Dear Michigan Womyn’s festival:
the phrase “womyn-born-womyn” doesn’t ACTUALLY exclude transwomen. Transwomen ARE woman-born-women. They were just as female on the day of their birth as they are now. It’s just that no one knew it yet.
When you kick them out, it’s not because they aren’t “real” women. It’s because you’re assholes.
Just for the record.
2148) My younger brother made a derogatory comment about transvestites last night (which I don’t think he meant because he’s practically the definition of autism), and my mother was very quick to correct him. I think this bodes well for me.
(Source: mtfconfessions)
2149) I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable enough with myself or my body to ever have sex or be in a relationship, even when I’m post op.
(Source: mtfconfessions)
Whose Feminism Is It Anyway?: The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate Emi Koyama
I thought the author brought up quite a few points that struck me…Below are some quotes that stuck out to me. Interesting that I understand some of the points made, many of which are the discrimination factor such as excluding transsexual women from women’s spaces because they have had a deal, whether large or small, of male privilege which is seemingly most threatening to the feminist community described in this article. However, in are feminists not the most threatening to the feminist community if the continue to think this way? One quote below mentions how trans women can be used as assets as they know what male privileges they have had and are more aware, is that not a benefit as oppose to a threat? Excluding transsexual women is just as much oppression as any other form of it. How can those who are oppress continue to oppress and claim not to believe in oppression? It is the same as, why do we kill people to show that killing is wrong? I guess. It’s like a cycle, perhaps more than a cycle…It is also interesting how everything ties into each other, oppression, race, sexism, classism…Some of the quotes below reminded me of a class I took last semester entitled the Black Woman and there I learned about why black feminists distinguish themselves a just that and it was because they had these complexities to their identity. Color and sex. White women at the time were fight for their needs while black women were still suffering and were not included in these debates. Lastly, the quotes addressing shaking up the world of gender and body and how those of privilege feel threaten by when their power is threatened is intense. Women allow trans women to enter their seen is changing the idea of identity seemingly meaning that who are they if others can infiltrate their world and appear as them but what about breaking down the gender divides?
“Koyami has equally harsh words for the lesbian-feminists whose rationale for excluding transsexual women from women-only space recapitulated the logic of similar justifications within identity-based political movements for the exclusion or marginalization of women of color and the poor”.
“[H]ow much they as white women respect women of color spaces and how transsexual women should do the same for ‘womyn-born-womyn.’”.
“It is not simply that white radical feminists happened to be racist; rather, the series assumptions behind radical lesbian feminism (e.g. women’s oppression is the most pervasive and fundamental) was faulty as it privileged ‘those for whom that position is the primary or only marked identity.’”.
”’[T]o allow women of color to step out of stereotypes…threatens the complacency of those women who vie oppression only in terms of sex.’”.
“To suggest that the safety of the Land woudl be compromised overlooks, perhaps intentionally, ways in which women can act out violence and oppressions against each other. Even the argument that ‘the presence of a penis would trigger the women’ is flawed because it neglects the fact that white skin is just as much a reminder of violence as a penis.”.
“It is, then, no wonder that those who claim to ‘respect’ the space for women of color simultaneously employ oppressive rhetoric against transsexual people without having to face their own contradictions”.
“I must remind them that it is never feminist when some women are silenced and sacrificed to make room for the more privileged women.”.
“In the ‘women’s communities,’ transsexual existence is particularly threatening to white middle-class lesbian-feminists because it exposes not only the unrealiableness of the body as a source of their identities and politics, but also the fallacy of women’s universal experiences and oppressions.”.
“The fact that many transsexual women have experienced some form of male privilege is not a burden tot their feminist consciousness and credibility, but an asset-that is, provided they have the integrity and conscience to recognize and confront this and other privileges they may have received.”.
“Elliott Femyne bat Tzedek discusses how threatening boundary-crossing are to those in position of power and privilege”
