Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Notes Towards Day 18: A Visit with Kate Bornstein

Anne Dalke's picture

Thursday, November 5
Public Event @ Bryn Mawr College
Transcending Gender: An Informal Conversation
with Kate Bornstein
Time: 10 - 11:30 AM
Location: Quita Woodward Room, Thomas Hall 

"I've never been hurt by an honest question....I want this...to be
the conversation I always wanted as I was growing up,
and never had the chance to have" (Gender Outlaw, 9, 12).

"Pure identities (or identities that pass as pure) are valuable things...because there's a sense that someplace will always be home, a space with others who claim similar pure identities. And our identities are valuable to others. We become easier to deal with. Other people know who we are....This might be how identity politics does itself in. We need to get past this....defining any community by the identity of its members is ultimately a dead-end (My Gender Workbook, 67, 257).


Groups:

Comments

Anne Dalke's picture

A record of some of the conversation....

"What needs to be talked about that is relevant to your world now?"

"After 9/11, I was inhaling people...
how to be of service in a world gone that mad?
Of what use is gender theory, when I am coughing up people?"

"I don't consider myself an activist, but an artist in service of activism."

"I couldn't dance behind theory. I had to be brutally honest."

"There's always a need for people to come together consciously around identity,"
[but]
"a cloistered existence accomplishes nothing politically."

"The first line of attack for gender studies and gender politics has to be violence against women;
in the bi-polar gender system, that is the site of triage.
If we are not generous enough to do that, we are not ready for the age of coalition."

[Needing a new term for the alphabet soup of LGBTQQIAA-->]
"GASP" (gender anarchy and sex positivism)

"The homonormative, like the heteronormative, needs a pure point of view."

"Queer and straight are political terms, describing not who you fuck, but how you talk about it.
There are straight lesbians, gays and bisexuals; there are queer heterosexuals."

"We have to continually adjust our identities to be more inclusive."

"Kyriarchy--a more inclusive term for the merchants of evil."

How do you begin your memoir? 
"With the dear story of my parents' love."
How will you end it? 
"I have my fears."

"Art raises questions and implicates people."
 

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
3 + 12 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.