Ohhhh, that must have been a very comforting conversation! I would have loved to be there.
I know the medical profession gets things wrong a lot, but I think it says something that the medical community doesn't have any problem looking at BIID and species dysphoria and saying, "hey, this looks a lot like gender dysphoria", and developing a theory that there is a general group of "ways you don't feel right with your body" that shares some similar experiences.
And I think it's a particular aspect of how social justice sometimes becomes less focused on the people in power, and more focused on the small ways that marginalized people are saying things that don't fit 100% with the dominant ideas, and fighting among their selves. The idea that there is a minority sexuality community that shares similar experiences, even though the experiences of people with different sexualities are different, was also mocked at the time... bisexual people were not well accepted in the gay community in the past, for example.
But now, we think that's ridiculous and we accept the "GLB" without questions, and anyone that says a bisexual person can't be part of the gender and sexual minorities is thought as a bigot. And we know that, just because they share a kind of experience, doesn't mean anyone is saying "they're identical" or "they all have the same oppressions".
But we are not there with the identity/dysphoria groups yet. Hope that we will be, some day soon.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2013-01-01 09:48 pm (UTC)I know the medical profession gets things wrong a lot, but I think it says something that the medical community doesn't have any problem looking at BIID and species dysphoria and saying, "hey, this looks a lot like gender dysphoria", and developing a theory that there is a general group of "ways you don't feel right with your body" that shares some similar experiences.
And I think it's a particular aspect of how social justice sometimes becomes less focused on the people in power, and more focused on the small ways that marginalized people are saying things that don't fit 100% with the dominant ideas, and fighting among their selves. The idea that there is a minority sexuality community that shares similar experiences, even though the experiences of people with different sexualities are different, was also mocked at the time... bisexual people were not well accepted in the gay community in the past, for example.
But now, we think that's ridiculous and we accept the "GLB" without questions, and anyone that says a bisexual person can't be part of the gender and sexual minorities is thought as a bigot. And we know that, just because they share a kind of experience, doesn't mean anyone is saying "they're identical" or "they all have the same oppressions".
But we are not there with the identity/dysphoria groups yet. Hope that we will be, some day soon.