Trans Feminism

Queering the woman question

Although some legal scholars have used the term in a very narrow sense, as a
synonym for transsexual

Trans = umbrella term

Pre-op, postop, and nonop transsexual people

Cross-dressers

Feminine men, masculine women

Intersexed people

and more generally, anyone whose gender identity or expression differs from conventional expectations of
masculinity or femininity.
About 2 to 5% of the us population. Often marginalized on multiple levels

I - Marginalization

By society in general

cissexism

Transmysogyny, violence against

women Hypersexualization of trans
feminine people (in mainstream
media)

Violence: bullying, body shaming

By institutions

Health (surgical / hormonal

correction vs wilfull transition)

Physical Violence (most harrassed

by police forces, most arrested,
end up in male prisons)

Economic violence Employment &

housing

II - Trans Activism & Trans feminism

Trans activism is inspired by

* the fights for civil rights
* feminism,
* lesbian and gay rights movements (cf Marsha P Johnson & Sylvia
Rivera)
* other New Left movements of the postwar era

Natural Allies

Just like 2nd wave feminists

Fight against worplace discrimination

For bodily autonomy (right to choose)

For Self determination

Exclusion (who counts as feminist?

As woman?)

Janice Raymond Trans women are

really rapists
Mary Daly Transfemininity = blackface
Trans masculinity = transgression.
Trans women are submissive &
reinforce binary structures =
submission

Olivia Records company (1979) Sandy

Stone is not a real woman & is bringing
masculine energies into women spaces
MWMF (1991) a place for those who
have grown up female in a patriarchal
society
Planned parenthood centers, Rape
crisis centers, Shelters for women
victim of domestic violence (cf lib
feminists)

III Intersectional struggles

Emmi Koyama Transfeminist manifesto

Elimination of "any legally prescribed relationship between biological sex, gender identity, and gender
expression"

Challenging gender & sex binaries: New models of femininity ==> greater number of people who
identify & pass as a woman
Terri Webb, Gordene MacKenzie: one can live as a man or a woman without SRS; we therefore
should change society, not sexes, cure bipolar culture, not its sex-gender transgressors.

Id = unstable category. race, class, sexuality, and gender are intertwined.

Many activists became politicised through prison reform/abolition questions

cf free Cece campaign. TGI Justice

Angela Davis on Feminism, gender non conformity and Prison Abolition

Now and then one of my friends asks me in a whisper appropriate to respect for
the passed, "So, whatever happened to feminism?" From now on I intend to
recommend these books to them, and tell them, "Transgender happened. Check
it out." Check it out. Angela P. Harris

Bibliography

Bernstein, Elizabeth, and Laurie Schaffner, eds. Regulating Sex: The Politics of Intimacy and Identity. New York: Routledge,
2005. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Dame, Avery P. "Enke, Anne, Ed.: Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies." Women's
Studies in Communication 37.1 (2014): 111+. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Garber, Linda. Identity Poetics: Race, Class, and the Lesbian-Feminist Roots of Queer Theory. New York: Columbia UP, 2001.
Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Haggerty, George E., John Beynon, and Douglas Eisner, eds. Gay Histories and Cultures. New York: Garland, 2000. Questia.
Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Harris, Angela P. "Transgender Rights/whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity."
Women's Studies Quarterly 36.1/2 (2008): 315+. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Kirsch, Max H. Queer Theory and Social Change. London: Routledge, 2000. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Plaskow, Judith. "Embodiment, Elimination, and the Role of Toilets in Struggles for Social Justice." Cross Currents Spring 2008:
51+. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.

Trans Feminism
Queering the woman question

Although some legal scholars have used the term in a very narrow sense, as a
synonym for transsexual

Trans = umbrella term

Pre-op, postop, and nonop transsexual people

Cross-dressers

Feminine men, masculine women

Intersexed people

and more generally, anyone whose gender identity or expression differs from conventional expectations of
masculinity or femininity.
About 2 to 5% of the us population. Often marginalized on multiple levels

Proliferating terms: transvestite, cross-dresser, trannie, trans,

genderfuck, genderqueer, FMT, MtM, trans men, boyz, bois,
bigendered, third sex, nellie, queer, eonist, invert, androgyne, butch,
femme, she-male, he-she, boy-dyke, girlfag are all identities that
have been claimed by

I - Marginalization

By society in general

cissexism

Transmysogyny, violence against

women Hypersexualization of trans
feminine people (in mainstream
media)

Violence: bullying, body shaming

By institutions

Health (surgical / hormonal

correction vs wilfull transition)

Physical Violence (most harrassed

by police forces, most arrested,
end up in male prisons)

Economic violence Employment &

housing

trans* individuals in the USA have a one in 12 chance

of being murdered, compared to a one in 18,000
chance for cisgendered Americans.
20% of murdered people
40% of police-intiated violence

II - Trans Activism & Trans feminism

Trans activism is inspired by

* the fights for civil rights
* feminism,
* lesbian and gay rights movements (cf Marsha P Johnson & Sylvia
Rivera)
* other New Left movements of the postwar era

Natural Allies

Just like 2nd wave feminists

Fight against worplace discrimination

For bodily autonomy (right to choose)

For Self determination

Birth control
Abortion
Medical transition (hormones, srs)
Easily fired, no legal recourse
But also against police harrassment cf Compton
Cafeteria Riots in 1966 Stonewall Riots 1969 more
LGBT

Exclusion (who counts as feminist?

As woman?)

Janice Raymond Trans women are

really rapists
Mary Daly Transfemininity = blackface
Trans masculinity = transgression.
Trans women are submissive &
reinforce binary structures =
submission

Olivia Records company (1979) Sandy

Stone is not a real woman & is bringing
masculine energies into women spaces
MWMF (1991) a place for those who
have grown up female in a patriarchal
society
Planned parenthood centers, Rape
crisis centers, Shelters for women
victim of domestic violence (cf lib
feminists)

Cf Betty Friedan Lavender Menace

All transsexuals rape womens bodies by reducing
the real female form to an artefact, appropriating
this body for themselves. Transsexuals merely cut
off the most obvious means of invading women, so
that they seem non-invasive. Janice Raymond
Essentialist attacks. Based on biology. Women =
people who have vaginas, xx chromosomes,
mentruate, etc

III Intersectional struggles

Emmi Koyama Transfeminist manifesto

Elimination of "any legally prescribed relationship between biological sex, gender identity, and gender
expression"

Challenging gender & sex binaries: New models of femininity ==> greater number of people who
identify & pass as a woman
Terri Webb, Gordene MacKenzie: one can live as a man or a woman without SRS; we therefore
should change society, not sexes, cure bipolar culture, not its sex-gender transgressors.

Id = unstable category. race, class, sexuality, and gender are intertwined.

Many activists became politicised through prison reform/abolition questions

cf free Cece campaign. TGI Justice

Angela Davis on Feminism, gender non conformity and Prison Abolition

From my understanding, a central endeavor of Feminist, Queer and

Trans activists has been to dismantle the cultural ideologies, social
practices and legal norms that say certain body parts determine
gender identity and gendered social characteristics and roles. We
have fought against the idea that the presence of uteruses or
ovaries or penises or testicles should be understood to determine
such things as peoples intelligence, proper parental roles, proper
physical appearance, proper gender identity, proper labor roles,
proper sexual partners and activities and capacity to make
decisions. We have opposed medical and scientific assertions that
affirm the purported health of traditional gender roles and activities
that anthologized the bodies that defy these norms. We continue to
work to dispel myths that body parts somehow make us who we are,
and make us less than, or better than depending on which we may
have. Dean Spade founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law

Project (www.srlp.org), a non-profit law collective that

provides free legal services to transgender, intersex and
gender non-conforming people who are low-income
and/or people of color.

Id = unstable category. race, class, sexuality,

and gender are intertwined.

Now and then one of my friends asks me in a whisper appropriate to respect for
the passed, "So, whatever happened to feminism?" From now on I intend to
recommend these books to them, and tell them, "Transgender happened. Check
it out." Check it out. Angela P. Harris

Struggle to be counted as woman as feminist as

human beings

Bibliography

Bernstein, Elizabeth, and Laurie Schaffner, eds. Regulating Sex: The Politics of Intimacy and Identity. New York: Routledge,
2005. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Dame, Avery P. "Enke, Anne, Ed.: Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies." Women's
Studies in Communication 37.1 (2014): 111+. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Garber, Linda. Identity Poetics: Race, Class, and the Lesbian-Feminist Roots of Queer Theory. New York: Columbia UP, 2001.
Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Haggerty, George E., John Beynon, and Douglas Eisner, eds. Gay Histories and Cultures. New York: Garland, 2000. Questia.
Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Harris, Angela P. "Transgender Rights/whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity."
Women's Studies Quarterly 36.1/2 (2008): 315+. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Kirsch, Max H. Queer Theory and Social Change. London: Routledge, 2000. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Plaskow, Judith. "Embodiment, Elimination, and the Role of Toilets in Struggles for Social Justice." Cross Currents Spring 2008:
51+. Questia. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.