Yeah, I think you make an excellent point there. I feel like a lot of this "We should have a respectful, calm discussion!' business is just a way to browbeat us into making less noise and rocking the boat less. When we're being quiet and calm, it's relatively easy to ignore us, and then things go back to the way they were. Like they did this year once the conversation was over.
I appreciate being able to practice as a solitary because it grants me full control over my own observances, but I admit that I miss having a community. I get lazy when I don't have a community. I let holidays and quarterlies slip past. That's one of the reasons I started going to church at the UU near my house.
And yeah, being cisgender is not as universal of an experience as I think some Pagans imagine it is. In full disclosure, my utter lack of connection to 'femininity' and 'women's mysteries' is one of the reasons I've come to identify as genderqueer - that stuff just isn't FOR me. I can identify with some of the experiences - pregnancy, giving birth, having bad menstrual cramps - but there's an energy there I simply don't possess. And there's an energy associated with traditionally masculine roles and experiences that I DO possess, and am happy to possess, and wield easily and without any particular mental gymnastics. And I don't see why trans* women are any different. They are women. They have female energy. They identify with that, they feel it, and it doesn't cost them mental gymnastics to be part of that energy. It's just who they are, every bit as much as it's just who I'm NOT.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-02-28 09:06 pm (UTC)I appreciate being able to practice as a solitary because it grants me full control over my own observances, but I admit that I miss having a community. I get lazy when I don't have a community. I let holidays and quarterlies slip past. That's one of the reasons I started going to church at the UU near my house.
And yeah, being cisgender is not as universal of an experience as I think some Pagans imagine it is. In full disclosure, my utter lack of connection to 'femininity' and 'women's mysteries' is one of the reasons I've come to identify as genderqueer - that stuff just isn't FOR me. I can identify with some of the experiences - pregnancy, giving birth, having bad menstrual cramps - but there's an energy there I simply don't possess. And there's an energy associated with traditionally masculine roles and experiences that I DO possess, and am happy to possess, and wield easily and without any particular mental gymnastics. And I don't see why trans* women are any different. They are women. They have female energy. They identify with that, they feel it, and it doesn't cost them mental gymnastics to be part of that energy. It's just who they are, every bit as much as it's just who I'm NOT.