[3W4DW] 10. Tell me about your default icon.

[kaberett]

Superimposed male/Mars, female/Venus and trans gender symbols, with Swiss army knife tools distributed in the extra space around the edges.

I can't even remember how I first came across it - on a trans-activist flyer, somewhere, probably, several years ago - and I've been using it as my default icon pretty much everywhere more-or-less ever since.

And I thought: yes yes yes. Because: I'm trans, but I twitch at the binarism, the male-or-female, the these-are-your-choices of the traditional gender symbols; I don't think of "male" and "female" as fixed endpoints encompassing the entire range of an immutable gender spectrum so much as culturally-legible reference points. Yes, this sounds wanky, but bear with me --

-- because part of what I love so much about this image is that, for me, it says all that, but it says it wryly, with raised eyebrows, in the full knowledge that it's taking the concept of gender and spinning abstract theories off it like so much spider silk -- and it grounds it: gotta get out of bed, get a hammer and a nail/learn how to use my hands/not just my head, I'll think myself into jail/now I know a refuge never grows/from a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose/gotta tend the earth if you want a rose...

I always carry a penknife in my pocket. My wheelchair bag contains tyre levers, a mini bike pump, hex keys in imperial and metric, and a spare inner. I'm a blue-skies academic, but I'm also a geologist: I know where my hammer is, and I know how to use it. Gender isn't just an interesting thought experiment for me: I get my hands dirty, I make mistakes, I find bits I forgot about that are badly in need of props.

About ten months ago (wow, is that all?), enemyofperfect told me that the artist is Luka Delaney, via one of synecdochic's celebrate Monday posts. And then I was sad, because the way Luka captions this image is:

I am very offended that the existing symbol for transgenderism only includes three groups (Male, Female and Intersex). I feel that, for a group that has suffered as much oppression as the Transgender Rights Movement, they could be a LITTLE more inclusive of those of us who don't fit into the Trinary.

To that effect, I have designed a new model for the Transgenderism logo. As you can see, mine includes several new categories for gender identifications that have previously been ignored. I believe these additions will prove quite handy for the Movement in general.

-- but: I'm going to keep using it, because (flippantly) the author is dead, or more practically because: this icon is recognisable as me, now, and my meanings are layered on top of those Luka imparts to it. You can see through, in places, to be sure; but I am going to take this image that spoke to me, and I am going to make it part of myself. Turning mockery and cruelty into love is hard and unforgiving work, but that, at least, is nothing new.

Comments

[kaberett]

Heh, looks like I got a bit carried away. I meant to add that if you have questions about any of my other icons, go for it. :-)

[liv]

I'm probably being really oblivious, but why do you object to Luka's caption of the icon? I assume you would agree that there is more to transgender / GQ identity than male, female and intersex?

[kaberett]

Yes, I do - but I kind of feel like Luka's taking the piss out of the idea, rather than meaning what they're saying. (An impression that's strengthened by looking through their other work.) I dunno. Maybe I'm too used to people taking the piss.

[liv]

Yeah, ok, oblivious :-( Thanks for explaining that to a clueless cis person. I really like the way you incorporate geology and literal, physical tools into your reclamation of the icon, though.

[kaberett]

♥

You're a friend, too. noldo gets very irritated about people acting as though Social Justice Trumps All in existing good friendships, and obviously I am not willing to explain All The Things All The Time To Everyone, but -- as discussed recently, I am basically always okay to talk things over with you and be challenged by you.

And, hey, being nudged to reevaluate it is helpful. I still think Luka's being a douche, but if you still think otherwise I would be very interested to know why, and would not consider it offensive/an affront!

[liv]

Totally fair enough; if I thought this was a big Social Justice make-the-oppressed-person-educate-the-oppressor thing I wouldn't have asked in the first place. I still consider it a favour that you gave a helpful answer to my question and I wanted to thank you for that.

I see you as similar to me in the sense that we're both naturally inclined to be educators; I quite often intentionally put myself in positions where people want me to Explain All the Things about Judaism, and that's fine, because I choose to do it. (I quite often state outright that people shouldn't assume my choices mean they can go around asking random intrusive questions of any Jewish person they happen to meet.) There's a particular situation that can really easily turn nasty, though, which is where person A is saying, ouch, that was really hurtful! and person B barges in and makes them justify feeling like that. I was hedging a bit in the way I phrased my question because I didn't want to come across as saying: seems totally legit to me, why are you so over-sensitive?

I guess my thinking was, that's totally the kind of thing I might say, and if it's actually sad-making mockery then I want to know so that I can make sure not to do that! I am (and you can totally laugh at me saying this) reasonably bad at detecting sarcasm, I generally just take words at face value. I was probably also biased because you quoted Luka's statement here in your blog, so I kind of heard it in your voice and therefore was inclined to take it positively. I think the other thing that made me think Luka was being sincere and not a douche was glancing at the comments on the page, there's a whole bunch of people saying things like I'd love to use it on trans awareness stuff and I'd like to use this for a visual to explain who I am inside. But that's not a detailed analysis, I think it's much more likely that you're right and Luka is being a douche.

[onyxlynx]

I saw the Swiss army knife stuff (I inherited one from my late sib) and totally missed the gender symbols.

Ah well. (Oblivious! FTW)

[catyak]

Default icon is easy, Lacey was the original yakking cat. She was 20, had failing kidneys and regularly threw up furballs (she was long-haired). When we were thinking of a name for the original LJ account, she wandered into the room and threw up. She took her last trip to the vet near the end of 2002.

D

Striped bare of all pretensions

[hairyears]

My default icon is small, hairy, and venomous: most of the others are, too, and most of them are arctiid moth caterpillars. Make of that what you will, and beware of the puns.

[swaldman]

I love that icon.

In the past I've mostly read it as "binary? HAHAHAHAHAHA". With a side-order of "I am capable, define me by my actions, not notions of gender".

(This is obviously purely my reading of it, may have no relation to what you or anybody else intended, etc)

[kaberett]

Hah, that is actually a very good way of putting into very few words quite a lot of what it means to me, yes :-)

[steorra]

My default icon is a picture of the north polar region of Saturn, during a phase in Saturn's year when the north polar region was a beautiful blue colour. Saturn's brownish rings swipe across the lower part of the picture, and their shadows make dark streaks across the planet too. Barely perceptible if you know where to look for it is Mimas, the smallest of Saturn's round moons; the larger picture here may point it out and make it findable.

I love space, and I love the colour blue, and I especially love moons of outer planets. So I chose this icon because I find it both aesthetically pleasing and conceptually pleasing. I like that Mimas is in there even if it's very nearly invisible at userpic scale.

[kaberett]

... yes, hello, Mimas :-)

[gwendraith]

Your icon is interesting, I did understand the concept of it and why it's your default icon and now I know more about it and what it means to you :)

I'm afraid I have a bit of an icon fetish and have thousands. I admire anyone who can stick with one icon as some of my blog friends do, but I seem totally unable to. Maybe it's an indication of my butterfly personality. Anyway, I do use this one of 5 year old me quite often and also a silhouette of a mother with two small sons.

[footpad.livejournal.com]

One of the nicest things about that icon is the way that it works even if the viewer (like me not so long ago!) is still largely entrenched in unquestioned, socially-ingrained views that gender = sex = binary. Jovially and entirely nonconfrontationally, it simply takes the piss out of the whole idea. It is, in a certain sense, art at its finest.

[kaberett]

♥