Rethink Traditional Gender Roles
 
To the Editor:

“Who would you be if you had never been punished for gender-inappropriate behavior? What would it be like to grow up in a society where gender was truly consensual? If the rite of passage was to name your own gender at adolescence, or upon your transition into adulthood? What would it be like to walk down the street, go to work, or attend a party and take it for granted that the gender of the people you met would not be the first thing you ascertained about them? If you could change your sex as effortlessly in reality as you can in virtual reality, and change it back again, wouldn’t you like to try it at least once? What would it be like to live in a society where you could take a vacation from gender? Or, even more importantly, from other people’s gender? What if we all helped each other to manifest our most beautiful, sexy, intelligent, creative and adventurous inner selves, instead of cooperating to suppress them?”
The above quote by Pat Califia is meant to generate a dialogue about transgender issues. If any of these questions are intriguing to you, I encourage you to attend and participate in Oberlin’s fourth annual Trans Awareness Week, April 9-16. Speakers include nationally renowned trans activist and author Leslie Feinberg, transgendered Oberlin alumna Holly Boswell, and filmmaker Jay Sennett. Don’t know what transgender means? Come to our Trans 101 workshop. Already tackled the term transgender but want to know how race and class come into play? Come to our Race, Class & Gender workshop. A schedule of events will be posted in Wilder as well as on posters all across campus.
By addressing these questions and other trans issues with workshops, guest speakers and movies, we hope to broaden people’s horizons as well as create a supportive environment for the many trans students on campus. I hope you have fun at Drag Ball, but while you’re dressing up, I encourage you to think about how gender affects you. Again, I quote Pat Califia:
“If these questions frighten, offend, or annoy you, you are one of the people who stand to benefit from transactivism — although it probably doesn’t feel like your benefactor. And if these questions amuse, engage and challenge you, you’re probably a transactivist already. Welcome to the genderevolution.”

–Jordan Balagot
Conservatory sophomore