juliaserano: Yay, my AlterNet article is out!

juliaserano (

juliaserano) wrote,
@ 2008-08-05 11:31:00

Entry tags:

feminism, frustration

Yay, my AlterNet article is out!
I was hoping that it would come out before the end of the week (given that it discusses the MichFest issue, among other issues). It can be found here.

I glanced at the comments, but they made me ill...

-julia

(Post a new comment)

kathygnome
2008-08-05 06:53 pm UTC (link)

either pitting the supposedly out-of-touch, transphobic lesbian-separatists who run the festival against a more politically progressive transgender minority

I guess the real problem I have is that I can't see any way in which this isn't an accurate description of the corporate ownership of the festival.

Sometimes things really are that simple. I've listened to all the various excuses (socialization, etc) for discrimination and I can't see any point in arguing because I don't believe those making these excuses are any more sincere than the religious hatemongers trying to "protect marriage."

(Reply to this) (Thread)

juliaserano
2008-08-06 05:15 am UTC (link)

hi kathygnome,

i agree that for many it is that simple and that transphobic. but there are a lot of people who attend the festival who see themselves as "pro-trans", and are pro-trans-guy, but merely indifferent (rather than hateful) toward trans women. so there are some grey areas. having said that, as some of the comments to my piece demonstrate, there is definitely some downright trans hatred going on out there...-j.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	moonandserpent 2008-08-05 07:10 pm UTC (link)
	Fantastic article. Frighteningly horrible comments. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	auntysarah 2008-08-05 09:08 pm UTC (link)
	Frighteningly horrible comments. For sure - that's quite some rampant transphobia there. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	changingone77 2008-08-05 07:34 pm UTC (link)
	I thought the article was brilliant. The comments are terrifying. (Reply to this)

textualdeviance
2008-08-05 07:39 pm UTC (link)

I'm afraid I couldn't make it all the way through the piece (I'll finish it when I have a bit more mental bandwidth available) but I did want to make a few points:

1. Gender isn't natural. It just isn't. A given gender presentation may be more psychologicially comfortable for a given person, and I generally support the desire to achieve that comfort but...

2. Commodified and sexist femininity are inherently damaging to women. As they are not natural traits, but instead trained in women from birth in order to shape them as proper sexual and domestic servants, they are cages from which women need to escape, not homes to which women should aspire. Thus...

3. It is inherently sexist for transwomen to adopt hyperfeminine, unnatural gender presentation. Regardless of the pleasure or comfort a given woman may feel in such presentation, the net social result of doing so is to reinforce a structure that has historically robbed women of power and autonomy. (This also applies to birth-assigned women as well.)

Extremes of gender presentation are relatively innocuous when presented as theater. Drag is drag, and most people understand it as such. As individual fetishes go, they're also OK. I'm not going to police what gets people off in private. But when those extremes are presented as something natural or essential to a given person (regardless of assigned birth sex), they reinforce the (very incorrect and ultimately oppressive) idea that such extremes are natural for the rest of us, too.

This goes for everyone, too, not just women. I apply the same thing to people who adopt extreme masculinity. As with femininity, cultural ideals of masculinity are specifically developed as tools of sexism. Men are conditioned to accept violence and domination of others as normal and natural so that they may more readily keep women in the servant roles to which they are condemned. And for that reason, hyper-masculine transmen piss me off just as much as hyper-feminine transwomen do. Way to reinforce the social structures that are depriving you, too of basic human rights, doofuses.

For the record, MichFest pisses me off for similar reasons. Essentialism is bullshit whether it's coming from someone who was born with ovaries or not. Any concept that men and women (trans or otherwise) are "naturally" imbued with some sort of gendered behavior is bullshit and has absolutely no basis in science.

That said, it's also true that social conditioning matters, which is why I (sort of) understand the logic behind the transwomen exclusion (though I'm definitely against it.) It's not 100% unreasonable to assume that someone raised male in a sexist society may well still harbor vestiges of that training that may manifest in oppressive behavior. (A common one among the transwomen I've met, for instance, is the tendency to use a louder speaking voice or to interrupt people with whom one is conversing--dominating conversations is something boys are conditioned to do, and because it's so subtle, it's one of the things transwomen often don't realize is still ingrained in them.)

However, I also strenuously object to the idea that women are somehow inherently safe from sexism and oppression when they are exclusively in the company of women who went through socialized girlhood. That socialization includes elements of reinforced sexism and oppression just as much as male socialization does. It just manifests in psychological violence more than physical. I always laugh when women go on about the safety or naturalness of sisterhood. What horse hockey. Women have abused me and reinforced my cultural oppression hundreds of times more than men have.

In short: I generally support the right of all people to pursue a sex and gender identity that is comfortable and proper for them, but I stop short of endorsing the idea of essential gender identities that reinforce sexism and oppression. Extremes of masculinity and femininity aren't just unnatural. but inherently oppressive, and I'm always going to get on the case of anyone--regardless of their chromosomes or current identity--who blindly adopt those extremes without regard for the bigger context in which they exist.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	squigglefish 2008-08-05 08:23 pm UTC (link)
	I think you need Julia's book. That answers your three issues, pretty much. I'll leave it to others to discuss this further here. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

textualdeviance
2008-08-05 08:46 pm UTC (link)

I've heard the "empowering femininity" argument before. It's a common one among Gen Y feminists who were raised with the backlash and therefore have convinced themselves that their adherence to commercialized femininity is somehow natural and honorable.

It's also complete horseshit.

Freedom is not slavery. Celebrating the implements of one's oppression is not liberation. An entire generation of women--including transwomen--have swallowed false consciousness without even questioning it, all because they bought into the idea that real feminism is somehow sexless (which it's not.)

Essentialism is nonsense, with no biological basis. And whether that essentialism is coming from the bigoted women at MichFest or young victims of capitalism who insist that they ought to be allowed to prop up the sexist cosmetic and fashion industries doesn't change the ultimate fact of its nonsense.

I don't advocate entirely genderless androgyny, fwiw. I just don't buy the idea that a version of extreme femininity that is--conveniently--situated squarely within a framework of commercialized sexism has anything to do with what women--trans or not--actually are.

	herglacialspeed 2008-08-05 08:13 pm UTC (link)
	Good job of trying to articulate this issue as compactly as possible. Question for you: What do you think it is going to take to change the lesbian/feminist separatist mind? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	fall_of_sophia 2008-08-05 08:32 pm UTC (link)
	according to one commenter, the purpose of your article was to trash trans men. ze's got you figured out, Serano. this is a transmisandrist plot! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	as an aside gender_euphoric 2008-08-06 04:48 am UTC (link)
	I was literally punching the screen while reading that particular comment. Oh my fellow male-privilege receiving gender-conforming trans men. We R soooooo oppressed. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	alicephilippa 2008-08-05 09:19 pm UTC (link)
	A stunning article. Some of the comments to are frightening in their lack of empathy, and in some cases basic humanity. (Reply to this)

	juliaserano 2008-08-06 05:19 am UTC (link)
	so this comment is just to thanks all of the folks who offered nice words about the piece! i appreciate it! (Reply to this)

	snakey 2008-08-06 08:54 am UTC (link)
	Oh, I didn't know you had a livejournal! I was linked to the piece yesterday, and really liked it, and have now been pointed at your lj. friends you (Reply to this)

	bestdaywelived 2008-08-06 05:29 pm UTC (link)
	After reading that, I'm definitely going to pick up your book. It's an awesome article, and I learned a lot from you. (Reply to this)

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