i have been seeing radical feminists attacked for transphobia all over the place recently. i started to respond on a list for anarcha feminists, then decided i would prefer to put my thoughts here. i realise that my views are not representative of all radfems, and i feel the need to state that disclaimer in the hope that noone else is attacked for my views - they are my responsibility and mine alone. i do not mean to attack any of my sisters, radfem or no, i dont want to alienate anyone, and i dont want to hurt anyone - but this is my life too, this is my reality too, and this is my struggle too, and i have a right to an opinion, and to express it. as is usual, my thoughts are somewhat haphazard, and i am not a great writer but i have tried to be clear about my position, and i have even made the effort to use capital letters, so please bear with me. i have turned my comments off because i’ve repeatedly seen how malicious and fucked up these discussions get - i would rather read what people have to say on the subject, their own ideas, from their own experience, and towards their own goals, on their own blogs, without the usual personal attacks, assumption, projection, and misrepresentation, if that is even possible? i think comments threads just get out of control and nasty so quickly, maybe its just best not to have them. i am so sick and tired of women attempting to shame and silence each other - but im also tired of being silent, so here it is.
on the phrase “gender self concept”:
I cannot get my head around the idea of “gender self concept”. I have had gender forced on me. I want the abolition of gender. My sex class is woman. There is a biological difference between woman and man and that is all. The concept of gender, along with the constructs of masculinity and femininity, is not a ’self concept’ but an oppressive method of conditioning and control under the power structure of patriarchy.
on gender dysphoria causing “clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning”
Of course gender causes ‘clinically significant distress’ and impairment. It is a method of control - it is not real, we are not born with gender, it is forced on us - it is not ‘natural’, and it is not biological. It is designed to divide us into two classes of human, as if that were a natural division, but it is a man made division and the forcing of gender on women and men is significantly distressing for us all - there are numerous examples of this, eating disorders is just one of them. I do not want to reform gender by campaigning for more fluidity within it. I want to eliminate the false concept of gender, I want it gone. I don’t want my daughter or my son damaged any more by gender and I am sick of seeing women raped, silenced, murdered, and otherwise beaten down because of it.
on “living and presenting yourself as a person in your intended gender for a period of time”
What does it mean to “live and present yourself as a person from your intended gender”? If gender is a patriarchal construct, and it is, then what it means is to accept patriarchal lies, and to support and help enforce the gender construct.
What about women who are raped, beaten, murdered, who are cast out and silenced and ignored and mocked and segregated from our people and our society, because we refuse to “live like women should”, and to embrace femininity? We fight, as feminists, as women in the women’s liberation movement, against the patriarchy. When anyone supports the idea that it is possible to “live and present yourself as a woman” then I feel that it is an anti feminist action - it is supportive of the structure which has denied us our names, our language, our history, our bodies, recognition of our work, and denied us a place in shaping our world by denying us access to politics, education, and a share in the wealth we help to create.
I don’t want to hurt transpeople any further than they have already been hurt under patriarchy- I know how it feels to be hurt by your gender, as does every woman who has been denied everything I mentioned before, as does every woman who has ever been raped, and known that her mother was also raped, and her mother, and her mother, all because of ‘gender’, femininity, sex roles; and as does every woman who sees she has never carried her own name, only the name of her husband, her father, her grandfather, and his grandfather. But I do feel that supporting the idea of transitioning from one gender to another is reformism of a dangerous kind and takes us in the opposite direction from what I want, which is total liberation from patriarchy and femininity .
I am also continuously surprised at the way anti capitalist, and anti imperialist, and anti class, movements and groups are prepared to support the idea of transitioning between gender, at the expense of and usually whilst not even acknowleging, women’s liberation from patriarchy. Where is the class analysis of the trans movement? That precious class analysis of which the left boys are so fond is missing from this picture. As is the question of capitalism. What does ‘living as a woman’, under patriarchys definitions, entail? Embracing femininity is a consumption choice, whether taken by men or women - femininity is an artificial fantasy, forced on women as a reality, that requires the right look, and that costs money. Even for women of poverty, there is the necessary make-up, clothing, body, face and hair maintenance - I have had all forced on me at work in order to work. Femininity can be bought, and I think it demands to be bought, because no matter how “feminine” your walk, or your voice, or your laugh, it will not be enough on it’s own. I am a radical feminist, and one who grew up without feminine influence at home, one who never got shown how to do her hair or her make up. I had the influence at school, and from culture in general of course, but that major influence was absent from my life. And yet, here I am, I havent worn make up in years, and a couple of weeks ago I almost bought some, because I just want to leave the house and know I fit in, know that people arent looking at me thinking “she’s let herself go”. I stopped wearing short sleeves a long while ago now too, because my natural armpit hair is an unacceptable defiance against femininity, and I feel it everywhere I go, even when I am just here, at home, on my own. I have been doing this for years now and I am still so terrified of the repercussions, of the stares, of the comments, to go public with my own natural body hair! It would be hilarious if it didnt hurt so much.
So noone can tell me I don’t understand what it is like to be ‘gender dysphoric’. I struggle, and all other women struggle, and the agents of patriarchy and capitalism do its very best to force us to spend the little that most of us are able to earn to buy femininity. Anti capitalists must start to support women’s liberation from patriarchy, and that means acknowledging that femininity and masculinity must be expunged - not reformed, and not expanded - but completely and totally destroyed.
To end - I just want to make my position on transpeople clear. I will absolutely stand in solidarity with anyone who rejects gender roles - and that is all gender roles, not just rejecting one and embracing another.
