Kate Bornstein - Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us

My mother was so proud to have given birth to a son. Today, our friendship is more than either mother-son or mother-daughter.

Some Fashion Tips

People are starting to ask me about fashion. I love that! Maybe they think the doctor sewed in some fashion sense during my genital conversion surgery.

I see fashion as a proclamation or manifestation of identity, so, as long as identities are important, fashion will continue to be important. The link between fashion and identity begins to get real interesting, however, in the case of people who dont fall clearly into a culturally-recognized identitypeople like me. My identity as a transsexual lesbian whose female lover is becoming a man is manifest in my fashion statement; both my identity and fashion are based on collage. You knowa little bit from here, a little bit from there? Sort of a cut-and-paste thing.

And thats the style of this book. Its a transgendered style, I suppose. I can see it in the work of Susan Stryker, Sandy Stone, David Harrisonthe list goes on and on.

But the need for a recognizable identity, and the need to belong to a group of people with a similar identitythese are driving forces in our culture, and nowhere is this more evident than in the areas of gender and sexuality. Hence the clear division between fashion statements of male and female, between the fashions of queer and straight.

In my case, however, its not so clear. I identify as neither male nor female, and now that my lover is going through his gender change, it turns out Im neither straight nor gay. What Ive found as a result of this borderline life is that the more fluid my identity has become, and the less demanding my own need to belong to the camps of male, female, gay or straight, the more playful and less dictatorial my fashion has becomeas well as my style of self-expression.

Will the identification with a transgendered writing style produce an identification with a transgendered experience?

Anyone who knows fashion will tell you that the operative word is accessorize! Thats how I dress in the morning. Thats how I shift from one phase of my life to the nextfirst I try on the accessories. And thats also part of the style of this book: Ive added some accessories here and there to spice it up a bit.