About Me

My name is Nora! I'm an epidemiologist and former anthropologist. I grew up in the DC area and was educated in Baltimore and Memphis, but now call New Mexico my home! 

This blog is borne out of the desire to bring anthropology back into my life and to write "pop anthropology" articles. 

You can also find me on Medium at https://medium.com/@nfholzinger
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Location: New Mexico, USA

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How Transphobia Harms Me, a Cis Woman

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“Ding dong - Doors opening. Step back and allow customers to exit…”  As I stand at the opening Metro train car doors, I sense another passenger behind me.  “They’re just letting men wear dresses these days, huh.”  It’s 10:30 at night and I’m coming home from work. I get a pit in my stomach and reassure myself there’s no way he’s talking to me. I’m a woman, and always have been.  However, we are the only ones in this train car, and I am wearing a dress.  --- I am over six feet tall, with a build better described as “statuesque” rather than “model-esque” – broad shoulders, flat chest, without the soft curves that would mark me as belonging to the ranks of the fairer sex.  This fact has been thrown in my face as long as I can remember – the fact that I am larger than most men and always will be.  Judith Butler, misunderstood feminist theorist, writes that gender is a performance. You are a woman because you perform the stereotypical social role of “woman”...
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“It sounds like he’s just trying to get rid of you rather than take any corrective action,” said my union steward.  His voice grew distant over the phone I held to my ear, and in my view of my kitchen turned into a long corridor.  Despite months of petty conflict with my teammates, it took an HR complaint from my supervisor alleging “insubordination” for me to realize I was in a toxic work environment and my own supervisor was at the center of it.  Suddenly all the small humiliations and injustices made sense.  Clear displeasure when I disclosed travel plans six months in advance.  An unfair performance evaluation.  Getting shafted in the new office seating arrangement.  Being left out of meetings about my subject area.  The sudden attitude change from teammates with whom I thought I had a good working relationship.  I confided in my coworker who was a higher-up before her own experience with a toxic work environment drove her to take a lower...
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