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I, too, really enjoyed the readings this week. I like how Susan Stryker weaves together personal testimony and theory in "My Words to Victor Frankenstein"; it was interesting to see how she did so, since so many of the pieces we've read so far have been clearly sticking to one or the other. The way she writes is so clear and just... I think someone else used the word exquisite? I'm going to use it, too, because it is.

I'm also starting to realize that I really don't know very much at all about transgender/intersex issues... I suppose they simply weren't so much on my radar before I came to Bryn Mawr. So... I would also support the idea of working a little more trans/intersex theory into our curriculum for the second half of the semester. Although it may not be something I have confronted myself, I agree with atisman, that the gray area is just as important to explore as the black and white.

Other than that, there were a few things I found particularly interesting in Susan Stryker's writings... such as her definition of "queer," as she explains it in the (en)Gender interview. I like how it seems to be more about a mindset than about any particular gender identification. My favorite quote from the interview: "The deeper and more intimately you know another person, the stranger they become. Which I find beautiful." I think that sums up why I like Susan Stryker's writings & ideas so much... she seems so refreshingly open to and aware of the little things that make people different.

A couple of questions I might ask would be... in "Transgender Studies: Queer Theory's Evil Twin", she states that "[queer theory's presence] has not realized the (admittedly utopian) poential [she] (perhaps naively) sensed there for a radical restructuring of our understanding of gender..." so, what I'm wondering is, what would her ideal restructuring look like? How might we go about actualizing that vision? How does she see her writings, films, etc. as fitting into it?