Monday, April 18, 2011

HATING TRANS WOMEN AND OTHER STORIES

Radical feminist separatists are becoming literary scum sores.

There is nothing “subversive” in its agenda any more, it’s all political maneuvering of the same misogynist/queer phobic language they claim to defy. There is nothing that anyone can do to even lessen the resentment that resonates in the trans community against some of the recent issues where the self indulgent “radical-feminist-separatists” (who militantly demand a total female only virtual/articulating space) have not only denounced trans women from the movement but have disparaged and cruelly misrepresented the sentiment of an entire community. Their blogs, which I will explore further in this post, lavishly indulge words like trannies, chicks with dicks and the most abhorrent- shemale, continuously to demean trans women and to reiterate the fact that they can never be “womyn” i.e. a woman-born-woman, another linguistic weapon to put transsexuals in a pit. They treat us (Trans identities) likes shit and tell us, that there is no place for you in your aspired sex.

Your sex- is the body you are born in and deal with it, NOTHING will change it. They are propounding theories of Trans women being female impersonators, caricatures of femininity and useless intrusions in the female space. How could our “feminist” sisters use a parlance which is clearly pornographically constructed and has been deployed to butcher transsexual women throughout the history? What I fail to comprehend is this bizarre resentment of the radicals against trans identities. There is nothing “feminist” about attacking and disdaining another woman just because her biological makeup tends to differ from a genetic woman and to specifically bully her biological “appendage” that she wishes to morph. I maybe a born male, my body may be working towards becoming female but my soul has always been one. Of a woman and I am extremely proud of it.
But in any case who has given these certain self-styled radicals the autonomy to define who a “woman” is?

I was extremely insulted, even though these mamas would then coo “Please, it is not a personal attack on anyone. It’s just an observation”. Yeah, right. Up yours.

But more than insult it’s the disappointment and the anger that such actions ensue. So, once again, Trans Women are being written out of the LGB(t) Community. So, once again, Trans Women are being written out of the Feminist Community. There is a reason Julia Serano termed her foundational trans-feminist text Whipping Girl. Because Trans Women are one of the favorite groups of people to mock, bully, demean, hate on and deride.
For instance, The Magazine Project for Lesbians defines itself as “an inclusive space for female-born lesbians only as we found it increasingly difficult to manage open discussions between female-born lesbians and Trans groups without inherent power dynamics and contention between the two. Although it would have been a progressive endeavor to unite the two groups, it is beyond our capacity at this point. We also welcome female-born bisexuals”. There has been a recent change in the submission policy of this Magazine project which will only consider submissions by women-born-women because they feel that the transsexual woman can only aspire to be a woman but never really be one. She can try as hard as she wants- she can keep working throughout her life to earn the money she wants for her surgery, she can look as womanly she wants but in the end she is just an imitation of a genetic woman. But still the “about us” of TMP sheepishly whispers, “we are feminist not radical feminists”. According to TMP and other such ventures, an individual is defined as female based on their chromosomal makeup?! It makes me laugh.

A laugh that suddenly turns yours ribs inside and makes you want to burn everything around. On the TMP website it clearly states “Who is an LGBT female? An LGBT female is a woman born with two X chromosomes in the cell nuclei who is adjectively lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (including FTMs). Gender determined by chromosomes? REALLY? This is some straight-up biological essentialism. Biological determinism is exactly what creates oppression against women under the patriarchy. To make the assumption that “females” have an XX pattern is an incredibly reductionist and vehemently anti-intersex position to take on.

And wait, the vilification becomes darker now.

Another voice from the radical-feminist-separatist community opinionates that Trans women must not even be allowed in the female toilets. She feels that the female toilet is meant for females not for female identified individuals but trans men are sanctioned in this space. But, you stupid sexist radical- why will a Trans man wish to use a female toilet? HE does not identify himself with females and HE will use the gents’ toilets. Stop dictating your own terms and feeding the misogynist monster that actually oppresses us. And if there is any construction of any female only space then it will include Male to Female transsexuals who then maybe lesbians, straight or bisexuals and not Female to Male. Duh. Male space/forums are different.

STOP telling trans women that rape crisis centers are only meant for genetic women and not for anyone who does not have a visible, functioning vagina. Again an extremely insidious, essentialist understanding of gender and please for heaven’s sake (vagina’s sake?) a woman has been raped!
Do you wish a woman to reach rape crisis centre and orate her biological/sexual history or help her deal with violence inflicted on her? Will you throw a woman, ANY woman out when she has been RAPED?

The ideological environment nurtured through such “values” is neither pro-choice nor anti-oppressive. It is anti-choice and pro-oppression. If they really believed in diversity amongst women, then trans women would be one of the forms of diversity that they believed in and affirmed. Plus, a transsexual only identifies/becomes the sex he or she aspires and that does not define that individual’s sexuality. I am a transsexual woman and it’s not important for me to just like men. I could be bisexual. And recently, I discovered that I just maybe.

But that again rages the voyeurism. How does a trans-dyke do IT? So, once for all, it must be made clear. A pre-op trans-dyke will not take a woman to bed and then show her bulging erection and aspire it to be sucked. Or (wait I am reeling all the pornographic images which are a huge fetish for radical feminists and patriarchy to bully trans women) buck the woman down and fuck her. Ew. That REALLY never happens and if you want, you can fulfill you fantasies at Ladyboy.com and not in real life. Sorry. For any transsexual woman, our male organ never figures in the sexual act whether it’s with a man or a woman. If the other woman wishes me to penetrate her, I would never do it. Not even use a dildo. The act of penetration is gross and in some weird way, offensive (although if she wishes to use a dildo on me, I don’t think I would mind that). Sex is mysterious that way.

The feminist statement of TMP and the Dyke-osaur (the 1970’s Raymondism) blatantly contradicts its own diversity statement. Not all women, including lesbian, bi and trans women, are feminists. And some of them have very good reasons, rooted in anti-oppression social justice activism, for not identifying with that term.

I have so many friends in the lesbian-feminist community and I identify with their agenda. I feel comfortable in the feminist circle and so many of them are allies to trans individuals. When they ask what should be done, I will say such hatred and bigotry has to stop. Respect the real spirit of woman and not just the sight of a wet vagina.

Enough is enough.

2 comments:

  1. awwwwww, i feel your pain afreen. hugg!

    you have expressed your viewpoint so nicely in this post. glad to have this added perspective. thank you!

    i do wonder about the sex part though. can bodies not just figure out their own ways to pleasure each other? too often i find that we get consumed by rigid expectations of *how* sex should (or shouldnt) be. in my experience, each time that two or more bodies get together sexually, there is a different and unique dynamic. this uniqueness must be celebrated and specially attended to, and it cannot be taken care of by a "plug and play" formula of "should"s and "shouldnt"s. that being said, of course each of us has a prerogative to have sex in ways that turn us on, and if that includes or precludes penetration, so it is.

    well, cheers to women! the world is definitely a richer place for the existence of all different kinds of us. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. this is a very nice article... very well expressed...... god bless u..... :)

    ReplyDelete