The evil gin does is hard to assess
Mar. 13th, 2013 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaMiscellaneous extra thoughts from DERT...
Even in this day and age, there are still plenty of people who are trying to have the conversation "Is it ok for women to dancer rapper?" There are even some who are still trying to state that it is not.
As this year's DERT results - where women's teams almost completely swept the board - show, there's quite a lot of us who are largely ignoring them. Yup, I agree: traditionally rapper was danced by men. And you know what? Traditionally professional jobs were held down by men, too, and I've got one of those. Grr. Anyway.
I was really quite pleased to notice that one of the single-sex rapper teams appears to have a trans person dancing with them. It's not something I've been aware of before, and I like the idea that trans people can join dance teams without it being an issue.
At the same time, I was kind of disappointed with myself for even noticing rather than just counting the number of dancers.
Mind you, I'm only identifying this person as trans based on appearance and one of Mabel was mis-identified as trans or (more frequently) male a number of times over the weekend. So I may be blathering up the wrong tree entirely.
On Friday night, I was hailed by a group of people who demanded to ask me a question. It was clear that, from the expectant faces, there was quite a lot riding on the answer.
We were in the school which was doubling as indoor camping. Lots of people were sitting about chatting, and at the other side of the room a group of musicians was sitting about playing tunes and occasionally breaking into songs.
"Who," Richard enquired "are those people playing music for?"
I hesitated briefly, because it seemed like a trick question, before answering.
"Themselves."
Cue a roar of laughter. It seems Richard's new partner[*] is not used to this idea of spontaneous music occuring. She'd been confused that there were people playing, but no one paying them much attention. She'd observed that it was such a shame that people were playing lovely music for us, but no one was listening.
Richard had assured her that they weren't playing for us, though we were welcome to listen. They were playing for themselves.
She'd found this hard to believe, and so passersby had been hailed and quizzed. At the point I replied, I made 5 out of 5 replying (unprompted) that the musicians were playing for themselves.
She still looked unconvinced. I've grown up round musicians' sessions, I'm used to this idea. It never occurred to me that there might be people in whose lives this kind of thing - not necessarily folk music, of course - might never have happened.
[*] ObGossip, probably only of interest to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
exspelunca. Richard Bugrovski has a new lady in tow. She has a name. Which I have been told. Er... it might be Carol. She seems very pleasant.
Even in this day and age, there are still plenty of people who are trying to have the conversation "Is it ok for women to dancer rapper?" There are even some who are still trying to state that it is not.
As this year's DERT results - where women's teams almost completely swept the board - show, there's quite a lot of us who are largely ignoring them. Yup, I agree: traditionally rapper was danced by men. And you know what? Traditionally professional jobs were held down by men, too, and I've got one of those. Grr. Anyway.
I was really quite pleased to notice that one of the single-sex rapper teams appears to have a trans person dancing with them. It's not something I've been aware of before, and I like the idea that trans people can join dance teams without it being an issue.
At the same time, I was kind of disappointed with myself for even noticing rather than just counting the number of dancers.
Mind you, I'm only identifying this person as trans based on appearance and one of Mabel was mis-identified as trans or (more frequently) male a number of times over the weekend. So I may be blathering up the wrong tree entirely.
On Friday night, I was hailed by a group of people who demanded to ask me a question. It was clear that, from the expectant faces, there was quite a lot riding on the answer.
We were in the school which was doubling as indoor camping. Lots of people were sitting about chatting, and at the other side of the room a group of musicians was sitting about playing tunes and occasionally breaking into songs.
"Who," Richard enquired "are those people playing music for?"
I hesitated briefly, because it seemed like a trick question, before answering.
"Themselves."
Cue a roar of laughter. It seems Richard's new partner[*] is not used to this idea of spontaneous music occuring. She'd been confused that there were people playing, but no one paying them much attention. She'd observed that it was such a shame that people were playing lovely music for us, but no one was listening.
Richard had assured her that they weren't playing for us, though we were welcome to listen. They were playing for themselves.
She'd found this hard to believe, and so passersby had been hailed and quizzed. At the point I replied, I made 5 out of 5 replying (unprompted) that the musicians were playing for themselves.
She still looked unconvinced. I've grown up round musicians' sessions, I'm used to this idea. It never occurred to me that there might be people in whose lives this kind of thing - not necessarily folk music, of course - might never have happened.
[*] ObGossip, probably only of interest to
exspelunca. Richard Bugrovski has a new lady in tow. She has a name. Which I have been told. Er... it might be Carol. She seems very pleasant.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-03-13 06:28 pm (UTC)I don't think there's anything reprehensible about noticing. Trans people have in common with cis people that they can't choose exactly how to appear. It is often far more problematic for them, but that's society's fault rather than the fault of whoever happens to glance at them.
Mind you, I'm only identifying this person as trans based on appearance and one of Mabel was mis-identified as trans or (more frequently) male a number of times over the weekend. So I may be blathering up the wrong tree entirely.
The whole habit of assigning gender by appearance is something that we're so used to doing I find it difficult to train myself out of it. Indeed, I doubt I'll ever manage - although I may eventually get good enough at not voicing my assumptions that it won't matter much.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-14 10:40 am (UTC)I guess I've always assumed that someone would rather be identified as their gender of choice rather than as trans, but maybe that's wrong. I do know at least a couple of people who deliberately describe themselves as "transwomen" rather than "women". I guess it's likely to differ from person to person anyway, so the best bet is always going to be hold tight until you hear how someone describes themself :)