Quote from: androgynouspainter26 on September 16, 2014, 08:24:25 PM
You know, I do believe that gender is a social construct, but sex is not. So dysphoria is real, even if the manifestations of it often are not. I despise the rad-fems as much as the next gal, but they have one, single point that I learned something from: We do tend to enforce gender norms rather than transcend them. This doesn't mean they are real, just that we tend to barricade ourselves into these binary categories. Part of it is the complex we've created surrounding who is and who is not trans-ten years ago, I would not have been considered a "real" transexual because I'm rough and edgy, I rock a short haircut, and I don't usually wear floor-length pink dresses.
ahh!!! in my opinion, this is taking exactly the
wrong lesson from the idea that "gender is a social construct." a lot of times when people say "x is a social construct," they follow up with something like "x is not real." radfems fall victim to this especially, and "gender isn't real, only sex" has become a byline of trans exclusion. but the assumption that a social construct is i feel not only misguided but incredibly toxic! social constructs are
very real, for reasons spelled out entirely in the name of what they are! they are
socially constructed...i.e., they have been created (constructed) by society, and these constructions have a significant impact on the people who live in the world.
so i normally don't draw comparisons between gender/race because i feel like that can sometimes give the wrong idea, but i feel like it's especially easy to illustrate what i mean by "social construct ≠ not real" with it. so for a simple analogy or example we can talk about race. race is a social construct, i.e. the idea that people belong into particular racial categories is not something that is really biologically determined or even something determined by what people look like, necessarily, but historically has been a way for people to decide what constitutes an in-group/out-group in a particular society. so being "white" is not this thing that is set in stone forever as a genetic marker that means you have The White Gene (which doesn't actually exist)...so even contemporary ideas of what counts as white wouldn't necessarily fly even 100-200 years ago. so groups that in the united states, for example, would have been considered non-white, like irish, italians, or spaniards, are now almost universally considered to be white. likewise today, nebulous concepts of ethnic and cultural heritage, like being hispanic/latino, are sometimes considered racial groups distinct from being white or black or FN or native american, and other times considered cultural groups to which white/black/native american/mestizo people belong. all of these groups are "real" in the sense that belonging to a group, or society deciding that you belong to a group, has real consequences.
the same is absolutely true of gender. to say gender isn't "real" is missing the point, imo, because even if let's say science discovers that in fact, gender is not something that has some kind of immediately identifiable neurologic/psychological/biological explanation, i.e., "it's all in your head," it's still THERE. gender exists if not in your head then as the space between your head and everyone else's. that negative space is still real.
so it really isn't a question about "enforcing" gender norms. i think that no single PERSON could possibly enforce gender norms because they're part of a system like everyone else, so to me it sounds pretty ridiculous when radfems say something like "oh trans women are just enforcing toxic gender stereotypes," like, what!? if that's the case then there's no way out
at all, you're either a conservative (little-c, just meaning you're enforcing the status quo), or a reactionary (rejecting the status quo), and in both cases there's no way out and your entire performance of gender is controlled by what the expectation is.
individual trans people shouldn't have to face the music if they pick either of the two ways out of the impossible double bind. what is "transcending" a gender norm anyway? how is disobeying a gender norm any different, really, than obeying it, if everything is still relative to what society demands you do? for many people, "barricading [themselves] into these binary categories" is just the easiest way to not feel terrible at all times. and if that's influenced by the impossible standards the medical/psychological industry created (
they did, not us), i mean, who am i to criticize someone else doing something they feel is necessary for their survival?
i've been there before, right? like for the longest time i was all reject makeup, reject dresses, reject everything with the slightest bit of femininity because that's what it takes to bring the patriarchy DOWN, yo!!! and...like...that's cool, that's great, but it doesn't do anything for the people who find that the easiest way for them to make it in a world that is cruel and scary and that hates people like us is to follow the rules, and even maybe to feel good about the way they look when they're following the rules, and to want to dress in a way that makes them feel like they have more power and control over themselves than they've ever had before? so when i kind of realized that, i think i started to loosen up a little bit about the way i dressed, whereas before i was too afraid of wearing girls' clothes because ew, femininity, i realized that that opinion was something that was instilled in me by a society that told me that femininity is inherently weaker, inferior, lesser, and that's screwed up. wearing a dress and having long hair is not "enforcing a gender norm" any more than buzzing a feminist fist into your hair and dying it purple while wearing a dude shirt is "transcending" one.
so in the end, why should it matter why dysphoria is real? to me, it's real, full stop, and people should be permitted to do whatever it is that alleviates it, because DAMN, what a terrible feeling it is. whatever it is that allows people to feel better, whether it's with a presentation that others would consider strictly binary or not, is a valid one.
