Bits & Pieces - Diane Frank

This is apparently (unless Elaine has something up her sleeve) going to be a short newsletter this time.

Last Month’s Meeting

Last month we had an unexpected change as our invited speaker developed a conflict. Instead we showed a DVD produced by Denea Doyle, a presentation coach from the Bay Area. We only made it through half the show, and several people got up to try some of the techniques for walking, and posture. I won’t name the brave volunteers, but the matter proved to be surprisingly difficult. Our associate member Denise (female), wearing rubber soled flats on the other hand proved a control for the experiment, and did the exercise without any apparent effort.

One remark that provoked some discussion was Ms. Doyle’s advice about posture in terms of displaying one’s bosom. The spouses and significant others were somewhat taken aback by Ms. Doyle’s candid advice on displaying one’s assets, in this post-feminist era. I shared this reaction with Ms. Doyle, who said that it was pretty typical. Women grow up dealing with excess and unwanted attention paid by men to their breasts. Crossdressers and transsexuals may not have the same awareness. In Ms. Doyle’s view, what she teaches provides a choice and useful information for someone starting a new life without the years of history.

Educational Activities

Nathaniel S., a sociology graduate student at Case is conducting a research project on sociology and transgender. Here is what he wrote to me about the study:

The premise of the study focuses around social work and its inability/ignorance of abstract conceptualizations of identity (e.g., gender, sexuality). The mechanism for interpreting that phenomenon is the transgender identity. Therefore, I am interested in interviewing trans-identified individuals. Questions will center around gender paradigms, how gender conceptualizations change, and how they manifest in the lives of those who defy gender/sex conventions. Most interviews are completed within 1-1.5 hours.

This is an approved study, and you’ll need to sign a consent form that will be held in confidence. If anyone is interested in participating please drop me a line and I’ll get you in touch with Nathaniel. I spent a pleasant hour sharing my iconoclastic views with him last Thursday, before heading down to Kent. I look forward to seeing the results of the study and sharing a summary here.

Later that day, I was down at Kent State by personal invitation to share the podium with our old friend Suzy D., and C., at a class on human sexuality. There were more questions than last time, perhaps because the three of us taunted them about being silent as bumps on a log. But while there were more questions, there weren’t any really good thought provoking ones. I got the usual "do your kids know, how do they feel?", "How often do you do this", and we were all asked about "bisexuality". I understand that the class feedback will be available, and I look forward to seeing this.

Wishing everyone a Happy Passover and Joyous Easter

Diane