events happened in sequence

[egypturnash]

That was a pretty gender-queer day.

I did the mandatory visit with Grandma, in boy drag. Boobs bound down. My mother slipped at one point when I had to go to the bathroom and asked if she knew where the ladie-- men's room was in the restaraunt we went to, though I don't think grandma parsed it.

It may've been the last time I'll ever see her. She's really been looking dramatically worse each time I visit, the past couple years. We cut the visit shorter than normal, because we just ran out of conversation, and my mom thought I was looking more uncomfortable than I quite was from the tit-binding. I dunno. I feel weird about it. It's not as if I feel like I can ever be comfortable with anyone who only thinks of me as "Paul", though. Or that we can tell her.

---

After that we went shopping and found a couple of interesting skirts and blouses for not too much money.

And after that we went to a trans (and family thereof) support group my mother's been attending; she wanted them to meet her daughter. The intended topic of discussion got derailed when a FtM from Jackson, Mississipi, and his very supportive friend, appeared; they were both definitely in need of basic education, and simple contact with other people who were trans... I'm really glad I grew up in an open, thoughtful environment, with background noise like the gender-bending antics that happen during some parts of Mardi Gras, when I found myself trying to explain (at the dinner expedition after the meeting) the disconnection between straight/bi/gay and cisgender/transgender to someone who'd been through Baptist college. I'm just glad I didn't end up going into stuff like people who identify as third-gender or neuter... Puzzlebox is like gender master-class sometimes!

---

I am probably going to order a small pizza in a bit; I tried to make sure there'd be room. Because I just haven't found good pizza in LA - you can get "NY Style", which is cardboard smeared in grease, kept under a heat-lamp, and sold by the slice, "Chicago Style" which is like eating a block of cheese, or "California Style" which is debatably not pizza, but you can't really get the medium-thickness grease-laden stuff I'm used to. Not anywhere I've found yet, at least. And I leave for LA tomorrow.

Comments

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

And then there's fluffy California-ized Chicago-style, and genuine beat-you-to-a-pulp-with-dough-and-cheese Chicago-style.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever had the latter. Just the former.

There's a reason I put quotes around all those kinds of pizza...

pardon

[eselgeist.livejournal.com]

what is cisgender? i haven't encountered the term before.

Re: pardon

[lediva.livejournal.com]

Yay! Someone else who uses the term "cisgender"!

In chemistry, there are prefixes to determine if a given atom is on the same side or the opposite side as other similar atoms. If the atom in question is on the opposite side, the prefix is trans. If it's on the same side, the prefix is cis. (This is what I remember from taking organic chem about 4 years ago.)

So... transgender is when your physical sex and psychological gender don't match up, cisgender is when they do.

Re: pardon

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I must confess that I didn't actually use the term in the conversation; I was trying to communicate with people pretty new to the whole idea of detatching mind gender, body gender, and sexual preference from each other!

You've got to consider your audience when you roll out the big words, after all.

Re: pardon

[barberio.livejournal.com]

Ah, if only we used quantum dynamics to describe gender.

Re: pardon

[lediva.livejournal.com]

I have!

From my senior thesis:

"My relationship to Women’s Studies is more about gender overall than about women specifically. I have long been interested in examining the gender system present in Western society, particularly with an eye to subverting it. I have participated in activism to include gender identity and gender presentation in non-discrimination clauses, including here at Harvard. So many of my friends have such little respect for the binary gender system, whether they be transgendered, non-gendered, third-gendered, or even quantum-gendered6, that it is sometimes hard to remember that there actually are people who fit fairly well into one of the gender categories provided."

Re: pardon

[eselgeist.livejournal.com]

thanks! omg i remember this stuff(!) i would never have made that recollection, though. i've almost managed to completely suppress my scientific training ^______^

though.. the chemistry analogy is fairly loose/poetic, in my opinion. since atoms don't have a "physical sex" side and a "psych gender" side. the line of difference there simply separates "this side" from "that side".

but it totally works as far as the latin prefixes go, which is the point anyway.

Re: pardon

[lediva.livejournal.com]

though.. the chemistry analogy is fairly loose/poetic, in my opinion.

Oh, I completely agree.

[defenbaugh.livejournal.com]

And the "St. Louis" style pizza cracker thin and crispy crunchy.
-nod-

Ha, caught ya!

[doctorpinkerton.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh HA! And after all that bluster about you wanting to try new things. Reginelli's DOES make a pretty damn good pizza, but with all three of us veering ridiculously away from it, I guess now there isn't a chance of dispelling that sweeping dismissal of Louisiana pizza before you return to the pizza capital of California.

It was fun hanging around with you... one of these times though, I vow to break your assessment of local pizza!

Re: Ha, caught ya!

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Hey, I like the kind of pizza one can get in New Orleans!

Re: Ha, caught ya!

[doctorpinkerton.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh... you meant LA, not La. How confusing!

[secretagentmoof]

perlandria happened to be over at my house this evening, and in the midst of chatting with her she said, "You know, when you stand like that, you look a lot like peganthyrus." I bopped over here, and... hmm. Not sure; maybe. Maybe it's because I'm taking hormones and am doing a mt{something-both-m-and-f} thing. (Perhaps it'd be called ortho-gendered?)

Anyway, hi.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

I had no idea you were on hormones. I hope I haven't offended in assuming you were guy like?

[secretagentmoof]

Oh, goodness no. I am, in fact, pretty guy-like; one of my intentions before starting the course of hormones was to retain the good bits about being male.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Phew!
Yea!

I know trans who want to be catered to, and ones that just want to get on with life. So, until you tell me differently, I'm just going to treat you with the same innocent roughness as everyone else. Please, if you need or just want any particular labeling or handling, just let me know and I'll respect it.

oh! And I added ya. Wanna be on any filters?

[secretagentmoof]

Filter me away!

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Also, it's the hair. SHort and brightly-colored, yknow?

Hi.

Don't forget the most important pizza style...

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

...Detroit 'You want a steak-and-chicken Gyro extra-large pizza, and a double-pepperoni medium pizza with light cheese, three inches thick? $35.47 please.' style is always good, too.

And yes, that was an actual sentence from the order-window at a pizza place I stopped at in greekdown when working a computer job in Detroit one year for the auto-show up there.

Though I do agree, 'perfect' pizza out here in California just isn't gonna happen any time soon. :-P

Re: Don't forget the most important pizza style...

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

And yes, the 'gyro' pizza was just that. A pizza crust with whatever sauce they used on the gyros, and cheese, with more gyro's cut up and spread out over it as the topping. :-)

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Neat

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

1) Yeah!!!! Go Third and Fouth Sexes! WHOOT! (Okay, so I have yet to decide where I am on the tree outside of mess, but WHOOT!)

2) For a darn good descent pizza (The kind where the crust is even flavored), go to Manno's. It's on South Street between Bellflower and Woodruff in Lakewood. I know it's a heck of a trip for you, but they have a descent Ministroni, a good Pizza, and the only properly done Ocazone (The proper way to say Calizone. Stupid adds) in all of California, as far as I can tell.

the best pizza i've had...

[holohedron.livejournal.com]

Is at Mario's. 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica... sure, it's a tacky location, but the family management is still well intact from the Los Angeles days. I've ate their pizza for, oh, two decades now, as a meat-eater and vegetarian.

It's Silician style, generous on everything but crust... the crust is not at all thick, but far better than the cracker-with-toppings you'd normally get in LA. I'll admit that having a whole wheat option sways me a little; I can't stand empty calories. Chewy, on the salty side, and massively addictive.

This has been your Inu trivia for the day. :P