<\/p>\n
\u201cA Note about Gender, or Why Is This White Guy Writing about Being a Lesbian? <\/em>\u2026 Today I live in the world as a man, even while my internal sense of gender is as a genderqueer, neither man nor woman. At the same time, I have no desire to abandon or disown my long history as a girl, a tomboy, a dyke, a woman, a butch\u201d (Clare xxvii).<\/p>\n tatiana de la tierra was a latina lesbian poet. While she wrote many shorter pieces, one of her main works was For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology, <\/em>a collection of poems\u2014both in Spanish and English, giving a dual translation of each poem. I could write hundreds of pages on her work, but there is one poem in particular that connects to Clare\u2019s words, \u201cThe \u2018Others\u2019 of Us\u201d.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n The \u201cOthers\u201d of Us<\/p>\n there are \u201cwomen\u201d who were born \u201cfemale\u201d who are \u201clesbian\u201d \u201cwomen\u201d.<\/p>\n there are \u201cwomen\u201d who were born \u201cfemale\u201d who are non-\u201cfeminine\u201d \u201clesbians\u201d.<\/p>\n there are \u201cwomen\u201d who were born not- \u201cwomen\u201d who became \u201cwomen\u201d and are \u201clesbians\u201d.<\/p>\n there are \u201clesbians\u201d who were born \u201cfemale\u201d who became not-\u201cwoman\u201d (and continue being \u201clesbians\u201d).<\/p>\n there are \u201cwomen\u201d who baptize themselves as \u201clesbians\u201d who are also non-\u201clesbians\u201d.<\/p>\n there are \u201cwomen\u201d who are almost \u201clesbians\u201d \u2013they fantasize about being with \u201cwomen\u201d and they experiment, to no avail;<\/p>\n they are not capable of being \u201clesbians\u201d.<\/p>\n there are \u201clesbians\u201d who are Lesbians.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n (de la tierra 49)<\/p>\n tatiana de la tierra\u2019s work functions as a theory about what lesbianism is and who it is for. Her general argument is that: whoever wants to be a \u201clesbian\u201d can be\u2014there is no binary, no definition. Her thesis for the entire work (not just this poem) is that lesbianism is created by those that identify as lesbians, forming a collective identity that is inclusive and open. Specifically in this poem, the Spanish name for it is, \u201cL@s otr@s de nosotr@s: Entre comillas\u201d \u00a0— in English\u2026 The others of us: between quotation marks. \u201centre comillas\u201d is important because it draws the reader\u2019s eye to the quotation marks used around \u201cwomen\u201d \u201clesbians\u201d \u201cfemale\u201d\u00a0 \u201cfeminine\u201d. The use of these quotation marks is where I am drawing the connection to Clare.<\/p>\n The quotes act as a remind to the heteropatriarchal definitions of these words\u2014both Clare and tatiana refute these definitions and seek to create their own. I think an analysis of the works cannot be one way, one cannot be used solely as a lens for another, because they work in equal conversation. Clare defines gender within his own framework, saying \u201cToday I live in the world as a man\u201d\u2014he speaks from his own transition experience as a genderqueer person (xxvii). And tatiana speaks of all those who identify as lesbians\u2014including Clare.<\/p>\n Importantly, tatiana never uses the word genderqueer\u2014instead, she defines gender through \u201cnot-\u2018woman\u2019\u201d. I believe there is a power in creating a definition based on separation rather than identity. Let me explain further, to say \u201cnot-\u2018woman\u2019\u201d means to define yourself as something you are not, <\/em>and not necessarily define yourself as what you are. <\/em>Clare echoes this when he discusses genderqueerness\u2014 \u201c[I am] neither man nor woman\u201d (xxvii), but something else\u2014what he goes further to define as being genderqueer. \u00a0Clare, like tatiana writes, \u201ccontinues being \u2018lesbian\u2019\u201d because that is how he wants to live (de la tierra 49).<\/p>\n The rules and definition of gender that are immediate in most peoples\u2019 minds, are \u201cshaped by misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, and shaped again by white supremacy, capitalism, and ableism\u201d (Clare xxviii). Both Clare and tatiana \u201cyearn for the day when all the rules\u201d that create and define exclude gender\u2014\u201ccome crashing down\u201d (Clare xxviii). Their works in combination offer new definitions, new ways of knowing and living\u2014Clare focuses on smashing these interlocking power structures and in the same way, tatiana focuses on Lesbians (note the uppercase). Their fight is the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cA Note about Gender, or Why Is This White Guy Writing about Being a Lesbian? \u2026 Today I live in the world as a man, even while my internal sense of gender is as a genderqueer, neither man nor woman. At the same time, I have no desire to abandon or disown my long … Continue reading a “capital L” Lesbian phenomenology<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2022-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}