Here is yet one more reason to be reading Coilhouse, the self-proclaimed love letter to alternative culture: a beautiful poem titled “How to Make Love to a Trans Person,” which nestles truths within metaphors, celebrating love and intimacy and belonging and bodies. Follow us on Twitter @mysexprofessor. Follow Jeana, the author of this post, @foxyfolklorist. Continue Reading →
Transgender
Recent posts
The Power Of Words
Living in a town with nearly 40-thousand college students, I often am asked what my field of study is, so I often find myself repeating the same response, “I’m a journalism major and my second concentration is in gender studies.” And then (after explaining what a second concentration is) almost nine times out of ten I hear the same follow-up question, “Well… What are you going to do with that?” Continue Reading →
The TSA’s Impact On Bodies, Sexual And Otherwise
The recent change in TSA regulations, requiring passengers chosen at random to either undergo scanning in a dubiously safe backscatter machine, or getting invasively full-body searched, has stirred up many issues related to sexuality, bodies, and personal boundaries. The TSA has released statements about the new backscatter machine, which according to them does not provide a full-nude scan of the passenger as believed by many. Nor are the images saved, but rather deleted immediately by employees. Others have contested this claim, however, asserting that there is not enough oversight to ensure that the images are always deleted, or do not contain or portray personal identifying features. There are also health concerns, as the backscatter machines are thought to emit unhealthy levels of radiation–or levels that might be healthy for a normal person, but potentially dangerous for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Continue Reading →
How Students at Women’s Colleges Feel About The “Transgender Controversy”
As Debby recently pointed out, CNN.com recently published an article about trans people at same sex colleges. The article has created quite a stir on my campus, especially since some of our current students were quoted in the article. I could take this time to go on a rant about trans rights and how much it angers me that my fellow students are ridiculed for and questioned about their gender presentation and identity…but I’ll save that for another post and let my peers do the ranting. Continue Reading →
How do Transgender Students Fit Into All-Male or All-Female Colleges?
Just how do transgender students fit into, or not, all male or all female colleges such as Mount Holyoke (for women) and Morehouse (for men)? This is a very good question asked by CNN writer Stephanie Chen. And it seems to be one that many schools haven’t developed clear policies for. Continue Reading →
A League of Their Own, MtF Trans Myths, Love Stories, CisGender, Neil Patrick Harris is Having a Baby, and more
Some things of note on the Interwebs:
- Jezebel appreciates A League of Their Own
- Alice in Genderland describes 7 myths about male-to-female transsexuals
- For readers who aren’t sure what our new MSP blogger Garnet meant about being a cis-woman (I got a couple of questions), Wiki to the rescue! As is About.com. (though perhaps this would be a great topic for a future post)
- A heartbreaking love story about an Atlanta area couple and what happened on, and shortly after, their wedding day
- Neil Patrick Harris and his partner are expecting twins, via surrogate, this Fall
- Various media outlets report on women, men, money and cheating (not often in very nuanced ways as much else goes into hooking up with others aside from money)
Follow us on Twitter @mysexprofessor. Continue Reading →
Progressive Banking Ad from Argentina that Highlights Transgender
A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to take two trips to Argentina. During one of the trips, I made concerted efforts to improve my Spanish through regular tutoring. Eva, my tutor, was terrific – not only did she work with me on day to day Spanish issues but, as I was creating a work partnership in Argentina, she also worked with me on being able to read and speak Spanish words and phrases that related to my area of study. She would bring me recent news items about HIV, sexuality and – as it so happened – legal issues related to sex re-assignment surgeries for transgender individuals, which was a hot topic at the time I was visiting. Now that you know this back story, perhaps you can understand why I was so pleasantly surprised to come across this bank commercial that is said to be from Argentina and that features transgender issues – and human connection and forgiveness – in such a positive light:
Follow me on Twitter – I am @mysexprofessor Continue Reading →
Gender neutral bathrooms on college campuses – and maybe at work?
This evening, our fabulous graduate intern at Kinsey Confidential (Natalie) and I did not one but TWO dorm sex education programs. When we arrived at our second, I went in search of the women’s restrooms only to find that the dorm had a “gender neutral restroom” off the lobby. Thrilled, I pointed it out to Natalie and then promptly took a picture. Gender neutral restrooms/bathrooms are helpful for several reasons. First, they are welcoming to people regardless of their gender. Less obvious to some people, however, is that this means ALL genders – not just male/female. Continue Reading →