Quote from ‘Performance Piece’

“Whenever I hear someone who has not had a transsexual experience say that gender is just a construct or merely a performance, it always reminds me of that Stephen Colbert gag where he insists that he doesn’t see race.  It’s easy to fictionalize an issue when you’re not aware of the many ways in which you are privileged by it” (Serano, 2010, p. 86).

As a cisgender person, it’s always important to remind myself that no amount of research on gender identity will ever grant me the knowledge of experience.  I am grateful to Julia Serano for so eloquently reminding us of that.

 

Serano, J. (2010). Performance Piece. In K. Bornstein & S. B. Bergman (Eds.),Gender outlaws: The next generation (pp. 85-88). Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.