“As ju90, I go on the Net with a name that doesn't give any clues as to my gender, age, race, sexuality or disability, so that people are forced to meet me initially without making the judgements based on my appearance which they would IRL. However, since I include the URL of my Home Page site in my sig file, it is subsequently possible to discover all of these things about me, and further that these are inscribed on my virtual body. My virtual embodiment therefore demonstrates that socially constructed identities such as gender, age, race, sexuality and disability are ultimately meaningless, since I can appear quite independently of them, yet that, at the same time, the effects of this labelling have contributed towards my own identity.

Why do I now call myself Ju, both on the Net and IRL? The name which I was given at birth, Juliet, suggests qualities of tragedy, teenage passion and overwhelming heterosexuality and femininity which are constricting and concealing. After all, I've had my share of tragedy, but in a world context I've been very lucky; and while I identify strongly as a feminist, I'm also a queer woman who occasionally likes to play boy. Naming myself after a boy character, the archetypal geek, but subverting it by changing Joe to Ju, is part of this: Ju is ambiguous, androgynous; Juliet denies these qualities.”

http://www.ju90.co.uk/whoju90.htm

Have you ever felt emotionally or biologically “stuck” between the two genders? If so, in what way and what impact has this had on you?Have you ever felt emotionally or biologically “stuck” between the two genders? If so, in what way and what impact has this had on you?
Growing up as an army brat I was quite isolated in terms of friends. We would be posted to one school and remain there for about a year or two before moving on. During that time other pupils would come in and out so establishing real friendships was difficult particularly as you didn’t want to go through the hurt of separation on a regular basis. When I did finally return to live in the UK I found the kids I got to know very parochial in their attitudes, attitudes reflected from their parents. In army schools we had not spent too much time worrying about who was who or what, we just enjoyed each other’s company for the time we had together. Or we avoided each other if we didn’t get on knowing that either they, or we, would soon be moving on. I think this upbringing played an enormous part in my attitude towards tolerance. This sadly was not reciprocated during my late teenage years in UK schools. I found myself isolated and often bullied because I could not conform to their images. I was neither female nor male as I had never really had to be before and I found it confusing to now have to find a role for myself in either one or the other camp. I could no longer play with the boys as I had done when abroad but didn’t feel wholly female either. When I left school this ‘inbetween’ feeling continued and I had relationships with both men and women and thought nothing of it. Perhaps, as children, we all need to have our roles challenged to order to avoid the discrimination that comes with familiarity. What is not familiar becomes threatening and therefore open to abuse. When you see a world of people you accept that there is a world of differences.
Nina

I am a woman (with a transsexual history) - and I reject all terms of 'trans', 'transgender', 'transsexual', 'trans anything'. I embrace the binary gender system and simply wish to be regarded and respected as a woman. Others may see themselves as being on some sort of sliding scale or inhabiting some sort of third gender and that is fine by me - until their approach denies gender stability to those, like me, who are comfortable with it. I have not gone through all that I have, simply to be branded afresh according to the thinking of 'trans' people (or gay and lesbian non-trans people) who wish to impose their definition of gender upon me, and sway the public into viewing me as anything other than a woman.
Dee