A thought that has been on my mind quite a bit recently is this… You ever feel a little “oppressed” by the assertions other people make about your gender, sexual orientation, or otherwise? Ever find yourself feeling as if people are applying something to you which has nothing to do with you? Even feel labels constrain people from actually understanding who you are? I get that feeling a lot. In my situation I am a person who was assigned male, but lives as a female. My internal sense of self is a static thing for me. Also, because of the fact that I identified with my mother, and with women I am feminine in many cultural regards. The problem with that is where the situation gets sticky. As a transgender person people who perceive me as feminine without thorough evaluation of who I am feel, “Oh, your feminine, how typical of you”, or they apply stereotypes to me which do not apply. This is especially true of cisgender people, and even more so radical feminists. As a fellow feminist, I understand the performity of gender, more thoroughly than some of them do. But, this is where understanding breaks down… My feminine qualities are unintentional, a product of other people’s definitions and quite inconsequential to my gender identity (how I feel about my body).
What I am saying is that I have both masculine and feminine qualities (by cultural definitions) and I am a woman (socially and biochemically through medical intervention), that these two things while they do affect each other are completely unrelated. And as for the performity of gender to a certain degree of femininity and masculinity isn’t a performed, but rather an acquired behavior through family member we identified with. My behavior in relation to my gender is independent of my gender identity, however my behavior is very much effected by my gender identity. Essentially gender expression has little effect (If any), on my gender identity; but the reverse is true if their positions are transposed. My gender identity growing up has a lot to do with my acquired, or learned habits. So it frustrates me that people impose their “gender assertions” on me, that because I became a woman (trans or otherwise) that it’s only typical I should be feminine. I was always effeminate to the same degree I am now, but you can’t really draw on that (on its own) from my transition. Butch male to females, and genderqueer male to females as well as many intersexed people stand in blatant contradiction to that idea.
Image via Wikipedia
Where I find the social issue with this is the exclusivity that comes with the lesbian community. Culturally, even among those of the GLBT community femininity, or feminine attributed behaviors are treated negatively (mixes of cultural and acquired behaviors), and by extension people who are GLBT and feminine get treated poorly to a degree. People don’t try to discern acquired habits from stereotypical, or gender performative phenomenon. And I am not talking about culturally hyper exaggerated female behaviors or superficial obsessions, I am just talking about the behaviors acquired by identification with other women, and the biologically dependent factors. Hormones play a big role in behaviors, as does how you were raised, and your gender identity. But when people hear I am transgender, they automatically toss that “effeminate label” and all the negative cultural contexts regardless of whether they are true or not. or even apply. I don’t wear crap loads of make, well not anymore now that I have tossed cultural stereotypes… I have grown into being my own woman and I am no longer trapped by that dichotomy, but people I have never met before treat me as if I am an “agent of the patriarchy” or “agent of oppression”. I am not.
I am not a woman because of my behavioral traits, nor do my behavioral traits, habits, or appearance make me a woman on their own. The problem I often find in dealing with certain philosophies of feminism is that they marginalize transgender people for what they feel some of us represent. They often speak of us as those “Agents of the Patriarchy, trying to rape the vestiges of womanhood“, or some of them do. We are not, or at least I am not. Transgender people in fact stand up as an example against the limiting and narrowing ideology contributed by patriarchal binary gender concepts. It is a patriarchal concept, whether you see it or not. It stems from the patriarchal mindset of men with sexual entitlement and compulsory heterosexuality of women. Transsexuals specifically muck up that whole system, as do lesbians; which is all the more reason why we should help each other, but I digress. I sacrificed any privilege I may or may not have had in transition to be true to who I feel I am, and to avoid driving myself to the point of suicide. Moreover, I have become a woman who doesn’t exemplify the stereotypes that are used by the patriarchy to make women second class citizens. That is the last thing I want. I don’t want to be made into a second class citizen because I am a woman, anymore than I want it because I am pansexual or transgender.
The biggest misconception in all of this is the assertion that “If gender is performative, and you know it, why transition?” Gender identity isn’t about how you look, or act necessarily. Gender identity is about how you feel about your body, your body map so to speak. Gender identity is your innermost sense of self. Clothing, gender roles, or acquired behaviors can’t compensate for that. On their own, they can’t reduce gender dysphoria, nor do they make the treatments we receive any less necessary. And there you have it, we end up right back at sexism, specifically cissexism, and gender stereotypes. The biggest gripe I have between some other feminists and myself (the transgender feminist) is that. They nullify our non-binary gender in the same way the patriarchates do. They are cisgendered after-all, but their sense of gender and binaryist entitlement is still no less influenced by the gender brainwashing we are given from youth that causes an erasure of all non-binary persons, or anyone whose genders fail to conform to the sexists regime.
Image represents Yin and Yang - Masculinity and Femininity (Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr)
Some feminists call themselves “Womyn” (and other variations) to partition their identity into one that only they can claim, something more real. Example: [You identify as X. You meet a neighbor who identifies as X, or with an X sounding identity. You don’t like your neighbor and resent their co-located identity, or believe they aren’t truly X. So you identify as Y, to separate yourself from all those you see as “Falsely X”, or “Too similar to X for comfort”.] Ever hear the phrase cutting off your nose to spite your face? I find the word Womyn, in such a context to be offensive and sexist (cissexist) as it derogatorily limit being woman to being born with a vagina. Many intersexed people and all transwomen are born without them and other “Female Only” structures, but essentially female ≠ woman (which is part of the gender binary). You don’t change your name just because you don’t like, or don’t understand someone else with the same name. That would be ludicrous. I find there are many feminist who convolute the idea of gender just as bad as patriarchates, and are just as sexist and without good reason. (As if there was ever a good reason for sexism). Point is I am tired of people broaching me with their labels, while failing to understand me as a person. It’s frustrating to have someone treat you as though you are supporting the terrorist regime of male privilege simply because you’re transgender. (All considering: I don’t completely understand the need to change the spelling or what point it really makes, though I do understanding the underlining concept I feel it seems inappropriate for the situation. That is my opinion.)
Furthermore, these same groups treat transmen completely different even though some of them do partake in “Male Privilege”. Femininity in the stereotypical concept is bad, and is biased for the patriarchy and against equality of women everywhere, but being a woman isn’t something to be scorned, nor is acknowledging the qualities that come with that, no more than identifying with those who are genderqueer, neither, both, or just other… Femininity and Masculinity are social constructs exaggerated and placed on top of our innate human behaviors to force assimilation with the gender binary. But being a feminist doesn’t mean I have to pretend I am something I am not to be one. I think it is up to each of us to decide for ourselves what our womanhood means to us, and the same for men to define manhood outside of their privilege. To define it outside of the cultural dichotomies, and outside of the coercive and performative concepts. Perhaps the disconnect is in understanding about what the basic dictionary definition says about femininity and what culture and history says.
Being submissive doesn’t make you a woman anymore than being dominant makes you male. I feel it is time for us as a culture to shed the false dichotomies of gender which create oppressive logic like sexism. The patriarchates don’t want that because it undermines their power to control. I hate the appropriation of gender to things that are genderless. They want you to stay complacent in your little gender roles, to stay with in your invisible caste. They will fight you every step of the way. They try to feed off the disagreements and in fighting between feminism and trans-feminism, and those who are just transgender feminists. Men can be feminists too, by acknowledge and trying to do something about their privilege. But perhaps what we really should seek to obtain is pure and simple gender equality for all. Gender equality that doesn’t discriminate against the nature of gender itself or label things as “Gendered” which are not. To make a society that makes an exception for those who are exceptional on the basis of need not libertarian simplification of the narratives of who we are. It’s time for the intellectual dishonesty and laziness surrounding our understanding of gender as a society to end. We shouldn’t treat one gender or sex as a better than the other, and abolish all establishments of “Separate but Equal” once culture has grown past the social constructs of gender. When I stand up for myself I am not speaking from residual privilege. I stand up because I am tired of being put down and pushed around by sexists for not conforming to gender roles, societal perceptions, or for refusing male privilege and fighting against our still very patriarchal society.
Just me. I stand for gender equality because I know what it's like to be hated because of your gender. Zemanta doesn't want to properly wordwrap left this image (Shakes Fist).
I seek to live in a world where the identities of women, men and others are embraced, not oversimplified to be just to labeled under the archaic bronze age pathology as men (greater) and castrated-men (lesser). Women should be reclaiming their identities from societal distortion; as should conscientious men, genderqueer, neither, bi-gender, transgender from those who constantly appropriate their own definitions on top of what our identities represent. If you’re a woman, man, genderqueer, neither, both, other and you truly feel you are then identify yourself accordingly. It’s simple. I want sexism to end, regardless of what gender you are, whether you’re feminist or not, whether you were born a woman or a man, or intersexed, and regardless of your gender identity. It is time it ended. Much of this blog was inspired by dealing with the application of gender to me in ways that it doesn’t apply to me, or when it has culturally biased gender stereotypes in it.
Afterthoughts from reading several Feminist Blogs (particularly Rad Feminist Blogs)
I wish people would stop making attacks at the easy targets our cultural regime has made us, mostly referring to transgender and transsexual people here. I’m dumbstruck by the amount of feminists who support the binary gender concept and take part in the erasure of all those who aren’t just purely exclusively male or female (not to mention the biased way about how they do it, mostly targeting only male to female spectrum people). It helps the patriarchal power framework by denying the very reality of transgender, transsexual and intersexed people by reinforcing the patriarchates right to rule over all definitions of gender, and of its narrative. It’s garbage. Yes transwomen are different from women, but they also differ from men (neurologically, psychologically, emotionally, et cetera). This insinuation that transwomen are only pretending and performing the patriarchal gender construct of women is a falsehood. I know there are transwomen who subscribe to the social gender constructs and complete reconditioned their behavior in accordance with it. This is as much a result of patriarchal power as it is with cisgender women who do the same. Also, there certainly are some who seem to be “Caricatures of Femininity” such as with transvestite and drag queens. But it is sexist, and scientifically incorrect to assert that transwomen are delusional, as it is never our presentations of who we are that are the core of the issue but our bodies. Additionally, not all transwomen out there are “Playing the role of patriarchal concepts of gender”, so it’s wrong to stereotype either way. (Ask any butch Male to Female about that). Each and every one of us needs to find and define gender within ourselves, as people outside of what happens to be man and woman in culture. Male and female should only matter when talking with your physician.
Transmen and transwomen don’t exist to convenience or inconvenience radical feminists… We just exist, and we do the best we can with what we have, whether a little or a lot. We are oppressed by the patriarchy by interfering with their entitlement to have sex with women who aren’t trans. We are part of the diversity of human sex and gender just like you are, we just don’t fall in one of the too median values, just like intersexed people. Being a feminist doesn’t prevent one from also being a sexist. It’s easy to make baseless assertions about transgender people not being one, but it doesn’t make you right. It isn’t sexism making people change their genders, it’s most likely biology though it isn’t something readily understood or taught in schools. It’s no different from homosexuality, you don’t choose which sex you are attracted to, you just are. What needs to go is the social constructs of gender so we can just be the people we are without vestigial, useless behaviors ruling our actions. It’s a genital centric view to assert people can not change their assigned gender which is the core of sexism. Genital Centrism is part sexism and by extension of the power structure of patriarchal rule… Ignoring it doesn’t erase reality. Gender, sex or transition in the social context of that is inconsequential to the fundamental nature of who I am. I didn’t change who I am to be a woman, or to transition (though I did have a chaotic time adapting at first), I treated the symptoms of a medical condition and I will continue to do so as I see fit.
It just really irritates me to no end to see sexism frothing over on sites like those of radical feminist because they support patriarchal concepts, or support something I view as supporting male privilege or the patriarchy itself. And they are so blindly following this cissexist line of thought without realizing its counter productive. My understanding of this will grow more as I attempt to understand it further, and I am open at all times to critique and information that will help me make that conclusion. I have only been out to the world for a couple years, and you can’t learn everything there is to know that quickly. My position on this will change as information and evidence presents itself. I may later write a blog about how I feel about male privilege and how it related to my life before hand.
Related articles
- come on people, be people now! (rainbowgenderpunk.wordpress.com)
- Making Peace with the Grue-some Monsters (mhairi.wordpress.com)
- Sister Space Under Threat (radicalhub.wordpress.com)
- Biology is Fate (greeneyezwinkin2.wordpress.com)
- Transgender people fight for civil rights, public understanding (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Gender Identity – Casting A Ridiculously Broad Net Since The Third Wave (sexnotgender.wordpress.com)
- The Gender Ternary: Understanding Transmisogyny (radtransfem.wordpress.com)
- Difference Exists (bugbrennan.com)
Reneta Xian 
So many words. So little comprehension.
That’s a very vague critique, giving me no frame of reference. Also, without evidence supporting a counterclaim it’s little more than opinion. I am not a radical feminist, I am pro gender equality. I also seek to see an end to sexism, or the “weighing” of a person’s value on their sex organs. I am tired of cultural appropriating gender to things that confuses potential understanding of transgender people. Cultural gender rearing based behaviors don’t disappear over night, they take generations. I am also against the sexist (cissexist) nature of radical feminists positions on transsexuality, and gender identity. Trans people aren’t here per request of the patriarchy to befuddle your efforts, we exist independent of it and have existed for as long as there has been humans. If our narrative is being borrowed by the patriarchy that is something we can fight, but we can’t “Stop being trans” to do it. All I can do with what I know is point out the problem, finding a solution is more difficult.
The organizing principle of your entire life is false. When you base your entire identity on a foundation of sand, nothing else holds up. If you have male DNA then you are male. Period. End of story. You can pick and choose whatever behaviors you want to engage in from the entire menu of possible human behaviors (“wears silk dresses” or “chops wood for the fireplace” or “spends hours playing the piano” or “wears mascara” or “speaks in a booming, attention-seeking voice”) without having to stereotype ANY of these behaviors as “male” or “female” behaviors. That’s just sexist crap. What you cannot do is: grow up as a female in a female body, ovulate, menstruate, become pregnant, give birth, breastfeed naturally, etc. because YOU’RE NOT FEMALE. Just as females cannot produce sperm or ejaculate it or contribute it to the fertilization of an ovum. What feminists strenuously object to is the FUNDAMENTAL sexism of the entire “trans mythology”, the minstrelization of womanhood. While you voluntarily play at your make-believe of “being a woman” you are turning what we women actually ARE into a game for your own amusement and diversion — no different than a white person wearing black-face and then claiming that they really are black and insisting that everyone call them black, invite them into black social spaces and organizations, listen to their “black experience” and take it seriously, etc. It’s intellectually and politically dishonest to claim that you are anti-sexist when your very being — everything you and your buddies are as “trans women” — is fundamentally and essentially sexist, the most egregious perpetuation of blatant sexist stereotypes imaginable outside of a Saudi Arabian Sharia Law courtroom.
First, with regards to your perspective that my gender identity and transition, or the fact that I am transgender is being sexist… Pot calling the kettle black… Your entire comment rings hollow of substance because this is the most cissexist garbage I have ever heard. But I am not surprised by it because it is quite common. And if we are going to get into specific biological technicalities, I may not be female, but I am also not male. People of your opinion tend to out-rightly erase the identities of anyone whom can’t be classified as male or female and that isn’t right, or anyone whose gender is in conflict. Secondly, another biological reality that is becoming clear as science comes into the picture is this… Transsexuality has a biological origin, that gender identity is something that is set prenatally and not something that can really be changed. Many feminist ignore evidence because they in some regards feel threatened by what transwomen represent, something that doesn’t necessarily happen to transmen. Your treatment of transwomen is bigoted, biased, sexist, an ultimately wrong.
I may not be an expert, and obviously there is clearly some experiences I can’t have because of the natures of biology (some cisgender females are in the same boat), but transition isn’t about passing, it isn’t about being “truly female” or “truly male” its about finding the happy medium that makes us feel complete as people. My behaviors whether they be male or female, masculine or feminine, they don’t matter. My behaviors aren’t subject to your definitions of perceptions of gender, and my gender isn’t about those behaviors. You mistaken symptoms for the illness as many in our culture do. These behaviors arise because of our identities not the other way around. Transsexuality isn’t mythological anymore than homosexuality, gender binary bullshit however is quantifiable as myth. If we lived in a culture with no constructed gender, with no gender distinctions we’d still feel wrong with our bodies… While many behaviors of gender are performative, and superfluous to our real identities, they are only the trappings of something that starts within each of us. The choice to either embrace or reject those things is all dependent on how we identify or object to them. You can’t make a body fit a neurological pattern that isn’t match for it, square pegs don’t fit in round holes.
Your comparison about black people is wrong. There isn’t an ‘innate black’ perception built into people, there isn’t a biological need to identify black verses white chemically, or anatomically in the brain, and evidence contradicts the point you are trying to make… You are making a case on the basis of a false equivocation. Your comment says more about you than it does about me. You fear because you do not understand, you object because you do not like, you scoff because you are ignorant of what it means to be transgender. My behaviors come from my identification with my mother, which is because of my gender but really these things are entirely separate but inter-related. I am not sexist simply because you are ignorant. Being a woman isn’t a game, nor is it amusing and it never has been. My life didn’t end up here because of some delusion, or some mistake about understanding my being. It came about because I couldn’t function I couldn’t breath as I was because my own body felt like a prison, it felt wrong, incomplete, broken. Though the may not understand the entire mechanism, they do know how it works and how to treat it to give a person the best chance possible after decades of trial and error.
This is who I am, you can deny that I am a woman, you can talk about absolutes of gender, you can scream at the top of your lungs and hate me all you like. However, in the end you are still wrong, and all your banter proves is your ignorance. I do the best I can with what I got, and I take the courses I need to survive. That doesn’t make me sexist, my gender isn’t about building up the “cultural gender stereotypes”, it’s about being myself and feeling comfortable in my own skin. Go educate yourself rather that being hateful and angry over something you unfortunately don’t understand in the least bit. My body, my life, my gender have nothing to do with you, and you have no right to make those accusations that by simply being transgender not even being personally aware of my gender expression makes me sexist. You’re a hypocrite on this issue, sorry to break it to you. Behavior has no gender, but people do.
http://bugbrennan.com/2012/03/21/planned-parenthood-embraces-lesbophobia-supports-workshop-framing-lesbians-as-a-barrier-to-be-overcome/
I’d have to say that the idea and premise of that workshop is more than buggy, it’s revoltingly ignorant. The problem with the image of transwomen isn’t one that is a “lesbian” problem, and by no means should any lesbian be forced to be intimate with a transwoman on any grounds, nor any man, anyone period. That is on the agency of each woman as to what grounds of their sexual identity. I am a transwoman, and I am against the message of this workshop. The issue of the acceptance of women who have had surgery is still a problematic one, as well as the economic inequality in it’s availability. Those issues, as well as the voices of queer transwomen are social issues that need to be represented, the premise of the seminar is malodorous and needs to be called out.
Transwoman have no rights to access to womens bodies, or anyone’s body, period. If you don’t like penis then it is your right to retain your consent to intimacy on that ground alone, or any other autonomous premise. “Autonomy – 2. (philosophy) The capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision.” It contains no expressed provisions that should X arise that criteria changes. Autonomy is autonomy. The same is true that men don’t have access to the bodies of transwomen (pre/post-operative) simply because they believe that our bodies were remade just for them. Personally, I’d like to find the person who thought that crap up and slap them for making transwomen like myself look like assholes by association. While I do feel culture is too genital centric, that doesn’t give privilege to supersede one’s autonomy.
I think that transwomen inclusion in queer spaces is important, that has no connection to sexual agency, intimacy or otherwise. It’s unfortunate that the “brainchild” of this seminar, and it’s supporters are morons. It’s derisive to womens agency, and it abuses the pretext of acceptance, and inclusion. The social constructions of transwomen are problematic, for sure, but it is not the obligation of lesbians to consent bodily to that whether they do or do not want it. I am sorry that you had such bullshit cluttering up your inbox, and wanted you to know that I am not for the position it represents. Inclusion rights stop before the point which they infringe upon another’s autonomy.
Thanks for saying so.
An AMPLIFICATION: In that context (the conceptual purpose of the conference), the content and tone is more than disagreeable, and I consider myself a feminist, and have always felt that way. However, the way in which the transsexual woman’s body is represented is a social dynamic that needs to be addressed. Cisgender lesbians are under no obligation to accept a sex partner with a penis. However, post-operative transsexuals are treated very much the same way by cisgender, even other transgender people sometimes because of internalized oppression. It rings of the issue of the flawed “Biology as Destiny”, but the debate will always become problematic when anyone makes the expectation go beyond the purely social, and culture boundary. I find the very concept of the cotton ceiling to be offensive, and and a complete miss of the real issue.
I understand the point of view, but disagree with it. My desirableness to other lesbians, or pansexual trans/ciswomen can be problematic, and it’s not uncommon that I’ll be passed over as a possible partner on the premise of my gender status alone. That’s on each person, but the underlying attitude fueled by cultural mischaracterization is a problem not their right to choose. But as I said you help that scenario by ending the way in which transwomen are portrayed, and work against the body shaming of our culture not by holding a conference to complain about how you can’t have sex with lesbians. I certainly didn’t transition to have sex with lesbians, hell I wish I was attracted to men more sometimes because I like all of us are feed that “gender binary centric view of the American Dream” which is a hard habit to break.
Being transsexual isn’t the direction I saw my life going, but it is the reality of the situation. And I’d like to know that I’ll be treated as a human being, in accordance with my character, and have my identification respected. I’d like to know that I can be attractive to people I am attracted to, whatever gender they may be. But the penis isn’t the problem, it’s the social hierarchy behind it that need be addressed. I don’t like how the conference centers in on lesbians in the issue of the portrayal of transsexual bodies, though I do dislike that my body is viewed derogatorily. I find nothing wrong with my body, other than the things I personally find displeasing about it. I think all women should be aloud to break free from the limiting image of what makes a female body attractive, and from the shaming of bodies that don’t conform. That is what we should be talking about, not about how lesbians don’t like penis (whether it be on a man or a woman). IF we can help end the stigmas, division, and mischaracterization a lot of this issue would diminish, not just within lesbian communities, but all demographics.
yay for brennan when she comes back as rose verbena and pretends to be someone else. lulz. i have no other words.
ok. so that was the word a few months ago, but i can’t find any sources/proof. never mind!
Does she actually do that? Either way, I am not ignorant, and naive enough to buy the unquestioned regurgitations of transphobic radical feminists of ages past. I refuse to let that garbage fly.
awesome.
also, the cotton ceiling is about cis lesbians accepting trans* women as WOMEN, not necessarily as sexual partners. it’s not about forcing cis lesbians to have sex with anybody (cuz that’s rape, folks); it’s about the cis lesbian community excluding trans* women through deliberate misgendering. nobody is saying cis lesbians aren’t allowed to prefer pussy over penis (that’s fine, obviously).
what really weirds me out about all this is when cis lesbians talk like they think trans* lesbians are just raring to have sex with them. do they realize how unsexy misgendering and cissexism are? cuz i bet they’re turn-offs to most trans* people. know what i mean?
that’s some nasty spin on the whole cotton ceiling thing. i’m not blaming you for it (don’t get me wrong). it’s this community-wide thing where cis lesbians get all huffy and yell about trans* women trying to rape them while actual trans* women yell abot how they don’t even WANT to have sex with cissexist grues. it’s silly.
yeah. just sayin’. even though this is an old post and i read it ages ago but didn’t say anything.
I get that much, which is why I reinforced the idea that it is something that needs to be talked about. I just found cotton ceiling a little, off. I still don’t like it even knowing more about what went on. And generally speaking I think it’s a little off to borrow a term used by a porn star, but that is my opinion. I just generally prefer terminology that is respectful, and avoids the said pitfalls that ensued afterwards. But that is a good point. And you are right, I have absolutely no desire to sleep with, date or even kiss (being demisexual making romance difficult anyways) most people I meet, much less misgendering, transphobic ass-hats.
I’ve been abused quite enough in romance for one lifetime, I’d rather not go there again. The problem I have is that a lesbian could very well be attracted to me (it’s happened so it’s not a far cry) and the fact that they’d turn and walk away the moment they knew I was trans says a lot about where the problem lies. It’s also the subject of nightmares I get from time to time (I’ve actually gotten the “Your Cute, but I don’t do Sex Changes” from a lesbian). Also when I wrote those replies it was a knee jerk reaction on a subject I hadn’t read much about. But like I said, I feel weird about the word even now. I dislike it.
But there is an interesting phenomenon going on within this mentality that is mirrored only by those who are homophobic. The tendency to believe that an “sexual attraction” will occur simply because one is sexually attracted to women is a fallacy. It’s similar to homophobia in men, in that “homosexual = they want to have sex with me” which as we know isn’t usually the case. They may find said man unattractive before they even know of his homophobia. I find that is as much a product of male privilege as it is phobic. I.E. “I am a man, therefore those attracted to men are automatically attracted to me”. That is especially problematic for women, especially straight women. Transphobia for these lesbians manifest very similarly, and it’s not that they can’t be attracted to trans women, it’s that they have an issue with the symbology of what a phallus represents.
If it was just about having women with vulvae (which for some women this is certainly the case), they’d be having sex with post operative trans women, or having relationships with early transition trans women (as they were raised as women/girls verses men/boys). But this is just not generally the case which underlies the fundamental issue being “not sexual in all cases” of being prejudiced against present and former owners of a phalluses. Given the nature of rape culture, and the patriarchy, phallus hate is understandable and I’d never expect any lesbian to endure being triggered by having penetrative intercourse. Let’s not forget that engaging in penetrative intercourse is triggering for many trans women, so the assumption that “penetrative intercourse” will ensue is also baseless.
It is clear that not all trans women are allies to lesbians, or have sensitivity to the lived experiences of all other lesbians, however because of the compartmentalization that allows prejudice against trans* people (women specifically) they are unable to see that the same is true of some cis women. There are cis lesbians and bisexuals that are horrible allies to feminists, or lesbians in general in spite of being gynephilic. The “assumption” that shared womanhood somehow gives all cis women “Ally Status”, over a trans woman who lacks their definition of “Shared Womanhood” whose rejected from the same spaces is asinine and baseless. Anne Coulter is a perfect example of a woman who is an enemy to all women politically, the “Anti-Feminist”.
Fear only begets fear, and bigotry is usually devoid of fact checking, privilege assessment, or the dismantling of cultural dichotomies. However, the prejudices are representative of an overarching problem with the othering of bodies on a cultural level, and not just trans* bodies. The problem isn’t that trans women are “invading” women’s spaces, it’s that they need protected spaces like all women, but are denied on the basis of pervasive cissexism, and ciscentric mentalities which invalidate the bodies and gender of trans people who they perceive as threatening, AKA Trans Women’s bodies. Furthermore, they are rejected and face hostility in environments occupied by lesbians. Janice Raymond, and her ideologues did a lot of harm to the trans community, especially to trans women, and it quite frankly appalls me that people can’t dissect that for what it is, bold faced prejudice, period.
Anyhow, sorry for such a long reply, but this has been an issue I have been thinking about a lot lately being I tend to go through seasonal romantic patterns… AKA in the fall and spring I am all “romantical” and stuffs.