My gender is not something you get to dictate

[overlord_mordax]

I am so, so tired of my parents telling us we should wear skirts and dress as a woman. This may be a female body, but there are almost NO women in it. David is explicitly, absolutely a man (albeit not the most manly man), I, Mordax, have no gender, leaning towards presenting as male; plus the cavalcade of occasional male headmates we’ve got.

I’ve got plenty of neuroses, dad, you don’t have to say that not wanting to wear women’s clothes is one of them.

My anger at this is exacerbated by the fact that I’ve been feeling a lot more masculine than neuter lately; possibly as a combined result of co-presence with Vincent for the last week, and all the Warhammer 40k and Gurren Lagann we’ve been consuming.

I think what it comes down to is this, I, and the rest of us, consider this BODY to be at fault, when it comes to gender/sex, and DON’T appreciate anyone trying to force us to accommodate the body for the sake of “social propriety”.

I’m going to be blatantly honest here; I have the least respect for women of anyone in this system. The culture I was originally raised in was extremely patriarchal and male-centric. Women were lovely flowers, and good mothers who should be seen, not heard. My time growing up again in American in the 20th century now, has helped alleviate some of those feelings, but still, being told to wear a dress to me, is akin to being told to put on chains and grovel.

Now, David and Vin have very different feelings when it comes to women (from me, and from each other) but neither of them wants to be put in a dress for a number of reasons, the first of which on the list is, THEY’RE MEN.

Now, I can’t explain any of this to my parents, and wouldn’t expect them to understand or accept it either, but it pisses me the fuck off. We are not going to dress to accommodate your world view; we are going to dress to accommodate ourselves, which is enough of a challenge with our varying tastes, thank you much.

-Mordax
(and crew)

Comments

[sletia.livejournal.com]

I think I'd have to smack someone if they suggested to me to wear a skirt/dress. Not all females do that, some are tomboys. What do your parents care?? The *only* time I ever wore a dress was when I was a bridesmaid, and I hated it. Pfft.

[(Anonymous)]

Your frustrations make sense, but I think lying the blame at the female gender is faulty logic. What you hate is the female gender role. There are a lot of good reasons to hate it, most of them you have described already, but the truth of it is, it isn't solely women who are responsible for it. Men are just as much to blame for enforcing it as women are for continuing to accept it--and the reasons they accept it are lifetimes upon lifetimes of conditioning by men. So...who's really worth "more" respect here? Neither, in my opinion.

[nachtwundarzt.livejournal.com]

"Men are just as much to blame for enforcing it as women are for continuing to accept it--and the reasons they accept it are lifetimes upon lifetimes of conditioning by men."

Women are just as much to blame for enforcing it as men are for continuing to accept it-- and the reasons they accept it are lifetimes upon lifetimes of conditioning by women.

In regards to the male gender role that states men MUST be assholeish sexist pigs that exist solely to shoot each other, rape things and play football...

Maybe laying ALL the blame on women is faulty, but laying HALF of it is perfectly reasonable-- I have seen women rip each other apart just as much as (if not MORE) men. Not to mention the "omg we're so oppressed sexism is horrible evil wicked OH HEY LOOK AT THIS BOOK on how to train your husband like a DOG lololol stupid men" thing that a lot of younger girls especially have picked up... And really, women should know better, you'd think.

I think all genders need to lighten the fuck up and stop putting one another in boxes. ALL genders are to blame for sexism, not just men or women. And the only way to end sexism is to, you know... stop being sexist. Which sounds like a duh, but people just don't realize how much of culture is based around sexism. Society pretty much IS sexism.

...Ahm. Yeah, I know the original comment wasn't towards me at all, but as a female-to-male transsexual... I've seen both sides of the fence and I am just kinda horrified by people in general.