Nick Kiddle (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ksej) wrote,@ 2008-03-19 22:30:00 |
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Transitioning privilege?
I've been thinking all day about this. A radfem blogger posted about how she used to support excluding trans women from women's space but has now changed her mind, and wouldn't you know that the very first comment was from someone who thinks trans women are the oppressors.
What makes this extra special is that the comment in question was made by a guy. A guy who thinks that, since he was a good feminist ally all his life and trans women often ignore feminism until they pass well enough to experience sexism, he has more right to be in women's space than they do. In fact, it's downright offensive to let him in and keep them shut out. Clearly, some nuance of the term "women's space" is escaping him here.
He goes on to say that since post-ops are privileged compared to pre-ops, both must be privileged compared to him, a non-violent, feminist-friendly man. Because he's taking the whole concept one step further by not transitioning at all.
But not transitioning confers a metric shitload of privilege. I speak from current experience here. As a not-transitioned person, I don't have to worry about trying to navigate bureaucracy with documents that don't match each other or don't match my body. I don't have to worry that people will beat the shit out of me or kill me through neglect just because they discover my body doesn't look the same once the clothes are off. I don't have to worry that my family and friends will disown me for making them uncomfortable. Not transitioning is a very safe place. That's why I'm cowering here.
For trans people, none of that matters because the need to transition is so strong.1 There comes a time when the choice is between transition, with all the loss of privilege that means, and suicide. When living and not transitioning is no longer an option. The lucky ones reach that point and can access everything they need to transition straight away.
The unlucky ones that have to wait are less privileged on some other scale already. They might be unable to afford medical care, they might have some disability that complicates matters, they might present in unconventional ways that the medical establishment holds against them. But it adds up to a privilege they most definitely lack: the privilege of living as a gender that matches who they are. So for sure, the transitioners are privileged compared to the not-transitioned trans people.
And the difference between a not-transitioned trans person and a cis person? It's even harder than picking out the women-born-women, because even a panty check or a chromosome test won't sort it out. It's entirely possible that the commenter is even deeper in the closet than me, repressing her desire to transition until it comes out as poisonous hostility towards those lucky women who are getting what she wants, deep down. But it's also entirely possible that he's completely comfortable with his maleness and just likes taking potshots at trans women because it gets him approval from his circle of friends.
1Hence my agonising on the subject of "Am I really trans?"
I've been thinking all day about this. A radfem blogger posted about how she used to support excluding trans women from women's space but has now changed her mind, and wouldn't you know that the very first comment was from someone who thinks trans women are the oppressors.
What makes this extra special is that the comment in question was made by a guy. A guy who thinks that, since he was a good feminist ally all his life and trans women often ignore feminism until they pass well enough to experience sexism, he has more right to be in women's space than they do. In fact, it's downright offensive to let him in and keep them shut out. Clearly, some nuance of the term "women's space" is escaping him here.
He goes on to say that since post-ops are privileged compared to pre-ops, both must be privileged compared to him, a non-violent, feminist-friendly man. Because he's taking the whole concept one step further by not transitioning at all.
But not transitioning confers a metric shitload of privilege. I speak from current experience here. As a not-transitioned person, I don't have to worry about trying to navigate bureaucracy with documents that don't match each other or don't match my body. I don't have to worry that people will beat the shit out of me or kill me through neglect just because they discover my body doesn't look the same once the clothes are off. I don't have to worry that my family and friends will disown me for making them uncomfortable. Not transitioning is a very safe place. That's why I'm cowering here.
For trans people, none of that matters because the need to transition is so strong.1 There comes a time when the choice is between transition, with all the loss of privilege that means, and suicide. When living and not transitioning is no longer an option. The lucky ones reach that point and can access everything they need to transition straight away.
The unlucky ones that have to wait are less privileged on some other scale already. They might be unable to afford medical care, they might have some disability that complicates matters, they might present in unconventional ways that the medical establishment holds against them. But it adds up to a privilege they most definitely lack: the privilege of living as a gender that matches who they are. So for sure, the transitioners are privileged compared to the not-transitioned trans people.
And the difference between a not-transitioned trans person and a cis person? It's even harder than picking out the women-born-women, because even a panty check or a chromosome test won't sort it out. It's entirely possible that the commenter is even deeper in the closet than me, repressing her desire to transition until it comes out as poisonous hostility towards those lucky women who are getting what she wants, deep down. But it's also entirely possible that he's completely comfortable with his maleness and just likes taking potshots at trans women because it gets him approval from his circle of friends.
1Hence my agonising on the subject of "Am I really trans?"
