Quote from: Simon on January 28, 2013, 10:44:55 PM
I don't believe in the "Trans Enough" movement and I'm not going into that here as I have in previous threads. A transtrender is someone who treats being a transsexual as a phase. Are these people probably under the umbrella term of transgender? It's a probable notion.
A lot of what someone believes about being a transsexual is going to vary from other individuals. I don't think it's an identity. I look at it like a medical condition. Of course with that reasoning any transtrending is going to look like an affront.
ok, but......
again, who decides what constitutes "treating it like a phase"? who decides whether somebody gets to be in the Exclusive Inner Umbrella Zone? these are all subjective markers, and if you're going to argue that being a transtrender is something that a person can actually be, that means you sorta have to decide who has the gavel when it comes to adjudicating the boundary lines between Okay You're Cool and C'mon Stop Pretending. which is pretty much deciding who's trans enough.
i'm pretty sure the only other people who treat being trans as a phase are like, people who think you can't be trans in the first place. which i'm pretty sure is not what you're talking about.
anyway seriously i'm not big with my own identity politics just because i have a lot of complicated relationships with a lot of different terms and ideas (including being trans for that matter) but it's important that people who need that a) reaffirmation and b) ability to utilize and reclaim a political arena in such a way that they can achieve not only legal rights and equality but also social consideration in the same way.
for more regarding this (which isn't to say that they're equivalent, but it might give you a better idea of where i'm driving) you might want to look at some writers and theorists talking about disability and identity, and how claiming a cultural identity is a powerful tool for advocacy for change, for struggle and resistance against a structure of power that marginalizes those who are considered nonstandard or abnormal in some way, frequently through the force of violence, and as a way to critically appraise and interpret both the past and present in a social context. amydentata on tumblr is a is a really good resource for a lot of things, and she's also written a lot about being trans and disabled, and she makes many strong cases for the social advocacy that comes from claiming something as an identity. (i can also grab some more links, but i'll come back to this later for posterity's sake.
which doesn't mean that everyone has to do that, and everyone is always free to interpret their own life and take whatever path necessary to make things easier to work with or deal with (as long as you're aware of the greater social sphere of things, like. you can not identify as white but if you're perceived as white by other people you have to acknowledge the privilege that gives you, etc). but what it does mean is that you can't treat others as if they're going to view their lives through the same lens. from what i'm reading it sounds like you think transtrenders are basically pulling the equivalent of munchausen syndrome so they can get attention for their "medical condition".
but, i mean. a ton of trans people don't view it that way.
i don't view it that way, certainly, and if you suggested that i have something wrong with me and that i have a medical condition, or a psychiatric condition, or a psychological condition, then i'd feel insulted, and i'd also feel like you're diminishing what people who have actual medical and psychiatric and psychological disorders have to deal with by trying to draw a comparison there.
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Exactly. This site is the only contact I have with other trans people. I am stealth. Am I ashamed of being trans? No, because if someone were to approach me in a respectful manner and ask I would admit it. I have in the past. I just don't think it is anyone's business really.
How we live our lives direct effects how we view being trans.
that's definitely true! how we live our lives absolutely affects us. but still, dude, i'm not sure what you're driving at here. i don't really think pride or lack thereof or views on stealth really have anything to do with the subject at hand, which is about the idea that there's some imaginary group of people who are playing with gender dangerously like they're some sort of untrained flaming baton jugglers or something who are hurting the rest of the REAL flaming baton jugglers trying to make an honest living.
which, to bring the whole point home, is about how i feel about people claiming that non-binary people or people with non-western genders are giving trans people a bad name. it's just feeding into the patriarchy's constant attempts to ratify certain people's genders or gender expressions or gendered behaviors as quasilegitimate as long as they're complicit in beating down another marginalized group further. i mean it's been done before in the trans community. it still happens! a lot of us have experience with therapists or psychologists or psychiatrists who buy into the whole ray blanchard account of the psychopathology of transsexuality categorizing trans women into the categories of mentally disordered male homosexual and sexually disordered fetishistic straight man. and what did happen for a long time is that straight feminine trans women were allowed to ascend a few rungs on the ladder of the patriarchy as long as they took part in the delegitimizing of the "autogynephile". i mean to look at a classical figure in trans lesbian history, beth elliott gets thrown out of the queer women's organization she was a pioneer in, the daughters of bilitis. this is during the heart of the second wave when there was greater perceived political capital in throwing "gender traitors" like trans people under the bus to achieve the goal of women's liberation. but there's been progress made since then, and in no small part because of activists like elliott who have campaigned, who have understood the value in critical identity politics!
what i guess i'm getting at is that i think we're at a crossroads with regards to the perceived legitimacy of non-binary and non-western genders. as people who have been part of a group persecuted for daring to breach the inviolable system of the western hierarchy of oppositional sexism, the trans community, even those who are binary, heteronormative, and don't really interact with queer and trans communities to any significant degree, are a natural ally of the new vanguard of non-binary communities.
sorry, this sounded sort of like a manifesto! i didn't really mean it to be...i mean i guess it is, but it's mostly because i have strong feelings on the matter. uh, yeah. that's all i really have. and why i think suggesting that transtrenders exist is bad, and why treating non-binary people like enemies of further trans social justice is bad! yeah.
