NY Times article

[privateperks]

If this has already been posted somewhere, my excuses.

Its not too bad on the whole. Writer seems pretty well informed and respectful.


When Girls Will Be Boys, Alissa Quart


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/magazine/16students-t.html?em&ex=1205985600&en=09be8f193416af6b&ei=5070

[Cai]

Eh, it wasn't bad but neither was it particularly good.

And I want to smack the trans guy who was quoted as saying "There's no physical threat to transmen [at women's colleges]." Yes. Because no woman in the history of time has ever been abusive. :doh:

[privateperks]

Let me put it this way, it was better than I expected.

Yeah, that was a semi stupid thing to say, but he may have felt that there was less chance of his getting beat up or worse at a woman's college. And he may have a point.

[Valeria]

Yeah, that was a semi stupid thing to say, but he may have felt that there was less chance of his getting beat up or worse at a woman's college. And he may have a point.
I have a trans guy friend at college who once told me that he was in no hurry to get his gender marker changed on his driver's license, in part because he was concerned that if he was ever arrested, he'd be put in with male prisoners. It kind of startled me a bit when he said that - getting all of my ID corrected was hugely important to me. But then, I had pretty much the same fear when I was preop. If I was afraid of potentially being put in with male prisoners with a body that was partially female, why shouldn't he have the same fear?

At the time, he was essentially living full time as a guy, but he was pre-T and had not had any surgery, so I don't think that having his gender marker changed was much of an option, nor was his getting put in a men's jail very likely. But I can definitely understand his concern.

I have mixed feelings about several statements made in that article. In fact, I have mixed feelings in general with the way women's colleges are currently interacting with trans male students (and mostly not interacting with trans female students), but I'll refrain from further comment on that for now.

FWIW, here is a commentary on that article from a writer with Salon:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/03/17/girls/index.html

[metalguy639]

Interesting but really long. LOL I'm hyperactive so long articles do not get along with me well. I stopped reading on page 4 :( Sorry I could not finish it guys. Its was pretty drab the way it was written to me anyways.

[privateperks]

I have mixed feelings about several statements made in that article. In fact, I have mixed feelings in general with the way women's colleges are currently interacting with trans male students (and mostly not interacting with trans female students), but I'll refrain from further comment on that for now.

FWIW, here is a commentary on that article from a writer with Salon:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/03/17/girls/index.html

I didn't go to Smith or Holyoke, but to a college next door to them. I had a lot of friends, and even a girl friend at Smith. There were quite a few trans male students - and yeah, they were kinda - well, shunned for lack of a better word. But, at the same time, students identifying as female went to the school expecting to be surrounded (at least in the dorms - frankly at least in the cases of Smith and Holyoke the idea of them as 'girls only' schools is quite ridiculous in fact because students from Hampshire, Amherst and the University of Massachusetts go onto the campus for classes and events) by other females, not men or gender queer peeps. Shouldn't their wishes be respected? I don't know. Obviously I don't want to see transmen excluded from any arena, but at the same time can we "have our cake" and eat it too? If you see yourself as a man and represent yourself as a man to others, can you then demand something that has been set aside by intent for women?

I don't know. The whole thing is too complicated for me to say. What would be ideal is if transmen could go to any school and not feel threatened.
:straightface:

[Cai]

Well, a major factor in why I'm moving off-campus for next year is that I refuse to put my dormmates through rooming with someone that is insisting on being seen male. I think it would be unfair of me to ask that of them. (Plus I'm not going to insist on being treated as male but then ask to be housed in a women's dorm at a women's campus.)