So here I am in a super group I've had some good play with, with an interesting setup, doing the first of their biweekly meetings I've been able to attend, and there are parallel in-character and out-of-character discussions...
And inspired by a stray remark that distinguished sex and gender, one of the guys bursts out with "I HATE SIMONE!!!" We were then treated to a harangue about how Simone de Beauvoir had invented the sex/gender distinction to make life hard for Jean-Paul Sartre in revenge for him ditching her, and how every use of that terminology is, whether we know it or not, traceable back to her bitter scheme.
After a bit of this, I spoke up and said, "I'm transgendered and it is not about de Beauvoir at all, it's about the lived experience, and what it takes for a sane and healthy life, and about how cultures deal with biology." After a bit more of this, I said that this is not something up for debate, and bailed out.
It's kind of a shame, in that I was really enjoying the company of other folks in the super group. They include several people with relatively old-school fannish sorts of acculturation and interests. But it only takes one such loser to make a place unsafe, and it's clear that they weren't going to toss him for being horrifying to me and threatening to my well-being. So out I went.
What a drag.
And inspired by a stray remark that distinguished sex and gender, one of the guys bursts out with "I HATE SIMONE!!!" We were then treated to a harangue about how Simone de Beauvoir had invented the sex/gender distinction to make life hard for Jean-Paul Sartre in revenge for him ditching her, and how every use of that terminology is, whether we know it or not, traceable back to her bitter scheme.
After a bit of this, I spoke up and said, "I'm transgendered and it is not about de Beauvoir at all, it's about the lived experience, and what it takes for a sane and healthy life, and about how cultures deal with biology." After a bit more of this, I said that this is not something up for debate, and bailed out.
It's kind of a shame, in that I was really enjoying the company of other folks in the super group. They include several people with relatively old-school fannish sorts of acculturation and interests. But it only takes one such loser to make a place unsafe, and it's clear that they weren't going to toss him for being horrifying to me and threatening to my well-being. So out I went.
What a drag.