Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Foucault was right

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One of my jobs these days is writing entries for an encyclopedia of sex and gender. This means that on days I'm not grading freshman comp papers rife with spelling and grammar mistakes ("fist love" remains one of my favorites from this quarter so far), I'm trying to sound knowledgeable about gender dysphoria, or polymorphous perversity, or dildos. Which sounds like fun, and is actually kind of interesting, but sexy? No way. Producing serious discourse about fun objects is nerdy fun, but not hot at all. What's hot is the idea of getting money for writing about, say, "the various forms of lubricants and their sexual uses." Money is definitely hot. The older I get, the hotter it seems.

On the other hand, thinking about this stuff is fun. Gender Dysphoria, for example, was amazing to think about. After all, it's a word coined by doctors to pathologize people for being uncomfortable and anxious about gender--something most of us experience to some degree every day--in order to make it possible for those who can't live with a fracked-up sex-gender system anymore to be able to have access to health care, counseling, hormones, surgery, identities, and narratives. If discomfort with sex-gender is dysphoric, what would Gender Euphoria look like? Could one find perfect happiness somewhere being a woman or a man? Or--better yet--neither? Where is this place? How can I find it?

Are there outlet malls there?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I adore the idea of Gender Euphoria. Must keep thinking about that one!

La Lecturess said...

Eh, I can live without the outlet malls. As long as there's at least one bar and one coffee shop, sign me up. Road trip!

Sfrajett said...

Ooh, I like thinking about what the bar would be like in the town of Gender Euphoria. Everyone would have beer goggles on all the time, and no one would.

Margo, darling said...

Did you say fracked-up? Do I smell a Battlestar Galactica confessional blog coming up? You frackin' better spill, you frack-head.

Michael LeVan said...

I worry that gender euphoria would just be a way for people to feel good about, say, their hypermasculinity. But a bar named Gender Euphoria would likely have good drinks, cool people, and great music.

Sfrajett, can you email me? I'm afraid it isn't sexy or involving you getting money, but I want to ask you something.

Michael LeVan said...

I forgot to add that i laughed out loud when the street sign pointing the way to Dildo loaded on my screen. And then I did it again with the fist love typo from your class.

Anonymous said...

I've never been to Dildo, but I have been to Dyke. It's just west of Charlottesville, Virginia and has an equally wonderful roadsign.

CD

Sfrajett said...

Hey CD, some of the kids might argue that you can't have been to Dyke without visiting Dildo. But we old-style types know better, eh?

Anonymous said...

LooL!! Love this pic!:D Waaay better that all that 'welcome to weed' or 'anus' or stuff!:p

But pls tell me where in which country this city is from !!! :) => jis87@hotmail.com

PS. Keep up the good work!


[jis]