During some much-needed podcast admin time this morning, I discovered that a mail-forwarding filter I set up a long time ago to handle feedback never worked. The whole time I thought I was not getting any email feedback, I was actually just not seeing it because it was languishing in email purgatory. I apologize to the folks who have emailed me with feedback over the months and never gotten a response. I’ve taken care of the problem now and I will be replying to those emails this week, and they will also be included in the upcoming feedback show.

Speaking of upcoming shows, I know I promised I would put out one episode a month and I missed July. I’m shaping up to miss August too, unless I can get one out in the next few days. School is starting up again for me this week, so I’ve designed a new recording schedule that will get me back on track and start to build up a buffer, without interfering with homework and housework. Not having a steady release schedule is not working for me, I doubt it’s working well for my listeners, and I have so many great things I want to share with you all. Thanks to everyone for hanging in there through my erratic production.

As for the name change, this time it’s me instead of the podcast! DDog has been a great name for me over the years and it will remain my handle on Twitter and many other networks. However, I’m transitioning to the name R. Taylor for many purposes, including Trans(re)lating. Soon I’ll have a story published with this byline! Call me R, call me DDog, or call me by my first name if you know it; any of these are welcome and I will answer to them all. If you have something to send me that’s not necessarily related to the podcast, you can reach me at [email protected].

00:00 Opening
01:00 Introduction
– I no longer have my cool job
– Balticon was awesome
05:23 Field Report: Trans Queering Your Sex
– Practice good pronoun usage
– Courtesies you learn for trans people are good for all people
– Gender identity, gender presentation, gender attribution
– Get clear on terminology and roles
– Negotiation can be sexy
– Yes/No/Maybe
– “Remember who’s running the fuck”
– Condom and lube recommendation
– Call for more field reports
34:48 Promo for The Hidden Institute by Brand Gamblin
35:43 Closing and contact information
37:10

Links mentioned:
Balticon
Sugar
Ignacio Rivera
Nobilis Erotica
Skullgirls
@Tigerwong
Marcus’ artist portfolio
The Hidden Institute

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: twitter.com/DDog 
Podcast blog: http://transrelating.com
Voicemail: (410) 929-DDOG

Trans(re)lating 009: Trans Queering Your Sex, a field report

00:00 Opening
01:00 Introduction and to what I’ve been up
– I have a cool job
– I didn’t win NaNoWriMo again
– I’m in another podcast novel
– I’m taking classes again in the spring
– I got a dog over the summer
05:07 Question: “Why bother with transition?”
– It’s either worth it or it’s not
– Only you can decide for you
– You can’t use logic to get rid of dysphoria
– Sex is not Gender is not Gender Expression is not Sexual Orientation
– Wear what you’re comfortable in, regardless of gender
– Transition doesn’t make you your gender, but it can help you get recognition from society as your gender
12:33 Promo for Scouts Remastered
13:37 Closing and contact information
15:20

Links mentioned:
The Empress Sword, by Paulette Jaxton
Balticon 45
Scouts Remastered, by Nobilis Reed of Nobilis Erotica

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: twitter.com/DDog
Podcast blog: http://transrelating.com

Trans(re)lating 008: Why Bother?

Part 1

00:00 Opening
01:05 Introduction
05:04 Conversation with Nobilis (second half)
– Nobilis: I think change happens best in quiet, personal conversations, not in vast impersonal media.
– DDog: I tend to agree, but I don’t think that is the only tool available. Big media can act as a starting point for the smaller conversations as well.
– Nobilis: If you’re saying the proper reaction to these problematic works is to have conversations with friends about the issues, then I’m all for it.
– DDog: Some people do best with emotional angles, some do best with logical angles, some people like to be the reasonable person at the table, and some do their best work shouting in the streets.
– Nobilis: Shouting just entrenches people in the ideas they already had. Subtlety is much more effective. Martin Luther King succeeded where Malcolm X didn’t because he never used the language of conflict.
– DDog: Do you think you would pay as much attention to the people who are speaking quietly if there weren’t someone across the street shouting at you? King’s message may not have been as well-received if it did not stand in contrast to the Black Panthers’ and others’ messages of conflict and separation.
– Nobilis: You have the people on the outside pushing, and the people on the inside taking off the brakes?
– DDog: Playing the extremes agains the middle works well from many angles.
– Nobilis: Do movements actually plan that out?
– DDog: Genderbitch breaks activist strategies down into Nukers, Appeasers, Logic Bombers, and Emoters. Many people have a preferred style, which can make them distrust the others. I see each of these styles as important and effective in different ways.
– Nobilis: I appreciate the understanding on your part to meet me where I was on these questions. I learned a lot, especially about shouting.
31:04 Promo for Scouts in print
31:53 Contact information and closing
33:36

Links mentioned:
Balticon
Scouts, by Nobilis Reed (free sample!)
Nobilis Erotica and @Nobilis on Twitter
The Casting Game
Activist Modus Operandi: Methods of Communication by Recursive Paradox at Genderbitch: Musings of a Trans Chick

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: twitter.com/DDog
Podcast blog: http://transrelating.com

Trans(re)lating 007: A Response to Trans Film with Nobilis Reed, Part 2

Part 2

00:00 Opening
01:05 Introduction
02:25 Conversation with Nobilis (first half)
– Nobilis: Actors change themselves all the time for roles. Why is gender identity different than things like hair color?
– DDog: Hair color isn’t the right analogy. Some totally inadequate comparisons are blackface and characters with disabilities being played by actors without those disabilities. Some people have power and privilege over others, and there is something wrong when the people without the power are overwhelmingly portrayed by the people with it.
– Nobilis: But blackface just looks wrong; you know the person isn’t really black. You don’t know if someone isn’t really trans unless you’re reading their mind, because trans-ness is not something that is intrinsically visible, unlike sex, race, etc.
– DDog: That construction implies that being trans is like a hat that someone can put on and take off at will, which in general it is not. Even for the people for whom that is the case, being trans has a social meaning and effect that hair color doesn’t.
– Nobilis: What effect does that actually have on the real world? Does the media change and popular perceptions follow, or vice versa?
– DDog: I think it can go back and forth. You see it on TV and it becomes less of a big deal to see them in your own life; and you see it in real life so it’s less of a shock to see it on TV. Some creators may try to push the envelope with varying degrees of success; most media portrayals are initially negative but evolve into something more representative with time.
– Nobilis: I see mass media as being far behind social reality. Eventually there is enough social inertia that media simply resists less and then you see better representations.
22:49 Promo for The Good Parts
24:30 Closing and contact information
25:50

Links mentioned:
Trans(re)lating 005, “Trans Film”
Nobilis Erotica and @Nobilis on Twitter
The Good Parts, a podcast about the process of writing erotica with Nobilis Reed, Ann Regantin and Helen E. H. Madden

Recommended reading on “crip drag”:
Where Are All the People With Disabilities? by s.e. smith at this ain’t livin’
And if this keeps up, there won’t be any by Anna at FWD/Forward
Glee: “That’s why we call it dismissing legitimate concerns instead of acting” by Anna at FWD/Forward

Trans(re)lating 006: A Response to Trans Film with Nobilis Reed, Part 1

This story was originally published at Paulette Jaxton’s short fiction podcast, Form Letter Rejection Theatre. I’ve been meaning to drop it in the feed for awhile now, and since I’m not ready to put the next proper episode out quite yet, here it is. Original show notes and cast can be found here.

If you like this story and want more, or you hated it and want something different, check out the other stories at Form Letter Rejection Theatre or Paulette’s new podiobook The Empress Sword.

\”Regarding the Barry Fitzpatrick\’s Narrator\” by Paulette Jaxton

WordPress forbids me to embed the video, but you can follow the link to Vimeo. It was recorded by Helio_Girl and processed and uploaded by MayMay at the KinkForAll unconference that happened in Washington, DC in November (thanks to the amazing work of Nikolasco and others).

This is the talk I gave on what I saw as the components of gender, inspired by a conversation with Nobilis on Twitter a few weeks before the unconference. The video is about 30 minutes long and includes discussion with Adisson and other participants I can’t readily link. At this time I cannot provide a transcript but there will be one forthcoming.

If I can get permission to post an audio-only version in the podcast feed, I will do that too. Since I’m basically just slouching in a chair waving my hands around, this is essentially a talking-head video, and the least I can do for Nobilis is save him the trouble of ripping the audio himself.

00:00 Opening
00:59 Introduction
– Explanation of changes
04:11 Transgender in film
12:00 Upcoming episodes & contact information
13:45 Promo for “Empress Sword” by Paulette Jaxton
15:00

Links mentioned:
List of transgender characters in film and TV (Wikipedia)
What’s In a Name? (rationale for changing podcast name)
Empress Sword by Paulette Jaxton

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: twitter.com/DDog
Podcast blog: http://transrelating.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

Trans(re)lating 005: Trans Film

This promo is new, featuring some gender-bending characters known in myth and fiction, and 60 seconds long.

Trans(re)lating promo 2 (60 seconds)

I redid the original promo so that it would feature the new music and new name and other info, and tweaked it a little so it’s only 30 seconds long.

Trans(re)lating promo 1 (30 seconds)