Friday, December 21, 2007

Synergy! (Or: A Very Special Update)

A long time ago (my first "real" update, in fact!), I mentioned that Jennifer Diane Reitz ran a site known as Transsexual.org. My brief description was as follows:

The Encyclopedia Dramatica of gender-dysphoria information. For every well-written piece in there on the topic, another 5 are poorly-handled or downright dangerous to someone confused in this sort of area. If there is one item of hers I could strike off the face of the internet (and possibly one item PERIOD I'd strike from the 'net), this would be it. I'll spare you the rant.

Today is that rant. If you're not interested in a dissection of this clusterfuck, most likely punctuated with much more rage than I usually heap upon any target, I suggest skipping this. This is the very definition of pure hatred, and I don't think any single target will anger me further after this, so don't think it'll be a recurring feature, my ranting and raving.

Allow me to explain. I have many, many reasons for loathing this site. No, I have nothing against transsexuals (or, for that matter, any [blank]sexuals, really), so if you're expecting a "rrargh they're sinful/disgusting/etc." piece, fuck off now and save me the trouble. What I am is, for one thing, a psychology major - JDR disdains psychology (and reason, in many cases, which I'll go into later). As well, I'm male, and there's a distinct anti-male bias in damn near every one of her works, but none more so than here. But the largest thing is that in squatting such a distinct domain name, she, and many who don't look further than a page or two into the site, have set her up as a first hit on many search engines for information, and so much of her site is misleading, if not flat-out fucking WRONG. I'm going to quote a comment someone left on that same early entry of mine, which sums a lot of my rage up here.

"I admit, I have some gender identity issues, and sadly, when I was younger and first had access to the internet unwatched, JDR's shit was what I first found to "help" me with my problem. JDR's site convinced me that I was transgendered, and the few emails I sent to her asking her questions were replied with in rants, where she railed about how awesome being a woman is, and how bad men are. Seeing as I was no older than eleven, I actually believed her bullshit, and it did nothing besides for make me feel trapped, as being able to define my so called problem, but not fix it, was frusterating.

Fast forward a few years, and here I am, realizing how full of shit JDR is and was, and thanking my lucky stars I didn't stay in contact with this crazy bitch, or actually act on her suggestions. I know now that I am obviously not transgendered, and only believed I was because of JDR's bullshit."


"But Fletcher!" you say, "Psychological screening would catch such individuals before any hormone therapies or more drastic treatments could be applied!" True. There are tests meant to help determine gender identity and whether an individual is actually transgendered or merely befuddled. But herein is where I begin to shake slightly with rage as I type. Look at the front page of her site and we see the following link and quote:
"Am I a Transsexual? THE GENDER TEST CENTER
A testing environment you can use to help determine the degree of your own gender issues. Home of COGIATI, a test specifically designed for the uncertain, questioning, pre-transition Male-to-Female individual with the purpose of helping them to come to a more concrete self definition."
(I will also take this time to note that her site is almost exclusively devoted to making big, icky men into women, because SHE doesn't know what the reverse feels like. Oh god, there is no larger ego-stroking than this fucking site, because as I'll get into, everything revolves around her.)
Anyhow. "What's wrong with the above?" might have occurred to you. Well, I'll tell you, AFTER posting what you see on the next page, should you click that link.
"Combined Gender Identity And Transsexuality Inventory

A unique test designed specifically for the uncertain pre-transitional Male-to-Female gender dysphoric. The first comprehensive gender dysphoria test, COGIATI exists to help you determine a reasonable self definition from which further action can intelligently be taken. COGIATI has been created to help you understand what your gender issues mean, and provides suggestions on what to do about them." (red and bold hers, although I'm not going out of my way to add the Comic Sans)

Where have we gone wrong?

JDR invented the COGIATI test herself.

Admittedly, she mentions this on the test itself... when claiming it's "[her] attempt to fill a void which needs to be filled". Almost like she thinks there are no other tests out there, or any worthwhile ones. (An aside: I'm not going to white-knight for psychology exclusively. Even today gender identity is somewhat, how to put this, "unstable" in the field, and how to classify and... well, I guess "treat" is the word, although the fact that I have to use something that makes it sound like a common illness is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Either way, I think the point is made. Psychology's not perfect, it's just got a better track record than this lunatic. You'll see.) This test is the crowning achievement on the shit-sandwich of this site. Above, when I quoted the comment about the confused young man? This is why. And to top it off, she concludes her preface, which is mostly ass-coverage and back-patting, with the following sentence: "It is my hope that professionals will be inspired by this effort and create a true, clinically valid and useful tool that would accomplish the stated goals of the COGIATI." If this were any other field of science, this level of hubris and "they called me MAD!" thinking would lead to clones, gene-splicing, or any of a hundred other horrors. In this one, though, people are happy to go "Oh, fuck those shrinks, they don't know about MY brain!" and ignore reason.
For shits and giggles, a friend and I took this test one night. Aside from the fact that it's so poorly designed that a lot of questions are rendered almost untakable by the wonky answers, it relies (despite claiming psychiatry can't do shit for transsexuals) on outdated gender models (Like math? You can keep your dick. Write poems? Chop it off, honey! Similar is taken as to athleticism: if you can CATCH A BALL it says you're a dude), and asks questions which are so far out as to confuse almost anyone before answering (actual question: "Suddenly the entire world is magically changed. Now you exist in a world utterly devoid of gender. All bodies are hermaphroditic, utterly androgynous in appearance, both male and female at the same time. The culture reflects this, as does all human interaction. You, however, are still yourself inside, with all of your memories of living in our world as it is now. Your feelings are intact, only your flesh has been changed. In this new world, everyone dresses, acts, and lives however they feel at the time, and there is no such thing as being male or being female. You alone remember the world of gender. In such a world, would you still need to dress like a woman?" Asperger's ahoy!). There are 5 gender roles it can assign you at the end of the test. It's very telling that he, a completely straight male, and myself, a bisexual with random bouts of crossdressing, ended up both listed as "androgynous", the middle-of-the-road classification. (The five classifications, for the record, are "Standard Male", "Feminine Male", "Androgyne", "Probable Transsexual", and "Transsexual".) Doesn't sound bad? Well, here's the thing: I chose the ones I figured were most "male" (some of those are impossible to guess), and he answered honestly. Answering honestly had it classify me as a full-blown transsexual. (For the record, I am rather fond of my penis and it and I plan to keep a healthy relationship long into our old age.)

Now you begin to see how deep the rabbit-hole goes, yes? Here's where it gets better. She has a page devoted to "debunking" criticisms of the test, the "Last Word" on the subject. Recall a mention that reasoning wasn't too big on this site? Well, it kicks in here in droves. After a pretentious "if it fucks up, it's your fault" opening, we get right down to "I made this by cherry-picking pieces of three other tests". And then comes something truly brilliant: telling how to cheat certain psychological screenings.

Frankly, at this point, we have a good stopping post. This has been edited and rewritten around ten times now, I shit you not, and cost me more than a little of my teeth from grinding them in the process. What does this mean? Well, now that we've covered a single section of the site, I'll be keeping this up for a little, piece by piece. (The original draft, I shit you not, was longer than every last paper I had to write this semester combined.) On the plus side, those of you missing the bile Solomon brought to the table can rejoice! You now have something to look forward to as I post the pieces.

22 comments:

Shahrabi Farahani said...

Woo, you're back! I've been looking forward to your rants about transsexual.org - there's not way in hell I could stomach the site design for any of JDR's turds long enough to find the real gems of shit buried within.

Anonymous said...

You know, I worked at a magazine that dealt specifically with bisexual and transgender issues.

And while the context of your rant makes it obvious, I thought it was important to state that on top of being reactionary and opinionated, Jennifer Diane Reitz is simply flat out incorrect.

For instance, there is no evidence that Gender Dysphoria is a birth defect anymore than there is evidence that homosexuality is.

The lack of any mention of female to male (FTM) transexuals should be another big clue that something is amiss on this site. The FTM experience is vastly different than the male to female (MTF) one. Though they share the commonality of gender dysphoria, they are hardly identical issues.

While I should be content to simply allow you (Fletcher) have your say (especially since I agree with you), I feel it's important to chime in.

Transexual issues, like all issues involving gender and sexuality should be discussed and understood. But Transgender.org actually creates misunderstanding.

It couches itself as a site that has useful information, but really it's just an opinion piece that masquerades as real information.

Though we should be able to rightly write Jennifer Diane Reitz off as an internet crank, we can't because her site bears the url of "www.transgender.org".

That is the real problem. People with questions are going to go here, read this thing, and come away with a wealth of bad information. Information that's actually damaging. Not just for the person who might be transgendered, but for a person just trying to figure out what it is.

The site promotes misunderstanding and I'm against that on principle. Misunderstanding on this level creates prejudice and that kind of prejudice can be dangerous.

Entropic Decay said...

She... tells you how to cheat on psychological screenings!?

Anonymous said...

Ah...I wanted to post a correction. That being that Jennifer Diane Reitz has the url "www.transsexual.org". "www.transgender.org" is used by a much more reasonable group.

Anonymous said...

I can see why you're pissed, as a professional and as a decent human being. Pretending to be an expert in any field is potentially dangerous, but doing so in this most treacherous and frontier of concepts is down right criminal. I've had an exceptional operation performed on my burst appendix. Life saver. Does that make me a surgeon? If I started giving home appendectamies, shouldn't I be stopped before someone gets hurt? I mean, how to CHEAT an actual professionals attempt to help you make a decision? How does she sleep at night.

Also, that question you quoted sounds like it was out of a Haldeman novel. I thus presume the correct answer is try and fail to score booze and sex in this odd new society and to reenlist into the military to fight horseshoe looking guys I can't relate to. Is this response supplied?

Zachary Cross said...

Ick... just plain ick. All of the people under the great blanket of complete stupidity that is JDR being duped into chopping off their genitalia, just so she/he can feel a little better about wanting to be a 16 year old schoolgirl. Nice to see your blog up and about again, BTW.

Anonymous said...

I was really glad to see this. Setting aside the extreme negative impact this site could have on impressionable kids looking for answers, it's always struck me as pretty fucked-up that someone has set themselves up as a transgender-issues guru while at the same time claiming that their 'perfect self' is, in fact, genderless.

Tony said...

I wouldn't be surprised if she was supplying this dangerous and misleading information on purpose. Judging by the fact that she seems to be under the impression that a woman is nothing but a collection of offensive 50's-70's stereotypes, and the fact that her ideal self is a genderless blob, it seems reasonable to think that she may have made the decision to become a woman somewhat in haste. And judging by how fucked up, crazy, and generally mean she is to people who don't lick her boots, she might well be supplying this misinformation purposefully, and maliciously, to make other people suffer like she does.
Keep in mind that this is the person who makes thinly veiled murder threats to people who make bad reviews of her comics.

Zandor 12 said...

Maybe I'm just tired or something, but which part of her Last Word rant is supposed to be the one that tells people how to cheat on psychological screenings? I'm just not seeing that part for some reason.

azzev said...

I'm not really seeing anything there on cheating either, much less [i]how[/i] to cheat. Maybe it was supposed to be a separate link, since JDR [i]has[/i] freely admitted to "cheating" (I'm sure she has her own word for it) by giving the responses they wanted to hear.

Still, it's been years since the COGIATI and that rant were written. Maybe she's cooled down a bit. Still, the fact the allegedly suicidal people like this even consider taking advice from her over a licensed psychiatrist just makes me cringe. But then, so does the idea that people like that think women (in the Western world, at least) still need to wear a feminine hairstyle, a skirt and jewelry to be accepted.

Bella said...

The thing that pisses me off the worst about JDR is her unmitigated arrogance about everything and her narcissistic need to turn every damn thing she produces into a soapbox. Her comics, although derivative of old sci-fi novels, would at least be readable if she didn't proselytize in EVERY DAMN STRIP in that pseudo-intellectual way of hers, "I am such a great thinker and because I think so much and write paragraphs upon paragraphs expounding my thoughts, what I think must be correct."

But her transsexuality site takes it to a new level, as you've stated... it's not just an arrogant Aspie ranting about her views on religion, or a geek who thinks that some familiarity with sci-fi equates to a professional knowledge of theoretical physics. It's an unqualified layman presenting her opinions as equally valid, nay, MORE valid, than a medical or scientific professional's research -- and on a very sensitive subject. I am a bisexual female, and when I was first questioning my sexuality and researching it on the Internet, I ran into a lot of sites that dismissed it as a "college girl phase." I smelled B.S., and kept searching, but how many people don't do that? I'd imagine that T questioners would be much more vulnerable to bad information and propaganda, since unfortunately this group is the most neglected of the LGBT community. Taking this into account, JDR is nothing but a predator.

Franz Schubert said...

I seem to recall stumbling on this site about 3 years ago, when I was feeling a bit confused about my own gender and whether I should go for a sex change. I immediately clicked the "back" button because the amateurish site design told me I should look elsewhere. After consulting several saner, more professional, more down-to-earth people, I've realized that I'm really completely okay with being a guy. So thank goodness for that.

After giving this site a more thorough look, though, I really shudder to think what might have become of me had I read any of JDR's BS and taken it seriously. This is bad, bad stuff, folks. Horrible advice from someone who has long ago abandoned his/her awareness of the physical reality the rest of us live in, and has a bloody arrogant attitude to boot.

All I can say is give 'em hell, Fletcher. There isn't enough vitriol in the world to heap upon this site and what it represents, but you're doing a good job of at least trying.

Anonymous said...

JDR is a sad little individual who poisons the Internet with criminally sick lies.

May the freak die a horrible death.

Thanasimos said...

Hehe. I went ahead and took her "COGIATI" test. It was...well, it was hilarious, to say the least--especially the idea that I am an "Androgyne". Why wasn't there a question where I could answer, "I dig the wommynz but not thayr mens."

My OCD creative half really wants to sit down with her and revise that until all the loaded questions and piss-poor phrasings disappear. My more rational half finds it more entertaining to laugh at the present state of things. Who to listen to!?

Anonymous said...

Why hasn't someone hacked that site to pieces yet?

Anonymous said...

that test gives me a "androgyne" result, mostly due to being a chick with independent thoughts and being, politely, a top. omg onoz.

the upside to this is that i transitioned when i was 13 and my life, while not all roses and cake, is pretty damn rad. (i'm 27 now) her "advice" doesn't mean jack. she's an authority on transness as much as i'm an authority on being the king of spain.

thank you for your contribution and understanding we're not all like that. if she sent you hate mail can i suggest posting it?

Anonymous said...

As a straight female I took that test for kicks, answering any Male-To-Female questions with the answer closest to 'I am an girl' and my result was...Feminine Male. News to me!

Anonymous said...

I took that test for giggles as well (and egads, pink on peach Comic Sans?! Her website designs are atrocious!) Despite being a fairly straight female, I too was pegged as an androgyne. I think it's because I have good sensory functions and academics. And because I can catch things that people throw at me. How manly of me.

I didn't even believe my friend when she told me JDR was transsexual. I thought she was just being mocking. Thank you for setting that straight and exposing me to enough lulzy insanity to last me weeks!

Anyway, I've been having a blast reading through this entire blog. Oh man, that whole thing that erupted on the comment boards with Crosby. How long, I wonder, does he wake up in what must be the most friendless existence possible, and consider grimly his entire bottle of Aspirin? It's hard to imagine so much hate contained within one being that does not already have an extensive felony record.

Maria/Bela said...

Yet another woman to take the CoGIATI test for pure laughs: Came up as a Feminine Male, answering honestly enough. Hard with some of the penis related questions.
Though, it should be noted: In my friedgroup I have been pinned down as the following: cross-dresser, bisexual, homosexual (WTF?) and asexual.
And my parents wonder why I am confused over these matters...

Raquel said...

Some day, JDR will go completely Jame Gumb and sew itself a suit made out of skinned people. Or, more likely, it will ask the sole breadwinner of the household to do the work for it, then make a whiny comic with bad Japanese when he does not do so.

Radec said...

I'd like to post a witty, in-depth observation here, but frankly...
This shit's just dangerous. We all know how gullible adolescents with low confidence get, and futhermore, the overwhelming number of em. But i take it JDR just won't hear someone say "boo" to her precious site, or by now we most certainly would have seen something change. It's been up for how long, after all?

Norsk Skogkatt said...

Hahah, another woman who took the quiz here, changing a bit of stuff around so it's answerable, of course. I got "standard male". Damn my love of math and lacking social skills! I don't want to be a man!
(As an aside, why doesn't the ninth question offer an option that states that you don't dress up as a woman? That's pretty weird.)