I am provisionally titling this series “Sex and Gender in Body, Mind, and Soul,” highlighting the various “levels” through which could approach our main theme—i.e., through the physical, mental, and psychological or spiritual realms. This says less than I would like about the cultural, social, or historical dimensions of the subject… but I am open to reframing as we go.
As for preparatory reading, watching, or listening… well, there is so much. But since we’ll have her with us, and since we’re in the process of publishing her book through Untimely Books, I suggest we start with a sample chapter from @mankinddivine’s The Male Lesbian Manifesto, and the accompanying video introducing the conception of the book as a whole.
No doubt, Matsangos’s book will challenge much of what most people think about sex and gender, and it will not agree with many readers—but what else is the Cosmos Café for, but to “go where no man has gone before”; to deepen our thought, expand our horizons, and potentially transform our consciousness?
Well, talk about coincidences! Yesterday we finally finished the Call for Papers for the Gebser Conference, the theme of which is " The Dance of the Sacred Feminine and Masculine—Duality or Polarity?" (polarity being the integration and complementarity of both). Maybe we could work together or at least have a UB presence at the conference this year! Attached is the Call for Proposals. You’re seeing it here first. It’s not even on the website yet. Gebser CFP Final.docx (28.3 KB)
Talking about different “softwares” of the linguistic machinery, here’s another useful excerpt from Ferrando relating to gender:
“Gimbutas defines as “language of the Goddess” a semasiographic language, where interwoven symbols represent divine values and functions - divine not because they are outside of Nature, but because they are the generative powers of the Earth”
about Marco saying at some point that in many cases he does not particularly identify as a man. i know the feeling, and i think that this kind of “identity oblivion” comes mostly from a position of privilege and universalization of privilege. You don’t feel like a man, you feel just human, because in patriarchy the man is the human universal. In the same way, i don’t particularly identify as a white person, actually i almost never think about that. But if i were a person of color, most probably there would be no way to forget about it.
about Ed mentioning the variations between male and female dominance in nature and in human societies. Interestingly enough, what we never see in all these variations is a mutual complementarity between the two. Its either the one or the other that is determinant. I think that this further supports my argument about the non-complementarity between the male and the female. Thats why at some point in my book, referring to the human realm, i say “in reality there is no binary gender, there is a female and a male organisation of gender”.
about the last part of the discussion and the connection between male lesbianism and some ancient eastern sexual technics:
i think that one difference i can see as far as i know is that male lesbianism does not advocate the avoidance of the ejaculation only, but of the phallic function altogether. This is when the phallus can really operate as a “lesbian phallus” the way i put it in the book, eroticizng and feminizing the entire body.
Another difference i can see as far as i know is that male lesbianism does not advocate ascetism, but an alternative, non reproductive and holosomatic sexuality. But i guess that this has to do also with the historical context, i guess that in the traditional patriarchal setting of that age any kind of withdrawal from phallic sexuality meant withdrawal from sexual and social life, there was no queer culture or counterculture in general, and no other options.
I see your point here; it is easier to forget you are a man, if you are in fact, biologically, a man, than it is to forget you are a women, if you present as a woman, simply because of the way that society treats you differently in either case. This is very concrete and practical. For example, how comfortable do you feel walking home alone through the city at night? Do you bleed from a vagina on a monthly basis? To what degree are your reproductive functions regulated by the state? Etc.
At the same time, I do feel and believe that when we introspect, meditatively, we encounter other layers of our being that are not coterminous with our gender identity or sexual embodiment. In dreams, for example, we might be one or the other gender. In past life regression experiences, we may recall other incarnations. In contemplation, we may intuit our continuity with a larger matrix of being; we may not feel strictly delimited by this particular congealing of identity or temporal expression.
And it is not only men who can feel like women, fluid, or non-specific, but the other way around. I believe the same could be said for race or any other contingent aspect of identity—even our humanity itself (hence, the possibility of the “posthuman.”)
In the political sphere, however, we must deal with the prevailing projections and constructions, owning and taking responsibility for our “subject position,” for better and worse. But how does impact the notion of the “male lesbian”—is this also a privileged move? (And should we not wish to universalize such privileges?) Is it possible that a female would feel some sense of violation from a male defecting from their gender in order to occupy the female structure of desire? Have you come across this kind of opposition or objection in the promulgation of your work?
I agree 100% with what you say about the fluidity and the transformation of identity in deep introspective states (meditation, dreams etc), in these states we may come to identify even with non-human or non-living entities. This is an all-human capacity, but consider that for this to take place it needs the existence of and the registration to a unifying space, quantum holographic or whatever you may call it, which is essentially female.
about some of your practical/political questions:
i feel much less comfortable walking alone outside than when i was a man, especially at night. i havent been physically attacked yet, but verbally several times, bad and hostile looks is an everyday experience, and when i go to events they usually ask me if i have something with me for self-defence, pepper spray or something else. Its not easy, but nothing compares to the in-joy of the transformation.
about the privilege of male lesbianism and the reaction from the women side: male lesbianism is a move towards the negation of the man privilege through non/phallic - holosomatic sexuality, female expression and female identification. Nowadays and especially here in Berlin prevalent is an expansive notion of lesbianism which includes people from the transgender and the non-binary spectrum, so personally i feel very welcomed from the very beginning. For them its not complicated at all, their attitude is like “since you feel feminine, you express feminine, you identify feminine and you are attracted to feminine, you are lesbian like us and this is the end of this discussion”. About the male lesbian and my work, they know about the existence of the book and a few basic things, and they are very fascinated and interested to read it, they ask me all the time “when is it gonna be published in english?”. Actually two days ago i was talking about our online discussion at the lesbian group im mostly participating and some of them asked me to post the video at our whatsUp group that has more than 600 subscribers, most probably im gonna do it in this weekend. They say we make a big party when its published!
I love this discussion and wish I had the words to reply to all the important ideas/feelings expressed here. My sister this morning asked me , Are you trans? And I answered, “I don’t know what I am!” In the last brief while, that’s the answer that pops out of me. I am okay with not having definite answers… but…it matters what the asker means and intends in the quesiton. She was really asking how I felt about “all the young people changing their hair and their genders…” I said I’m fine with it, she said she is, too, and we laughed together kind of joyously for awhile
I’ don’t know what I want to say or what would useful to say. But i especially love this, Alexandros, that ALL of our “identities” are plural and fluid . This feels like home, feels like the most profound idea of all, right now.
One tiny eg, : I appear to be “white”, but I respond to any questions in theis realm with “I don’t identify as white.” My “heritage” is , like everything about me as far as I can tell, more like tourmaline that shifts and gleams. " I am a Tsalagi (Cherokee) woman." is both true and partial, of course.
“I am everything,” wouldn’t likely be helfpful! But honestly, closer to the Whitmanesque way I truly feel, when I am able to answer truly. And that, it seems , depends on who is asking and why.
I learned poetry from a volume of Shakespeare’s complete works my prarents happened to have among their very very few books. Not at all sure why, but grateful. Then I discovered in the library Whitman’s songs, and my own rhyming sonnets fell apart into leaves and branches in a sudden wind. (which is like it is here today where I live, huge palm fronds flying and falling,) Now one of my favorite ways to write is something… unnameable. I’ve been hearing young musicians and artists ispeak about how tired they are of “genres”, categories, slots and …even ghettos. called “Experimental” …which makes me smile. Mostly I lsten to my local college listener-supported radio station…because I love to hear music that’s surprising, voices from all over the planet, then some good old 70s rock, then some blues, then…who knows?
Let us know what happens with your book !
I am rambling… …guess the emoji would be: face- in- the- clouds?
One last thing: has anybody here seen/heard/read Timothy Morton ?
Thanks again…
