of transgender, because, as I was told, people like me transgressed gender, when it is manifestly the case that it is gender which has transgressed all over me."

"Perhaps the single most profound and private thing we can create on our journey through this life is our sense of who and what we are. This is not a problem for most of us. We inherit meanings for ourselves which are more or less acceptable. For others, the self which resonates within us is entirely at odds with what culture works to inscribe on our flesh. And this inaugurates a lifelong battle.''

"This dressage of gender becomes a daily ritual and begins to dictate our lives and our interrelationships. Adults begin to observe us - no longer to keep us from the dangers of crossing the street, but from the dangers of crossing gender rules. [...] Children don't own their own bodies. While we do not physically violate them, certainly we as a culture appropriate and control their bodies in nearly every other way."

"Whose body is the standard for normal, against which all others are judged? How different can a body be before society decides to pathologize it and 'treat' it?"

"But the media thrives on drama, not neat endings, and no drama works without plot shifts. This is why whatever the media builds up it also tears down. I fear they're about to do this to us."