Hi friends, it’s been a stressful week for many of us. I’ve certainly been struggling with updates and staying engaged. I appreciate your patience as I get back into some of these challenging topics to be aware of in this newsletter.
(If you’re not ready to get back into challenging topics, honestly, same—may I recommend that you instead watch Ryan Gosling perform I’m Just Ken live at the Oscars in a pink sparkly tux, and remember—you are Kenough. See you next week!)
I’ve been thinking about where gender markers or biological sex definitions actually intersect with daily life, and for many people this comes up in medical contexts, travel, and in public bathrooms.
Bathrooms are important because they meet a non-negotiable need. If you gotta go, you gotta go. And while some trans, gender-nonconforming, or androgynous-looking people may hold it until they get home or to a unisex bathroom, that’s incredibly limiting and also unhealthy (higher risk of UTIs, for example).
It’s even harder when your workplace does not have a bathroom you can use. I remember a scene in the movie Hidden Figures where the Black woman scientist has to jog out of the large building, in heels, to use the restroom in the nearby restaurant because her workplace has no women’s bathroom. Obviously discrimination, right?
People, mostly women, have been willing to jog to other floors and other buildings during their work breaks for so many years, because doing the boundary-breaking work they are qualified and called to do is important.
