This weekend, I spent some time with DH’s family. During the weekend, two complements were paid: one to me & one to John. I thought I would share them here.
The first was to John, from DH’s stepfather. While discussing SecondLife and how his friend at Sisco is running their site on SL, his friend told him how to tell which female avatars were women and which were men. Real women, she told him, change their [avatar’s] clothes all the time; so if you see a female avatar whose clothes never change, it’s really a man. This is a complement because, while on SL with John recently, I noted that every time I looked at him, he was slightly different: different hair, a new hat, now uncertainly gendered, now female, now a skirt…so hat’s off to you: you passed the “female” test.
The second was to me, from DH’s half-sister. In the midst of a discussion of whipped cream (and how I’d eat anything with whipped cream on it…except bacon, although I’d eat anything with bacon on it, so maybe I should try them together), which lead to a discussion of how my tastes are very strange if I’m not pregnant, and further, into burping; a cousin noted that I am “a strange woman, [Miko].” To which the half-sister quipped, “But actually…a pretty normal man.”
4 responses so far ↓
1 mel // May 30, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Miko, I think you just ’sploded the gender identification center of my mind. JohnR will know what I’m talking about here, but in Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series the daemons/souls in each person are the opposite gender of the physical body. With this in mind, perhaps the better you know your daemon/soul the more balanced your projected gender is — and the more difficult it is for those who can’t see/hear your physical body to figure out which gender it is.
Just talking craziness here, but I think you set the tone.
Great post.
2 John // May 30, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Mmmmm…baconwhippedcream…
Thanks, Miko! We make a fine gender-bending duo, neh? btw, I take my hat off to your belching (and fan it vaguely in your direction). Both you and Jana can out-belch me.
One of the best compliments I received was for a short story I wrote (that I plan to podcast soon). I entered it in a contest (and took second). The protagonist was female, and the judges were surprised to find that the author was male.
mel, I think that I’d definitely get along better with a female daemon.
Continuing with the crazy talk, but I wonder if you can have a cephalopod for a daemon?
3 mel // May 30, 2007 at 7:51 pm
PZ says: “yes, John.”
4 Miko // May 31, 2007 at 11:22 am
I’m interested in the theory of “soul” as gendered. I’ve always felt that one of the reasons DH & I get on so well is that, even tho I’m gendered female & him male, we’ve very dominant bits of us that are misgendered (in the traditional western sense). I’m the violent one, for example & him the peacemaker. I really like the concept of yin & yang actually, since since the “female” side, yin, is also the dark side (also passive, not so okay with that one). As Shel Silverstein said, he’s my missing piece.
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