#aaron h. devor

[snapbookreviews]

Fall 2023 Behind-the-Scenes Reading

Do YOU want to see what I spent my first semester in grad school reading? Of course you do. (There's a lot of Indigenous and queer scholarship.)

Usually, when I finish a reading that I know will be on the quarterly post, I write the small blurb as soon as I’m done, and I did start this semester doing that… but then came the annotated bibliography assignment. I had to stop doing blog write ups of my reading, because I had a big academic write up of my reading to do. But I’m back now! (It’s winter break and I only have teaching prep to…

[moneyfor-nothing]

A Note To All My Trans+ Siblings

I’m in an issues in trans+ communities seminar, and today we talked about the “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism & Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” executive order issued by 47 on his first day in office.

I openly cried in lecture. I was fortunate enough to flee the US at my first opportunity (perks of being a dual citizen), but I fear for my community. It is easy—and understandable—to fall into hopelessness and despair right now. But I would like to share with you a message of hope imparted on me by my professor.

My professor, sociologist & sexologist Aaron H. Devor, holds the inaugural position as the world’s first Chair in Transgender Studies. He is an internationally recognized leading expert in trans+ issues, and truly, he has done so, so much for our community. I think we could all do with some of his wisdom right now. This is a direct quote from him today:

“Trump and his ilk are often referred to as reactionaries and … what that means is that social change is happening in a direction that moves away from the old, and these people are reacting against that change.

They’re trying to stop it, trying to turn the clock back, and ultimately they will not be successful. A lot of people will get hurt before they are ultimately not successful. But bear in mind, what Trump is pushing for used to be standard. That used to be the norm, that used to be what everybody thought and what everybody believed, and nobody had to argue about it—that was just taken for granted. That there are only two sexes, there are only two genders, nobody can change sex, gender is not a real thing—that used to be the mainstream.

And the fact that the people who are pushing to go back to that are the reactionaries tells us that progress has been made.

You can’t sit back and say, ‘oh well, there you go, done …’ The fact that Trump got elected tells you that you have to always be continuing to push, continuing to defend any advances that are made.

But you have to understand. Trump wouldn’t be a reactionary if what he wanted was what everybody believed. Cuz reactionaries are trying to undo the progress that has been made. And there’s a whole lot of people who made that progress happen who are going to be defending it and are gonna be pushing for more progress. …

Keep it in perspective in terms of why this is happening—it’s happening because we have been successful, we have made a lot of changes, and there’s a lot of people that wanted that to happen that made that happen who are going to be trying to keep Trump and his buddies from getting too far in where they wanna go.”

Do not give up. Do not stay silent. Now is the time for solidarity, and for rising up together and fighting for our rights. We have been successful in the past. And we will continue to be successful.

[deannamadden]

Description:900-1,000 words, plus an MLA-formatted Works Cited pageSources:Glori

Description:900-1,000 words, plus an MLA-formatted Works Cited pageSources:Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” and Aaron H. Devor’s “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender.”Total Points:120Due Date:Rough draft due M 9-20; Peer Review due W 9-22; Final draft due Friday, 9-24The AssignmentWrite a comparative analysis of Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild…

[duhitsroevision]

Description:900-1,000 words, plus an MLA-formatted Works Cited pageSources:Glori

Description:900-1,000 words, plus an MLA-formatted Works Cited pageSources:Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” and Aaron H. Devor’s “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender.”Total Points:120Due Date:Rough draft due M 9-20; Peer Review due W 9-22; Final draft due Friday, 9-24The AssignmentWrite a comparative analysis of Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild…

[gxldnights]

Description:900-1,000 words, plus an MLA-formatted Works Cited pageSources:Glori

Description:900-1,000 words, plus an MLA-formatted Works Cited pageSources:Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” and Aaron H. Devor’s “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender.”Total Points:120Due Date:Rough draft due M 9-20; Peer Review due W 9-22; Final draft due Friday, 9-24The AssignmentWrite a comparative analysis of Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild…