Before we get into the nitty gritty, I want to start out this week's discussion by thanking you all for participating in the group reading thus far. I have been trying get this off the ground for a while and it's nice to finally see it take off and more specifically see it be used for educational purposes following a community-wide struggle session on trans issues. I never would have anticipated such immense pushback from the community on such a minor issue; I saw a lot of misconceptions, hate, and outright refusal to listen to and understand those affected by the matter.
Seeing it all unfold in real-time was very surreal and alienating and I suspect a lot of other trans people here felt that way too. But like your stereotypical Christian who turns to the Bible in times of confliction and confusion, I looked to comrade Leslie Feinberg for guidance and found a few little passages that really stood out to me on the matter of the struggle sessions:
- "Together, I believe we can forge a coalition that can fight on behalf of your oppression as well as mine. Together, we can raise each other's grievances and win the kind of significant change we all long for. But the foundation of unity is understanding." (pg. 6)
- "Misconceptions have been a barrier between our communities. In order to have any real dialogue, it means we must all listen carefully to each other." (pg. 22)
- "None of us can ever be free while others are still in chains. That's the truth underlying the need for solidarity. Trans liberation is inextricably linked to other movements for equality and justice." (pg. 48)
- "Revealing the need for solidarity takes patient education." (pg. 50)
While the response was alienating, seeing cis folks participating has been very reassuring that there are people here willing to listen to the struggles of trans people, challenge their own misconceptions on trans issues, and strive to be better allies to help fight on our behalf. And I'm grateful for the trans folks who are willing to participate in this and have a dialogue with anyone who is seeking to better understand our lived experiences. I truly appreciate everyone involved with this educational session. You're all based as fuck. O7
Now that all the mushy gushy shit is outta the way, drop as many quotes, thoughts, comments, concerns, ah-ha moments as you like in the comments and shoot to be actively commenting on other people's notes throughout the day as well.
This thread will be featured for 24 hours then will remain pinned in !transenby_liberation for the remainder of the week until next Saturday. Rinse and repeat.
Double posting bc fuck the police
Some of the language was a bit outdated (such as transexual), it's pretty interesting how quickly language evolves. But it was clear what the writers were describing in their use of transsexual vs transgender. I think now some of those people would be termed nonbinary and trans people are of course just referred to as being trans, while sexuality is also treated as further separate. But even then, i was surprised at the diversity of language used to describe all the people who didn't fit into the categories - nonbinary as a word wasn't used but so many people were not part of the gender binary there.
Honestly i just think of how we'd probably have all the language stuff ironed out if we hadn't be horribly repressed for so long by the whole settler-colonial mindset. Nonbinary genders have been around in many cultures and countries for thousands of years. But i mean. Our culture just kinda treats man as default and woman as a special gender that we kind of ignore, like women's studies are pretty new and treated as Extra, and p much most science is done with male participants. I think because of how women are oppressed, this is also kind of how nonbinary people are treated - we're like Spicy Woman Plus to most people because we are not women, but we do not fit into the narrow range of acceptable masculinity to really be afforded any privileges based on having a masculine presentation unless we present entirely as men.
It seems as if the range of acceptable masculinity is very narrowly defined, so anything appearing feminine, even if it's in fact a masculine behavior in that person's culture is Otherized immediately. Even if two-spirited people are deeply respected in their own culture, that's not how they'd be treated in our cisnormative settler colonialist society.
Final thought - people always picture communists are very rigid gender expression - but look at what capitalism and the pursuit of profit has done to gender expression. Men can't even fucking like girly drinks or be nice to their girlfriends without people questioning their sexuality.
Post as much as you want, bb. No skin off my bones. ☺️
The outdated language is my biggest problem with having cis folk read this book as I fear they might think this language is still valid, haha. The intent was to get them to read about the lived experiences and struggles of the trans community throughout recent history.
I think it's even cooler that they didn't identify with more large tent language like "non-binary", to be honest. The amount of language used to describe their lived experiences really just goes to show that humans can't be confined to a simple "M" or "F" and no matter what, people will express themselves how they see fit regardless of what society thinks. Self expression is at the core of every person.
yeah, good point! I think that's the best part of gender expression anyway :)