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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 16, 1995)
xc v cm r .ar m i ^ a ™« t*M| 3 6 ▼ jw n* 1 6 , 1 6 0 6 ▼ Ju st out Laughing Horse Books Beaverton 0 6 4 6 -3 8 2 4 4 0 0 0 SW I 17th featuring Corbett 0 2 4 4 -3 9 3 4 5 9 0 9 SW Corbett Fremont 0 2 8 8 -3 4 1 4 3 4 4 9 NE 24th 3652 SE Division ♦ 236-2893 Open M on-Sat 11-7 Hillsdale (£) 2 4 4 -3 1 1 0 6 3 4 4 SW Capitol Hwy BRADLEY J. WOODWORTH ATTORNEY AT LAW 9 2 0 C R O W N PLAZA • 1500 S.W . FIRST AV EN UE PORTLAND, O REG ON 97201 (503) 2 7 3 -9 1 4 6 Free Initial Consultation SERVING THE LEGAL NEEDS OF OUR COMMUNITY IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS: • CRIMINAL LAW * DUI! • DIVORCE ANDCUSTODY at G en d er In Gender Outlaw, Kate Bornstein examines the so-called “natural” genders, only to find that male and female are sorely lacking v by Andrea L.T. Peterson Rude Girls and Dangerous Women carto o n s by Jen n ifer C am per $8.95 Division 0 2 3 3 -7 3 7 4 3 0 16 SE Division • ACC IDENTS & INJURIES (NO RECOVERY, NO FEE) A C loser L ook • • • • WILLS& ESTATES BUSINESS LAW AND LITIGATION REAL ESTATE LITIGATION IN ALI. STATE AND FEDERAL COURTS Meet Bob Smith, author of Qrowing Up Qay, Monday, June 26, 6-7 pm at TWENTY-THIRD AVENUE BOOKS 1015 NW 23rd Ave. 224-5907 Later enjoy his show as seen on HBO and David Letterman at D arcelle's XV, 8 pm Monday, June 26—$10 at the door 208 NW 3rd Ave. Portland • 222-5338 for naturally gendered people, the culture may, in fact, be creating the gendered people. In other words, the culture may be creating gender.” Bornstein, perceiving herself to be “standing outside the ‘natural’ gender,” thought that she was “some monster” and that her being a monster was her own fault. What Bornstein does— in her book and in her life— is examine the so-called “natural” genders, only to find that male and female are sorely lacking. So Bornstein, and others like her, require some new category. If one considers the varia tions on Bomstein’s theme, one would find a countless number of groups of people who clearly transcend the narrow confines of accepted defini he never believed himself to be a “man” either. tions of male and female. All fit easily under Decades later—and almost a full decade after Bornstein’s heading, “transgressively gendered,” undergoing the surgical procedure that would from the heterosexual woman who adopts the make him the closest thing to being a woman, by tough, no-nonsense business demeanor— com our culture’s definition, that he could ever get— plete with power suit and rigid (often thought to Bornstein (no longer Al, but Kate) is certainly no be frigid) interior— to the post-op male-to-fe- longer a male: “The culturally agreed-upon male who may (or may not) believe she is a marker,” she explains, “is gone [surgically and lesbian. very permanently removed].” All transcend definitions of male and female, “There are many intelligent people who insist all “break the rules, codes and shackles of gen they are women who have definitions [of being a der” in the eyes of the society that will not provide woman] I don’t fall into,” she laments. Hence, no a place for them. longer male, Bornstein isn’t exactly female ei The difficulty o f finding a “new category” ther. doesn’t trouble Bornstein. “Instead of imagining While Bornstein has been more than adequately gender as opposite poles of a “re-formed” surgically and she tw o-dim ensional line,” she has been living as the woman she says, “it would be interesting perceived herself to be for most to twirl that line in space, and of her life, there can be no deny then spin it through several ing that young Al Bornstein was more dimensions. In this way, still raised to be an empowered, many more possibilities of privileged member of society— a gender may be explored. male. Bornstein makes this point Instead of labeling all of very clearly in Gender Outlaw. these new-found possibilities, “It’s something,” she says, “I work Bornstein asks why we need on every day of my life,” refer labels to begin with. As she ring to her struggle to “overcome says, “people need a handle,” that socially ingrained garbage a way of understanding, but, that makes a man a man.” as history reveals, the damage “It was a “Zen gender mo done by and the limitations ment,” she says, when she real imposed by labels frequently ized that she was neither male nor do more harm than good. female— by W ebster’s defini ì I i Bornstein envisions a “third tions— and “there was nowhere I i space” that would include else in the culture to turn.” Kate Bornstein “anyone who falls through the In her book, she explains: “I cracks of the cultural floorboards; it would in write from the point of view of an S/M trans clude anyone who challenges a cultural binary ; it sexual, ex-cult member, femme top and some would include anyone who is Other.” times bottom shaman.. .of a used-to-be-man, three This kind of understanding would turn the husbands, father, first mate...minister, high-pow culturally accepted standard on its head. The ered IBM sales type, Pierre Cardin three-piece question of who and what are normal and who suitor, bar mitzvahed, circumcised yuppie from and what are queer would become extremely the East Coast. Not too many women are writing challenging. from that point of view. The perceived minority— so perceived be “I write,” she goes on, “from the point of view cause it is so fragmented and rife with infight of a used-to-be politically correct, wanna-be butch, ing— would likely turn out to be the majority. dyke phone sex h o stess, sm ooth-talking, Bornstein raises dozens of questions in her telemarketing, love slave, art slut, pagan Tarot book. Some are questions she must answer for reader, maybe soon grandmother, crystal palm herself, and some must be answered for all of us ing, incense burning, not-man, not always woman, and for the well-being of our society. What seem fast becoming a Marxist. And not too many men like simple questions have universal implica write from that point of view.” tions. For the author of Gender Outlaw, this book is both an ending and a beginning. It is the culmina The answers to the questions and the solutions tion of 40-plus years of trying to understand her to the challenges do not seem to be forthcoming. unique focus on the so-called male/female spec Bornstein, however, has an interim plan: “Until trum— what she refers to as “the male/female that time [until there is this third space], my binary" that pretty much rules our culture. feeling is that today we need, as queer artists, to And, it is also a beginning. For, in and through strengthen our outsider sensibility, keep it fluid out Gender Outlaw. Bornstein seems to realize enough to be inclusive of other groups, inflam new questions, new interpretations, and possible matory enough tochallenge and wear down domi new options. nant ideology, and full of enough grace and Among Bomstein's premises is this: “The humor to welcome with a laugh the inevitable culture [ours] may not simply be creating roles challenges to our own rigidity.” I ’m not a woman; I’m not a man,” explains Gender Outlaw author Kate Bornstein. But, “because people need a handle, and be cause it [the label] is convenient,” she’ll “cop to transgendered.” While most people take their gender for granted, Bornstein, bom Albert Herman Bornstein almost 50 years ago, never had that luxury. As a youngster, A1 never perceived himself to truly be a “boy” by society’s definition, and as he grew up,