I thought it would be nice to post a video introduction. Mostly, I talk about what the hell it was I was thinking when I decided to start this project.
As it turns out, I talk like a nervous Midwesterner. Who knew?
Transcript follows
Hi! I’m Kate, and I wanted to give a quick… reasonably quick introduction to myself. Um, I don’t know if this is gonna be a regular um, um, feature of this project, or if it’s just gonna be sort of a one-off thing.
Um, first and foremost, I wanted to acknowledge both as a Midwesterner and as a human being that it… it’s… it goes against some of my impulses and it’s fairly difficult for me to be asking friends and, and, family, and, and the Internet, um, for help. Um, particularly you know, this, this, business of of asking people to buy me a cunt. I mean, that’s sort of… it’s difficult…. and, I… I wanted to acknowledge and, and, thank people for their support, um not… not just for any of you out there who are able to to give me some measure of financial support, but… but really any… any and all support and… and in all forms, uh, is really meaningful to me. So, so, thank you.
Um, but I really wanted to talk about the two things that I struggled with, in… in sorta getting to the point over the last few years where I actually decided to start this project.
Um, the first is… is the corner market…. more specifically, the fact that every time I go down there to buy you know, stale hot dog buns or what have you, there’s a new flier up for somebody in the neighborhood who’s holding a medical benefit, benefit for their medical bills, and it seems more often than not it’s somebody who has you know, who’s you know cute, or who we’re supposed to feel sorry for, or… or what not, you know, a young child, um, a veteran, um… um, a widow, and they’ve got you know, culturally accepted bodies, they’ve got culturally accepted medical bills, and their…their..it.. it’s always sort of pained me in a way, because, you know, what about the rest of us? What about those of us who need to raise money for medical care that’s not gonna be… that’s not gonna make the local news, the local newspaper, or at least not in a flattering context. Um, and ultimately that’s something I want to discuss. Not just in… in… in the case of me, but you know, in the case of the United States’ broken health care system, and how, when it gets down to the fact that you know, there are those of us who have to pass the hat for medical bills, um, some of us tend to be much more likely to lose than others.
Um, and the second thing, that I wanted, that… that really troubled me is this idea of being a trans woman on the Internet talking about cunts, and more specifically, my cunt. And, it’s, again, I think trans women are sort of stuck with the dichotomy that that most women are, just about all women, are familiar with, in… in some form or another, the whole virgin-whore dichotomy, where…
You know, when I first came out as a trans person, the first medical professional I went to was.. told me, the first question he asked was, “well, let’s talk about your masturbation habits.” And as refreshing, and candid as that is, um, that… that didn’t really strike me as the time or the place for that discussion. Um, and I think that’s too often where people’s minds go. Um, but at the same time, in order to gain legitimacy as… as women, and for that matter as human beings, um, I find that trans people, I find that I personally, one particular trans woman, have felt a lot of pressure to sort of minimize discussion about my body, minimize discussion about my genitals, minimize discussion about my sexuality, which is really tragic in terms of… of getting myself viewed as a person, and it… it speaks a lot both to how fucked up it is, how fucked up our culture views sex, but also how fucked up our our culture views gender. Um, and so I… I… I did sort of want to, well, not starting a site that’s exclusively devoted to me talking about my crotch, um, I… I did think it was important to sort of throw that out there, as it were as… as, a part of… of, my overall existence.
And and so those are two two themes that are probably gonna come up in the year, um, over the year or years, and ya’ know, I.. I’m looking forward actually, I’m really excited about, I mean, I’m really excited about the possibility of cunt ownership, um, but I’m also really excited about getting to have discussions with people, and… and talking about creative activism around um around the subject of access to medical care, and… and sort of respect for… for… for, bodies, and… and, respect for personal autonomy, and… and um, sexuality as actually part of people’s lives.
Um, so… so that’s that, and I’m not particularly good at staring at webcams and talking into the Internet, but, um, so with that, I… I, guess I’ll say, good…adieu, and um… um, yes, I will see you on the Internets.
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