Transgender Feminism

Abstract

Many years ago, I paid a visit to my son’s kindergarten room for parent-teacher night. Among the treats in store for us parents that evening was a chance to look at the My Favorite Things book that each child had prepared over the first few weeks of classes. Each page was blank except for a pre-printed line that said ‘My favorite color is (blank)’ or ‘My favorite food is (blank),’ or ‘My favorite story is (blank)’; students were supposed to fill in the blanks with their favourite things and draw an accompanying picture. My son had filled the blanks and empty spaces of his book with many such things as ‘green’, ‘pizza’ and ‘Goodnight Moon’, but I was unprepared for his response to ‘My favorite animal is (blank)’. His favourite animal was ‘yeast’. I looked up at the teacher, who had been watching me in anticipation of this moment. ‘Yeast?’ I said, and she, barely suppressing her glee, said, ‘Yeah. And when I asked why yeast was his favorite animal, he said, “It just makes the category animal seem more interesting.”’