Trouble Making So & So

My interest with regards to this post is on queer identity, why taking T has become popular and mainstream within queer culture, how the gender queer ideal has perpetuated the mainstreaming of T consumption and why this is problematic on a number of levels, including making women and lesbians invisible and the impact of body modification substances and surgery. Aside from the physical harm caused by body modification substances and surgery, the transitioning of women causes serious harm to our identities as women and as lesbians, invisibilises and erases our experiences and undermines our ability to organise collectively against male supremacy.

As women, we are socially conditioned to be perpetually concerned with our bodies and our image and constantly bombarded with messages about how we can change our image and our bodies to fit male constructed ideals. There are a range of body modifying substances and surgeries presented to women to apparently make us look hotter, cooler, thinner and younger.

Most of these body modification measures in the mainstream heterosexual world have been sold to women to enhance patriarchal femininity, that is men have defined what women should look like to suit their needs and keep women subordinate.