From 1c400fa05b0f1ec45e5ca9e7d8c32f656b26446d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake" Date: Fri, 13 May 2022 20:04:05 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Friday night redemption block 1: handwriting anecdote --- content/drafts/gaydar-jamming.md | 10 ++++++---- 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/content/drafts/gaydar-jamming.md b/content/drafts/gaydar-jamming.md index 9b895da..b3e166d 100644 --- a/content/drafts/gaydar-jamming.md +++ b/content/drafts/gaydar-jamming.md @@ -1,17 +1,19 @@ Title: Gaydar Jamming Date: 2022-05-08 21:00 Category: commentary -Tags: anecdotal, ideology +Tags: anecdotal, ideology, homosexuality Status: draft Two related anecdotes on the power of ideology over observation— -One day in high school journalism class, the topic came up +In my high school journalism class back in the mid-'aughts, there was this fat Latino boy, L., who had distinctly "feminine" mannerisms. (I'm not even sure how to describe it in terms of lower-level precepts, [as if the memory is encoded by category](/2020/Dec/crossing-the-line/). You know it when you see it.) -[topic of handwriting ] +One day in high school journalism class, the topic of gender and handwriting came up, and it was remarked that L. also "wrote like a girl." Being the [proud antisexist ideologue that I was at the time](/2021/May/sexual-dimorphism-in-the-sequences-in-relation-to-my-gender-problems/#antisexism), I [wrote in my notebook](/images/crossdreaming_notebook_samples.png) about how this observation about L.'s handwriting was disturbing. +Naïvely, of course, you'd think it would be ideologically validating: L. and his manner and his handwriting were living proof that not all boys are masculine! But everyone—even the smart sexists—knew _that_. No, the disturbing part was that if "feminine" handwriting—potentially—indicated "feminine" behavior more generally, that implied that _"femininity" was a valid concept_, which was not an assertion I was inclined to grant. + +Ideology isn't my style anymore. -[One of my old notebooks](/images/crossdreaming_notebook_samples.png) very distinctive voice -- 2.17.1