1. What steps have been successful in the past to engage people outside of the targeted group in fighting for rights? For example, what has been successful in engaging men in fighting for women's rights, or engaging heterosexuals in fighting for GLBTQ rights?
I ask this question because from my vantage point the women's movement that I felt so strongly about at the beginning of the semester is seeming, through the readings, to apply less to me as white, straight, mother, wife, woman. I understand when I read Fienburg's essay that we all must band together so that none of our rights are limited:"Your own choices as a man or a woman are sharply curtailed [when transgendered people are oppressed.] Your individual journey to express yourself is shunted into one of two deeply carved ruts, and the social baggage your are handed is already packed."
But as I read more and more in assigned writings I wonder where my place is. I can argue the facts intellectually and come up with the right answer. But as someone who is straight and white where is my place except for on the sidelines fighting for someone else under the banner women's rights. I mean this with so much respect and care as I believe we all must have equality, choices, and rights, but I can't help but feel a little left out. This brings me to my next question regarding differences that was brought up in Koyama's piece on the efforts of excluding others.
2. What are the largest differences in how transexuals perceive their childhood compared to those who are not transexual?
I was surprised to read in in Koyama's article that the perception is that transexual women are "fundamentally different." She states that the feminist argument is that transexual women are different "due to the fact that they were raised with with male privilege." I would imagine that transexual women did not enjoy the full privilege extended to them because they always felt different. I am interested to know how they perceived themselves as children. If they at an early age were able to fully embrace gender that was pushed onto them.
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I often wonder if the critique of past and present politic movements that rely on identity politics (an essentialist understanding of “woman”) isn’t an attempt to discourage our own politics and hopes for the future, but a way to ask us to consider the ways we are privileged (moments when, because of our identity, we have some amount of power and we find ourselves standing in the center) and the ways we are not (moments when, because of our identity, we have less power and we find ourselves standing in the margins). If we consider this as we figure out what matters to us, is finding a place for ourselves any easier? Is forging connections any easier? Is articulating why our specific “issues” deserve attention more responsible? We must continue to ask your specific questions in class!
ReplyDeleteI don't think much of your first question was touched on in class, but we shortly discussed your second question. A similar question crossed my mind when we watched "But I'm a Cheerleader" and they asked everyone to find their root. How were these teenagers supposed to look back in their lives and find the reason for why they became gay or lesbian. In relation to your question, we ask ourselves how transsexuals see their childhood in comparison to those children who are not transsexual. Do transsexual children see themselves as different and weird? Or unique and gifted? We know that no one can be perfect, so what can we define as the "ideal perfect"? Maybe the "ideal perfect" person is neither a feminine female nor a masculine male. This would mean that transsexuals could consider themselves closer to perfect than those who are not transsexual. Our culture tends to force certain beliefs on people that if they aren't a certain way, then they will never fit it. This ultimately causes children, transsexual or not, to feel left out and feel the need to change.
ReplyDeleteSo do we think transsexual children and children who are not transsexual to have the same point of view? Maybe they both feel left out and don't realize it. Or maybe transsexual children are often more ridiculed and feel alone. It's an interesting subject to consider and question.
I think I have thought more about the differences between essentialism and inclusion more than anything else. It is so hard to know if inclusion or essentialism is more effective in causing political change. When I was thinking about this today I was thinking that since majorities get things done, sometimes, in democracy that it is good to include so many varying needs, rights, and people. But at other times, I think about how much solace I get from an idea like essentialism, a feeling that I am different and also the same. Especially as a woman. I value how many different twists there are on womanhood, but I am so thankful to have some women who I relate to and feel the same as. I keep going back and forth. I really liked the idea of having different spaces. In class it was brought up that there is an idea that sometimes you are coalition building and sometimes you are resting. This becomes so much more complicated though when the people you do both of these with are the same group. The line and distinction becomes blurred and sometimes it leaves to an overall feeling of tiredness. It is like in the academic community when you are reminded that every action you do is on display and you must remain professional at all times. But, sometimes I need and want to let my hair down. This is such a hard lesson for me as I want to be accepted for who I am and not always measure my words. I am still trying to figure out how the two pieces fit together.
ReplyDeleteI realize too how much harder it is to be a minority and always be coalition building or furthering a cause just by existence. I do not mean to sound like I am minimizing that experience.
ReplyDeleteI love your questions. They are the very thoughts that I have had myself. When researching this, due to my own lack of knowledge with this topic, I have found that no matter what the sex, female or male, when one is forced to live life of a gender that they cannot only identify with but also feel comfortable with. I have seen other documentaries where the females had no choice in having or not having their genitals mutilated and removed, and then later on in life they identify with more of the male side rather than the female side. It seems as though these doctors and even the parents are playing devil’s advocate in making the decision for these infants and not really thinking clearly of how it will affect them later on in life. I have also seen where the decision was made not remove or dismember the genital area, not because the decision should be left to the child as they grow into the adolescent stage, but because they thought that they were having a boy not a girl as the ultrasound had shown. All of a sudden, something just popped up at the last minute. Later on to find out that they started to grow breasts as they grew older. I am sure, being a parent myself; it would be a difficult decision to make on our own. However sometimes there is too much interference when decisions are being made concerning OUR children. Parents should have the right to make a decision according to what may be best for the child. Being an adolescent is difficult enough with all the peer pressure of trying drugs, and having sex, without the cruelty that goes on when one doesn’t understand how someone can appear to one way and then to have the mechanics of another.
ReplyDeleteWhom you are inside is different than what your mechanics are on the outside. The take on the transsexuals; even though these are men that identify themselves as being women, still feel and experience the same oppression and discrimination as women do. Or are they just men that have gotten in touch with their “feminine side”. From the age of 9 till I was about 17, I was classified as a tomboy; jeans, t-shirts, and tennis shoes. I played sports such as basketball, baseball, football, then later on soccer and track was added on. Was this classification determined by an environmental perspective or by a more biological approach? I believe it was a combination of both. I was raised in a neighborhood of all boys. The only girl that was in the neighborhood was 5 years younger than me and once I hit the age of ten it was a little awkward playing with a five year old; “if you can beat ‘em join ‘em” As I reached the age of seventeen, I started to notice boys a little more and realized that they were all interested in the girls that looked like girls, so the t-shirts and jeans were put on the back burner, until it was time to get dirty. However I stopped playing sports, at least with other boys and directed my athletic abilities to school functions only, where I played with other girls. My mom had started to worry about me at the age of sixteen when she had asked my brother “do you think that Marcie is a lesbian because she never talks about boys”. I can remember my brother’s response as clear as it was yesterday. “No mom, she isn’t a lesbian, and she does talk about boys, she just doesn’t talk about them to you”.
So, judging a book by its cover is not always the wisest tactic to take because you just may end up hurting those people’s feelings, or they may even be able to help you with your own dilemmas. Just because a male decides to change their whole outside mechanics to suit what they feel in their heart and soul does not necessarily mean that they know less about oppression, or other social issues that other women, who have all the necessary parts, do. You would be surprised at what you can learn by those different from you.