more passing
May 30th, 2008 Sassafras <div class=\"postavatar\">
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As always passing is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about this week. It’s something that has come to the forefront of my thoughts as I’ve been examining the ways in which for me passing has shifted over time in relationship to my identities (both femme and not) and the ways in which passing is complex and not always a bad thing. For example, at times passing can be about safety, where at the doctors office my partner is never denied access to see me when we are passing as straight (though there were times before we passed as straight that this was a huge worry for us). There are other times, like moments I have addressed in past blogs where passing feels very alienating, and I feel as though I’m loosing a place in the queer community when people fail to see me. Passing also takes on many forms, for example for the years that I spent as an FTM, passing was about gender and my sexuality was always read as queer. Now, as a femme, although I identify as genderqueer, that aspect of my identity is very seldom recognized (and when it is, it tends to be in conjunction with folks talking about my FTM past) and my sexuality is also often not read as queer. It is without a doubt an interesting, and thought provoking place to find myself.
