What is a Man?
ObedientFemme
By Roberta Angela Dee
Have you ever looked at the definition for 'man' in any given dictionary? The
following definition for 'man' is taken from the Merriam-Webster Collegiate
Dictionary:
Main Entry: [1] man
Pronunciation: 'man, in compounds "man or m&n
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural men /'men, in compounds "men or m&n/
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English man, mon human being, male human;
akin to Old High German man human being, Sanskrit manu
Date: before 12th century
1 a (1): an individual human; especially: an adult male human (2): a man
belonging to a particular category (as by birth, residence, membership, or
occupation); usually used in combination <councilman> (3): HUSBAND (4): LOVER
b: the human race: MANKIND c: a bipedal primate mammal (Homo sapiens) that is
anatomically related to the great apes but distinguished especially by notable
development of the brain with a resultant capacity for articulate speech and
abstract reasoning, is usually considered to form a variable number of freely
interbreeding races, and is the sole representative of a natural family
(Hominidae); broadly : any living or extinct member of this family d (1): one
possessing in high degree the qualities considered distinctive of manhood (2):
obsolete: the quality or state of being manly: MANLINESS e: FELLOW, CHAP f: -
used interjectionally to express intensity of feeling <man, what a game>
2a: INDIVIDUAL, PERSON b: the individual who can fulfill or who has been
chosen to fulfill one's requirements <she's your man>
3a: a feudal tenant: VASSAL b: an adult male servant c: plural: the working
force as distinguished from the employer and usually the management
4a: one of the distinctive objects moved by each player in various board games
b: one of the players on a team
5: an alumnus of or student at a college or university
6: Christian Science: the compound idea of infinite Spirit: the spiritual image
and likeness of God: the full representation of Mind
7: often capitalized : POLICE <when I heard the siren, I knew it was the Man
-Amer. Speech>
8: often capitalized: the white establishment: white society <surprise that any
black... should take on so about The Man - Peter Goldman>
9: one extremely fond of or devoted to something specified <strictly a vanilla
ice cream man>
- man·less /'man-l&s/ adjective
- man·like /-"lIk/ adjective
- as one man : with the agreement and consent of all: UNANIMOUSLY
- one's own man: free from interference or control: INDEPENDENT
- to a man: without exception
There's been a case on Court TV that clearly addresses our social and cultural
definition of what it means to be a man.
Is sex in the mind or the body? That was the question in a Florida court as
the custody battle between a transsexual man and his wife of 10 years got under
way.
Michael Kantaras is the focus of this question. Mr. Kantaras who was born in
1959 as Margo Kantaras took male hormones and had his breasts, uterus, and
ovaries removed to become a man. He leaves it to the court to decide whether
sexual identity is a mental, or a physical construct.
"Sex is between your ears, not between your legs," testified Walter Bockting,
an expert on transsexualism, on Michael Kantaras' behalf.
Kantaras' wife, Linda Kantaras, claims that because her husband was born as a
woman, their 1989 marriage is void under a 1998 Florida law banning same-sex
marriages. At stake her is custody of the couple's two children.
Linda Kantaras, 33, brought to the marriage a 1-month-old son, Matthew, whom
Michael Kantaras adopted that year. Then, in 1992, Linda gave birth to a
daughter, Irina, using sperm from Michael's brother, Thomas.
It was Michael Kantaras, however, who in 1998 filed in Pasco County, Florida,
for divorce and custody of the couple's two children, now ages 9 and 12, after
allegedly becoming involved with another woman.
The bench trial, the first of its kind in Florida, will provide Circuit Court
Judge Gerard O'Brien the opportunity to set precedent on a number of issues,
beginning with an age-old question: What makes a man a man?
Reference: http://www.courttv.com/trials/kantaras/012202_ctv.html
I ask each of you to now consider the politics associated with gender. Also
consider the economic associations. Think of the billions of dollars insurance
companies have saved by not having to ensure what they deem to be "same-sex"
marriages, and what they deem to be "cosmetic" surgeries for transsexual or
transgendered men and women.
The religious right has aligned itself with Linda Kantaras. Should that
surprise anyone?
After all, if Michael Kantaras wins, it will undermine all the sexual rhetoric
these fundamentalists have been preaching for hundreds of years. It will mean
that society will have emerged from the Dark Centuries, and accepted the fact
that we need to access people not solely on the basis of their anatomy, but
also on the basis of what lies in their hearts, minds and souls.
One reason that religious fundamentalists fight for prayer in schools is
because it helps integrate their religious philosophy into the judicial and
legislative systems. Following prayer in school, there would undoubtedly be a
series of laws directed against gays, as well as laws directed against
individuals who are either transgendered or transsexual. Cross dressers, who
are pretty much tolerated by police, would probably be subjected to criminal
penalties. If you think sexual and gender freedom is oppressed now, imagine a
day when TG Forum or TG Woman would be deemed pornographic and outlawed.
This case is going to have an effect on everyone within the gender community.
We had better start making decisions as to how we are labeled and how those
labels are defined. If we do not, we run the risk of becoming an ambiguous and
socially obscure community void of any meaningful civil rights. Or, as my West
Indian grandmother would say, "It's time to shit or get off the pot."
For thousands of years, we have based gender on an individual's anatomy.
Today, we know that gender is not defined by one's anatomy but by one's
self-perception. Gender, in other words, is a byproduct of the mind, not the
body. So, defining gender on the basis of anatomy is logically and
scientifically wrong. The challenge is to make it legally wrong as well. The
time is way past due for the law to catch up with the science.
(c) 2002 -- Roberta Angela Dee All rights reserved.