The problem isn’t just trans exclusion. It’s gender exclusion. Feminism is for everyone:
#19 ONE OF THE GIRLS
People sometimes ask me when I knew I was transgender. Usually I say around the time puberty set in and the differences between me and the girls I knew began to become more apparent. I can recall wanting to play with the girls as far back as elementary school. However, the girls at recess didn’t have much interest in an awkward geeky boy hanging around.
I have always considered myself a feminist. By feminist I mean someone who believes women are just as equal to men and deserve the same rights and respect. As I began to experience my own womanhood, feminism became even more important to me. I am very fortunate to have some seriously stellar lady friends in my life that have been instrumental in my development as a female. These inspiring women go all the way back to high school and have helped see me through college and my transition.
With all this awesome girl power and female bonding going on around me, I was seriously taken aback when I learned that there are a number of women and radical feminists who refuse to recognize transwomen as women. What is confounding about many of these women is that while they don’t believe that “biology equals destiny”, yet they judge transwomen on what we have/had between our legs. They claim that we were raised with male privilege and no amount of hormones, electrolysis, or surgery will make us “real women”.
A big matter of contention among this crowd tends to be the issue of transwomen in “women only” spaces. By their reasoning transwomen are invading (and some…ahem, Janice Raymond…have gone as far as saying “raping”) women’s bodies, safety, and comfort when transwomen dare to be part of female groups and activities. Yet a lot of these women will welcome trans-masculine people openly into their organizations and events. This is trans-misogyny plain and simple.
Transwomen have a lot to offer feminism and indeed it is crucial that transwomen be part of the feminist conversation. Those who denounce transwomen as fake and refuse to recognize our femininity are like those girls elementary school who wouldn’t let “boys” be part of their game.
I love her take on this, too:
#20 TRANSGENDER PEOPLE DON’T REINFORCE THE GENDER BINARY
I have read that some individuals take issue with trans folks because we supposedly “reinforce the idea of a gender binary”. Their view is that through our transitions trans individuals are somehow trying to fashion themselves into an idealized image of what a “real” man or woman should be, and therefore supporting the notion that men and women should look and act a certain way. This is notion is flat out ridiculous.
While it is true that for many trans folks attempting to gain access to hormone therapies and surgeries, portraying themselves as overly feminine or masculine is a means of dealing with gatekeepers. This does not mean that we are reinforcing the gender binary. Instead, this is an unfair burden placed upon trans folks to work within the restrictions imposed by the Standards of Care.
What really debunks this concept is that it holds trans people to a higher standard than cisgender individuals. If a transwoman is reinforcing the gender binary by wearing make-up and a dress then by the same thinking ANY woman wearing make-up and feminine attire would be reinforcing the gender binary. Any man who chooses to sport a tie would be reinforcing the gender binary as well. In other words, if trans people are reinforcing the binary, then we all are.
Because well, yes, we all are, we all do. We make concessions to binary gender because it’s fucking easier, and there’s no good reason trans people have some special mission to deconstruct the binary so that cis people can be liberated from it.