Transfeminism
Encyclopedia
Robert Hill defines Transfeminism as "a category of feminism, most often known for the application of transgender
discourses to feminist
discourses, and of feminist beliefs to transgender discourse". Hill says that transfeminism also concerns its integration within mainstream feminism. He defines transfeminism in this context as a type of feminism "having specific content that applies to transgender
and transsexual people, but the thinking and theory of which is also applicable to all women".
Despite its relatively late introduction as a term, transfeminist work has been around since the early second wave in various forms, most prominently embodied by thinkers such as Sandy Stone, considered the founder of academic transgender studies, and Sylvia Rivera
, a Stonewall
rioter and founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries
. In 2006, the first book on transfeminism, Trans/Forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out edited by Krista Scott-Dixon, was published.
and Sandy Stone
, whose essay "The Empire Strikes Back" was a direct response to Janice Raymond
. In the 21st century, Krista Scott-Dixon and Julia Serano
have contributed work in the field of transgender women.
Transfeminism.org was created in 2000 to promote the Transfeminism Anthology Project by Diana Courvant and Emi Koyama. The site primarily devoted itself, however, to introducing the concept of transfeminism to academia and to finding and connecting people working on transfeminism projects and themes through an anthology of the same name. Koyama and Courvant sought other transfeminists and to increase their exposure. The anthology was intended to introduce the movement to a large audience. At a Yale event and in bios associated with it, Courvant's use of the word (as early as 1992) and involvement in Transfeminism.org, may make her the term's inventor. Courvant credited Koyama's Internet savvy as the reason transfeminism.org and the word transfeminism got the recognition and attention that it did.
Patrick Califia
used the word in print in 1997, and this remains the first known use in print outside of a periodical. It is possible or even likely that the term was independently coined repeatedly before the year 2000 (or even before Courvant's first claimed use in 1992). The term gained traction only after 1999. Jessica Xavier, an acquaintance of Courvant, may have independently coined the term when she used it to introduce her articles, "Passing As Stigma Management" and "Passing as Privilege" in late 1999. Emi Koyama wrote a widely read "Transfeminist Manifesto" around the time of the launch of the website that, with her active participation in academic discussions on the internet, helped spread the term.
In the past few decades the idea that all women share a common experience has come under scrutiny by women of color
, lesbian
s, and working class
women, among others. Many Transgender
and transsexual (together: trans, see Survivor Project link) people are also questioning what gender means, and are challenging gender
as a biological fact. Transfeminists insist that their unique experiences be recognized as part of the feminist sphere.
Transfeminism includes all major themes of third wave feminism, including diversity
, body image
, and women's agency
. Transfeminism is not merely about merging trans concerns with feminism
. It also includes critical analysis of second wave feminism from the perspective of the third wave. Like all feminisms, transfeminism critiques mainstream notions of masculinity and argues that women deserve equal rights. Lastly, transfeminism shares the unifying principle with other feminisms that gender is a patriarchal social construct used to oppress women. Although the "trans" in transgender and transsexual has been used to imply transgressiveness.
The road to legitimacy for transfeminism has been quite different than that of other feminisms. Marginalized women have had to prove that their needs are different and that mainstream feminism does not speak for them. Contrarily, trans women must show they are the same as other women, and that feminism can speak for them without ceasing to be feminism. Feminist Janice Raymond's resistance to considering trans people as women and as participants in feminism are representative of this obstacle. Her career began with The Transsexual Empire (a book-length dismissal of transsexual women qua women) and she has often returned to similar efforts.
s plays a major role in all feminisms. Transfeminism expands on that premise to argue that people in general should not be confined by sex/gender norms.
Feminists have traditionally explored the boundaries of what it means to be a woman. Transfeminists argue that trans people and cisgender
feminists confront society's conventional views of sex
and gender
in similar ways. Transgender liberation theory offers feminism a new vantage point from which to view gender as a social construct, even offering a new meaning of gender.
Transfeminist critics of mainstream feminism say that as an institutionalized movement, feminism has lost sight of the basic idea that biology is not destiny. In fact, they argue, many feminists seem perfectly comfortable equating sex and gender and insisting on a given destiny for trans persons based on nothing more than biology. Transgenderism resists and challenges the fixedness of gender that traditional approaches to women's studies depend upon.
Transgender people are frequently targets of anti-trans violence. While non-trans women also routinely face violence, transfeminists understand anti-trans violence to be a form of gender policing.
These issues were confronted in many fora before transfeminism was coined. "Killing the Black Body," illustrated how white-feminist led reproductive rights movements sometimes worked to the detriment of poor and/or minority women. "This Bridge Called My Back" is an anthology of third world feminist writing that challenged the idea of equal power among women.
Transfeminists report many under-examined situations in which one woman's uses of power has the potential to hurt another woman. Transfeminists propose client advisory boards for crisis lines and women's shelters, the end of unpaid and underpaid feminist internships, incorporating employees into board committees that evaluate non-profit executives, creating strategic funds to assist trans employees with nontraditional health issues, incorporating specific anti-racist and other anti-oppressive criteria on employee evaluation forms, and more. Particularly fruitful has been transfeminist investigation of feminism and disability, feminism and sex, and the combination of the three.
of women often find it bothersome that some transwomen seek to be viewed as objects of desire. A few transwomen also exaggerate their feminine traits. Because hate crimes and social punishments are rampant against trans people, portraying gender unambiguously can increase a trans person's sense of safety. Even when the visible signs of femininity are only marginally different from norms, they may be seen as wildly inappropriate.
Sampling bias is the most logical argument for feminists' notice of a disproportionate number of trans women with very feminine expression. Transsexual people are viewed as outlandish exceptions to society's norms. Thus when a person appears to fit within – or almost within – society's norms, one is assumed not to be transsexual or transgender. When a person sees someone that isn't easily classified as a man or a woman, the viewer still almost never assumes the subject to be trans. Take for example the "Saturday Night Live" character "Pat
". The comedy is based on other characters' curiosity about Pat's gender. They ask leading yet socially acceptable questions whose answer might confirm Pat as a man or a woman. Invariably, Pat answers without doing so. Even after several rounds of such questioning, the characters never conclude that Pat is trans. Such are the rules of polite society: it would be rude to assume another person is trans. As this training is so deep (and it is impossible to perceive another's thoughts), it is not possible to notice each trans person one meets. Thus the idea that trans women are somehow more feminine is an unprovable assertion most often made by those who wish to malign trans women as uneducated, unliberated, retrograde throwbacks who threaten to serve as a useful tool helping anti-feminists drag all women back to a pre-feminist heck-on-earth
Femininity in transsexual women is noticed and punished much more harshly than the same behaviors in non-transsexual women. This double standard reveals that the behavior itself is not as problematic to many critics as the existence of trans people.
, Mary Daly
and Sheila Jeffreys
, among others, argue that the feminist movement should not concern itself in any way with the needs of trans women. The idea that only "womyn-born-womyn" can fully identify with the experience of being a woman conflicts with the concept that "biology does not equal destiny". Opponents argue that excluding trans women from women's spaces denies them their right to self-identification.
. The festival ejected a transsexual woman, Nancy Burkholder, in the early 1990s. Since then, the festival has admitted "womyn-born-womyn" only. The activist group Camp Trans
formed to protest the transphobic
"womyn-born-womyn" policy and to advocate for greater acceptance of trans people within the feminist community. A number of prominent trans activists and transfeminists were involved in Camp Trans including Riki Wilchins
, Jessica Xavier, and Leslie Feinberg
.
Kimberly Nixon is a trans woman who volunteered for training as a rape crisis counselor at Vancouver Rape Relief in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1995. When Nixon's transsexual status was determined, she was expelled. The staff decided that Nixon's status made it impossible for her to understand the experiences of their clients, and also required their clients to be genetically female. Nixon disagreed, disclosing her own history of partner abuse and sued for discrimination. Nixon's attorneys argued that there was no basis for the dismissal, citing Diana Courvant's experiences as the first publicly transsexual woman to work in a women-only domestic violence shelter. In 2007 the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear Nixon's appeal, ending the case.
Transsexual women such as Sandy Stone challenged the feminist conception of "biological woman". Stone worked as a sound engineer for Olivia Records
from about 1974 to 1978, resigning when tensions grew too high. The debate continued in Raymond's book, which devoted a chapter to criticism of "the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist." Groups like Lesbian Organization of Toronto
then voted to exclude trans lesbians. Sheila Jeffreys
labeled transgenderism "deeply problematic from a feminist perspective and [stated] that transsexualism should be seen as a violation of human rights."
accept transfeminists, while others reject them. Feminist organizations that include both heterosexual and non-heterosexual women are often more welcoming than non-heterosexual specific organizations. Particularly reluctant are gender-segregated shelters and sexual assault support centers.
Max Wolf Valerio contributed as an out trans man to feminist anthology "This Bridge We Call Home," which followed "This Bridge Called My Back
", to which Valerio contributed before coming out. Whether trans men are acceptable in a group, place, or event can vary with nuances of identity, membership, or personal relationship. A man's acceptance or rejection often depends on his past contributions to feminism and friendly relationships with a prominent group member. There is no clear trend on feminist acceptance of trans men other than more sophisticated discussions.
is currently listed as a diagnosable mental disorder in the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10
. Many transfeminists and traditional feminists propose that this diagnosis be discarded because of its past abusive use by people with power. Transfeminists argue that being gender different is the right of all persons. When arguing for the maintenance of the current diagnostic category, pro-GID transfeminists typically concede past misuse of the diagnosis while arguing for retention with greater professional accountability.
In many situations or legal jurisdictions, transsexual people have insurance coverage for surgery only because of the diagnosis. Removal would therefore increase patient costs. In other situations, anti-discrimination law
s which protect legally disabled people apply to transsexual people only so long as a diagnosis exists. In other cases, transgender people are protected by sex discrimination rules or as a separate category. This economic issue can split advocates along class lines.
At the 2006 Trans Identity Conference at the University of Vermont
, Courvant presented an analysis of this controversy. She noted that "eliminationists" must decide whether their efforts to destigmatize trans people conflict with efforts to destigmatize mental illness and whether removing the GID category would actually help with the former, while disrupting the current, albeit limited, insurance regime. Conversely, "preservationists" must address the problem of faulty diagnoses and improper "treatment". She proposed retaining the category and focusing efforts on legitimating mental illness and improving acceptance of trans people, leaving aside the diagnosis question.
Harry Benjamin
precisely defined "transsexual", in his seminal book "The Transsexual Phenomenon". He defined the "Benjamin Scale", which defines three levels of transsexualism: "Transsexual (nonsurgical)", "True Transsexual (moderate intensity)", and "True Transsexual (high intensity)". Some transsexuals believe that true transsexuals desire surgery. However, it is notable that Benjamin's moderate intensity "true transsexual" needs hormone medication as a "substitute for or preliminary to operation." There also exist people who have had sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) but do not meet the definition of a transsexual, such as Gregory Hemingway, while other people do not desire SRS yet clearly meet Dr. Benjamin's definition of a "true transsexual". Beyond Dr. Benjamin's work, which focused on Male to Female transsexuals, there are cases of Female to Male transsexuals for whom surgery is not practical.
Gender expressions other than the cisgendered norm also include cross dressers, drag queen
s, transvestites, transvestic fetishist
, etc. Transsexuals may go through one of those self identifications before realizing that they are in fact transsexual.
The originator of term "transgender", Charles "Virginia" Prince
, the founder of the cross-dressing organization Tri-Ess
did so to distinguish herself from transsexual people. In "Men Who Choose to Be Women," Prince wrote "I, at least, know the difference between sex and gender and have simply elected to change the latter and not the former". However, ordinary
English ignores the academic distinction between sex and gender.
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
discourses to feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
discourses, and of feminist beliefs to transgender discourse". Hill says that transfeminism also concerns its integration within mainstream feminism. He defines transfeminism in this context as a type of feminism "having specific content that applies to transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
and transsexual people, but the thinking and theory of which is also applicable to all women".
Despite its relatively late introduction as a term, transfeminist work has been around since the early second wave in various forms, most prominently embodied by thinkers such as Sandy Stone, considered the founder of academic transgender studies, and Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rivera
Sylvia Rae Rivera was an American transgender activist. Rivera was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance and helped found STAR , a group dedicated to helping homeless young street trans women, with her friend Marsha P...
, a Stonewall
Stonewall riots
The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City...
rioter and founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries
Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries
Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries was a transgender activist organization founded in 1970 by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Marsha and Sylvia used to hustle the streets in order to keep their children from having to do the same to feed and shelter themselves...
. In 2006, the first book on transfeminism, Trans/Forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out edited by Krista Scott-Dixon, was published.
History
Early voices in the movement include Kate BornsteinKate Bornstein
Kate Bornstein is a Jewish-American author, playwright, performance artist, and gender theorist.-Biography:Born in Neptune City, New Jersey, Bornstein studied Theater Arts with John Emigh and Jim Barnhill at Brown University . Bornstein joined the Church of Scientology but later became...
and Sandy Stone
Sandy Stone
Sandy Stone may refer to:* Sandy Stone , American author and artist* Sandy Stone , a character created by Barry Humphries...
, whose essay "The Empire Strikes Back" was a direct response to Janice Raymond
Janice Raymond
Janice G. Raymond is a longtime feminist activist against violence, sexual exploitation and the "medical abuse" of cissexual women, as well as for her writings and activism against transsexualism...
. In the 21st century, Krista Scott-Dixon and Julia Serano
Julia Serano
Julia Serano is a transsexual American writer, spoken-word performer, trans activist, and biologist. Serano currently lives in Oakland, California and is the author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity...
have contributed work in the field of transgender women.
Transfeminism.org was created in 2000 to promote the Transfeminism Anthology Project by Diana Courvant and Emi Koyama. The site primarily devoted itself, however, to introducing the concept of transfeminism to academia and to finding and connecting people working on transfeminism projects and themes through an anthology of the same name. Koyama and Courvant sought other transfeminists and to increase their exposure. The anthology was intended to introduce the movement to a large audience. At a Yale event and in bios associated with it, Courvant's use of the word (as early as 1992) and involvement in Transfeminism.org, may make her the term's inventor. Courvant credited Koyama's Internet savvy as the reason transfeminism.org and the word transfeminism got the recognition and attention that it did.
Patrick Califia
Patrick Califia
Patrick Califia , born 1954 near Corpus Christi, Texas is a writer of nonfiction essays about sexuality and of erotic fiction and poetry. Califia is a bisexual trans man.-Biography:...
used the word in print in 1997, and this remains the first known use in print outside of a periodical. It is possible or even likely that the term was independently coined repeatedly before the year 2000 (or even before Courvant's first claimed use in 1992). The term gained traction only after 1999. Jessica Xavier, an acquaintance of Courvant, may have independently coined the term when she used it to introduce her articles, "Passing As Stigma Management" and "Passing as Privilege" in late 1999. Emi Koyama wrote a widely read "Transfeminist Manifesto" around the time of the launch of the website that, with her active participation in academic discussions on the internet, helped spread the term.
In the past few decades the idea that all women share a common experience has come under scrutiny by women of color
Person of color
Person of color is a term used, primarily in the United States, to describe all people who are not white. The term is meant to be inclusive among non-white groups, emphasizing common experiences of racism...
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s, and working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
women, among others. Many Transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
and transsexual (together: trans, see Survivor Project link) people are also questioning what gender means, and are challenging gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
as a biological fact. Transfeminists insist that their unique experiences be recognized as part of the feminist sphere.
Transfeminism includes all major themes of third wave feminism, including diversity
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
, body image
Body image
Body image refers to a person's perception of the aesthetics and sexual attractiveness of their own body. The phrase body image was first coined by the Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst Paul Schilder in his masterpiece The Image and Appearance of the Human Body...
, and women's agency
Human agency
In philosophy and sociology, agency is the capacity of an agent to act in a world. In philosophy, the agency is considered as belonging to that agent even if that agent represents a fictitious character, or some other non-existent entity...
. Transfeminism is not merely about merging trans concerns with feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
. It also includes critical analysis of second wave feminism from the perspective of the third wave. Like all feminisms, transfeminism critiques mainstream notions of masculinity and argues that women deserve equal rights. Lastly, transfeminism shares the unifying principle with other feminisms that gender is a patriarchal social construct used to oppress women. Although the "trans" in transgender and transsexual has been used to imply transgressiveness.
The road to legitimacy for transfeminism has been quite different than that of other feminisms. Marginalized women have had to prove that their needs are different and that mainstream feminism does not speak for them. Contrarily, trans women must show they are the same as other women, and that feminism can speak for them without ceasing to be feminism. Feminist Janice Raymond's resistance to considering trans people as women and as participants in feminism are representative of this obstacle. Her career began with The Transsexual Empire (a book-length dismissal of transsexual women qua women) and she has often returned to similar efforts.
Common foundations
A core tenet of feminism is that biology does not and must not equal destiny. The idea that women should not be held down by traditional gender roleGender role
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...
s plays a major role in all feminisms. Transfeminism expands on that premise to argue that people in general should not be confined by sex/gender norms.
Feminists have traditionally explored the boundaries of what it means to be a woman. Transfeminists argue that trans people and cisgender
Cisgender
Cisgender is an adjective used in the context of gender issues and counselling to refer to a class of gender identities formed by a match between an individual's gender identity and the behavior or role considered appropriate for one's sex.Kristen Schilt and Laurel Westbrook defined "cisgender"...
feminists confront society's conventional views of sex
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
and gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
in similar ways. Transgender liberation theory offers feminism a new vantage point from which to view gender as a social construct, even offering a new meaning of gender.
Transfeminist critics of mainstream feminism say that as an institutionalized movement, feminism has lost sight of the basic idea that biology is not destiny. In fact, they argue, many feminists seem perfectly comfortable equating sex and gender and insisting on a given destiny for trans persons based on nothing more than biology. Transgenderism resists and challenges the fixedness of gender that traditional approaches to women's studies depend upon.
Transgender people are frequently targets of anti-trans violence. While non-trans women also routinely face violence, transfeminists understand anti-trans violence to be a form of gender policing.
Differences
Despite the similarities, there are also differences between traditional feminism and transfeminism. Transfeminism stands in stark contrast to second-wave feminism. Transfeminists often criticize the ideas of a universal sisterhood, aligning more with the third wave's appreciation for the diversity of women's experience. Citing their common experience, directly challenge the idea that femininity is an entirely social construction. Instead, transfeminists view gender as a multifaceted set of diverse intrinsic and social qualities. For example, a there are trans/cis men/women who express themselves in an unusually feminine or masculine way. Because this strongly affects how the person experiences their gender, and also their standing within patriarchy, transfeminists would argue that masculine/feminine expression is an important concept worthy of feminist inquiry, to be compared and contrasted with both birth sex and gender identity.Sisterhood
"Sisterhood" is a primary issue that separates transfeminisms and second-wave feminisms. Sisterhood is the idea that patriarchy and its tactics are so universal that the most important experiences of women everywhere are equivalent. However, women in culturally, ethnically, and/or economically diverse societies, young women and girls, women with disabilities, and others object to the idea of universal sisterhood and its logical extensions, including two ideas: first, if one works for the benefit of any woman, one works for the benefit of all equally; second, that in a sexist society all women have the same (minimal) level of power.These issues were confronted in many fora before transfeminism was coined. "Killing the Black Body," illustrated how white-feminist led reproductive rights movements sometimes worked to the detriment of poor and/or minority women. "This Bridge Called My Back" is an anthology of third world feminist writing that challenged the idea of equal power among women.
Transfeminists report many under-examined situations in which one woman's uses of power has the potential to hurt another woman. Transfeminists propose client advisory boards for crisis lines and women's shelters, the end of unpaid and underpaid feminist internships, incorporating employees into board committees that evaluate non-profit executives, creating strategic funds to assist trans employees with nontraditional health issues, incorporating specific anti-racist and other anti-oppressive criteria on employee evaluation forms, and more. Particularly fruitful has been transfeminist investigation of feminism and disability, feminism and sex, and the combination of the three.
Access to feminist spaces
Though little acknowledged, trans people have been part of feminist movements. The appearance of openly trans persons in feminist spaces challenged the idea that all women are socially equal. This has made transfeminists natural allies of, for example, women of color who experience racism in a white feminist environment. While Raymond and others attempted to define trans people outside feminism, institutions that welcomed trans people sometimes were confronted with an alliance between a trans person and others who accused other women of racism. Trans people, like any large group, reflect the general public's range of temperaments. There have been a number of documented occasions when the trans people portrayed as bad actors were in fact the victims of overreactions by others.Femininity
"Femininity" has become a place of contention between transfeminists and other feminists. Mainstream feminists who oppose the objectificationSexual objectification
Sexual objectification refers to the practice of regarding or treating another person merely as an instrument towards one's sexual pleasure, and a sex object is a person who is regarded simply as an object of sexual gratification or who is sexually attractive...
of women often find it bothersome that some transwomen seek to be viewed as objects of desire. A few transwomen also exaggerate their feminine traits. Because hate crimes and social punishments are rampant against trans people, portraying gender unambiguously can increase a trans person's sense of safety. Even when the visible signs of femininity are only marginally different from norms, they may be seen as wildly inappropriate.
Sampling bias is the most logical argument for feminists' notice of a disproportionate number of trans women with very feminine expression. Transsexual people are viewed as outlandish exceptions to society's norms. Thus when a person appears to fit within – or almost within – society's norms, one is assumed not to be transsexual or transgender. When a person sees someone that isn't easily classified as a man or a woman, the viewer still almost never assumes the subject to be trans. Take for example the "Saturday Night Live" character "Pat
Pat (Saturday Night Live)
Pat was an androgynous fictional character created and performed by Julia Sweeney for the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and later featured in the film It's Pat...
". The comedy is based on other characters' curiosity about Pat's gender. They ask leading yet socially acceptable questions whose answer might confirm Pat as a man or a woman. Invariably, Pat answers without doing so. Even after several rounds of such questioning, the characters never conclude that Pat is trans. Such are the rules of polite society: it would be rude to assume another person is trans. As this training is so deep (and it is impossible to perceive another's thoughts), it is not possible to notice each trans person one meets. Thus the idea that trans women are somehow more feminine is an unprovable assertion most often made by those who wish to malign trans women as uneducated, unliberated, retrograde throwbacks who threaten to serve as a useful tool helping anti-feminists drag all women back to a pre-feminist heck-on-earth
Femininity in transsexual women is noticed and punished much more harshly than the same behaviors in non-transsexual women. This double standard reveals that the behavior itself is not as problematic to many critics as the existence of trans people.
Womyn-born-womyn
Janice RaymondJanice Raymond
Janice G. Raymond is a longtime feminist activist against violence, sexual exploitation and the "medical abuse" of cissexual women, as well as for her writings and activism against transsexualism...
, Mary Daly
Mary Daly
Mary Daly was an American radical feminist philosopher, academic, and theologian. Daly, who described herself as a "radical lesbian feminist", taught at Boston College, a Jesuit-run institution, for 33 years. Daly retired in 1999, after violating university policy by refusing to allow male...
and Sheila Jeffreys
Sheila Jeffreys
Sheila Jeffreys is a lesbian feminist scholar and political activist, known for her analysis of the history and politics of sexuality in Britain. She is a professor in Political Science at the University of Melbourne in Australia...
, among others, argue that the feminist movement should not concern itself in any way with the needs of trans women. The idea that only "womyn-born-womyn" can fully identify with the experience of being a woman conflicts with the concept that "biology does not equal destiny". Opponents argue that excluding trans women from women's spaces denies them their right to self-identification.
Cissexism in mainstream feminism
Perhaps the most visible battleground of feminists and transfeminists has been the Michigan Womyn's Music FestivalMichigan Womyn's Music Festival
The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, called "the Original Womyn's Woodstock" and often referred to as MWMF or Michfest, is an international feminist music festival occurring every August since 1976 near Hart, Michigan...
. The festival ejected a transsexual woman, Nancy Burkholder, in the early 1990s. Since then, the festival has admitted "womyn-born-womyn" only. The activist group Camp Trans
Camp Trans
Camp Trans is an annual demonstration and event held outside the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival by trans women and their allies to protest the Festival's policy of excluding trans women from attending.-Background:...
formed to protest the transphobic
Transphobia
Transphobia is a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards transsexualism and transsexual or transgender people, based on the expression of their internal gender...
"womyn-born-womyn" policy and to advocate for greater acceptance of trans people within the feminist community. A number of prominent trans activists and transfeminists were involved in Camp Trans including Riki Wilchins
Riki Wilchins
Riki Wilchins is an activist whose work has focused on the impact of gender norms. While she started out as a transgender leader -- founding the first national transgender advocacy group -- her analysis and work broadened over time to include discrimination and violence regardless of individuals'...
, Jessica Xavier, and Leslie Feinberg
Leslie Feinberg
Leslie Feinberg is a transgender queer and communist activist, speaker, and author. Feinberg's first novel Stone Butch Blues is widely considered a groundbreaking work about gender.- Career :...
.
Kimberly Nixon is a trans woman who volunteered for training as a rape crisis counselor at Vancouver Rape Relief in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1995. When Nixon's transsexual status was determined, she was expelled. The staff decided that Nixon's status made it impossible for her to understand the experiences of their clients, and also required their clients to be genetically female. Nixon disagreed, disclosing her own history of partner abuse and sued for discrimination. Nixon's attorneys argued that there was no basis for the dismissal, citing Diana Courvant's experiences as the first publicly transsexual woman to work in a women-only domestic violence shelter. In 2007 the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear Nixon's appeal, ending the case.
Transsexual women such as Sandy Stone challenged the feminist conception of "biological woman". Stone worked as a sound engineer for Olivia Records
Olivia Records
Olivia Records was a collective founded in 1973 to record and market women's music. Olivia, named after the heroine of a pulp novel by Dorothy Bussy who fell in love with her headmistress at French boarding school, was the brainchild of ten lesbian-feminists living in Washington, DC who wanted to...
from about 1974 to 1978, resigning when tensions grew too high. The debate continued in Raymond's book, which devoted a chapter to criticism of "the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist." Groups like Lesbian Organization of Toronto
Lesbian Organization of Toronto
The Lesbian Organization of Toronto was a multi-faceted lesbian organization founded in 1976 and disbanded in 1980. The group was Toronto's first openly lesbian feminist group, and its members elected to open Canada's first Lesbian Centre.-History:L.O.O.T. grew out of an October 1976 meeting...
then voted to exclude trans lesbians. Sheila Jeffreys
Sheila Jeffreys
Sheila Jeffreys is a lesbian feminist scholar and political activist, known for her analysis of the history and politics of sexuality in Britain. She is a professor in Political Science at the University of Melbourne in Australia...
labeled transgenderism "deeply problematic from a feminist perspective and [stated] that transsexualism should be seen as a violation of human rights."
Inclusion in mainstream feminism
Transfeminists struggle to be accepted by mainstream feminism. Groups such as the Lesbian AvengersLesbian Avengers
The Lesbian Avengers began in New York City in 1992 as "a direct action group focused on issues vital to lesbian survival and visibility." Dozens of other chapters quickly emerged worldwide, a few expanding their mission to include questions of gender, race, and class.Though some groups continue...
accept transfeminists, while others reject them. Feminist organizations that include both heterosexual and non-heterosexual women are often more welcoming than non-heterosexual specific organizations. Particularly reluctant are gender-segregated shelters and sexual assault support centers.
Max Wolf Valerio contributed as an out trans man to feminist anthology "This Bridge We Call Home," which followed "This Bridge Called My Back
This Bridge Called My Back
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color is a feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa. The anthology was first published in 1981 by Persephone Press, and the second edition was published in 1984 by Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press...
", to which Valerio contributed before coming out. Whether trans men are acceptable in a group, place, or event can vary with nuances of identity, membership, or personal relationship. A man's acceptance or rejection often depends on his past contributions to feminism and friendly relationships with a prominent group member. There is no clear trend on feminist acceptance of trans men other than more sophisticated discussions.
Gender identity disorder (GID)
Gender identity disorderGender identity disorder
Gender identity disorder is the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe persons who experience significant gender dysphoria . It describes the symptoms related to transsexualism, as well as less severe manifestations of gender dysphoria...
is currently listed as a diagnosable mental disorder in the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10
ICD-10
The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision is a medical classification list for the coding of diseases, signs and symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or diseases, as maintained by the...
. Many transfeminists and traditional feminists propose that this diagnosis be discarded because of its past abusive use by people with power. Transfeminists argue that being gender different is the right of all persons. When arguing for the maintenance of the current diagnostic category, pro-GID transfeminists typically concede past misuse of the diagnosis while arguing for retention with greater professional accountability.
In many situations or legal jurisdictions, transsexual people have insurance coverage for surgery only because of the diagnosis. Removal would therefore increase patient costs. In other situations, anti-discrimination law
Anti-discrimination law
Anti-discrimination law refers to the law on people's right to be treated equally. Some countries mandate that in employment, in consumer transactions and in political participation people may be dealt with on an equal basis regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality and sometimes...
s which protect legally disabled people apply to transsexual people only so long as a diagnosis exists. In other cases, transgender people are protected by sex discrimination rules or as a separate category. This economic issue can split advocates along class lines.
At the 2006 Trans Identity Conference at the University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
, Courvant presented an analysis of this controversy. She noted that "eliminationists" must decide whether their efforts to destigmatize trans people conflict with efforts to destigmatize mental illness and whether removing the GID category would actually help with the former, while disrupting the current, albeit limited, insurance regime. Conversely, "preservationists" must address the problem of faulty diagnoses and improper "treatment". She proposed retaining the category and focusing efforts on legitimating mental illness and improving acceptance of trans people, leaving aside the diagnosis question.
Transgender, transsexual
Harry Benjamin
Harry Benjamin was a German endocrinologist, widely known for his clinical work with transsexualism. He was raised in an observant Ashkenazy Jewish home.- Early life and career :...
precisely defined "transsexual", in his seminal book "The Transsexual Phenomenon". He defined the "Benjamin Scale", which defines three levels of transsexualism: "Transsexual (nonsurgical)", "True Transsexual (moderate intensity)", and "True Transsexual (high intensity)". Some transsexuals believe that true transsexuals desire surgery. However, it is notable that Benjamin's moderate intensity "true transsexual" needs hormone medication as a "substitute for or preliminary to operation." There also exist people who have had sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) but do not meet the definition of a transsexual, such as Gregory Hemingway, while other people do not desire SRS yet clearly meet Dr. Benjamin's definition of a "true transsexual". Beyond Dr. Benjamin's work, which focused on Male to Female transsexuals, there are cases of Female to Male transsexuals for whom surgery is not practical.
Gender expressions other than the cisgendered norm also include cross dressers, drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
s, transvestites, transvestic fetishist
Transvestic fetishism
Transvestic fetishism is having a sexual or erotic interest in cross-dressing. It differs from cross-dressing for entertainment or other purposes that do not involve sexual arousal and is categorized as a paraphilia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association...
, etc. Transsexuals may go through one of those self identifications before realizing that they are in fact transsexual.
The originator of term "transgender", Charles "Virginia" Prince
Virginia Prince
Virginia Prince was an American transgender activist, who published Transvestia magazine and started Society for the Second Self for male heterosexual cross-dressers...
, the founder of the cross-dressing organization Tri-Ess
Tri-Ess
Tri-Ess is an international educational, social and support group for heterosexual crossdressers, their partners, the spouses of married crossdressers and their families....
did so to distinguish herself from transsexual people. In "Men Who Choose to Be Women," Prince wrote "I, at least, know the difference between sex and gender and have simply elected to change the latter and not the former". However, ordinary
Descriptive linguistics
In the study of language, description, or descriptive linguistics, is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is spoken by a group of people in a speech community...
English ignores the academic distinction between sex and gender.
See also
- List of transgender-related topics
- transgenderTransgenderTransgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
Works cited
- Anonymous ' "A Taste of Inequality" explores issues still on feminist frontline,' Yale Bulletin, March 16, 2001.
- Califia, Patrick (1997). Sex Changes, Cleis Press, San Francisco.
- Courvant, Diana (2003). Thoughts on "Now That You're a White Man," http://www.confluere.com/column/20030527-diana.html
- Kessler, Suzanne & McKenna, Wendy (1985). Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach.
- http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/prince_vc.html
- http://www.gender.org.uk/conf/2004/04ekins.htm
- Virginia Prince quote from her essay in Sexology, "Men Who Choose to Be Women" as quoted in the Advocate, Dec. 2007, "A Transgender History"
- Bryan Strong, Ideas of the Early Sex Education Movement in America, 1890–1920 from the summer 1972 History of Education Quarterly, Vol 12, #2 (Summer 1972). Available online (for fee) at:http://www.jstor.org/pss/366974
Further reading
- Feinberg, Leslie (1996). Transgender Warriors, Beacon Press, Boston, Mass.
- Transfeminism: Let Her Rip by Hanne Blank
- Transfeminism – Broadening the Range of Feminism by Jelena Postic
- Trans/forming Feminisms: Transfeminist Voices Speak Out edited by Krista Scott-Dixon
- Transgender Studies and Feminism: Theory, Politics, and Gender Realities (special issue of Hypatia) co-edited by Talia Bettcher and Ann Garry.
- You've Changed: Sex Reassignment and Personal Identity edited by Laurie Schrage
- Feminist Perspectives on Trans Issues, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Talia Bettcher