Trans sisters are still my sisters.

[logansrogue]

I was reading about the boycott of Feministe and Feministing by transgender women. Apparently there's a lot of transphobia and hate in the cisgendered feminist world that I, in my cisgendered privilege, never noticed. Now it's been pointed out to me, it's as plain as day.

I wanted to take this opportunity to say that I consider transgendered women as simply women (while not denying them the struggle and tough journey they took to be a woman in the first place). I think their issues are as much women issues as my own issues. I have had discussions with a friend who is transitioning recently, and it was very enlightening to see how being born in a body that you don't feel matches your gender affects a person. If that spirit inside the body is still a woman, if they are still marginalised for not being heteronormative or cisgendered, who are we to decide whether their issues are feminist or not? Are they not still suffering discrimination due to their gender? I look at their transition as a sort of late puberty, but one infinitely more painful and one they have to fight tooth and nail to achieve. How does it matter how one becomes a woman? A woman is a woman, and their rights are the stuff of feminism.

I think it's good the feminist blogs are discussing this issue because it's one a lot of people are unintentionally uneducated about. I think Calpernia's video about stupid questions people ask transgendered women is a great place to start if you're curious about them. :)

Comments

[starfyre01.livejournal.com]

Well said. Very thoughtful post, Nace.

[mawaridi.livejournal.com]

I think transphobia and trans-hate in the feminist community is pretty disgusting really. It makes me think of the way bisexuals are sometimes ostracised by the gay and lesbian community, especially when we are in opposite-sex relationships and can therefore "pass" as straight in a homophobic world (which apparently allows us to enjoy the perks of straight privilege). The problem with that is that being forced to deny part of your identity (or having it ignored or assumed away by other people) isn't really a privilege at all. I think some feminists don't "trust" transwomen because they got to spend part of their life benefiting from sexism because they were born in male bodies, but that ignores the fact that they didn't want to be in male bodies. Transwomen don't benefit from male privilege when they choose to live as women; when they "pass" then they get treated as women and thus suffer from the same social problems any cisgendered woman faces in a patriarchal society, and if they don't pass then they suffer from anti-treans prejudice. Either way, transwomen are our sisters and they should be welcomed into feminist spaces with open arms as quickly as any cisgendered woman. Transwomen face enough discrimination from the world as it is without being turned away from or made to feel unwelcome in spaces that are supposed to be safe for women.

[babalon-93.livejournal.com]

agreed.

[asweetdownfall.livejournal.com]

This. ♥

[nephron.livejournal.com]

Absolutely.

Online feminism frustrates the living hell out of me, so many feminists completely unable to see past their own personal problems.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I think the beginning of the path to being a better feminist is to humbly accept your own shortcomings and blind spots. I have them. I work to be good about it when people enlighten me to them. It's not always easy, but owning one's privileges and faults and shutting the hell up when someone is hurting and is telling you about it is the least one should do when in a position of privilege. I wish these women would realise that. Yeah, they have a right to be mad about the way they're treated, but to be myopic about it helps nobody and disadvantages everybody.