tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53535075012816101592024-03-18T12:29:27.709-07:00Transliterature: Things TransformDr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.comBlogger303125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-37516379405403236792022-04-10T15:19:00.007-07:002022-04-10T15:24:59.448-07:00The Trans Poetics of Dysphoric History: A Talk with Jos Charles<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyM9QSPwKO3MU09AvgVojmBaSvm0nGYwIl2MLCxnrC8b0eEoTGl4vSWw1fF5I-m1LDVKg3Y7pvTpMqcVtQ0RkOTLmEhtkl2psSZrMFlnRPtyU8gJ5SvNbIOID1DH1zvSIyHF4LmVluz90vMIuqayGv1MIZyAaSBqDkyiDpfU3lmc0Gpig_oupTP16Bdw/s1440/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-10%20at%206.20.02%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyM9QSPwKO3MU09AvgVojmBaSvm0nGYwIl2MLCxnrC8b0eEoTGl4vSWw1fF5I-m1LDVKg3Y7pvTpMqcVtQ0RkOTLmEhtkl2psSZrMFlnRPtyU8gJ5SvNbIOID1DH1zvSIyHF4LmVluz90vMIuqayGv1MIZyAaSBqDkyiDpfU3lmc0Gpig_oupTP16Bdw/w640-h400/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-10%20at%206.20.02%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">The following are notes that introduced a Plenary Session </span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: large;"><br />at the Sewanee Medieval Colloqiuum, on April 9, 2022,<br />centered around the theme of Touch | Contact,<br />sponsored by the University of the South,<br />between Jos Charles and M.W. Bychowski<br />on Trans Poetics and History</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">If this plenary does the work it needs to do, we will have you rooting for a jar of pickles. It may ten minutes of introduction or it may take the whole hour but my aspiration today is that you will walk away telling people that you found some hope in a jar of pickles at a medieval conference in Sewanee, Tennessee. And hey, even if you don’t pickles will still be delicious. Really, it’s win-win! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">Our first step on this briny road is acknowledging that this plenary is actually pretty historic. At very least, in my own personal history, this is day worth remembering, when we had the rare gift of centering two trans women in conversation. It is so rare, in fact, I am tempted to say that it categorically does not happen in medieval studies that two trans women are in the same room at a conference. There are frightening few trans scholars in medieval studies. Nearly all of us are contingent faculty. Many have left the field or academia. And among those who are still here, for now, we are currently in the presence of around two thirds of the number of trans women in the field. Jos and Me. So for this reason alone, here in Sewanee in April of 2022, we are making history. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">That’s not the only reason we traveled hundreds of miles on that old dill road. I came here today because Jos, I want to pass along to you something I was once told by the sainted Sonya Sanchez. After a wonderful evening together celebrating books in Cleveland, she told me, “Sister Gabby, the world desperately needs your light. Protect yourself. Protect your light. It is precious.” </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">Well, I feel this way about Jos Charles. Sister Jos, you and your light is precious. You are sacred in your embodiment of dysphoric time as a poet mediator to help us touch the discarded parts of our history, our language, and our other selves. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;">But before we move on to all these parts, we should acknowledge why it is two White trans women standing before you. </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;">If we are salty, it is a drop in the bucket of a brine that has been festering for centuries, by all the parts of our society that are uninvited, unwelcome, broken down by this profession and the systems that created it. Because we cannot forget, the land and labor is salted by the trail of tears that has soaked the land beneath us, seized from indigenous peoples. At times the salt burns old wounds at the same time as it preserves the memory of reparations not yet made, hurts not yet healed, histories and hopes not yet forgotten. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSDw9nYvsKcIwTTMd5WMFYWspo7ietBLEQvmfYOh6HjU0liGV9DyOBonQX2vydLgUxn3WXBb9hY2BBT9QthMRV7rKP2u2oOotIXQ8jqX9yYaNs5QFsTRolplh7E8U4qtNhhDP9QpbtGPn64XiFvRxeg1sPL-OXSzrvCyXr4GTuDYlO93l0d-Nz7-pftQ/s1440/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-10%20at%205.29.06%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSDw9nYvsKcIwTTMd5WMFYWspo7ietBLEQvmfYOh6HjU0liGV9DyOBonQX2vydLgUxn3WXBb9hY2BBT9QthMRV7rKP2u2oOotIXQ8jqX9yYaNs5QFsTRolplh7E8U4qtNhhDP9QpbtGPn64XiFvRxeg1sPL-OXSzrvCyXr4GTuDYlO93l0d-Nz7-pftQ/w640-h400/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-10%20at%205.29.06%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If we are to move forward, then, we must begin by inviting all parts of our embodied scholarship to participate in this conversation.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This means, if we are to engage in contact and touch, we must consider the role that contingency plays. We must speak the truth we know too well: not all touch, not all contact is good touch. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Patriarchal touch is not good touch. Colonial contact is not good contact. White Supremacist touch burns. Ablest touch breaks. Classist touch sucks our souls. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;">And we are here in defiance of those who have written our histories and those who are trying to write our futures. </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;">Just last year, over 100 laws were introduced in just three months targeting trans people, especially trans kids, especially trans girls. We are here in defiance of those who write our laws, who gain money and votes and power by telling people to be afraid of people like Jos and I, to kill people like Jos and I, to eradicate the future of young trans girls, so there will not more trans women, like Jos and I. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We are here because trans poetics is not only about the symbolic or culturally constructed by about embodied truth, it is about speaking through wounds and broken bones – these bones broken in my body by one way, these bones broken in my skull by another – trans poetics speaks through blood that won’t clot and unregulated limbic systems. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I invite us into critical contingency, the root of which means touch and contact, because I believe being trans and doing medieval studies does not have to hurt. It doesn’t have to hurt like this. We do not need to harm ourselves or one another like we have been hurt or told that we must hurt in order to be rigorous scholars. The hurt is not necessary. The hurt is not noble. The hurt is not just the cost of doing business. Lives and jobs do not need to be contingent. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We are here for a conversation that invites us to participate in contingent contact and contingent touch; in the words of Jacques Derrida, to participate without belonging. We are present even if we are not all welcome. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We are here because of the two spirit and black, indigenous, trans people of color who are not here, those who should be here, those who must come after us. We are here embodying the claim that how trans people write matters, how trans women write matters, how trans people read matters, how trans women read matters. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn0NQATfEf5nzvTstJbzSAqRw4Vn9HRyccdWxYM1gO2lmgRBs25SonZaI9fUPh7YqFdRY6ZH8M7bjpr8f0woPlxKLrSzYtjxMOPk5XWYh1BCDx-eoN6hs14CUCOxZBEUMl2eAfwT40Q2eV5lg_PzpLTYVNVYprP8eOsuFOOauBKGyySx1WEz_-uFvhew/s1440/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-10%20at%205.29.19%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn0NQATfEf5nzvTstJbzSAqRw4Vn9HRyccdWxYM1gO2lmgRBs25SonZaI9fUPh7YqFdRY6ZH8M7bjpr8f0woPlxKLrSzYtjxMOPk5XWYh1BCDx-eoN6hs14CUCOxZBEUMl2eAfwT40Q2eV5lg_PzpLTYVNVYprP8eOsuFOOauBKGyySx1WEz_-uFvhew/w640-h400/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-10%20at%205.29.19%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thus I want to clarify a few terms I am going to use to read the trans poetics of Jos, trans methods I call dysphoric analysis, trans resonance, dysphoric time, and genres of embodiment. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let’s start with dysphoria. Dysphoria is one way my brain works differently than most of the brains in this room, Jos notwithstanding. Dysphoria is also social. The DSM-5 defines dysphoria this way: as the marked suffering that emerges at the point of conflict between ones identified or expressed gender and the gender assigned to one by society. I want to emphasize that the DSM locates the point of conflict as initially external. The conflict is between a self and the society. But it becomes internalized in part as suffering. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dysphoria shapes our embodied experience of time. The fact that experiences of time are gendered I will take as settled theory. Queer time differs from straight time, crip time differs from able-bodied or capitalist time. So too with trans temporality. Just as dysphoria emerges in the entanglement of self and society, so too does dysphoric time. Dysphoric time can be defined much like dysphoria itself: as the marked distortion that emerges at the point of conflict between one’s identified and expressed gendered temporality and the temporality or timelines assigned to one by society. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This brings to resonance. Dysphoric time is asynchronous. Dysphoric time is polychronic. Those forces drawing us across boundaries of gender, language, era and discipline, I call trans resonances. Because there is something in your that resonates in something in me. There is something in Eleanor and Joan, in Marsha and Sylvia, that resonates with things in my body. There are objects, books, buildings, clothes, make-up, whole ecologies that resonate with my bodies across the lines of gender and genre, telling us: these things, these places, these time periods are not for you. Yet here we are. We come because we are called. We stay so we can amplify that call to others. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But I argue dysphoria does more than hurt. It shapes. It creates. It forms and informs how we talk, walk, wear, eat, play. Between trans person and transphobic worlds, what emerges is dysphoric poetics. Thus we can read for and through what I call a dysphoric analysis that traces these knots of self and society that I call genres of embodiment. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL90RC_F-a83qlEdcSMXkcKSTieNVk245kKR4Zt38vKTZTulCp72UDUHBqOCSLwHxpP0Tv6ijPpqFc6-EpMIuU_rrx-HcZD6_LG1QfjKvsCQOJw9fw-1-6zkkpc_p6xk-r_zlznGAidDQFlh95Tl4mWrjO_WRKImsQB9Kgv1HlHRfaJJ2dlI62igtQkw/s1440/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-10%20at%205.29.44%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL90RC_F-a83qlEdcSMXkcKSTieNVk245kKR4Zt38vKTZTulCp72UDUHBqOCSLwHxpP0Tv6ijPpqFc6-EpMIuU_rrx-HcZD6_LG1QfjKvsCQOJw9fw-1-6zkkpc_p6xk-r_zlznGAidDQFlh95Tl4mWrjO_WRKImsQB9Kgv1HlHRfaJJ2dlI62igtQkw/w640-h400/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-10%20at%205.29.44%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The work of Jos Charles exemplifies the ways that trans lives and trans poetics become co-constitutive. Trans-ness exists within every age and in every culture on this planet, but each trans life is articulated within the specific material and symbolic frameworks available. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We know this about culture, we know this about language and history. Yet we do not talk enough about how genre and poetics inform the specific forms of trans-ness that emerges within a culture, not the ways specific forms of trans-ness produce particular forms of cultural poetics. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Medievalists are beginning to discuss how Chivalric romance structure the fictional life of Sir Silence from Roman de Silence or the historical life of Joan of Arc. How does their trans masculinity emerge from Chivalric narratives and romance poetics? Likewise, with the recent publication of Trans and Genderqueer subjects in medieval hagiography, we are beginning to see the other side of the circuit: how does the medieval canon of transgender monks, many of them sainted, influence the genre of saint’s lives? </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But with the work of Jos Charles, we see the emerging potential of trans medieval poetics. In trans culture and transgender studies, we see the ways that anime, music, art, television, gaming, and meme culture has shaped various subcultures of trans identity. But what happens when it is not Against Me blasting on our earphones but rather Icelandic sagas or penitential manuals? </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The embodied writing of Jos Charles testifies to the ways that medieval history, and transgender medieval history, shapes the way that trans people live, speak, and articulate ourselves today. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">At the same time, the medieval trans poetics of Jos Charles is redefining how we might understand, organize, read, and write medieval history. She shows us how to write the medieval in a trans way, how to compose trans poetics in a medieval way. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jos Charles has done this as author of the poetry collections a Year and other poems (2022), feeld, a Pulitzer-finalist and winner of the 2017 National Poetry Series selected by Fady Joudah (2018), and Safe Space (2016). She does all this while currently teaching as a part of Randolph College's low-residency MFA program. She does all this after having completed an MFA from the University of Arizona and working on a PhD at UC Irvine. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jos Charles does all of this with body that lacks salt because HRT flushes sodium from the bodies of trans women. HRT also makes it easier for trans women to cry, so even more salt leaves our system! But we have good news: hope comes in a jar of pickles; pickles which have become a sign in trans feminine culture of community and shared food cravings. So, we have waited long enough, please enjoy!</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzr7ZAqI2dW81A_Pmwl5z0lxcJcGoi0QWuAEiLv48ndIEHOhOCFnUxjLK8PquTwE26FvYm9nqEU8gy0SSMMH3B06AZVB6iX-oGh_s_-MIWwTXAN43c-6yA4uzyncvD0A7-ScKQzmq1Vo3w791hujKnJVOrMbs9ieVUStlREQ5ZwivQhOB18IZMGHONdw/s2048/277886806_2688583507951702_4497872961787048552_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzr7ZAqI2dW81A_Pmwl5z0lxcJcGoi0QWuAEiLv48ndIEHOhOCFnUxjLK8PquTwE26FvYm9nqEU8gy0SSMMH3B06AZVB6iX-oGh_s_-MIWwTXAN43c-6yA4uzyncvD0A7-ScKQzmq1Vo3w791hujKnJVOrMbs9ieVUStlREQ5ZwivQhOB18IZMGHONdw/w640-h480/277886806_2688583507951702_4497872961787048552_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">___________________________________________________</span></p></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-89127273744752820222022-03-10T11:14:00.002-08:002022-03-10T11:14:22.487-08:00Silence in Charlottesville: Combatting Narratives of White Supremacy and Transphobia<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitb7CH1kLhkNDDmJSi8b44QxepV7zLt08sw1jtfEcwCqrG1E4aPFWcQp34xocYPz4jSK8R5qRoHqnFFJ7Jd9eBzrMJWCALSB7WvCozxMKfPFj6X1dTFk0jQJmgjM8w7KYWA6PZjrsUUMCvMDxEzj2KQG1PZyXM0bUTWvxOAXfzQ76qAhSOXjZ91LgZFw=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitb7CH1kLhkNDDmJSi8b44QxepV7zLt08sw1jtfEcwCqrG1E4aPFWcQp34xocYPz4jSK8R5qRoHqnFFJ7Jd9eBzrMJWCALSB7WvCozxMKfPFj6X1dTFk0jQJmgjM8w7KYWA6PZjrsUUMCvMDxEzj2KQG1PZyXM0bUTWvxOAXfzQ76qAhSOXjZ91LgZFw=w300-h400" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">Presented at the Medieval Academy of America 2022</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">Identities Trans and Beyond in the Roman de Silence</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">_____________________________________________________________________</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />The old joke goes, “Transitioning is what transsexuals do.” In the minds of the cisgender public, trans people change, we shape-shift, alter forms. It’s what we do! This old joke builds on similar ideas. Religious converts convert, it’s what converts do. Immigrants immigrate, it’s what immigrants do. The significance of these definitions are not that they recognize a key events in the lives of trans people, converts, or immigrants. Rather, these jokes and cultural beliefs frame whole groups of people by what might have been a single event. This transition, conversion, or immigration is extended across time, framing our entire ontology in a timeless state of change.</span><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />What is passed off as a joke takes on a serious danger within the world of geopolitics. Trans people, non-Christians, and immigrants are the ever threatening danger ever on the move, ever changing, ever deceitful in the minds of White Christian Patriarchs. We are the imitators, whereas White Christian Patriarchs are the originals. We cross borders, while White Christian Patriarchs stand their ground, protect their property, defend blood and soil.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />That is why the events of the Unite the Right Rally here in Charlottesville are not funny. The White Supremacist and White Nationalist movements that gathered in this city repeated narratives that framed trans people, non-Christians, and people of color as collective threats to the supposed constancy of the White Christian Patriarchy. This prejudice intertwined racism with sexism, transphobia, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and Islamaphobia. Organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center have long been tracking the ways that anti-transgender rhetoric functions as a tactic of White Supremacists. This extends from protests and threats, to violent murders of trans women, to an array of anti-transgender policies that the political Right is putting into law this very month. “We are protecting the social order. We are protecting the nation,” Daily Stormer editor Andrew Anglin wrote, “Somebody has to stop these sick fuckers.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />Now, the beliefs of the White Christian Patriarchies might as well be a joke because they are built on flimsy fictions. The White Men who stood their ground in Charlottesville stood on ground they themselves seized from Native American nations. The White Men were themselves immigrants, colonizers, mass converters, and shape-shifters. The worldview of the White Christian Patriarchs as unmoved movers is based on false narratives and erased history. But what else is new? Historians and scholars of Medieval Studies will tell you, nothing is new about this.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />In Black on Both Sides, C. Riley Snorton unpacks the ways that trans people and people of color have been coded as especially changeable, deceitful, and unstable. The term he develops is transitive. Trans people and people of color are defined by transitivity, a susceptibility to changing. Transitivity marks trans people and black people as deceitful. Spaces like bathrooms must be policed because people believe that trans women or black men will sneak into these spaces to assault White women. Sports teams and professions must be segregated, excluding trans people and people of color, because people believe trans and black bodies are too unstable, trans and black bodies are make sports unfair or uncontrollable. Yet transitivity does more than mark trans and BIPoC as threats. Transitivity also marks trans and BIPoC as easy targets for White Christian Patriachs to come in a fix us, convert us, unmake us. Because after all, changing is what transitives do isn’t it? Trans bodies, non-Christian bodies and bodies of color are the clay to be shaped and reshaped by the unchanging eternal Logos of the White Christian Patriarchy. <br />While Snorton traces this practice from Charlottesville back to the early American colonies, this model of conquest and conversion, colonization and conversion therapy, has earlier developments during the Crusades. In my article On Race and Sex in the Cultural History of Race (2021), I argue that the practices of marking trans bodies, non-Christian bodies, and bodies of color as transitive targets to be remolded and fixed by the White Christian Patriarchy evolved out of Crusader concerns over what to do with the people who occupied the lands under European conquest and settlement. Narratives of forced conversion not only concerned the altering of a person’s religion but their racial and gender identities as well.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"> <br />A classic example of this transitivity within the Crusader context is the King of Tars. In this story, a non-Christian king weds a Christian woman who bears a child without bones or form. Nothing can be do to give the formless child an able-bodied existence until the father converts to Christianity at which point he becomes white skinned and the child is given form. This confirms, the story supposes, the thesis that non-White, non-Christian people are not proper men, unable to fulfill their sexual roles as fathers until they are converted by the White Christian Patriarchy which fixes the racial, sexual, and religious transitivity of the subject. Over time, the figure of the transitive body being either killed or fixed became a staple of Chivalric Romance. While sexual indeterminacy in Roman de Silence has been celebrated among some queer and gender studies scholars, I argue that the transitivity encoded into the title character evidences centuries long practices of frame trans bodies as easy targets for practices of conversion therapy developed within White supremacist and Christian supremacist camps during the Crusades.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />For the purposes of this argument, I will interpret Sir Silence as a trans man who uses he/him pronouns, although I acknowledge an argument for non-binary trans identity. Attempts to frame Silence as female seem, from my perspective, only to buy into the anti-trans White Supremacist project the larger romance establishes to weaponize a trans literary character. I begin by examining Silence in his adolescence when he has discovered that could have been raised as a girl, resulting in an oft-cited debate with Nature, Nurture, and Reason. While affirming his own trans masculinity, Silence learns a dangerous lesson from the ways his own identity has been cultural constructed and deconstructed. Like modern day people like Rachel Dolezel and Ja Du, Silence believes that the discursive elements of gender means that anything can mean anything, any body can freely signify any identity, and like so called “transracial” White people who present themselves as People of Color, Silence immediately darkens his skin in an act of literal minstrelsy. For the next section of the Romance, Silence changes his name, skin color, and identity in order to live as a minstrel from one of the woodland communities. Marjorie Garber and Robert L. Clark has also noted that this scene problematically extends the transgender themes of Roman de Silence into what might be called “trans-racial” identity in the Dolezelian sense of the word. We might also call this a form of medieval black face.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />My goal is not to simply call Silence a racist. He is a fictional character and like the rest of his story, the author wrote and framed the narrative in certain ways to produce certain effects. My argument is that Haldris of Cornwall presents Sir Silence’s trans-ness as a sort of justification for his minstrelsy and cross-racial performance. Transgender bodies are presented in Sir Silence are presented as malleable and transitive, leading the dangerous conceit that trans people are lying about one part of their identity and therefore might be lying about other things.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />Now, someone might reasonably interject that other chivalric knights also pretend to be other people and other identities. This only furthers my point that what we see in Roman de Silence is a systemic feature of a genre of literature that arouse during and after the crusades which celebrates the power of violent soldiers who uphold the White Christian Patriarchy to make and remake identities through the force of their power and privilege.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />This episode of Dolezelian “trans-racial” minstrelsy sets up the infamous conclusion of Roman de Silence where the trans man is publicly outed, stripped naked, and then physically remade into the image of a submissive woman under the thumb of the White Patriarchy.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />Indeed, the finale of Roman de Silence plays out much like a scene of a secretly non-Christian character at the end a Blood-Libel play. Merlin’s arrival in the court promises private information about people in the court who are not who they say they are. Merlin outs the Queen for having an affair with a trans feminine person. Then he proceeds to out Sir Silence for being a trans man. All of this information plays on anxieties within the White Christian Patriarchy: can we control our women? What if women aren’t what they say they are? Can we truly trust our knights? Merlin is exploiting the paranoid need of the White Patriarchy for control, especially over the sexual and racial identities of the Kingdom. If women or men are not the women or men they say they are, then the bloodline might become tainted. If the White Patriarchy cannot control the bloodline, the land may be inherited by the wrong people. In the end, Merlin is one more man in a hood claiming to defend blood and soil against racial and sexual others.<br />Beyond mere words, these paranoid narratives of conversion and control effect themselves into law enacted on the bodies of racialized and sexualized minorities. The trans feminine woman and the Queen who seems to desire trans people just too much are both killed. Their bodies are destroyed for coming into contact with trans femininity. Then as now, White Patriarchal culture sees trans femininity as worthy of violence and death. But the trans man is stripped naked, his body assaulted by the court, and then physically marred by the hands of an allegorical embodiment of Nature. And because the anxiety of Roman de Silence is the same anxiety as the post-Crusader White Christian Patriarchy, i.e. that you cannot tell who or what people are merely by looking at them, Nature removes the dark skin of Sir Silence, crafting his skin color to match that of a White Christian woman. Much like the King of Tars, Silence has been transformed in skin color as a sign that he is now a sexually via body that the White Christian Patriarchy can use in its work to control blood and soil.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />Many of us see subversive possibilities in the queer indeterminacy of Roman de Silence. I don’t think this is wrong. But we must remember that this reading is subversive in a literary genre built around romanticizing violent control and conquest by White Christian Patriarchies. The final act of Roman de Silence confirms a thesis set up in the many episodes preceding it: transitive bodies, especially trans bodies and bodies of color, are fundamentally shape-shifting, unstable, and deceitful, requiring the White Christian Patriarchs to fix them through a process of religious conversion and conversion therapy. This very month, we see White Nationalists targeting Critical Race Studies and Trans people in schools in yet another attempt to control the future of blood and soil in this country. Over 100 anti-transgender bills in under a few months have been introduced and they are beginning to get ratified. This is conquest. This is control. This is White Nationalism. This is the same story playing out over and over again.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br />The truism of Chivalric romance is that Blood will Out. But looking across centuries of lies about blood and about soil, this is a false narrative built by paranoid White Christian men. The lies that have been told are maintained by desperate fits for control through violence, money, and prejudiced laws. But none of these words can change the reality of who we are and what we can become. Trans people and people of color lived in the Middle Ages. Trans people and BIPoC live powerful lives today. No erasure or lies can Silence our Truth. You cannot Silence us in Iowa. You cannot Silence us in Texas. You cannot Silence us in Charlottesville. We are here and ready to tell a better story than the one you have been told for far too long. Let us tell stories not of transitivity but of trans authenticity. Let us tells stories not of vulnerable White women who need to be protected from trans people and people of color but racial equity and sexual liberation. Let us not tell stories of White fear and male control but rainbow love and trans hope. I’m not saying we should stop reading Roman de Silence but I am saying: let’s tell a better story.</span><br /><br /><p></p></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">_____________________________________________________________________</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1PkpmcMgQ8UGOZbTuyISVx-fu1633TgnmenTlXV0-st3-TP62ruDAf35XYprJucCONrBW-DNG0GmwwSRwxF9X-QGdYi8edrY258uk_S8_MlCrzrbIuB5GuA807TTh0IRX9sogh455dfcfYWPbECBahi2n_C5jMvqIYa2AehcoNUHsfzOadFxujFyUgA=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1PkpmcMgQ8UGOZbTuyISVx-fu1633TgnmenTlXV0-st3-TP62ruDAf35XYprJucCONrBW-DNG0GmwwSRwxF9X-QGdYi8edrY258uk_S8_MlCrzrbIuB5GuA807TTh0IRX9sogh455dfcfYWPbECBahi2n_C5jMvqIYa2AehcoNUHsfzOadFxujFyUgA=w300-h400" width="300" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-54350636284075252992021-06-01T06:47:00.005-07:002021-06-01T07:35:00.461-07:00Resonance, Radiance, and Glory: An Invocation For Trans Saints<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9OD1-rC4LL_qubt5iq1eO0blUBwWd4ivEtsHIKVh3p1rsr5yHA-0v9pV7x3y5tGbNsGCbivkHIsd3-8VhhjjoarL6EHvzJsRfiEbnEYXhl-KHzAC25hvaWdFIqlhgR4ezQILOeSWzGMhD/s572/Trans+and+Gender+Queer+Saints+Cover.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="572" height="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9OD1-rC4LL_qubt5iq1eO0blUBwWd4ivEtsHIKVh3p1rsr5yHA-0v9pV7x3y5tGbNsGCbivkHIsd3-8VhhjjoarL6EHvzJsRfiEbnEYXhl-KHzAC25hvaWdFIqlhgR4ezQILOeSWzGMhD/w640-h490/Trans+and+Gender+Queer+Saints+Cover.png" width="640" /></a></p><p></p><p></p><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: x-large;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>“Hagiographies are narratives of becoming, possibility, and immanence.”</b></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: large;">Blake Gutt and Alicia Spencer-Hall</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;">The following is an introduction and invocation I provided to the book launch of <i>Trans and Gender Queer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography</i> on 26 May 2021.</div></span><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;"><br /></b></div><span style="font-family: courier;">Beloveds, I have been asked to offer an invocation of the emergences, perspectives, reflections, resonances, radiances, and glories called Medieval Trans Studies; a field defined in part by a new wave of scholars bringing trans studies into dialogue with medieval texts. Contemplating all these radiant irreplaceable scholars, I would compare the rise of medieval trans studies to the construction of a stained glass window. Each facet of the glass is both a window and a mirror. And both the mirror and window is hard for many to face. It may show a window into the wisdom and beauty of trans life one is not willing to see. Within each facet of the window, we see new ways of seeing our world and our history. Made up of many pieces, many viewpoints, with room for many more, it is a collage of small contributions of those dipping their toe into the field, those facets that are just as valuable as the larger sustained perspectives. Importantly, this new wave of scholars includes a number of scholars from historically underrepresented trans and nonbinary communities. Collectively, we have produced dozens of articles, special collections, and books bringing trans perspectives to the past. We have seen the publication of Medieval Trans Feminisms. Presently, we add Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography as another foundational text. Personally, I await my copy of Leah Devuh’s The Shape of Sex: Non-Binary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance. Together, this work and community are still under construction through our making together, our seeing together, our reflecting together. </span><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">Yet each piece of the stained glass window is also a mirror. And it may reflect back to us long existing prejudice and ignorance. If this movement might be called the Transgender Turn, then we must face the existence of the cisgender turn that has been the field’s modus operandi for generations. By the cisgender turn, I refer first to the fact that medieval studies has been the nearly exclusive territory of cis scholars. Even now, most trans scholars in medieval studies are working in precarious contingent positions and a growing number of scholars who have helped create the field of medieval trans studies are not able to professionally survive in it. Secondly, we might reflect that a problem within the cisgender turn is the way that the Middle Ages has been un-transed, with people, events, behaviors, and pieces of art warped through cis perspectives to conform to what I call compulsory-cisgender-assignment and cis histories. Reflecting back these patterns to the field, medieval trans studies is not so much trans-ing the Middle Ages as returning the erased or excluded transness that has been at the heart of so much medieval history and art. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">The stained glass of medieval trans studies is also a third thing: a work of art in itself. By way of closing, I’ll uplift three qualities of trans joy that play critical roles in this art: resonance, radiance, and glory. Trans people have a special resonance with objects and networks. Trans women have a certain allure and sensitivity to physical and social matters of womanhood. When one sees a trans person connecting with clothes, tools, places, and systems that resonate with their authentic self, a radiance emerges. The effects of trans radiance is an euphoria or ecstasy that can animate, reanimate, orient, and reorient the world. I suspect this radiance is what transphobes most fear. Transphobes are comfortable with our discomfort, they encourage our dysphoria. But our radiance scares them; in this authentic truth trans people affect others, arousing hidden truths, ignored perspectives, and denied glories. </span><span style="font-family: courier;">For me, trans glories mark those points where being meets becoming, where potential and actual cross paths. The effect of glory is a sense of being totally in the now and yet also speaking across polychronic experiences of dysphoric time. Medieval trans studies is one such glory that burns with radiant light and radiant darkness, responding to a resonance between now and elsewhile, here and elsewhere, you and me and we. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">May these resonant, radial, and glorious transgender joys bless each of us, the field, this book, those who came before and those facets yet to add their piece to the composition.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></span></div>Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-40737021376432540912021-05-05T07:51:00.001-07:002021-06-01T08:01:47.515-07:00A Pandemic of Lies and Hate: A Poem Against Racism and Ableism<p> <span style="text-align: center;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjunaWKpkjPq5LpJ1UH03A664rc0l-kD-JPWnd2a0pfrOLXOx4kLLMGJsSdLWJGGwJJskiAtFZ5NYgsYIpovAl0gOucxso7EaxqCeXU6aXTE8OgMJNagUZswmWrpfccPe4Vdx-LrqPXZ5Ib/s730/Anisfield+Wolf+2020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="730" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjunaWKpkjPq5LpJ1UH03A664rc0l-kD-JPWnd2a0pfrOLXOx4kLLMGJsSdLWJGGwJJskiAtFZ5NYgsYIpovAl0gOucxso7EaxqCeXU6aXTE8OgMJNagUZswmWrpfccPe4Vdx-LrqPXZ5Ib/w640-h336/Anisfield+Wolf+2020.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span><p></p><p></p><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A poem for my students</b></span><br /><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>inspired by the Spring 2021 syllabus:</b></span><br /><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Eugenic Monsters: A Seminar on Race and Disability</b></span></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">Our minds and worlds change<br />By the power of new mutations<br />That scratch, burn, and slash at the walls the old theses<br />And the monsters always escape<br /><br />This semester we grew together<br />At a distance of at least five feet apart<br />Hearing the call to tell the stories<br />Of our restitution, our chaos, our quests.<br /><br />And beloveds, we know the traumas<br />Ancient and new keep haunting us<br />From generation to generation<br />Unless we face scars on bodies and our institutions<br /><br />Indeed, it is only by looking<br />That we will begin to see our own stares<br />And behold how our monstrous eyes<br />Kept us from seeing one another or ourselves<br /><br />For long we have lived under the tree<br />That drops fruits unlike those that came before<br />Apples and Macs, all sorts of dirty computers<br />In spectrums of crazy pynk and classic black<br /><br />Far from this tree we roam<br />Letting go of our isolation<br />Learning to enjoy our isms<br />And to speak in new ways<br /><br />In queer trees we rest<br />Dotting paths of transitions<br />With lilies and pink flamingoes<br />Towards horizons of letting go and trying again<br /><br />We know we best be careful<br />When we step out onto this road<br />For we know it will take us under hill and over mountains<br />Seeing the world open below with infinite individuality<br /><br />Along the way we hear confident men calling<br />Towards the circus, towards the crusade<br />Promising misleading information<br />That lead into the chasms between truths and lies<br /><br />Yet your minds and your hearts will grow<br />Stronger, nimbler, more flexible<br />Able to contemplate the Twilight<br />And the Gods of the Upper Air<br /><br />Whatever Love or Larceny<br />Brings you out of this world<br />Keep open to unexpected otherness<br />And you will learn to live with mysteries<br /><br />The future of this monstrous world is yours to write.<br />So stay focused, don’t forget the small things,<br />Because a single stone can bring down mountains.<br />What you know, what you do, what you say, what you think matters.</span><br /><br /> </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div>Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-63742441842496124132021-05-05T07:43:00.001-07:002021-06-01T07:50:20.556-07:00Queer Faith in Times of Crisis: A Poem<p> <span style="text-align: center;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkr9iPjTWTjpRhbsn0ULwxmzOfL1gy9fJm9ZVVUyM6NmlP4z3GhvN6RsEhxdbB9ygileoLywdtB71G37Ht2JQUKNXTKC16k6L04gT1BVk902y9LPWgB5PP0w0yb7PSjNiPQmE1NsiNBmQ/s625/marsha+p+johnson.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkr9iPjTWTjpRhbsn0ULwxmzOfL1gy9fJm9ZVVUyM6NmlP4z3GhvN6RsEhxdbB9ygileoLywdtB71G37Ht2JQUKNXTKC16k6L04gT1BVk902y9LPWgB5PP0w0yb7PSjNiPQmE1NsiNBmQ/w512-h640/marsha+p+johnson.jpeg" width="512" /></a></div><p></p><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A poem for my students</b></span><br /><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>inspired by the Spring 2021 syllabus:</b></span><br /><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Queer Christianity</b></span></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">Our minds and hearts grow<br />Only by opening up our circles<br />To discover that Paradise is as small or as big<br />As our ability to live with mystery and otherness<br /> <br />During these Little Hours we have spent together<br />We have rode buses from kingdoms to kin-doms<br />Across states and states of mind<br />Finding queerness in the secrets parts all around us<br /><br />Through Hell we have harrowed fear, pain, and chaos<br />Conquering conversion therapy and colonialism<br />With the hope of abolishing the walls and prisons<br />That isolate the most precious parts of us<br /><br />Veering into the Limbos of the Unknown<br />We have lost our sense of straight time and place<br />Following the horizons of utopia<br />Beyond unlivable lives and categories<br /><br />Together we wrestled myths<br />Encountering visions of mountain tops<br />Of Fathers, Eunuchs, and Gay Cowboys<br />Dueling and shadow boxing our internalized toxicity<br /><br />At Forks in the road we enter the Twilight of the semester<br />Finding sparkly faeries and vampires<br />In fields where the dirty computers dance<br />Screwing back down a screwed up world<br /><br />And at last we end back in the beginning<br />Allowing ourselves to start again<br />To create again, to be remade again<br />Ever growing, ever changing, ever an unclosed circle.<br /><br />The future of this queer world is yours to write.<br />So stay focused, don’t forget the small things,<br />Because a single stone can bring down mountains.<br />What you know, what you do, what you say, what you think matters.<br /> <br />Stay curious everyone. Thank you.--</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div>Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-5657460906288796482020-12-01T07:27:00.001-08:002021-06-01T07:33:19.412-07:002020 Visions of Dysphoria: A Poem for Students of Trans Literature<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4xKFmV6lwcxH4Rt8wyWiMIZTHyXEExj9K_JGuD-tYZbQnQIaVk8_79UDU3jNqC5v1_ro7fz5pJw2_EHM9P1G6exXohYrMRMpHJh5R9PxGTIVfBMSGhyjnFa9xxnmqVJ_SLb0P_8vFHxy6/s960/trans+Pride+Gabby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4xKFmV6lwcxH4Rt8wyWiMIZTHyXEExj9K_JGuD-tYZbQnQIaVk8_79UDU3jNqC5v1_ro7fz5pJw2_EHM9P1G6exXohYrMRMpHJh5R9PxGTIVfBMSGhyjnFa9xxnmqVJ_SLb0P_8vFHxy6/w480-h640/trans+Pride+Gabby.jpg" width="480" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A poem for my students</b></span><br /><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>inspired by the Fall 2020 syllabus:</b></span><br /><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Transgender Literature:<br />Gender Diversity and Reading Beyond the Binary</b></span></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">The printing press has grown old and broken<br />But the stereotypes continue to last and replicate<br />Through the words of fantasy authors:<br />Those five transphobic “s” slurs.<br /><br />Take down those images wherever you see them<br />Replace them with paintings of trans lives past, present, and lost<br />Scholinski, Elbe, and Alcorn<br />Teach us to visualize more livable worlds.<br /><br />Take us across the stars to Venus,<br />Or into the homes of elfin princesses,<br />Or to homecoming dances with our best friends,<br />Wherever love in all its forms is found. <br /><br />There we will hear the music playing,<br />A Kiki number, a drag standard,<br />As strawberries and tangerines dance<br />Through the streets many call work and home. <br /><br />But treed carefully down the roads past old mansions,<br />Impossible Mountains that never let go,<br />Transylvanian theaters with their fishnets and boas,<br />Or else you too may be bit by fangs or crimson lips.<br /><br />Monsters come back when we forget<br />That, “we are each other’s harvest.<br />We are each other’s business.<br />We are each other’s magnitude and bond.”<br /><br />Though fear not, for warriors you have become,<br />Able to carry the stones in your pocket and heart<br />Torn down from broken walls and abolished prisons,<br />Fighting openly and authentically in the battles to come.<br /><br />The future of trans literature is yours to write.<br />So stay focused, don’t forget the small things,<br />Because a single stone can bring down mountains.<br />What you know, what you do, what you say, what you think matters.</span><br /><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div>Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-33658327418515781832020-12-01T07:17:00.001-08:002021-06-01T07:26:52.951-07:00Pandemic Feminism: A Poem for the Rising Generation<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSN5vRU-Vh0Xu3crv4J9riyiwPmN13CpkKvR_yKoJ-3AUr2QagFY3PtuP9AcYCjoMjcUjw3ggFRQCUsezM7NmANZ-abvNjTHTgoIfZ1wKEDtOEMmep4mvzEChy0pFhLnmqxYS8VH-wbMb6/s1000/feminism+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSN5vRU-Vh0Xu3crv4J9riyiwPmN13CpkKvR_yKoJ-3AUr2QagFY3PtuP9AcYCjoMjcUjw3ggFRQCUsezM7NmANZ-abvNjTHTgoIfZ1wKEDtOEMmep4mvzEChy0pFhLnmqxYS8VH-wbMb6/w640-h320/feminism+%25281%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A poem for my students</b></span><br /><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>inspired by the Fall 2020 syllabus:</b></span><br /><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Many Ways to Be a Woman:<br />Intersectional Traditions of Feminism and Femininity</b></span></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">Would you rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all?<br />Would you bake a pie even if you may get judged for it?<br />Would you wear pynk no matter your genitals or gender?<br />Would you detox your feminine and masculine programing, even if it gets called dirty?<br /><br /> <br />Let’s hope you will because we don’t just need another RBG<br />We need another you, each of you, all of you,<br />Whether you sit in the supreme court or in a medical lab<br />What you know, what you do, what you say, what you think matters.<br /><br /><br />This year reminds us that life and choice can be cut short<br />In kitchens from the 1950s, Christmases and Weddings from the 2010’s,<br />Summoning up nightmares of red cloaks, white hoods, and vampire pregnancies.<br />Yet through it all we repeat the words: don’t let the bastards get you down.<br /><br /><br />Because sometimes #wetoo find ourselves down rabbit holes,<br />Tied up or cut down in board rooms, doctor’s offices, or red rooms of pain.<br />But we fear not: we know about power, about speaking up, about liberation.<br />Our sisters, brothers, and siblings have shown us the way up and out together.<br /><br /> <br /><br />That is why we march in the streets of Somalia, Kenya, and Pakistan,<br />That is why we call out the names: Khalil, Floyd, Taylor, Garner, Brown, and Martin.<br />That is why we reject the master’s tools, that is why we call for reform and abolition.<br />That is why we build bridges of our backs: so future generations can escape with their lives.<br /><br /> <br />We would rather there be bad feminists than no feminists at all.<br />Because the sisterhood is still powerful<br />When it reaches out across racial, class, and geographic divides,<br />And when it unites the whole queer, trans, intersex, and non-binary family.<br /> <br /><br />The futures of feminism is yours to write; show us new ways to be a woman,<br />a man, a creatively gendered and sexually empowered human being.<br />Moving forward, may you stay focused - don’t forget the small things -<br />And remember: what you know, what you do, what you say, what you think matters.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div>Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-38883271269344384602020-08-31T15:38:00.003-07:002020-08-31T15:58:31.482-07:00The Object of Transgender Aesthetics<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2E3DQBEqFTRBPOdbMpwttT8UYLYkRMwPFMXoE5jBzEy8BUEeTt3DMnQY3ckLXPzRO6zNo3NrdNHJ6gxyNdZTK0R9gbVlxQx0rbLkawxSisvMY8KIeIzGMYMybwYlt5ZnGEyTTqdOT7g2m/s1440/Screen+Shot+2020-08-29+at+3.16.39+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2E3DQBEqFTRBPOdbMpwttT8UYLYkRMwPFMXoE5jBzEy8BUEeTt3DMnQY3ckLXPzRO6zNo3NrdNHJ6gxyNdZTK0R9gbVlxQx0rbLkawxSisvMY8KIeIzGMYMybwYlt5ZnGEyTTqdOT7g2m/w640-h400/Screen+Shot+2020-08-29+at+3.16.39+PM.png" width="640" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A More "Bloggy" Work in Progress Post</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div><br style="font-family: courier; font-size: large; text-align: center;" /></div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A Definition of Cisgender:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A sensitivity, aesthetic, orientation, attraction, allure, animus, or networking towards objects or material environments extended or provided to the person on the basis of gender assignment.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A Definition of Transgender:</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A sensitivity, aesthetic, orientation, attraction, allure, animus, or networking towards objects or material environments not extended or provided to the person on the basis of gender assignment.</i></div></span><div style="text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">These are contingent definitions I am thinking through as I revise my work into a book project, specifically into a chapter on trans aesthetic relationships with objects and physical environments. The purpose is to further centralize objects that typically get moved to the periphery of transgender identity, primarily as tools of language, performance, signification, expression, and legibility. How does transgender phenomenology and materialism develop trans psyches in different ways and vary depending on physical environment, geographic location, historical times, cultural milieu, access to technologies, and socio-economic power? In this work, I am building on generations of queer, BIPoC, feminist, and marxist thinkers as well as still developing transgender studies in the materialist vein. The object of transgender aesthetics is already emergent in society and the academy but needs further articulation as transgender literary and artistic theory synthesizes as a field.</span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div>Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-80353483721594748242020-08-17T18:00:00.000-07:002020-08-31T18:04:18.415-07:00Trans Literature Review: When the Moon Was Ours<div style="text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7HtdbiqebE3EPQJdjJDFOpiv_mB8aHe6vYYK5JRPZbjWzsSGTsLkpPoVxezv98m9eA6DtqH-2PIqFd4BxfMHG9d_0bKKGNM6hc9vvTicU0iEgnR0t_P1vNQerTITC74en7fyiQLguMUS4/s2048/When+The+Moons+Was+Ours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1535" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7HtdbiqebE3EPQJdjJDFOpiv_mB8aHe6vYYK5JRPZbjWzsSGTsLkpPoVxezv98m9eA6DtqH-2PIqFd4BxfMHG9d_0bKKGNM6hc9vvTicU0iEgnR0t_P1vNQerTITC74en7fyiQLguMUS4/s640/When+The+Moons+Was+Ours.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKTthZqvRNE" target="_blank">Watch the Review of </a></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKTthZqvRNE" target="_blank">When the Moon Was Ours</a></b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div><br /><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: large;"><br />A new Trans Literature review of "When the Moon Was Ours" (2016) written by Anna-Marie McLemore, a queer Latina author, telling the fantasy tale of trans love, witches, and a girl with flowers growing out of her wrists!</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: large;">Comment to offer suggestions for upcoming reviews!</span><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: xx-large;">______________________________</b></div></div></div></div>Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-72735741500799376772020-08-01T08:30:00.001-07:002020-08-01T10:18:14.557-07:00The Quarantine Classroom: A Poem for Plague and Pandemic<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A poem for my students</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>inspired by the Summer 2020 syllabus:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="color: #7f6000;">Diversity in the Eras o</span><span style="color: #7f6000;">f </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="color: #7f6000;">Medieval Plague and Modern Pandemic</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Where has the semester gone?<br />Hwær cwom symbla gesetu?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Where was the summer?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">May you heed well the wisdom<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">How to survive a plague and act up<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">For all fruits who fall far from fathers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">And sprout seeds of a different sort.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">May our five or six feet apart<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Not cut us off from our quests<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Through the riddles and chaos<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">To find new meanings for intimacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Pardon our household dances and revels<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Only keep us far from devilish parties<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Death will not be stopped by walls or class<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Although masks prove better than masques.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">May quarantine unravel our pride,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Unveil and unteach our prejudice,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">For the uprisings has begun<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Among those left for dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">But as we march, beware the crusades<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Promising purity and monstrous cures<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">For the new men may look much like the old<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Only devoid of creative diversity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">May our histories and dreams prepare us<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">For facing that hideous power<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Which causes men to lose their heads<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Guiding us in word, love, courage, patience, and glory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Through flood and fire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">May we hold on to hope<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Even as the inferno rises<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Let us hold up those lives called ‘lost.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">As plague and pandemic fall and spring again,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">May these lessons and stories carry you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">From season to season, age to age,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Looking back, remaining present, even as we move forward.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-24865436328242067572020-07-14T07:22:00.000-07:002020-07-23T07:22:49.411-07:00Trans Literature Review: Golden Boy<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1YuQf0XiY">Watch the Review of </a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1YuQf0XiY">Golden Boy</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Happy Non-Binary Day!</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br />Check out the new Intersex Literature Review on the Trans Literature YouTube channel! This week, we are discussing "Golden Boy," the story of an intersex boy and his politician family after a sexual assault prompts a reexamination of the veil of secrecy they maintain around experiences of sex and gender.<br /></span><div>
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-31269880213363671732020-07-13T07:17:00.000-07:002020-07-23T07:23:35.506-07:00Trans Literature Review: Transcendent - The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction (2016)<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfnDP3EWt_4&t=2s">Watch the Review of </a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfnDP3EWt_4&t=2s">Transcendent: The Year's Best</a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfnDP3EWt_4&t=2s">Transgender Speculative Fiction (2016)</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Looking for a trans-affirming alternative to Harry Potter? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Check out the new New Trans Literature Review: "Transcendent: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction" (2016). This book collects a series of science-fiction, fantasy, and other imaginative stories with characters from across the trans spectrum!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-9675535180121272472020-07-07T07:07:00.000-07:002020-07-23T07:19:06.390-07:00Trans Literature Review: The Testosterone Files<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESwCl9dNJI">Watch the Review of </a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESwCl9dNJI">The Testosterone Files</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Trans Literature Online reviews "Testosterone Files" by Max Wolf Valerio, a native American descended from the Blackfoot Confederacy, who shares his life as a transgender man after being a contributor to the foundational collection This Bridge Called My Back. In particular, the author shares the effects of testosterone on his body and the myriad changes in his life he underwent as part of his transition.</span><br />
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-89009018652765597412020-06-23T07:02:00.000-07:002020-07-23T07:18:57.999-07:00Trans Literature Review: The Last Time I Wore A Dress<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O7HAe8xY8E">The Last Time I Wore a Dress</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">A new Trans Literature review of "The Last Time I Wore a Dress" is now online! Dylan Scholinski is a fantastic artist who shares the story of a time when his parents forced him into a mental institution that tried to "correct" the fact that he is transgender in a process called Conversion Therapy.</span><br />
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-26550530135948241992020-06-16T09:15:00.000-07:002020-06-16T09:15:48.661-07:00Trans Literature: Review of Redefining Realness<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBtdpDw2i_o">Redefining Realness</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">The Trans Literature Youtube Channel continues!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">Check out the review of "Redefining Realness" by Janet Mock! This is the first book in a series of memoirs about the journalist, director, and author as she grew up as a black trans woman on Hawaii and on the mainland. The book explores the inextricability of gender, race, and class as her experiences shape her professional and personal trajectory. Within the wider public and even within trans media, the stories of trans women of color are not given nearly the spotlight they deserve. This literature opens up conversations that are all the more pressing as black trans women are beaten, exploited, and murdered in record numbers. I cannot recommend this book enough, especially for teachers.</span></div>
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-88761148995424509542020-06-10T08:26:00.000-07:002020-06-10T08:26:52.241-07:00Trans Literature Book Reviews: the Prince and the Dressmaker<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cRLLp2PD3k">the Prince and the Dressmaker</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">The Trans Literature Youtube Channel is continuing! </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Check out the review of "the Prince and the Dressmaker" by Jen Wang about the double-life of a young person who yearns for a life of gorgeous dresses while carrying the responsibility to be a marriageable royal man. The book also features the aspirations and work of a dress-maker who stands by the Prince as their partnership evolves and deepens.</span></div>
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-73731487708573404972020-05-26T08:32:00.001-07:002020-05-26T08:32:52.137-07:00Trans Literature Book Review: Lily and Dunkin (2016)<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=barYr88H3EI">Watch the Review of Lily & Dunkin</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br />Trans Literature is now presenting book reviews! </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">This week: Lily & Dunkin, the story of a middle school boy struggling with his mental health after moving to a new town & a trans girl trying to save a tree from being chopped down. <br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/thingstransform/videos">https://www.youtube.com/user/thingstransform/videos</a><br /><br />Comment on the video to offer suggestions for upcoming reviews!</span></span><br />
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-88550408930611674322020-05-06T12:00:00.001-07:002020-05-06T12:00:44.387-07:00Watch the Transgender Roundtable on the Pardoner Live<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/thingstransform/videos">Watch the Live-Stream!</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">The Transgender Roundtable on the Pardoner goes LIVE tomorrow (Thursday, May 7th, 2020) at 4:00PM EST!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/thingstransform/videos">https://www.youtube.com/user/thingstransform/videos</a><br /><br />Join us live on Youtube and we will answer your questions! All are welcome, from Medievalists missing Kalamazoo, to students, to people bored at home!<br /><br /><br />Panelists M.W. Bychowski, Joy Ambler, Blake Gutt, A.J. Odasso, and Zac Clifton Engledow will be presenting insights for today inspired by medieval texts: gender & sexuality, plague & pandemic, relics & tradition, as well as violence & community.</span><br /></span><br />
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-89455786232419139682020-04-27T10:48:00.002-07:002020-04-27T16:06:28.191-07:00Rainbow Prayer-Beads: A Poem for a Queer Christianity Seminar<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A poem for my students</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">In the little hours we share together,<br /><br />There are many things left unsaid.<br /><br />As the queers knock on the kingdom gates,<br /><br />We remember the most vulnerable in our kin-dom.<br /><br />Certainly, our bus has many stops to go,<br /><br />But may we keep our fervor for equality and equity.<br /><br />May we honor all those who have been erased,<br /><br />All those queens and kings and monarchs of hell.<br /><br />Let us shine a spotlight on abuse and corruption,<br /><br />To reveal the real abominations among us,<br /><br />To nurture healing not hate amidst plague,<br /><br />To decolonize our hearts and our institutions.<br /><br />May we write a new love song,<br /><br />A fight song that speaks to fear, pain, and chaos.<br /><br />When Wild Men call us into Mythopoetic Woods,<br /><br />May you be guided by all our queer fathers, mothers, parents.<br /><br />When queer messages and messengers arrive at your door,<br /><br />May you find the strength and clarity to read them truthfully.<br /><br />When disorientation and utopias leave us nowhere,<br /><br />May you find companions for the ever erring adventure.<br /><br />Although we may not check all the items on our lists,<br /><br />May we confess the beauty of not fitting into identities.<br /><br />And at times, we may hold back from our truths and desires,<br /><br />But in the twilight we will sparkle for those who can see us.<br /><br />So, as you travel onward to cross paths of light and night,<br /><br />May a coven of queers ever be found to empower you.<br /><br />And when the sun sets on each day,<br /><br />May you be affirmed in your heart that you are good.<br /><br />Blessings to you all,<br /><br />May we find one another along the way to somewhere, nowhere, and elsewhere.</span><br />
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-41241665960169013502020-04-27T10:44:00.002-07:002020-04-27T10:44:52.590-07:00Crip Horizons: A Poem for a Race and Disability Seminar<div style="text-align: start;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64K92cg-7mSTg0GADGUM8URvjiz_vNcvzjQ5PymwwS5EvSBBXNJU9cqftRJm_R8W6t87tjXZXWBxoRUEW5P2VnbgTq-vEPu850Tnhm65_ermzC-1g8_whr9YtwaRPwOeeZOMWHKikPdfi/s1600/dirty+computer+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64K92cg-7mSTg0GADGUM8URvjiz_vNcvzjQ5PymwwS5EvSBBXNJU9cqftRJm_R8W6t87tjXZXWBxoRUEW5P2VnbgTq-vEPu850Tnhm65_ermzC-1g8_whr9YtwaRPwOeeZOMWHKikPdfi/s640/dirty+computer+image.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A poem for my students</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>inspired by the Spring 2020 syllabus</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">In the pilgrimage to non-violence and equity,<br /><br />We come face to face with crusades against our diversity.<br /><br />Yet some apples fall far from the tree,<br /><br />Opening new paths for our sons, daughters, and all children.<br /><br />Looking ahead, we may fear that we will become ghosts or angels,<br /><br />Before we reach our utopian horizons.<br /><br />As the sky breaks into dirty, pynk, juicy, crazy, classic shades,<br /><br />We are reminded that this will be all our America before it’s all over.<br /><br />In the meanwhile, we may stand five or six feet apart,<br /><br />Telling the stories of our wounds.<br /><br />Praying that our beloveds,<br /><br />Will one day be free of the haunted house in which we are stuck.<br /><br />So too with all those in the prisons,<br /><br />May they rise like phoenixes burning the industry to the ground.<br /><br />One day, we will reach beyond this silent planet,<br /><br />And leave behind our eugenic and colonial monsters.<br /><br />On the twilight of that long night,<br /><br />May a new moon announce our transformation.<br /><br />As the God or goddesses of the skies look down on us,<br /><br />With blessings and love instead of violence and plagues.<br /><br />In the great show of our diverse humanity,<br /><br />May the freaks rise to take over the market of ideas.<br /><br />May we find one another on the journey there and back again,<br /><br />Through the dragons of our own cruelty and mistrust.<br /><br />Until we arrive home at the Cathedrals of our liberation,<br /><br />Where we don’t need another ruler or fool; all of our friends are kings.<br /><br />Blessings to you all,<br /><br />May we find one another along the way to somewhere, nowhere, and elsewhere.</span><div>
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-86491340050276158512019-12-02T10:57:00.000-08:002020-04-27T10:58:10.244-07:00Many Roads Ahead: An Intersectional Feminisms Poem<div style="text-align: start;">
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A poem for my students</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>inspired by the Fall 2019 syllabus</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />At this moment, I would like to offer a blessing<br /><br />An expression of the good I wish for you and from you.<br /><br /><br /><br />I wish for you the drive to do something worth doing<br /><br />And the courage to do it badly.<br /><br />I wish for you the fun and equity of femininity, whatever you gender<br /><br />because on the basis of sex, sex is power and power is sex.<br /><br />I wish for you full lives and not empty vases<br /><br />The ability to define gender for yourself, even when it’s a drag.<br /><br />I wish for you that family will be a mark of your liberation<br /><br />And that you remember that liberty when you find yourself deep in a mystique<br /><br /> <br /><br />I wish that you don’t let those bastards get you down<br /><br />Because you can see the resistance all around you, if only you know their colors.<br /><br /> <br /><br />I wish for you hard choices and active debate rather than easy subjugation,<br /><br />Even when giving up and giving in seems rich and sparkly.<br /><br />I wish for you to do well and do good<br /><br />And that you always remember the power you have, even to leave.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Wish for you to fight the good fight<br /><br />And perhaps even enjoy the fight at times; safe, sane, and consensually.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you not be drawn into pyramid schemes of power and success,<br /><br />Even as you carry the stones of the mountain inside you.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you be called your true names<br /><br />And may you remember their power.<br /><br />May you turn the hate given to you<br /><br />Into grace, voice, and love that is stronger.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you find rest in safe islands,<br /><br />But be mindful that the institutions that support us may also confine us.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you find love and affirmation even for your secret hearts,<br /><br />And may you find the courage to share them with others.<br /><br />May you remember that rarely does life give us true binaries,<br /><br />Even as we may play with those tensions, to the anxiety of others.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you recognize a perfect day when you get one<br /><br />May you know when to hold on and when to let go.<br /><br /> <br /><br />In the end, while we have explored feminisms past and present<br /><br />The best gift I can give you on the way into the unknown<br /><br />Is a method on how to face those challenges but challenges will come<br /><br /> <br /><br />Conflict will come and its forms are yet unknown<br /><br />But you have practiced the method for facing these threats<br /><br />To analyze, to engage, and to adapt.<br /><br />To analyze to field and determine if you are in the right position<br /><br />And to analyze the dangers to know the greatest threats.<br /><br />Then to engage a problem, eschewing the unnecessary actions,<br /><br />Hitting the pressure point be it pleasure or pain.<br /><br />Finally then to respond to the accounts waged against you<br /><br />Adapting and growing from what you learn, even in failure.<br /><br /> <br /><br />And now our seminar comes to an end.<br /><br />And as you go forth, I wish good for you and from you.<br /><br />May your goods and your futures come in as many forms as ways as there to to be a woman.</span><br />
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-48562158872512979592019-12-02T10:51:00.000-08:002020-04-27T10:52:09.935-07:00Dysphoric Dreams: A Poem for a Transgender Literature Seminar<div style="text-align: start;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Scb6__7efqoAa-rFKJz3jTHhN-qnOsAKpYoaS1l-GULrA54TD6GsHToObYomAlcy32bmdDaG9a0wkK56d14P_6bD7WwsBSxyN8vJQFom3kMup5yIpgJSXGp0Z_QX5t3aM_q5iRnum_py/s1600/Trans-and-Intersex-Literature.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Scb6__7efqoAa-rFKJz3jTHhN-qnOsAKpYoaS1l-GULrA54TD6GsHToObYomAlcy32bmdDaG9a0wkK56d14P_6bD7WwsBSxyN8vJQFom3kMup5yIpgJSXGp0Z_QX5t3aM_q5iRnum_py/s640/Trans-and-Intersex-Literature.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>A poem for my students</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>inspired by the Fall 2019 syllabus</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /><br />At this moment, I would like to offer a blessing<br /><br />An expression of the good I wish for you and from you.<br /><br /> <br /><br />I wish for you to remember that stereotypes are like all forms of print<br /><br />They erode, break down, and change unless we adapt them to new media.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you find new meaning on the road from here to elsewhere<br /><br />And good friends, magical or otherwise to travel with you.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you face transformation and the unknown with a sense of mystery<br /><br />And deep understanding of the truths that will live through our desolation.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you find beauty and joy in your sex and gender<br /><br />Especially when that beauty comes with great cost<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you find many other words to describe yourself<br /><br />Including all the selves you will be across your life.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you pack your gender backpacks with wisdom and care<br /><br />And may you have the strength and realness to carry the hardest louds.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you have the power to cry, whatever your gender<br /><br />Because we will face tearful things in the future.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you find things worth fighting for<br /><br />And may you have to strength to carry on through losses.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you find a flag worth defending<br /><br />And a community who will have you back in turn.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you remember that confession means “to speak together”<br /><br />And that our myths can be as powerful as our realities.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you find belonging, even on alien planets<br /><br />Because you may find the world you thought you knew was stranger than you believed.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you define your own realness and love<br /><br />Because the reality and love you are given may fail.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you protect and care for yourself,<br /><br />Even when it seems the whole system of hell is made to grind you down.<br /><br /> <br /><br />May you find transcendence in the power of story<br /><br />Because stories are magic and it is a magic that lives within you.<br /><br /> <br /><br />In the end, while we have explored literature past and present<br /><br />The best gift I can give you on the way into the unknown<br /><br />Is a method on how to face thoce challenges but challenges will come<br /><br /> <br /><br />Conflict will come and its forms are yet unknown<br /><br />But you have practiced the method for facing these threats<br /><br />To analyze, to engage, and to adapt.<br /><br /><br />To analyze to field and determine if you are in the right position<br /><br />And to analyze the dangers to know the greatest threats.</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /><br />Then to engage a problem, eschewing the unnecessary actions,<br /><br />Hitting the pressure point be it pleasure or pain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /><br />Finally then to respond to the accounts waged against you<br /><br />Adapting and growing from what you learn, even in failure.<br /><br /> <br /><br />And now our seminar comes to an end.<br /><br />And as you go forth, I wish good for you and from you.<br /><br />May your goods and your futures come in as many forms as ways as there are to tell a story.<br /><br /> </span><div>
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-86379653162724032592019-06-22T16:26:00.000-07:002019-06-24T09:45:00.562-07:00The First Time I Died: A Transgender Girl's Lessons in Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>J.R.R. Tolkien</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />I was around three the first time I died. Fortunately, I was witty enough to think my way out of it before it was time for my parents to pick me up from Pre-School. Despite being raised Roman Catholic, I was enrolled in a Protestant Evangelical Pre-School, called "Sunshine." It was there I learned some things about singing, napping, climbing up stairs, and even got my first kiss. The girl had pulled me aside while we were make-believing in the kitchen play set and surprised me with a small peck. I think I spilled my imaginary cup of tea all over the freshly vacuumed carpet. I remember being confused but not upset. I did get confused and upset when I got in trouble for it. The surprise and the adult response was another lesson I received at this Pre-School: openly trusting what people do or say can lead to confusing problems, especially when I have thoughts to the otherwise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Another confusing problem occurred to me when I was driving home from Pre-School down Park Street, under the canopy of old trees that seemed to be a staple of my hometown, and we were about to cross the tracks to the north side of town. "I don't want Jesus in my heart," I told my mom. She asked me to explain why I say that. "Because I think that would give me a heart attack or something." She laughed. She was confused and asked me to explain. But I was confused too. "The school told me that to be a good person, I need to invite Jesus into my heart," I reported. "But even if he could fit in all those tubes and things, I don't think my blood could get through with a man in my heart." My imagination flashed with all the damage a tiny human could do trying to make a home, sleeping, working, and trying to prepare meals inside a kid's cardiovascular system. I asked her if that meant I was a bad person, because I didn't want a miniature Jesus to give me cardiac arrest. She told me I was a good kid and a bright kid. Then she told me that I could be friends with Jesus even if he didn't live in my heart. I thought that was a sensible compromise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The sense of doubt in the adults of my Pre-School came in handy when it came time for me to die. They had arranged a trip for us to tour the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. The first half of the trip was okay. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and watched a video about Humpty Dumpty. Humpty Dumpty was an egg who fell off a wall and broke but he was able to be put back together. I wasn't a huge fan of the film but then again I tend to not appreciate C-rated horror films as this seemed to me to be. After this, the Pre-School teachers broke us up into groups. About five or seven at a time, we would walk through a door into a dark room. As far as I could see, no one was coming out again after they entered. Then it was my group's turn. Our teacher walked us through the door which shut behind us. I could feel the walls which were covered in some sort of dark carpet but otherwise the room was totally dark and quiet. Then our teacher told us, "you are dead. You have died." I immediately began to panic. Death hadn't hurt but I was very sad to not see my mom or my dogs or my siblings or my dad or my house again. I didn't know anyone who had died and so I felt very alone, despite being dead with a bunch of other three and four year olds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I stood grieving my own death for about a minute before a door on the other side of the room opened, revealing a brightly lit chamber. Walking through the dark hallway into the light, I was surrounded by a bunch of other dead kids, all standing in a high room painted with bright blue sky and clouds. There was a railing, presumably to keep us from falling back to earth. I wanted to see if I could see Wheaton and maybe my home below us, so I went over to the railing. Looking down, I saw a mirror reflecting my face back at me. Scanning along the other side of the railing, I took in the effect of the mirrors reflecting the lights and the sky to make it seem as though they went on forever. At this point, I deduced that I probably was not dead. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I think I began to cry. My teacher tried to comfort me by saying something about how we are in heaven, pointing to all the walls and lights. I did not have the presence of mind to tell her how this was a pretty boring looking heaven. I was too busy crying and holding my arms across my body. She then told me that I really wasn't dead, it was just a museum. I wanted to tell her that I had figured that out on my own and that I wasn't crying because I thought I was dead (that experience had mostly come with a sense of guilt at abandoning my family) but rather because of how enraged I was that I had been lied to again. As in the case of the the girl who kissed me while we were playing in the toy kitchen, make-believe is fine and good but you should explain the game to the people you're playing with before you start or make significant changes. I wasn't ready to be some girl's wife, girlfriend, or whatever she thought I was in her imagination. Likewise, while these adults were eager to get Jesus into my heart or get me into Jesus's sky palace, I wish the Jesus they were presenting to me was less eager to see me dead. That said, as the Humpty Dumpty film had already warned me, these adults seemed to like horror films way more than I do. All I wanted was to vacuum the rug, make some imaginary tea and take a nap without being assaulted or killed by my playmates. Is that so hard?</span><br />
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-86015542256762344162019-05-28T18:47:00.000-07:002019-05-28T18:48:48.490-07:00The Medieval DSM: Teaching On Medieval Disability & Transgender<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>"Jo l'ai tolte desnaturee"</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Roman de Silence</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />In her book, She's Not There: A Life In Two Genders, transgender author and English professor, Jennifer Boylan, recalls, "One day I was stopped in the hall by a professor of medieval literature... I knew it would be good because scholars of this period seem to be required by the Modern Language Association to be absolutely insane." Now, attending the medieval congress at Kalamazoo may only reinforce this notion that we are all at least a little bit insane. Indeed, I am not here to dispute Boylan’s claim. Instead, I wish to put forth the intersection of transgender studies, disability studies, and medieval studies as a productive sort of crazy-making. Admittedly, my own professional well-being depends somewhat on the premise that all this madness means something significant in the end. In particular, I propose the thesis that medieval approaches to gender and madness may productively contribute to a wider education on disability and transgender studies. Specifically, I would like to outline a pedagogical movement whereby we move students from a knowledge as a possession which might be hoarded and represented by compendiums such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) towards a medieval model of knowledge as a process which depends on a lyrical and dialectical dialogue between multiple authorities, which I call the medieval DSM. Now, many of us here today might contend that given the DSM is called the Bible of Psychology, then the Bible is the medieval Bible of the Psyche. Yet I will demonstrate through a lesson from my seminars, “Monsters & Disability” “Queer Christianity,” and “Beyond Male & Female,” using the debate between nature, nurture, reason, and will from Roman de Silence as the sandbox for discussion, that the medieval DSM might be best translated as the medieval dialectical storytelling method. <br /><br />While I’ve taught the medieval DSM in a few classes, as I just mentioned, it perhaps is most important for my Disability seminar at Case Western Reserve University which tends to have a higher number of pre-med, nursing, biology, and psychology majors attending the institution’s well known medical schools and working in their hospitals. For these students, lecture courses are the cornerstone with knowledge gained extensively through note-taking, cram sessions, and multiple choice tests based on large compendiums of knowledge like the DSM. For them and the other students of this STEM university, the treatment of knowledge as a process which involves multiple competing perspectives challenges the models of knowledge as object which has made them successful thus far in their studies. Indeed, many regard transgender as an inappropriate topic to study in a disability seminar because it is seen as too political or too based on in the social constructionist models of gender studies, not hard science. Yet lessons such as the medieval DSM used to discuss texts like Roman de Silence challenges their definitions of disability, gender, and epistemology, or how we know what we know. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">For those who are not familiar, Le Roman de Silence is a 13th century French chivalric romance about a trans masculine knight by Heldris of Cornwall. In the narrative, Sir Silence is born in a society that does not allow women to inherit property, so when he are born without a penis, his parents elect to raise him as a son in order to protect his right to inherit their estate. This runs smoothly until he reaches adolescence at which time he becomes aware that he is not like other boys. At this point, Nature and Nurture arrive to debate with him over whether or not he should continue to follow his nurturing to live as a trans masculine male or to follow nature’s decree that he live as a woman. The two sides go back and forth until Reason arrives to offer another and perhaps a higher authority perspective. And in the end, the choice falls to the will of Silence who elects to live as a man, which he does for many years. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Now, when my students hear that we will be discussing transgender in a disability seminar, they expect lectures in line with the discourse of Nature in the story. They expect me to provide them with medical information which informs them first whether or not being transgender is a disability and if it is what sort of health care may be involved. When I hand them this medieval poem, they get confused. This is not the exchange of knowledge-rich professor giving data to knowledge-consuming student. Instead, I am challenging them to think dialectically, considering the natural sciences alongside those of culture, philosophy, and ethics. Even worse, I am challenging them to engage in this dialectical debate of thesis, antithesis and synthesis through narrative. Doing this is key however to growing their perspectives on transgender and disability from being a collection of facts to being a collection of facts, cultures, ideologies, and choices. By getting them to see transgender and disability as ongoing dialectical narratives, I can show them not only how understandings of gender of the mind, body, and soul have evolved over the centuries but help them to question modern definitions and diagnoses. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> For instance, the debate between nature and nurture are present throughout modern medical treatment of transgender people. This dialectic hit a powerful anti-thesis in the 1990s with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act that codified many protections and rights of people with disabilities while also including a clause which first disregards homosexuality as not being a disability or disorder and yet including transgender as being a disorder yet one not deserving of protection or support. Trans diagnoses were listed in this clause alongside pedophilia and bestiality. Indeed, we see this debate occurring today with the Trump administration considering transgender too much of disability and thus marking trans people as not fit to serve while also removing healthcare protections so as to allow anti-transgender insurers and doctors to refuse to cover what they consider to be a life-style and not a disability.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">While the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association and dozens of other authorities consider gender dysphoria a valid medical condition deserving of care and yet not one that inhibits a person’s ability to serve, the refusal to recognize the natural facts of trans life are often follows super-natural or spiritual authorities. In Silence we see this escalation from nurture and nature to the super-natural with the arrival of Reason. Here the medieval DSM makes students productively uncomfortable again by challenging them to consider their own first principles, belief systems, and ideological biases. The gender binary that anti-LGBT politicians medical providers promote is not based in science or history but in the philosophical fallacies of pre-determined outcomes. This flawed logical doctrine that there are only two genders causes doctors to operate on intersex children in order to force these exceptions to this binary back into the binary, rather than recognizing that their binary is disproven by the biodiversity of chromosomes, hormones, phenotypes, and neuro-types. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">With natural sciences, cultural nurturing, and ideological rationales considered, modern and medieval scholars will often come to conclusions before stopping to consider that the debate Silence has four members of this dialectical storytelling and not three. While Nature, Nurture, and Reason all make their cases, in the end the decision falls to Silence. Silence choses to live as a trans man. The significance of this decision is highlighted both by the thousands of lines of narrative that extols Sir Silence living his best life but also in the tragedy that ends the story when Silence undergoes a sort of forced to live as a woman by the natural authority of Nature, the cultural authority of the King, and the Super-Natural Logos of Merlin. This tension between the start and end of Silence’s narrative marks how disability and transgender studies is more than just the natural or social sciences debate over what someone is but over the ethical question of who and how we empower trans and crip people to make decisions about their own lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />In the end, Le Roman de Silence is an effective tool at not only teaching students about medieval transgender and disability but in understanding a different way of knowing through the medieval DSM. Knowing as a dialectical storytelling method not only teaches students about medieval ways of analyzing differences in body and mind, but in challenging them to reconsider how they know what disability and transgender mean. I firmly believe that critical thinking itself may be defined by this ability to have multiple voices and perspectives in mind at once (whether or not one allegorizes them) and being able to synthesize factual, cultural, epistemological and ethical decisions based on them. This multiplicity of voices is often absent in social media and politics which put us all into echo-chambers where our favorite authorities pass down truths which repeat themselves through retweets, likes, and shares. The ability to sit in a classroom and synthesize perspectives into a shared narrative of knowledge is more important now than ever. <br /><br />Thus, I return to the quotation offer by my trans sister and fellow scholar of literature, Jennifer Boylan, when she says that “scholars of this period seem to be required by the Modern Language Association to be absolutely insane." In a modern world where modes of thinking are defined by in-groups and out-groups, those who believe or disbelieve the same science, who share or reject the same cultures, who believe or disbelieve the same super-natural authorities, and who approve or condemn the same sorts of choices, maybe this era and our classrooms need more medieval insanity if that insanity means being able to think on multiple levels at once. Being able to at once play the games of the enemy and win, or else to know enough to refuse to play games which are rigged against you, may mean not only the difference between an A or a B grades but can be life-saving for trans and crip people who often find themselves at the mercy of ever changing authorities who try to decide what our lives mean and what our choices me be, and can perhaps be the difference between a livable and an unlivable life for them and others. </span></div>
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5353507501281610159.post-38008371039029029002019-05-28T18:19:00.000-07:002019-05-28T18:19:25.995-07:00The Patron Saint of Dysphoria: Joan of Arc as Transgender<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Before I begin, I must say that the question of whether or not Joan of Arc is transgender is one of my most asked questions, especially from non-medievalists and people who are vocally anti-trans. No sooner than my name and work is given in news articles or social media than I get trolls sending me messages, “transgender in the Middle Ages? Let me guess: Joan of Arc. What fascist fake-news garbage!” I have here removed the even more disgusting language typically included in these comments. You may also observe that I get these questions, if they are questions at all, from people who don’t genuinely want and answer but who seem to already have their minds made up about what transgender is or is not and what medieval history may or may not be. Yet, the weaponizing of Joan is not only against queer and trans populations but appropriated as a symbol of white Nationalism and an imagined origin myth of a white Christian western race. This image of “Joan the Weapon of White Cisgender Supremacy” is now working beside those harassing, interrogating, and expelling modern day soldiers (who like Joan felt called to serve their country) from a historically critical institution in the breaking down of racial segregation and the largest employer of trans folx in the world: the U.S. military. <br /><br />In these contexts, the ability to question exclusive claims over Joan the Woman is critical to defend not only Joan the Person but the people experiencing modern echoes of the transphobic harassment and state sanctioned murder of Joan; those harmed by antagonistic governments and politically motivated Christians. I’m aware of how multifaceted these questions and answers are, requiring a chapter within my book project on Transgender in the Middle Ages, so today I will suffice to mark means by which we may begin asking the question: is Joan of Arc transgender? <br /><br />To this end, I wish to thank the International Joan of Arc Society for inviting me here to specifically explore “Joan the Transgender Person” on a panel titled “Joan the Woman.” I take this as a good faith inquiry wherein we can model the generosity, respect, and critical inquiry lacking in exclusive and weaponizing claims to the saint. If people are willing to candidly pursue <br /><br />Joan through a critical trans theory lens, we will find that in particular important respects we may say that Joan is trans, however perhaps not in the ways you presently expect. Please note, in identifying Joan as Trans, I do not believe we dismiss the wider complexity of Joan’s life that speaks to many truths and identity claims being true at the same time. That said, this talk is organized into three parts drawn from the main title, the Patron Saint of Dysphoria with each part complicating the idea of “Joan the Woman.” First, I will begin with the politics of this panel and this paper in this moment and ask how the concept of patronage may give us the flexibility to at once consider Joan “the Patron of Women Doing a Man’s Job” alongside Joan the Patron of Trans Folx in the Military.” Second, I move from our time to shortly after Joan’s death to consider how Joan rose in the popular consciousness and religious standing through rhetorical arguments using the canon of trans saints and hagiography. Third, I narrow in on Joan during the final days of life to consider how the conditions and interrogations underwent may be said to have produced a form of gender dysphoria and by which we may be able to say that whether or not we say Joan is transgender, certainly Joan died in no small part because of a medieval form of transphobia. The conclusion of these three approaches to the question of Joan as transgender is that Joan of Arc may indeed be said to be transgender by modern standards (if those standards of transgender are properly understood; which they are often not) and yet there may be a stronger case that whether or not Joan is identified as transgender enough by modern standards, Joan of Arc was certainly considered more than trans enough by medieval standards to die for it. </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">1. Joan the Patron </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br />Now, turning to consider the concept of Patronage may be useful to providing the foundations for even asking the question of whether Joan is trans. Currently, Joan the Woman is claimed as a patron and model by many Christian women, by virgin women, by feminist women, by women doing jobs traditionally done by men, by women who wear pants or butch clothing, by lesbian women. For many women and even men, Joan is their woman, a woman with whom they identify and people can be very defensive of Joan. Thus, the very question as to whether Joan of Arc may be trans in some way creates a great deal of anxiety. People are anxious that if Joan is somehow proven to be trans, then they will lose some sort of claim over a woman with whom they’ve long identified. This can lead to the dangerous logic: I can’t tolerate losing Joan the woman, therefore Joan must be a woman, and so Joan must not be transgender. <br /><br /> As an alternative to this exclusivity around Joan the Woman, there is the possibility within the Patronage model for the saint to represent multiple identities simultaneously. Take the example of St. Nicholas, who is regarded as the patron saint of children, brewers, pharmacists, and sex workers to name a few. As a patron, saints are considered advocates as well as exceptional figures with whom the population identifies. Yet children and producers of alcoholic beverages are not fighting in the street over the right to send prayers and wishes to Santa Clause, likewise, pharmacists and sex workers are not giving opposing papers at a conference over who gets to identify with St. Nick. On the level of identification, Judith Butler writes that “identity” is one way a person exists for someone else. Put another way, identity can begin with the thought, “oh me too, I thought I was the only one.” To identify is to identify with someone or something other than yourself. In this way, many people can identify with multiple parts of Joan’s experiences without exhausting all of who Joan is and how Joan may be said to identify. <br /><br />In Joan’s own life, Joan identified with maids. Lesbian women, asexuals and celibate women may all share this identity with Joan. Joan identified with soldiers, an identity largely constituted by men and chivalric masculinity in the era. Thus, soldiers of any gender but especially men may be said to have identified with Joan. Joan identified with martyrs and those unjustly judged by an antagonistic government. One may seem eerie similarity between current bans and expulsions of trans service members from the military. Indeed, before the political assaults on trans service members in the military, trans author Leslie Feinberg identified with Joan in the book Transgender Warrior: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. In this way, patronage as a representative and advocate works across diverse lines of experience, speaking as much about the time of those claiming the saint as the time of the saint’s time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">2. Joan the Saint</span> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /> Amidst all the people who identified with Joan during life and for generations after, it was only relatively small amount of time after the death of the French leader before Joan’s retrial began, at which point the designation and association with trans saints began. In numerous cases heard across the retrials of Joan of Arc, the figure of Marinos the Monk is frequently cited. Joan’s contemporaries made this connection in part to understand Joan within the context of others similar to Joan that they knew, holy people who likewise expressed genders and habitus other than the one assigned at birth. If Joan’s contemporaries possessed the word transgender, they might have used that explicitly as they connected Joan and Marinos. In the case of Marinos and Joan, both were trans masculinity identified, as they transitioned from an identity as a maid to an identity as a form of celibate medieval masculinity, the monk and the virgin soldier. It is hard to miss that by the late Middle Ages a sub-genre of saint’s life had developed that included different types of saints who lived some form of trans life that was sanctified by the church. <br /><br /> Likewise, the invocation of the teachings of another saint, Saint Thomas Aquinas, was used to further this process of reclaiming Joan the trans heretic to Joan the trans saints. In particular, Question 169 of the second part of the second part of the Summa Theologiae that discusses modest dress was invoked, wherein the reply to objection 3, Aquinas allows breaking the norms of gender specific clothing in special cases, writing, “Nevertheless this may be done without sin on account of some necessity, either in order to hide oneself from enemies, or through lack of other clothes, or for some similar motive.” While Joan was not in disguise or lacking other clothes, there were other necessities and special motives to present in masculinity military attire. By this logic, Joan was not guilty of a lack of modesty because of the necessity of wearing work appropriate clothing but also the necessity of Joan being a person with a divinely sanctioned and driven identification with the medieval masculinity identity of knight. <br /><br /> From trans hagiography to Thomistic theology, the retrial of Joan of Arc seemed less aimed at denying the trans-ness of the martyr as trying to justify that trans-ness is not heretical but may in fact be saintly. The wider debate in the retrials concerned Joan’s motives and mind, which was repeatedly said to be affected by the voice of God. This led to the tension between the super-naturally marked trans-ness of Joan either being demonic or heavenly. These two positions are represented among Joan’s contemporaries by the competing English and French trials. Strongly on the side of heresy and an anti-trans program were the English who sought the death of Joan. Moving in a more progressive direction while also citing ancient authorities, were the French who were willing to allow that even a saint, perhaps especially a saint could be transgender. After all, does not the word saint in some way name those set apart that God marks for some special non-normative purpose? However the spiritual question is resolved, neither side, English or French, unilaterally denied that transness was in some way real and significant. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-large;">3. Joan the Dysphoric </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /> To conclude, I’ll consider how the circumstances of Joan’s life and death show signs of gender dysphoria and experiences of medieval transphobia. Thus it is necessary to provide a summary from Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for “Gender Dysphoria.” This is crucial for many reasons but especially because many people who declare that Joan can’t be trans, do not know much about current definitions of transgender or gender dysphoria. Many people operate on public assumptions based on the Gender Identity Disorder version of the diagnosis which has been debunked as bad science or use the word “transvestite” which has largely been out of use in medical communities for almost 50 years. <br /><br /> Here are a few key things to know and consider about gender dysphoria and Joan. First, the short definition of gender dysphoria in the DSM-5 describes the experience of having one’s gender identity and expression misgendered by a society that assigns to you and compels competing gender identities, habits, and roles. Gender dysphoria is a self-society problem not chiefly an internal issue. Second, gender dysphoria may be experienced by people who are not transgender and not all transgender people experience dysphoria. A cisgender woman who wears pants and who receives criticism and pressure to wear dresses experience a degree of dysphoria. Conversely, trans people who transition and live in affirming homes and communities may experience very little gender dysphoria because their gender identity is not subject to great degrees of antagonism. Based on this short definition of dysphoria, we may turn to Joan’s life and death, where we see consistent scrutiny over Joan wearing military garb traditionally assigned to men. Indeed, throughout the trial of Joan, the saint is consistently harassed over clothing, has clothing taken away and replaced, including overt and covert rape threats, as well as a series of verbal denigration over Joan’s gender expression culminating in Joan being killed. <br /><br /> The longer definition of gender dysphoria goes on to discuss symptoms of this conflict, including a strong desire for certain gender markers and habits and a strong aversion to other gender markers and habits. The DSM-5 does not specify what genders are being referenced out of recognition of the great range of biodiversity of gender now recognized in the sciences, such as the recurrent diversification of chromosome, hormones, phenotypes, and neuro structures . Gender studies of the Middle Ages also speaks to the wide range of distinct identities in society which are treated with particular legal, spiritual, and social significant such the Virgin, the Wife, the Widow but also the Eunuch, the Monk, and the Chivalric Knight. Current trans scholarship and medicine affirms that gender transition can occur through many gender identities and exist between gender identities, producing a wide range of non-binary, intersex, and gender queer identities. As such, being a maid, a virgin, a mystic, and a knight all at once was by medieval standards quite trans and likely (as we see in the case of Joan) to produce instances of dysphoria. </span></div>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">To conclude, while I cannot say whether or not a time-traveling Joan transported into 2019 would identify as a trans man but I can say that Joan would likely understand and experience many of the circumstances experience by trans men, trans masculine people, butches, non-binary people, asexual people, intersex people, and other members of the trans community. Furthermore, the circumstances of Joan’s life and death which point to extended periods of dysphoria and transphobia, as well as the effort among Joan’s own contemporaries to understand Joan in the context of trans saints and trans hagiography, all point to the reality that whether or not Joan is transgender by modern standards, Joan of Arc was transgender by medieval standards for some to kill Joan for it and others to redeem, sanctify, and later canonize Joan for it. And perhaps, in the wake of Joan the person’s life, death, and legacy we may rightly call Joan the Patron Saint of Dysphoria. Thank you. </span></div>
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Dr. M.W. Bychowski, Ph.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08672365663976821234noreply@blogger.com2