If there's one thing that worries me more than someone claiming the unearned right to speak with authority on a topic - it's when others foist that authority on people who are undeserving of it.

Jen Burke writes two excellent blogs. One has already been written about by Denise Tanton - on the other, "Transcending Gender", Jen recently made a post ("_Self-Made Man_ by Norah Vincent") describing a new book in which the former LA Times columnist conducted some social experiments in passing as the opposite gender. Ordinarily, I'd be interested in reading such a book - anything which examines how gender is expressed and interpreted in society is grist to my mill. However, some of the comments on that post hinted that Norah's perspective might be less balanced than might be hoped.

In a second post ("Norah Vincent's Writing on Trans Issues in _The Advocate_") Jen uncovers some of Norah's previous writing on transgender issues. As with the first post, the comments uncover more aspects of this story.

My concern isn't that someone holds transphobic views. My concern is if someone who holds such views claims to speak with authority on trans issues. Now, there's no evidence that Norah has made such a claim - but the comments on the second post show that such authority may be being bestowed on her, by the range of media outlets she now has access to. One comment in particular highlights the possible harm that can follow if people draw the false inference that being widely quoted on the subject of gender means that what one says represents current thinking.

While we're on the subject of legitimacy - I've made a short post [dead link removed] to my blog, describing my thoughts, concerns and approach to being a contributing editor for Feminism and Gender on this site. Hopefully it will clarify a few things.