Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Gender Confusion


After a productive morning shopping, I drove to Southern Connecticut State University to do outreach at a Human Sexuality class.

Construction near the building where the class meets decimated a parking lot, so parking is more remote. So I wore flats for the half-mile walk from the parking lot and switched to heels when I arrived at the classroom building.

As I was switching shoes, Professor Schildroth came by, so we walked and talked our way to the classroom and met up with the other folks who were doing outreach, Michelle, Mary-Ann and Quinton.

It was a typical Professor Schildroth human sexuality class – about 25 students with about a 5-to-1 female-to-male ratio. After we each presented our bios in a nutshell, the class was split in two and I was paired with Mary-Ann, a no-op, no-hormone, but 24/7 transwoman, to do Q&A with each of half of the class in tandem with post-ops Michelle and Quinton.

Atypically, this class was full of questions and did not need much encouragement. Some of the questions indicated that there was confusion concerning the trans terms "crossdresser," "transgender" and "transsexual" and after reading some of the student’s post-class comments, I am not so sure we cleared up the matter for everyone. There also was some confusion about our sexuality, but that seemed easier to clarify... "Yes, Mary-Ann and I are lesbians."

Except for the confusion, the students’ comments were generally positive. One student commented that she thought we were cisgender women when we entered the class. Another student mentioned that she would like to go shopping with me!

After class, we went to the student center to eat, digest the students’ comments and chat.

At 3 PM, I said my goodbyes, switched to flats, walked to my car and drove home after another successful day out in the real world as a woman.

Pink Light Specials


This week, CVS has two items on sale that this femulator stocks up on;

  • Kiss stick-on pre-glued nails: buy 2, get third for free
  • Veet hair removal cream: buy 1, buy second at 50% off

Buyer beware: those are central Connecticut sales; your mileage may vary.






Source: ShopBop

Wearing Club Monaco (top), Dsquared2 (skirt) and See by Chloe (sandals).



On the Chicago stage in 2014, Snow White and the Seven Drag Queens

9 comments:

  1. Are those pre-glued nails in MEDIUM size? All I've seen of Kiss pre-glueds is SHORT & VERY SHORT (kid-sized?)......

    Daphne Prideaux

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    Replies
    1. Short. Kiss used to sell longer stick-ons, but discontinued them.

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  2. Hi Stana
    Congratulations on another successful outreach! I'll forward a link to a TED Talk I presented at recently that was taped, I'd appreciate your feedback and compare notes. I also use VEET, I found it to be the most effective and recommend it over the others - also purchased the KISS pre-glued nails and they do STAY ON, but I can't find medium either,`nevertheless they are great for when you're on the run and don't have time to apply the nail "stickies" - I keep a package in the car. As for nail stickies I've found that the ones by Nailene work well, I found them on Ebay.

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  3. Correct me if I am wrong but I seem to recall that in prior years you actually posted some of the post class comments that the students provided to their teachers. Is my recall OK? Were there post class comments that were provided to you?

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    Replies
    1. I have mentioned specific comments in the past... all from memory because after we read the comments, the professor keeps them.

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    2. And lately, the comments were not memorable (or my memory has gotten worse).

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  4. I can understand the confusion about all the different labels that get applied as there are no hard and fixed definitions, however it is easy to steer people clear of some of the ones we find more offensive.

    I am intrigued though as to why there should be such high female to male ratio at these classes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That ratio (or something close to it) has been prevalent at every human sexuality class I have outreached. I think it is a "guy thing," that is, college males are less willing to be open about sexuality than college females.

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