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Monday, Oct 6, 2008
Philosopher Michael Gilbert discusses the delights and enlightenment that come with wearing a dress.
Feb 24, 1999 | Late in the term of his second-year philosophy course on gender and sexuality, York University professor Michael Gilbert asks his class if they'd like to have a Q&A session with someone who is transgendered. Sure, says almost everyone in the Toronto class of 90 students. All semester they have been talking about what it means to be men and women, how gender relates to sex; they've discussed marriage, various kinds of love, what it means to be gay. Now they'll have the chance to see a "living deconstruction of gender dichotomy," as Gilbert puts it. Those who feel uncomfortable about seeing such a person, he warns, should not attend the next class.
A few days later, Brooklyn-born, street-smart Michael Gilbert, tenured professor and alpha male, shows up for class as Miqqi Alicia. "Her" walk is more tentative than the lumbering gait of Gilbert. She is dressed in a demure skirt and sweater and wears low heels. There is a glint of earrings underneath her shoulder-length salt and pepper hair, now released from its usual ponytail. Her legs are shapely, her nails are well-manicured ovals, but the whole effect is more Mrs. Doubtfire than RuPaul. Miqqi will never quite make it as a knockout woman. Also, the well-credentialed professor is sensitive enough to dress appropriately. "In class I follow the unwritten female professor rules: Display few bright colors and no skin."As she enters, the students giggle and whisper. There's a buzz. One student walks in late and practically trips on her double take. Miqqi talks for 10 or l5 minutes to let the class get used to the sight of him, now her. Transgender, she explains, is an umbrella term that covers anyone who is uncomfortable with, objects to or plays with his or her birth-designated gender.(By contrast, transsexuals believe they truly belong to the opposite sex.)
"The male cross-dresser doesn't believe he's a woman. I'm a man, with a man's body ... and I don't want anyone to touch it with a scalpel," he/she tells the students with a little grin of self-diminishing femininity.
The rapt expressions of the students show they're on his side. So do their comments. A clean-cut-looking male student points out that all professors impose their styles and lives on their class, from their worn tweed jackets with leather patches to the endless heterosexual references to wives and children. "The creepiness factor was avoided," noted a female student. "It's not sexual, he's not being caught going through his wife's underwear or wearing garters and heels." Indeed, Miqqi Alicia is more toned down Michael Gilbert than drag queen. The voice is softer but not really higher, the gestures are less assertive -- Miqqi flutters her hands where Michael would saw the air with his arm to make a point.
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