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jrizzo's picture

Frankenstein

I'd like to begin by saying that reading Susan Stryker's work, especially "My Words to Victor Frankenstein" was an illuminating and very powerful experience for me.  As a member of a group that has been villified and covered in shadow largely through the use of symbols, images, dark mystery that keeps the transsexual unexplained, misunderstood, hence frightening to many, I think Stryker does a brave and neccesary thing by taking the label of "monster," reclaiming it, and articulating the power the name allows her to wield. 

I was struck by one phrase in particular.  She writes, "the Nature you bedevil me with is a lie."  I feel there might be a number of meanings embedded in this statement, and I would be interested in hearing Stryker discuss this more.  Does she mean that non-transsexuals cannot use their "natural" bodies as a justification for dennouncing the transsexual?  Is this just a plea against using our notions of "natural" as tools of oppression, or is she making a stronger claim about nature?  Is "nature" a misleading term?  Must it always be questioned?  According to Stryker, does it exist? 

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