Reexamining Gender and Sexual Orientation: Revisioning the Representation of Queer and Trans People in the 2005 Edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves

Abstract

Reexamining Gender and Sexual Orientation:Revisioning the Representation of Queer and Trans People in the 2005 Edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves Elizabeth Sarah Lindsey (bio) Big Platform Shoes to Fill When Heather Stephenson asked me to revamp what had been a four-page introduction on gender and sexual orientation into a full-length chapter in the 2005 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, I was flattered, elated, and absolutely terrified. OBOS is, as Heather lovingly refers to it, the bible on women's health of the late-twentieth century, and I am 24 years old, just two years out of college. I am also an anti-authoritarian African American high femme dyke from a working poor family. I do not fit what I and many others in my peer group see as the target audience for OBOS—white middle-class women who grew up reading this book, and their teenage daughters. Yet when Heather asked me to write this chapter, I tearfully accepted because I realized that OBOS was committed to expanding the breadth and depth of its audience by becoming more inclusive of young women, women of color, and trans and queer people. Challenging and Honoring the Past Before I began to work on my chapter, I decided to research the representation of queer and trans people in earlier editions of OBOS. In one of the first editions of the book published more than 30 years ago, the chapter on lesbians was titled "In Amerika They Call Us Dykes" (BWHBC 1973). There were a few major themes that ran through this section. First, the writers of the chapter self-disclosed that they were all middle-class white women. They wrote the chapter as a collective, and some were out of the closet while others were deeply burrowed within. Another interesting theme, one that I don't hear echoed among the young political queers that I know, was that deciding to embrace one's lesbianism was a decidedly political and feminist choice. Many of the writers in the chapter suggested that becoming queer was the next logical step in their politicization as feminists. Consequently, choosing to be a lesbian (or at least live and/or come out as one) was also equated with a conscious rejection of men and "male" values, such as oppression and patriarchal domination within interpersonal relationships. Also, anyone who was not gendered as a woman in this particular lesbian context—butches, transgendered people, and even femmes—was completely invisible from the discussion. In fact, gender expression and identity were hardly discussed in the chapter. [End Page 184] As I read through the chapter, my first impulse was to discount it as politically and socially backward, the words of lesbians whose lives could not possibly have any connection to my own struggles as a femme, a woman of color, a dyke who dates and loves butches and tranny boys and trans men, a woman who grew up working poor. However, as I began to write my chapter, my respect and appreciation for the authors of this chapter grew. These women lived in a world in which "coming out" was not something proudly flaunted on primetime television. To be themselves, they gave up their families, their careers, and their friends. They recognized that they came from privileged positions in society and did not hesitate to admit to their shortcomings. Moreover, women across the country tell me that this chapter saved their lives. While I do lead a different life in a different time, I realized that I share with these dyke pioneers the same desire to be heard. New Voices and New Themes for a New Generation Though my chapter is fairly short (about thirteen pages in the book), it includes introductions and definitions of topics such as gender identity, sexual orientation, bisexuality, coming out, queer and trans communities, and homophobia and transphobia. My hope, and the hope of the OBOS editors, is that people from a wide range of backgrounds and identities can pick up this chapter and walk away with a basic understanding of the difference between gender and sexual orientation, the idea that gender is not always determined by sex, and at least an overview of...