Note: during the spontaneous speaking part, the feminists I'm talking about are that probably pretty small group of feminists known as TERFs (Trans-exclusionary radical feminists). That was probably not clear in such an improvised speech.
Trans persons have been on my mind lately. For awhile I've been puzzled and not sure what I think and knowing that I needed to dig in and do some research because just thinking about things I would follow a process like: "Well, it seems we have a biological sex; yes there are many cases that don't fit a simple dichotomy, but the vast majority of human beings are either male or female. Gender roles are pretty clearly social constructs that can be and often are extremely damaging. But trans seems to fly in the face of that, trans people seem to affirm gender roles and some seem to be so tied to gender roles that they are willing to undergo MAJOR FREAKING SURGERY in order to affirm those gender roles. What up with that?" And, to my knowledge, I've never met a trans person so it was all a puzzle to me.
Well I finally took the time to do a little digging this summer and I found a perspective that surprised me. I don't know if I really have the language to describe it as yet, but I'll give it a try. When you read people's stories it seems clear that it isn't about gender roles really at all, it's not about femininity or masculinity as such, it's about feeling very, very, strongly that the biological sex thing is either wrong or too limited. It's not so much a theory, not so much an attempt to categorize and define, it is a lived experience of body dysphoria. So then what are we to do? Do we tell people "no, no, you were born with a penis, so that is your fate no matter how much that feels wrong to you, no matter how much pain it causes you---you are stuck." Do we tell people "no, no, you are a person with a vagina so you are defined by that, you don't get to define yourself---we define you as female."
Also, in the course of poking around on the intertubes about trans matters, I came across some feminists who were very vehemently anti-trans. Some of them going so far as to believe that trans women are tools of the Patriarchy, not accepting trans women as women but insisting they are men hell bent on invading and controlling female spaces. This perspective seemed very untrue compared to the stories trans persons told of themselves.
Anyway, I've been thinking about that stuff this summer and so when it came to improvising...the speaking bit went that direction! So, it wasn't some general slam on feminism, if that's how the improvisation sounded. I am very much in favor of feminism.
BaDOOM!
4 comments:
this reminds me of an advice column i read in the seventies wherein someone wrote that he wanted to have a sex change so that he could become a lesbian. the advice columnist basically dismissed the person as a prankster who was just making shit up as a joke. but even as a teenager, i thought that the columnist did the letter writer a disservice. no matter how convoluted the thought process was, it seemed possible that someone could genuinely desire that.
i think that sensibility is at play when people are trying to find their place where gender and biology intersect.
Well said SEOHP!
clearly jefe is a genius, and has awesome hair
well I have to say you're right about the hair part mully...although it is currently less awesome than it was...I took ye old razor to it!
Post a Comment