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DNA Blueprints Guide The Construction Of Specific Human Structures
Chad Mirkin discusses using DNA to build a three-dimensional structure out of gold, likening the process to building a house. Starting with basic materials such as bricks, wood, siding, stone and shingles, a construction team can build many different types of houses out of the same building blocks.
The article includes an audio recording of the full interview. Photo courtesy of the UCSD School of Medicine.
| The Unquestionable Truth on Gender: Discussions with a Prophet |
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| Opinion - Global Warning | |||
| Lisa Jain Thompson | |||
| Tuesday, 01 April 2008 17:00 | |||
 TS-Si President & Contributing Editor
Ms. Thompson writes a regular TS-Si.org opinion column, Global Warning, and co-authors other signed articles. All of her work is available in the TS-Si.org Article Archive. I propose a dialogue between myself and the Prophet of Considerable Gender, noting first, however, that I am at a considerable disadvantage because I have not been up the proper mountains and received wisdom directly from the gods of academia.
The only apocalyptic visions I have been blessed with come from the street preachers at the subway entrance cobble stones, all of whom seem to be thirty year old Viet Nam veterans still (although there is a scattering of those admitting to Desert Storm). I have not breathed any sacred fumes since my college days and I admit my life experiences have tempered whatever youthful radicalism I possessed — I no longer feel an urgency to get out of Viet Nam (especially since they do manicures so well).
So I sha’n’t be sued, I shall paraphrase the words of the Prophet of Considerable Gender, henceforth known as PCG, and, having been well taught by my momma (not to mention that nun in eighth grade), my guest will speak first.
Names and swear words
have been changed to protect the pure of heart and innocent of ear.
PCG. I bet my (large posterior muscle) that there's no big difference between the way men and women "feel inside."
LJT. Spoken like someone who doesn’t have a vagina, someone who doesn’t have to make an instant assessment of intentions when they meet strangers who have a penis, someone who doesn’t have to worry about getting pregnant or having kids, someone who can just walk away from a relationship whenever they please. But other than that and few other things, I’m certain that we all can concede that there is little difference between people whose lives revolve around football, drinking beer, and getting laid and people whose lives revolved around other people, relationships, and building community.
PCG. It's difficult to know anyone, but not more difficult to know how somebody else feels because they’re a different sex or gender -- stop nitpicking — than because they’re just a different person to begin with.
LJT. So, what you are saying is that “men” and “women” are artificial categories, that male and female biologies have no effect on who we are.
PCG. "Feeling like" something "inside" is no way to know what it feels to be that something inside and out — especially out. It is no big deal for me to find out — I don’t believe there is any difference as my mother and other genetical women would claim — who have some personal interest and bias in the matter obviously — would present as existing.
LJT. So you are saying that the opinion of women, their reports from the field so to speak, are worth less than your opinion as a man. Father knows best, I guess, or, in your case, the son knows better than his mother.
PCG. My point is, and I do have a point, if you look like a woman, the world will treat you like a woman, and so, you will live the life of a woman, no matter what you feel inside, even if you have a penis.
LJT. Appearance is everything then? A woman is a handful of hair, some carefully applied make, a couple of good dresses and some silicon breast inserts – nothing more? You are saying that if you pick your clothes carefully and imitate everything exactly, the world will not notice you think like a man, or that you smell of testosterone, or that you have a very much alive male penis strategically hidden in your panties?
PCG. People aren't unfair in that respect. People believe what they see and their eyes don't lie.
LJT. So everything depends on appearance. Men, women, it’s all clothes and haircuts, nothing else. Hormones, muscles, it’s all just superficial, but a good uplift bra and some duct tape is worth everything. Do you really believe what you say?
PCG. Experience counts, there’s no substitute. I'm not very happy with this myself, because it makes me feel my freedom is just that little bit more compromised, because, after all, what I 'm saying here is that you have to rely on other people's judgment and collaboration to define yourself as anything. But, yeah, sometimes you do. I mean, as long as you want to live in the same world as everybody else, you do.
LJT. You mean that your gender, whether you are a man or a woman, is determined by others independently from your physical sex. What are you trying to say?
PCG. I know lots of people who have exactly zero problems with me being trans, and who are perfectly cool going out with me in dead public, and call me the name and pronouns I 'm happy with, but still don't see me as a woman, because I just don't fit their experience of what a woman is.
LJT. Can you expand on that?
PCG. My own inability to accept the fact that, there is a very simple reason why, when people look at me they see not a woman but a guy who wants to be one -- people are not blind. The root of all evil is self-delusion.
LJT. So appearance is NOT everything. You’re confusing me now.
PCG. Some people say that I 'm obviously deranged. People single me out as an example of how (four letter sexual euphemism past tense)-up transsexuals are in the brain …
LJT. But …?
PCG. I 'm not transsexual. I 'm a *travesti*, a she-male ex-whore.
LJT. So you weren’t born with Harry Benjamin Syndrome.
PCG. I don't believe in the brain thingy or that women and men have different brains or different souls.
LJT. So again, there is no difference between being male or being female.
PCG. So the two sexes are different. Who cares? Everybody is different. Two women or two men can be more different than a woman and a man... In the end, we are all the same.
LJT. And you know this because?
PCG. Women I know have told me, things like you 'You will never be a real woman like me or you can't know what it's like to be a woman, you have a penis.
LJT. How do you respond to that?
PCG. Sure I can, if I look like a woman, I will be treated like one, I'll live like one, and I will know everything there is to know about being one. Except the icky stuff.
LJT. The icky stuff?
PCG. Menstruation, pregnancy, rape, mammograms, children, that sort of thing.
LJT. Oh, that sort of thing. Has anyone ever said you have a lot in common with twelve year old boys?
PCG. People treat you as what they see. So if you see something they don't, like a feminine/masculine part of you, you’d better know there's a difference of perceptions, or you’re gonna run into trouble. Make sense, no?
LJT. Ah, no. Not really. Not a bit.
 Ms. Lisa Jain Thompson is the Co-Founder & President of TS-Si, Inc. She also serves as a Contributing Editor and columnist for the TS-Si website. Ms. Thompson's signed articles contain her own opinions and do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. Lisa welcomes your comments. You can use the public form below or send private correspondence via her TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.
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