How could I even begin to explain s/he by Minnie Bruce Pratt?

From the beginning excerpt hand written

from one woman (Carla) to another (Tracy), to the last lines of the final vignette, I was in love with the
writing, and the animated, elaborate, heart-wrenchingly real, and mildly (to wildly) erotic stories shared.
I was let into the innermost feelings of a woman who struggled into her identity as a queer woman in
the 70s, and found how to use her sexuality to express who she is and is not. Pratt was a trans-activist
who mostly known for her novel Stone Butch Blues. She created s/he in the 90s to explore the
boundaries and overlaps of gender, gender expressions, sexuality, labels, and feminism through
vignettes.

Use of fashion - Butch/femme divide

Use of breasts reading it made me think to mine in situations. Using sexuality as a secretive
confidence, the sort of knowing your nipples are hard in public or doing Kegels secretly during a
conversation type thing.

To tie it to a contemporary reference, Hannah Baker from the new Netflix original 13 Reasons Why
exhibited feminist ideals and expressed herself through a work of poetry. I couldnt help but make a
connection to the first part of the poem: Today I am wearing lacy black underwear
For the sole purpose of knowing I am wearing them.
And underneath that?
I am absolutely naked.
And Ive got skin. Miles and miles of skin;
Ive got skin to cover all my thoughts
like saran wrap that you can see through
to what leftovers are inside from the night before.
And despite what you might think, my skin is not rough; nor is it bullet proof.
My skin is soft, and smooth, and easily scarred.
But that doesnt matter, right?
You dont care about how soft my skin is.
You just want to hear about what my fingers do in the dark.
But what if all they do is crack open windows?
So I can see lightening through the clouds.
What if all they crave is a jungle gym to climb for a taste of fresher air?
What if all they reach for is a notebook or a hand to hold?
But thats not the story you want.
You are licking your lips and baring your teeth.

Sexual experiences

Body

Raw almost tangible because of the sensory detail

Fear/ anxiety

Penis envy penis having power and men using it to oppress women

Deep desires of breasts glistening like jellyfish, devouring a hand

Trans language/ lack of. Sees gender and expression on a binary scale, not recognizing gender fluid or
gender queer labels. One could argue that the vignettes explore gender fluidity, but it really seems like
the fluidity of gender expression is the main focus. This creates a problem because it operates under the
idea that everyone is either a man or woman with some being manish-women or womanish-men, which
implies that genitalia defines a person. This also doesnt touch on the fact that intersex people exist.

words cunt and dyke used often

Language of the 70s/80s transgendered is used which causes a problem because people are not
womaned or maned

There is also a problem with the way that Pratt sees butch women as basically men and women who are
too femme as unliberated, as well as how society sees queer men as flamboyant and effeminate and
queer women ugly and butch. These phenomenon still occur today in our mainstream media, so it was
very interesting to see the link between decades.

One thing that the text touched on, which I wish it talked more about, was how although women are
united through their gender, women still separate themselves based on race, and cis lesbians can still be
bigoted toward trans men and women.

Though it is short, s/he took a while to get through because of heavy material such as rape, genital
mutilation, racism, hate crimes, and slurs

I could and would- take the time to transcribe every one of the 60+ times I marked a passage with a
colorful leaflet, but I instead encourage you to set aside an afternoon to devour Pratts words in their
entirety. Though there are some problems with the language, and heavy material is discussed, it is
definitely worth a read.