Apparently I might be a terf and a ‘gender-critical feminist’, transphobic (if you really, really stretch your point) and certainly a feminazi. Yikes. How did I do this? I have publicly (ie in a blog) questioned the conventional wisdoms associated with trans-activism.
I would like to make it clear at this point that I wish all trans people well on their journey – if adopting a different gender than the one you were born with makes you happy, that can only be a good thing. Everyone has the right to question gender roles. Everyone.
But we have arrived at a point in history where we are having difficulties detecting the difference between having a debate, holding different opinions, interrogating cultural givens and hate speech. Some white people for example think that holding white culture to account for racism, slavery and institutionalised discrimination is racist, some men think that women who don’t fancy another few decades of misogyny and poor pay ‘hate men’ and most pertinently today, with the arrest and charging of Marion Millar in Airdrie, some people think that having a different and arguably opposing view on gender roles and sex is criminal hate speech.
This seems to have been a consequence of Stonewall and others adopting the T of trans into the LGB activism. We now have the clumsy set of capitals LGBTQ+ to talk about whenever the rights of alternate sexuality and gender roles come up.
But hold on a minute. Alternate sexuality – and alternate gender surely aren’t the same conversation? How did this happen? Gay people (and personally I don’t think that we need to have ‘gay’ and Lesbian in the line-up either. ‘Gay people’ that’s all that’s needed surely?) ..anyway, gay people express their sexuality in a way that has attracted legal and cultural suppression through the years – often with brutal violence. We are beginning- in the UK at least – to see some progress. Nowadays who you choose to have sex with is not the business of the law. We need to tackle homophobia for sure – football? – but some of the country’s most popular media figures are gay and loved.
(By the way – why do bisexuals need their own B either? As mentioned we are beginning to be comfortable with the notion that some people don’t have the same sexuality. Bisexual people are gay and straight at the same time, and we should be ok with that. Literally none of our business).
Trans and non-binary gender is not primarily about sexuality is it? And neither has been illegal as far as I’m aware. The only piece of legislation that attracts attention is the ability to self-determine your legal sex (which isn’t gender. But see previous discussions). So I’m unsure how they have ended up within a group campaigning to ensure that who you sleep with is not a legal issue or something that attracts social opprobrium. How has Stonewall and the like ended up including activism on behalf of people who believe that their gender conflicts with their sex at birth, or like non-binary folk, believe that it’s not relevant at all. I have literally no idea.
If you believe that your sex is not the same as your gender that is ok by me – I’ve never been super comfortable with the female gender roles that I am frequently obliged to live by. But some transactivists appear to believe that in order to ‘correct’ their gender they also have to correct their sexual body. Usually with hormone therapy and surgery. This is up to them (I guess..) But it does beg a few questions: do they believe that their ‘femininity’ (or masculinity) resides in their ‘mind’ and therefore you can ‘know’ your gender without experiencing periods, erections, childbirth, beards or menopause or … what.
I’m not sure that you can ‘know’ a gender without the bodily experience, but I’d like to ask them to explain their side of things to someone who thinks that gender roles are unproductive and damaging and that we should move away from them. We should definitely have more conversations about gender, sex, the experience of both and the need for surgery. Sexuality clearly plays a role here too. I mean, if you are attracted to the same sex as yourself, but are worried about social stigma, could this play into gender dysphoria? A fair question alongside whether it is right for safe spaces for women (prisons etc) to include people with penises. Should we ‘allow’ trans women in women’s toilets or changing rooms (btw. This is dumb. Unisex toilets and changing rooms should be the norm. Then it’s not an issue and it’s a better practical solution too). We should be questioning all our assumptions about cultural norms and issues. That’s how change happens for the better. Just ask Stonewall.
But asking some questions or taking a contradictory position to Stonewall et al, gets you labelled a ‘terf’ (trans-exclusionary radical feminist – thanks for that Ms Butler. It has helped a lot) or transphobic or it gets you charged with hate speech and threatened with prosecution. Does that seem right to you?
stranger in a strange land 