My alma mater elects a homecoming queen
Jessee Vasold, William and Mary 's first transgender homecoming queen, took the field at halftime of the Tribe's game against James Madison U. today in Williamsburg. (Joe Fudge, Daily Press 10/24/2009)
The College of William and Mary crowns its first transgender homecoming queen:
Jessee Vasold ’11 made history at the College of William and Mary Wednesday when ze was announced as the school’s first transgender homecoming queen, representing the Class of 2011.
Vasold identifies as gender-queer and prefers to be referred to with gender neutral pronouns: “ze” in place of he or she and “zir” rather than him or her. Vasold has also created a Facebook account for a female identity, Kathy Middlesex.
Anybody wanna take a guess on how long it took to explain to my mother that Vasold is not biologically female?
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Edited to add: link to local newspaper account, which I forgot to include when I published this post. Gah.
18 Responses to “My alma mater elects a homecoming queen”
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myiq2xu says:
Considering the name of the school there has to be a joke in there somewhere.
October 25th, 2009 at 11:53 pm EST -
janicen says:
William and Mary is my daughter’s top choice for colleges. She’s a smart kid. I can’t wait to tell her about this.
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Nessum says:
Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel “Middlesex” comes to mind!
A great read!Also loved his “The Virgin Suicides”.
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Seth Warren says:
I’m sure that electing a transgender homecoming queen makes the university feel all progressive and whatnot, but I think it misses a bigger issue: why even have a homecoming queen (or, for that matter, king, prince, princess, jester, etc.) at all?
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anna says:
Why do transgender men always seem to do the most traditionally feminine things possible? That just reinforces the idea that being female isn’t about having a vagina, it’s about having makeup and pretty frocks and being a girly little ornament for some big strong man.
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alwaysfiredup says:
“ze” and “zir”? We may be making progress in accepting people for who they are, but I can guarantee you those pronouns aren’t going to end up in common usage for a while…
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ekittyglendower says:
That’s an ugly ass queen. The patriarchy would have demanded a far prettier queen had she been a female at birth. I guess exceptions have to be made in order to feel progressive.
And when/if I start talking about how ugly and poorly managed his hair and skin is, I will be accused of trans-misogyny, without the slightest bit of irony recognized.
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Violet says:
ekittyglendower, I’m not sure what you’re on about. Would it be appropriate to criticize a female homecoming queen’s hair and skin? Or demand that she be prettier? WTF?
I don’t think the Homecoming Queen is about prettiness. I think students run for it; it’s more politics and popularity. Jessee Vasold is pretty high-profile — student government, Lambda Alliance, etc.
Jessee doesn’t identify as a woman. I was sleepy last night and forgot to put in the link I meant to from the Daily Press:
http://www.dailypress.com/news.....3064.story
Vasold identifies as “gender-queer,” a catch-all term for those who identify with something other than traditional male or female gender roles.
“Normally, it really just depends on the day, how I dress,” said Vasold, who prefers gender neutral pronouns – “ze” instead of he or she and “zir” instead of him or her. “I don’t identify as a woman. It really just depends on the day and the occasion.”
You know, Seth, I think voting for a gender-queer queen is actually a pretty good way to deconstruct the whole homecoming court silliness.
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MojaveWolf says:
I don’t think referring to oneself as “gender queer” reinforces traditional gender roles, even tho “Homecoming Queen” is an activity that normally does this. If anything, I’d say it goes more towards tearing them down (also, gotta love “Middlesex”!), as does zir going w/out looking all glammed up as HC’s usually do. I was kinda impressed that ze didn’t; thought it was really cool Jessee didn’t go crazy w/the make-up, and presented themselves with a more natural look.
(note: I too find getting used to the pronouns difficult, but since ze prefers it and they’re right there in the article so I don’t have to go trying to remember or looking it up, figure might as well respect the person’s wishes, yanno? Also, seen them already in limited use in the blogosphere and cause Elizabeth Bear had a terrific science fiction novel “Undertow” where one of the main point of view characters was an alien without traditional gender characteristics who referred to themselves this way)
All that said, I see the point on the whole “should there be Homecoming Queen’s?” argument and think the institution should probably go the way of “Miss America”, but love the idea of a Homecoming Jester.
@nessum — also a “virgin suicides” fan, tho in my case only saw. the movie.
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MojaveWolf says:
I think voting for a gender-queer queen is actually a pretty good way to deconstruct the whole homecoming court silliness.
Sorry, Violet; didn’t mean to copy what you said here in my post; your comment wasn’t up yet when I loaded the page.
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Violet says:
I don’t like the pronouns. I find them awkward.
I think it would be easier to use the plural, the same way we use the plural for anonymous or unknown people. They/their/them.
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yttik says:
We seem to have bypassed an entire group of people. We went from “men” being the dominant word to the more progressive “ze” and “zir.” So when does “woman” become an acceptable part of the equation?
“I don’t identify as a woman.”
Can’t say I blame zir. Who would want to? But I sure don’t call this progress.
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Northwest rain says:
West Coast Colleges are superior to the East Coast Colleges.
Just telling the truth.
As for Homecoming Kings or Queens — yawn.
Last but not least — I ordered Gov. Palin’s book — she gets so many slams from the “progressives” for being a former beauty contestant — so I’m going to let her set the record straight.
Her book was cheaper than the hit book from that “progressive” group of sexist pigs.
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Adrienne in CA says:
So when does “woman” become an acceptable part of the equation?
Yeah, I’d prefer a Woman Pride Movement to proclaim my she/her-ness before being subsumed into the indeterminate morass. But then, I do identify as a woman. Hell yes I do.
*****A
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Katie says:
We seem to have bypassed an entire group of people. We went from “men” being the dominant word to the more progressive “ze” and “zir.” So when does “woman” become an acceptable part of the equation?
I’m not sure how Jessee’s election or pronoun preference bypasses women.
Ze doesn’t want women forgotten and ze identifies as a feminist. Ze just isn’t a woman zirself.
(Oops on the previous formatting)
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Violet says:
Katie, your comments were in moderation (I don’t know why) so I just let through the one with the good formatting.
Yeah, I’m not sure why Jessee’s election is a bad thing. I thought it was a good thing in terms of deconstructing the gender binary, as they say.
I also think it’s funny, and if W&M students are anything like they used to be, then they think it’s funny too. As does Jessee, I’m quite sure. It’s progressive and light-hearted (homecoming QUEEN) at the same time.
I still hate the pronouns.
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Nessum says:
From the beginning of Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel “Middlesex” about a hermafrodite:
“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”
@MojaveWolf: You should treat yourself to reading TVS also.
And this one too![And no, I'm not an agent of Eugenides’ ;-)]
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m Andrea says:
Personally, I think a third gender is more appropriate and accurate. They’re not biological males who can tolerate being on the masculine continuum, and they’re not biological females who can tolerate being on the feminine continuum. They truly are “in between”.
