It all began with me responding to a post on Facebook. Some really misinformed guy wrote saying that sex and gender were the same thing and that everyone needed to stop making up new ways to define people. According to him, if one was born with a penis, then his gender was male, and if one were born with a vagina, then her gender was female. "And forget about these trans-testicles or whatever they call themselves," he wrote. "They're nothing more than faggots in drag." His diatribe knew no bounds, and he was unrelenting in espousing it.
Having just completed a course in
Sex and Gender Ethics
at the university, I felt I was more than capable of not just responding to this senseless mess of words, but to bringing enlightenment to the poor fellow as well, and I was determined to do so without resorting to name-calling or even humiliating him.
I began by stating that sex was the reproductive organ one was born with while gender was how the individual identified him- or herself. I then cited many peer-reviewed papers by specialists in their respective fields, and finished up with explaining how I was male-gendered, but I was bisexual, which in no way bespoke sex or gender. In the end, I left a really compelling argument that any rational-minded person could accept, only that wasn't the case.
He responded back by calling me a faggot who was responsible for spreading AIDS to heterosexuals, then went on to suggest that every psychologist's paper I had cited wasn't worth reading because they all were liberal socialist commies. It was truly pathetic. I decided to say nothing more. The following day, however,
I was amazed to see that over one hundred people had responded to that post, most praising me for my contribution while vilifying the guy who made the initial post. There were some who sided with him, though, yet, like most hate mongers, all they did was resort to name-calling instead of providing any real substance to the conversation.
Later that day, I received an IM from someone I did not know, someone named Al Weiss. Al thanked me for attempting to educate the guy, and asked me for my email address because, "I have something I think you'd be interested in seeing." Thinking it may be a link to yet another paper on the topic of sex and gender, I readily gave it to him. That night, before going to bed, I saw I had an email with an attachment from Al. I opened it, and what I saw was not what I had expected at all.
It was a picture of an erect penis. His penis? I had to assume so.
Why would he send this to me
? I wondered as I looked it. I logged out of my email, shut down my computer, then went to bed. I lay there for the better part of an hour, unable to sleep as that picture of Al's penis stayed in my mind. I got up, returned to my computer, and pulled up the email again. I looked at his penis really hard, studying it. He man-scaped, which was nice. His balls hung nicely, not too low. The shaft of his penis was a light tan color, was perfectly round, and appeared to be about six-and-a-half inches in length. The bulbous head was lightly purple and added about another inch to his length. All in all, it was quite lovely, and I masturbated to it.
After cleaning myself off, I wrote to him.
Hi Al,
To what do I owe the pleasure of this pic?
Don
The reply was almost immediate.
Hi Don,
This is what your response to that loser did to me.
Al
I smiled at that.
Do all the people who respond to guys like that get this kind of reaction out of you
?
Once again, immediately,
No, just the ones who are intellectually stimulating enough to provide an answer such as you did. In other words, only you
. : )
I responded with,
Glad I could be of service
.
Then I shut down my computer and went back to bed. I slept like a baby. When I awoke, I went straight to my email and found that Al had sent one only ten minutes ago, and there was another file attached. I eagerly opened it. It was another pic of his erect penis.
Dear Don,
