2007 – Page 32 – (en)gender

“Perhaps there’s more of a social pressure towards socializing these children to sexual norms” than previously thought, he added. Alan Fogel, a University of Utah professor of psychology who specializes in children, wasn’t surprised by the study results. By 2 years, children begin to see themselves in terms of categories – that they are boys or girls, he said. He suspects children are paying attention to gender stereotypes even earlier than 2 – though the BYU study found that 18-month-olds didn’t pay closer attention to the inconsistent activities. By age 1, babies can categorize male versus female faces, Fogel said. “There’s something about gender that’s very captivating for children,” Fogel said. “We don’t quite know why.”

(via Salon)

June 18, 2007

Rufus on NPR

NPR recorded, & made available on their website, the whole of the Rufus Wainwright show – not the night I saw, but the following evening.

If you look at the slideshow, toward the end you’ll see his Judy Garland impersonation.

June 17, 2007

Must Be My Dirty Mind

“You knew you had strapped on a very masculine piece of equipment.”

– Fred Olmstead, Vietnam-era pilot, on what it felt like to pilot an F4 Phantom

June 17, 2007

Sing If You Can

I love this guy (not Andrew Sullivan, the opera guy from Wales. Watch the video.)

June 16, 2007

DSM-V

It seems the DSM-V is going under review, with the completed new version appearing in 2011 or thereabouts.

I’m going to assume there will be changes to the GID diagnostics.

June 16, 2007

My old friends occasionally get flummoxed over what name to call me when I’m doing readings & the like, & this past Thursday for my reading at Sugar was no different. My dear friend & former roomie Maurice asked me more than once if he could call me “Gail” at the reading, & I told him he could call me whatever. “But I should call you Helen,” he continued. “Sure, call me Helen.” He wasn’t sure if he’d remember, so I told him to call me “G” which is actually what he’s called me for years. It seemed settled.

Of course when we got to the bookstore he called me Gail about half a dozen times, & I don’t mind it at all; I really don’t care what my old friends call me – I just thought it was funny.

But I also thought that maybe when trans people get upset about someone getting their name wrong, it has nothing to do with gender & everything to do with the funny way your brain works (or doesn’t work) with your mouth. Because I knew Maurice meant to call me G, & it was as if, because he was thinking, “don’t call her gail don’t call her gail don’t call her gail” of course Gail was what came out.

Just sayin’.

& In the meanwhile, my thanks to Maurice & his lovely wife for putting me up while I was in Balto.

May 18, 2007

Bigfoot

Those are some huge back feet, aren’t they? They were about that big when they were kittens, which gave the boys a certain charming goofiness – all ears & feet, like a teenager. That’s my sweet boy, Aeneas, who every single night, when I get into bed, waits to get under the covers with me, so I can give him his lovedown, which of course invariably puts me to sleep, too.

May 16, 2007

Five Questions With… Reid Vanderbergh

Reid Vanderbergh is a therapist in private practice in Portland, Oregon who began his transition in 1995, and started taking hormones in 1997, at the age of 41. He went to Portland State University and then did his MA in Couseling Psychology at John F. Kennedy University. He is a member of the WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health, formerly known as HBIGDA), the IFGE, as well as the American Asssociation of Marriage and Family Therapists. He is the author of Transition & Beyond, published by Q Press

(1) As far as I know, you are the only therapist who is also trans to write a book about transness. Do you worry about people assuming you’re biased (in a good or bad way)?

As far as I know, no other trans therapists have published books about working with trans clients. I have had the experience of people assuming I am biased in the direction of transition; usually, those who make this assumption are related in some way to a client considering transition. However, when this comes up, I explain to them that I am not biased toward transition, precisely because I DO know how difficult and life-changing this process is. Therefore I don’t approach it lightly.

Now that my book is out there, I expect this question to come up among people who don’t know me, and also don’t know any clients who have worked with me. I hope people will ask me the question directly, rather than making the assumption that because I’m trans and did choose physical transition, that I automatically assume that’s the path for all my trans clients.

The one arena which worries me somewhat around this question of bias is academia. I’m hoping my book will be used as a text; my fear is, if I am seen as a community member writing about my own community, my book may be “suspect” because it may not be considered objective enough for academic credibility. Being subjective has been considered the ultimate faux pas within academia. Not that I think this as a valid view – I think the ultimate experts on a lived experience are those who undertake it – but I do fear this attitude may affect acceptance of my book within academia.

Continue reading “Five Questions With… Reid Vanderbergh”

May 15, 2007