Topic: Miqqi Gilbert

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #104, Winter 2004.

by Miqqi Alicia Gilbert
Part 1 of 2


Clothing is a political issue. It serves a great number of purposes, all of which are social, but many of which are also political. First, I want you to think about what we know, or, more correctly, what we assume about someone from their clothes.

Of course, the first thing that comes to your mind is gender, and you may well be right. But clothes are not always safe gender signals in every context. I work on a university campus, and as often as not, the young women and men there are wearing the same thing?jeans, a T-shirt, and runners. When a young woman dresses like that, she can be stating many things, including, to cite just one, that she is not in a romantic space and is focusing on her classes.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #105, Spring 2004.

by Miqqi Alicia Gilbert
Part 2 of 2


When we left off I was pontificating on the importance clothing plays in establishing who and what we are. We all know this and act accordingly, as, for example, when we carefully choose just the right clothes for a job interview. For the interview, you want your choice of clothing to establish that you are the sort of person being sought. You?ll dress one way for a corporate position and quite another for a job as a salesclerk in a grunge clothing store. Clothing expresses who you are and also what you know. By applying for the grunge job while wearing a J. Crew outfit, you?ve clearly shown you?re not the right person for them?you don?t know enough. A male going on an interview or a first date often takes a fair bit of time and care with his appearance, while most women take that time and care most of the time. They?re taught they are always under scrutiny, always being judged, always on display.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #103, Fall 2003.

by Miqqi Alicia Gilbert

It?s fascinating to sit in an outdoor caf? or pub and watch the people stroll by. It?s just amazing how they vary in height, weight, width, facial shape, body configuration, skin color, eye shape, hair color and quantity, and on and on. Think how rarely we confuse people, how unusual it is to mistake one person for another. It?s so rare that when it happens we?re struck by it, and wonder at the similarity, at how one person can look so much like another. Even when people are the same height and weight, even when they have the same measurements, we know they?re different. This is because there?s an infinite number of variations among people, and when we take them all together those infinite combinations result in individual uniqueness.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #102, Summer 2003.

by Miqqi Alicia Gilbert
The richness and soul of a society is indicated by the way it cares for its differences, for those within it who don?t fit the general categories. In our western societies, we are more and more making room for those who are on the edges, who don?t fit in the mainstream categories and boxes. In many jurisdictions, for example, one can?t construct a new building without including facilities and access for the disabled. More and more elevators have Braille markings, more public transport has facilities for wheelchairs, and so on. This indicates that our society is beginning to take care of those who previously had to fend for themselves.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

Miqqi Alicia Gilbert

The name you will find on my birth certificate, driver?s license, and other official documents is Michael A. Gilbert. I?m a Full Professor in the Department of Philosophy of York University in Toronto, Canada. York is the third-largest university in Canada, and I?ve been there for a very long time. In addition to the aforementioned name, I have another, which can be found on my IFGE membership card, numerous event badges, and the articles and columns I write for the transgender community. That name is Miqqi Alicia Gilbert, and it?s been my chosen femme name for over 15 years now (before that I was known as Shelley). I?ve taken the name Miqqi Alicia because I?m a lifelong crossdresser who, unusually, is out and public about his pastime. I?m 56 years old, have been married a few times, once for 14 years and divorced, once for two and widowed, and currently for 13 and neverending.

by Miqqi A. Gilbert

The initial installment of this column appeared in Transgender Tapestry #098, Summer 2002 and continued with this column in Transgender Tapestry #099, Fall 2002.


III

Back in my office, I watched the clock as time approached for my lecture. The course, Gender and Sexuality, is in a lecture hall that seats about 130, but there are only about 90 in the class. I timed my arrival for a few minutes after the start, so I wouldn?t be standing around waiting for the class to begin. I entered, butterflies fluttering away, walked to my table, put down my books and purse, and faced the class. A round of applause started, begun by a wonderful gang of students from the TBLGay club, who had come to offer support and make sure I was all right. These are young people who have come out at a tender age. Most have suffered as they discovered their own non-mainstream identities early in life, so they know how important support is.

by Miqqi A. Gilbert
12 November, 1996

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #098, Summer 2002

It?s the day before my first time ever going to work dressed en femme. This is a major part of my coming out process?not, as you might imagine, as a transsexual who is going full-time, but as a crossdresser who is public about his pastime. I am, just so you know, quite nervous about the whole thing. I?m also excited. It?s going to be a wild, crazy, emotionally tumultuous day that I will remember forever.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #097, Spring 2002.

by Miqqi A Gilbert, Ph.D.

Gender is a complex concept that changes depending on your perspective. There is assigned gender?a legal concept that places you in a certain category. There is social gender?the assignment made on you by the people with whom you interact. And there is self-gender, which you feel internally is correct. Difficulties arise, we know all too well, when self-gender and social-gender do not coincide, since one of the most basic rules is that you are one gender, and that gender is the one people can identify. You are supposed to be what you appear to be.

What is Gender?
Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #096, Winter 2001.

The question ?What is gender?? has been answered in many ways by many different thinkers. From all of this a number of things do become clear, or, to be more accurate, a lot of things are seen to be unclear. What do I mean by this?

Well, the basic, simple model embraced in recent times holds that there are two basic aspects to a person?s identity, with one being sex and the other being gender. Sex is described as the biological fact of being male or female, and gender is described as being the social role of being a man or a woman. In the simplistic model, an individual is assigned a sex at birth?his or her ?birth-designated sex??and that assignment matches the behavior and self-identity acquired through acculturation, training, socialization, and personal choice. To put it simply, once the doctor looks between your legs and makes the pronouncement, your role is laid out before you and you continue on that path until death. Sex, we are told, is biological; gender is social.