Hey, I found the cure for beal: Liberal college newspapers! There's a ton of stuff to write about in the DO today. The thing that really stood out is another story about "transgenders" (I refuse to take that term totally seriously). Let's see what it says:
Transgendered meet obstacles
Okay, before I even start, here's an interesting fact: They changed that title for the online version. I have the Dead Tree edition of the DO right in front of me, and this story is entitled "Gender norms stifle tolerance." Bit of a different meaning, don't you think? Let's see what it's all about:
Thunderous applause and cheers enveloped her as she took the stage.Her skirt, only several inches long, precariously straddled her hips as she danced. She swayed and swiveled, mouthing the words to Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" as it blasted from the nearby speakers.
The crowd loved her, mainly because this washboard-abbed performer was really a man - Justin Welch, a junior public relations major.
I already mentioned the "drag show" that the university had a couple weeks ago. Good ol' academia, coming to the aid of "tolerance" and "diversity" once again.
Welch, his short skirt and the other drag kings and queens of the Totally Fabulous Drag Show on Feb. 19 shimmied transgender issues into the mind of the Syracuse University community.
"Transgender issues?" I think if the university is putting on a friggin' show for 'em, their problems probably aren't very serious.
The Transgender Teach-In on Feb. 23 and a lecture and workshop by transgender activist Michelle O'Brian Feb. 28 and 29 worked to further educate participants about these issues.
All this to legitimize confusion (I'll explain later in a mini-rant™).
But members of the university community say people still have difficulty understanding how to approach transgender students - those who identify with a sex other than the one they were born as - and do not realize that transgender issues affect everyone.
Considering they don't even know what gender they are, why should they expect people to understand them? I don't get it.
SU students who may not consider themselves part of the LGBT community, they say, must also conform to strict gender categories.
And here comes the relativism!
"Gender is a social construct, you patriarchs! Men and women are only different because society is retrogressive and wants to oppress people!"
While many students may love the drag show performers, a transgender person cannot put on a wig and lipstick every day and expect the same acceptance, said Rob Pusch, an instructional technology analyst at SU who began his transition from female to male 10 years ago.
Wow. Just...wow. I can't believe we're living in a society where it's considered a BAD thing that men can't walk around in a wig and lipstick. I'm so sorry that I'm not accepting of frickin' cross-dressers! How will I ever make it up to you???
"I can't imagine someone would say, 'Oh, Syracuse, that'd be a great place to transition,'" Pusch said.
Ahem...
GOOD!!!!!!!! I don't want my school to be the capital of collegiate gender-bending, thank you very much.
If a person dressed in drag each day, others would most likely criticize or harass him or her because society does not consider that behavior normal, he added.
Brilliant deduction! Society doesn't consider cross-dressing normal? Who knew?!
Welch, who won first place in the drag-queen portion of the show, said that he enjoyed being female for a night but could not imagine dressing in drag every day.
Oh no! How dare society have norms and restrictions! What kind of sick world are we living in?!
"People would think there was something seriously wrong with me, or I was some kind of freak," Welch said.
Never mind that they'd be CORRECT. It's more important that we protect your precious feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelings!
This reaction toward dressing in drag, being transgender or acting like the a typical member of opposite sex may be due to the idea that these concepts question masculinity and femininity, not just sexual orientation, said Adrea Jaehnig, director of the LBGT Resource Center.
Who are the people taking time to figure this crap out when any idiot could deduce it in about 8 seconds? They act like it's big news that gender contributes to behavior and identity.
...Actually, as we'll see, they act like it's a big lie.
"Even when lesbian, gay or bisexual people are harassed, it's not really about sexuality but because they're transgressing gender norms," Jaehnig said.
See previous comments.
Transgender students, especially those who are transitioning from one sex to another, may also face more difficulties than gay or lesbian students."With lesbian, gay or bisexual, you can choose if you let anybody else know. Nobody in your daily life really has to know anything," Jaehnig said. "But with being transgender, it's a public transition, as well as something personal, and that's poorly understood by most people."
I'll cover why this is idiotic in my rant later. For now, I'll just ask why they think they're being forced into transgenderism.
Transition, which may involve a name and pronoun change, hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery, becomes especially troublesome when others have difficulty adjusting to the student's change in gender identity.
"It's all YOUR fault! My sex change has nothing to do with it! YOU have to change your views so I feel comfortable with myself!!!"
"Imagine if you suddenly changed your name, changed your pronoun," Pusch said. "People find it very disconcerting."
REALLY? I can't imagine why!
No one can say exactly how many students identify as transgender on the SU and ESF campuses because the term applies to many people who may not feel comfortable with the label, Jaehnig said.
Hmmm...so they wouldn't really count as transgender, would they? Since it's a self-applied label in the first place, you can't just throw random people into this category.
But transgender students find themselves in awkward situations in making everyday decisions, such as selecting a men's or women's bathroom.
If I can get a bit technical for a second...
LOOK BETWEEN YOUR F**KIN' LEGS, YOU F**KIN' MORONS!
When students choose a certain bathroom or check the "male" or "female" box on surveys or evaluation forms, they place themselves into society's gender categories.
No, they indicate what set of genitalia they have. That's what gender means. If they don't "feel" male or female, that's their problem, not society's.
"People respond to you differently depending on what your gender is," Pusch said.
*GASP* NO! I can't believe it!
"If you look male and you go into a female bathroom, people's assumption is that you're male, then they assume you're in the wrong."
Getting technical once again...
Sit. Or. Stand. That's about the only thing you have to think about when you make that choice. Have you SEEN the symbols? They're quite helpful.
"Transgender issues resonate because they're really gender issues, and we're all trapped by gender ideologies," said Margaret Himley, an associate professor in the writing program and member of the University Senate Committee of LGBT Concerns. "Nobody ever really fits perfectly."
That's why we have certain guidelines that cover the entire range of human behavior. The rest is based on biology, which you seem to loathe so much.
Nearly every decision a person makes depends on society's ideas of gender, from deciding what to wear, what sports or games to play or what to watch on TV, said Kathleen Farrell, a part-time instructor of sociology.
It's so comforting to know that sociologists have decided to stop classifying gender as a valid natural characteristic. This is a lot like Bush=Hitler, except now, it's biology=pseudoscience.
Within the SU campus environment, students face a greater pressure to conform to rigid gender roles, perhaps more so than at other campuses, Himley said.
Bring on the victimization! You people are so friggin' predictable, it makes me want to vomit.
"We definitely have a lot of value placed in traditional, gendered institutions on this campus, such as sports, fashion, fraternities and sororities," Farrell said. "I'm sure it's very hard to be anything outside of the mainstream."
And yet, the campus community seems to have no problem with a F**KING DRAG SHOW!
Students try to achieve specific masculine and feminine looks on the SU campus, said Patricia Vann, a freshman in The College of Arts and Sciences.
How horrible! It must be due to the conservative cultures they grew up in! After all, only college campuses are liberal!
"Everyone here is so into their appearance and looking a certain way," Vann said. "That's what seems normal."
Tell that to the people who show up at the dining hall at 12:30 in the afternoon wearing shower shoes and pajamas. I'm sure they're real concerned about appearances.
Some students may not have considered how their gender may or may not affect their everyday lives if they have been socialized to look and act as only male or female.
Is there a third category we've been missing?
"It's never been brought to my attention, and I don't think about it," said Wes Miles, a sophomore linguistics and physics major.
Probably because you're NOT SUPPOSED TO! Gender is something we're supposed to just accept, but I guess the "progressives" don't like absolutes.
But the LGBT Resource Center's education efforts about transgender issues may teach all students about the strict gender roles on campus and make the campus a safer place for those who bend the norms, Farrell said.
So much for simple tolerance.
"We're not taught or trained to recognize our societal roles, and we're all perpetuating it," Farrell said.
Do you know why? BECAUSE SOCIETAL ROLES ARE LEARNED FROM NATURAL BEHAVIOR AND INTERACTION!!!!!!!!!!!! If women and men weren't meant to act like women and men, they wouldn't. Did you ever wonder why "transgenders" are such a small group?
"It's about educating everyone of gender issues, not just transgender issues."
No. It's. Not. It's about forcing abnormal behavior on society and demonizing anyone who dares to stand up for reality.
...And on that note, let's enter Rant Mode™:
What is up with this "transgender" crap? Seriously. I want to know who decided that gender is just a social construct, and by recognizing this so-called fact, we'll magically be able to do anything we want.
As I understand it, transgenders basically feel like they should be the opposite sex. I don't know how they can tell, but that's what they say. My problem is the way that they're now forcing this onto people without respect for...uh...REALITY.
Think about it. They're worried about choosing a bathroom, wearing the right clothes, etc. All based on how they FEEL. They don't even seem to realize that there's a very easy way to determine your gender. Heck, even that kid in "Kindergarten Cop" understands it:
Penis=male; Vagina=female.
Why is that so freaking hard to accept? I don't care how you FEEL, because that doesn't change how you ARE. I understand homosexuality, where they may feel attracted to the same sex, but I really don't understand how they can decide that they're supposed to be the opposite sex. They can't just accept what they have and deal with it accordingly.
Instead, they resort to cross-dressing and things like that, and they also have hormone therapy and surgery. Think about THAT. They're undergoing voluntary procedures, and then trying to tell society that they were meant to be that way. Does that make sense to anyone?
If you have to have your gender surgically altered, you're not "transgendered," you're just confused about how nature works. They even expect people to just accept this as completely normal. Some even want healthcare to cover it!
This brings me to the main point of my rant. The whole "transgender" thing highlights one of the major problems with liberalism: They want to create reality rather than accepting it, all in the name of feelings. We're at the point where ELECTIVE surgery and hormone therapy are treated as necessities. They're all part of the transgender package, I guess.
Let's think a bit more about this: In a rational situation, people who don't know what gender they are, despite physical evidence being available to them 24/7, would be properly identified as abnormal. If you're a man who feels like a woman, you have a psychological problem.
However, since they feel that way, they assume that they're supposed to be that way. After all, what could be more important than feelings?
Based on this, they think that they're meant to be however they feel, and then they act like it's totally normal! They want people to simply accept any manipulation of gender they can come up with and disregard any actual truth.
Liberalism causes things like this, I believe. This is an effort to legitimize a disorder as just another "lifestyle choice," and it's an example of what happens when you rely on relativism and feel-good interpretations of everyday life. Why accept reality when you can have surgery?!
What's worse, people who are against calling a disorder an alternative lifestyle are portrayed as intolerant, bigoted, anachronistic, and that oh-so-forbidden characteristic: MEAN!
"Why can't you mean people see that gender should be a choice? You have to tolerate us, or else we'll demonize you for the rest of your life!"
Hypocrites. All of 'em. Don't force your twisted reality down the throat of society. We don't have to friggin' accept every asinine idea you crap out.
/Rant Mode™.
Posted by CD on March 3, 2004 05:39 PM