Week #4

This week, turning in my first transgenre project was a bit stressful, but I finally feel like I understand how the transgenre moniker applies to different pieces of work.  Namely, I have come to decide that ultimately, as long as a piece heavily subverts the conventions of a genre, gender, or culturally enforced role or idea, then the work will be to some degree, a transgenre project.  By going against the conventions of modern society, texts become tricky, difficult, and they challenge people who read them.  This is an incredibly important service that literature must provide, as well as other arts.

However, looking back on my transgenre project, I can't help but feel that I didn't quite take advantage of all the creative freedom that was offered to me.  In hindsight, I feel I would have had a much more entertaining time creating some kind of narrative that subverts these convention instead.  I have thought of various ideas in this vein before, and I have realized that these kinds of narratives can be just as transgenre as the craziest of experimental poetry.  Even transgender ideas, which I used to struggle with the most, have become something I think I could still use my writing to talk about.

I realized this while discussing the transgender spectrum on Monday, as thanks to all that discussion, I had a realization I hadn't thought of before.  Namely, that physical biological gender and mental sexuality can be completely different, and that this allows virtually anyone to take part in the discussion.  In particular, just because someone is a straight, white male does not mean that they have to conform to all of the ideas and interests that are affiliated with that type of gender role.  In fact, it doesn't seem to me like it has to be a sexual discussion at all.  A story about a woman who seeks to avoid the various constraints of the societal gender roles placed upon her could be viewed through a transgenre lens, and sexual attraction or physical alterations to preconceived gender conventions do not necessarily have to factor in at all.  She could simply focus her life on a challenging career as a ship captain or such, and the unusual contrast of that situation can be set up to have undertones that subvert the ideas that gender roles are important enough to enforce.  I like this idea, as I feel like I have far more freedom bow than I did before.