A pagespread for a zine Iām working on. Itās going to be about identity, or something, weāll see. Iām posting it here for now, because itāll be a while before anything gets finished. In the meantime I want @trenderpunks to see it so hen knows hens work is getting out there. Full text under the cut!
Itās funny- Iām fairly active in a MOGAI discord, and I really like the MOGAI philosophy of gender freedom, but I donāt really have individual MOGAI labels that I identify with. I look at them and think, āThatās cool, but itās not quite me.ā
But recently I found viralgender, and... while itās not exactly me, it does some things I really like. Itās not an exact match for my own aesthetic and attitude, but itās gotten me thinking about who I am and what I stand for.
This is my breakdown of what parts of viralgender fit me, and what doesnāt quite. None of this is intended as a definitive value judgement- itās just what stood out to me and what I think of it. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on viralgender, starting with one of the things that sets it apart.
Infecting and Destroying
Viralgender āhas to do with infecting/destroying the gender binary/gender rolesā- in other words, itās defined by actions, rather than feelings, like so many MOGAI genders are. Feeling-based genders are cool, but I see so many of them and so few action-based genders.
Like I said, I donāt have any specific labels for my gender right now, but I think what Iām looking for would be action-based. Even in the past when Iāve had lots of feeling-based genders, I needed them to be feelings that could guide my behavior. Iāve always sensed that my gender is meant to guide me through life, even though Iām still trying to figure out how thatās supposed to work.
So itās validating to see an action-based gender, even if itās not the exact type of action that I identify with most. Itās good to know that Iām not alone in wanting a gender that provides a direction, a purpose, a call to action. Itās cool to see that someone else has ideas about those kinds of genders- it gives me hope that someday I will too.
Reclaiming Disease
Viralgender also āReclaims the idea of transness as an illness/disease,ā reframing illnesses as dangerous, powerful, and capable of taking down cisnormativity. By reversing common assumptions about good and bad, it questions who should be feared, and who protected.
I love these kinds of reclamations, also seen within trendercore and voidpunk. To be honest, this isnāt actually because Iāve been treated that badly due to my transness. Thankfully Iāve lived a fairly sheltered life, so itās not as personal for me as it is for others.
But I really admire people who find empowerment and pride in things meant to hurt them. I donāt know for sure, but I imagine that it takes courage, self-acceptance, determination, and cleverness to completely reverse an idea like that, and it seems like an effective way to strip an emotional attack of its power.
And I just love playing with ideas and metaphors! Iām a language geek, and reclaiming words is one of the few situations where wordplay is a powerful force for good. āTransness Is Illnessā is a metaphor, and once a metaphor gets into circulation itās hard to get rid of. A metaphor is a story that our culture tells, and the best way to fight a story is with a better story. Reclamation, when done right, is a compelling plot twist.
Granted, not everyone is in the emotional place to reclaim a metaphor, some people donāt want to, and some situations make it harder than others. But when thereās the potential and desire to make that change, I think itās a total power move.
What Doesnāt Quite Fit Me
Viralgender does a lot of great things, but itās not quite who I am. Framing transness as disease, and the gender binary as something to be infected or destroyed, is a fairly adversarial way to frame the situation. Both sides are actively trying to kill each other off (I assume that the infected gender binary would be trying to fight off the transness infecting it.)
That might suit some people, especially people whoāve suffered a lot at the hand of cisnormativity, but I donāt think of things that way. I do want gender to be a lot less rigid and oppressive, but I tend to think about dissolving an object, rather than infecting a living being. The meaning isnāt that different, but the specific emotional tone is still important to me. (So maybe I need a gender thatās both action- and feeling-based.)
Viralgender might not be exactly suited to me, but I still really like it and I hope it finds its people!
