Transphobic tropes #2 – "Patriarchal Privilege"
http://questioningtransphobia.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/transphobic-tropes-2-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Cpatriarchal-privilege%E2%80%9D/This is one that's particularly directed at trans women, but occasionally at trans men too. Simply put, it is the notion that before, during and after transition we are privileged members of the patriarchy.
The notion that trans people are the worst examples or supporters of the Patriarchy is a common one in radical feminist thought–notably Janice Raymond's notorious The Transsexual Empire, Germaine Greer's The Whole Woman, and any number of works by Sheila Jeffreys. The ludicrous premise of recent "science fiction" film The Gendercator was that trans people had collaborated with the Christian Right to force transition on everyone, so that an absolute gender binary would be upheld.
This is, however, complete twaddle. Trans people on the whole are no more in favour of the binary than anyone else, and since it is fracking impossible to just snap your fingers and change gender categories legally (or you know, fall into the Spring of Drowned Girl), we often inhabit a precarious legal space in-between genders–and therefore have very good reason to argue for the abolition of gendered categories.
