Looking for our true selves
Here is the cover story “(Rethinking) Gender” from this week’s Newsweek magazine. The story about transgender people illustrates the cultural belief that your true self is something other than your body. It also reflects a belief in some innate masculine or feminine nature that is beyond the body. Something on the order of a female soul that causes you to like pink, make-up, and frilly clothes. When those desires are trapped in a male body, then the body must go. Vice versa included. There in nothing here that re-thinks our assumptions about gender. What the new questioning of gender does is allow a deep loathing of our embodied humanity. Does this not sound completely retro in some perverse way? I thought we were trying to allow women and men to be free individuals, not demand that they change themselves (under the knife and through chemical assault) to fit some idea of what each gender means. Like I said before, it’s a topsy-turvy world. It has theological implications that are begging to be engaged.
Dear Lilian,
I was browsing the library, and stumbled upon your book, Chasing Sophia. The title drew me in. I had to read it. I praise you for you open mind with regards to transgendered invidiuals. As you mentioned, and as the article alluded to, there are deep theological questions that need to answered. But as a middle-aged transwoman (contemplating/about to) transition, I actually found comfort in Chasing Sophia. I think you have answered many of the questions in there at least. At one point however, you mentioned that we are defined by our relationships and our experiences. I found that as a Christian transgender individual in my own contemplation, and potentially for others of us whom God has created as “Born to Transition”, I am not those things. I am one layer deeper. I am the emotional center that responds to relationships and experiences. It is at this level that I know I am a woman, and the place that I can feel God in my life. I haven’t finished reading your work yet, but I would recommend to any Christian transwoman who is struggling with their relationship with God.
Thank you,
Sophie Jean