It’s Bigger Than Your Womanhood

Starting 2012 off with a rant–let’s see how this goes. Happy New Year, by the way!

Here’s how it starts: someone makes a disparaging comment about the biology of trans women in the context of a feminist reading of contemporary politics. Next: Facebook threads explode with, “She thinks I’m a man, so I don’t care what she has to say about anything,” followed by a dozen reasons why she should shut up or what should be done to her for not shutting up sooner. Then: everyone carries on labeling, threatening, and shouting at each other with their fingers in their ears.

I have encountered the above scenario (or a variation) entirely too frequently in the trans* community, usually a sentence or two away from the person absolving themselves of any possible male privilege. It’s really easy to get caught up in this kind of toxic/fear-based/acceptance-craving atmosphere when you’re first coming out, and I’ll be the first to admit I’ve occupied that state of mind for a while too. I just want to say that it’s bullshit we need to encourage ourselves to move forward from.

I know that some trans people get this, and I’m not writing for them today. They get that some people still have issues with people who are trans and understand why, even if they disagree. For better or worse, it’s just where we are right now as a human species.

This rant is directed to the trans women who want absolutely nothing to do with feminism (no one in particular) because a mean, scary woman somewhere called you a name or the wrong gender.

I get that it is beyond aggravating/triggering to be misgendered, called “twanz” “shemale” or “tranny,” or to have your life experiences at times dismissed or written out of the conversation (something we might surprisingly share with many of the feminists some trans women believe to be oppressing them). I’m not excusing any of that, but respectfully, if you think getting your womanhood validated is what this is all about, you’ve missed the point. Feminism isn’t about you, your gender, your medical condition, your positive sexual relationships, what that woman thinks about you or people she groups with you, all the individual very real shitty circumstances that oppress you, or what women can/should do for you. Feminism is about doing what you can to help build a better world for females, women, the class of humans society is fluent in oppressing whether they are black, latina, able-bodied, male-identified, squirrel-identified, post-modern, pre-industrial, a friend, or a total stranger.

Feminism is the movement, females are the people who connect us all and bring this struggle to each of our communities and homes. There will be no true revolution from the status quo without female power. And for all the trans women thinking that they’d like to be accepted and welcomed as women, females, and feminists–what are you doing for the cause of women and females? (Yes, it does partially work that way). If you aren’t actively involved in feminist solidarity work, know that your inaction still enables the supremacy of males regardless of how you identify.

Shortly after the active roles of trans women at Occupy Wall Street came to light, the Interwebs were abuzz with talk about this revolution as a trans revolution. Nevertheless, news of the vast number of sexual assaults against women at OWS events across the country never achieved as much attention in our communities. Why is that? Because we’re desensitized to (sexual) violence against women? Indeed, the reality of abuse against women in other revolutionary countries has gone under-reported as well, and this is a crisis the trans* community (whether female-identified or [formerly-]female-bodied) needs to remain vigilant regarding. It is very cool that trans wo/men are giving us revolutionary role models to look up to, and there are very real oppressive issues out there for all of us as trans people specifically to confront. There is additionally a force in this world that dehumanizes, enslaves, violates, and erases females. This is a crisis that deserves and demands our attention, and a crisis which is inextricably connected to each of our lives and individual struggles.

There will be no revolution from the status quo without female power–not just as individuals in individual circumstances, but as a class, in a system of powers.

Subverting male privilege isn’t as simple as (or necessarily related to) changing outfits or living with a new name and preferred gender pronoun. We must constantly seek out ways to dismantle male supremacy at the root if we want to see male privilege go away. As a woman-born-transsexual, I feel an obligation to work in solidarity with the goals of feminism, in rejection of the social treatment I receive/d as someone male-assigned-at-birth, and for the betterment of the group I identify with. This is a feminist solidarity I hope to cultivate with other trans women. Female liberation is trans liberation, and its the struggle we must support to live in a world that is better for the female-bodied and female-identified.

When a feminist does something you don’t like, think of your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, your best friend, your neighbor, or any other female in your life with whom you share a positive rights relationship, give thanks for them, and then get back to work for the cause that’s bigger than any of our personal conflicts or limited perceptions.

cross-posted from Trans Femmergy