The Badlands of Gender: Excerpts from a Notebook

Abstract

On some days I cause what I like to call ‘restroom chaos’.

Early one morning at a conference I stand before a mirror in a university washroom, trying to find the lucidity to present a paper. An old male professor wanders in, cries out “I am so sorry, miss!” and runs out of the room. Unfortunately, having exhausted one of the options available within society’s suspect binary, his panicked brain takes him straight into the “women’s” washroom. I listen to the ensuing shrieking and sigh. Gender in our society is still tightly controlled; “it’s a boy” or “it’s a girl” are still the only two cries to escape a doctor’s lips as we squirm into this confusing world. For those of us who do not fit this model, bathroom politics are a reality of everyday survival, even early in the morning before coffee brings caution.