Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Gloria Steinem-Transphobe

http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/09/gloria-steinem-transphobe.html (http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/09/gloria-steinem-transphobe.html)
9/28/12
Monica Roberts

You long time TransGriot readers know I'm not a feminist and I cringe when I hear Black women even say the term because of its history of marginalizing women of color to the point they left the movement.

And don't even get me started on its outright hostility to trans women, which is why I identify as a womanist.

And yes, it's time to unmask another one of the feminist icons, Gloria Steinem as a transphobe. 

It's okay. She's old and won't be around forever.  I also refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

At the risk of enduring flames, I'm going to agree with Ms. Steinem on some points. People *are* forced into gender roles by society and it *is* unjust. If they weren't, I think Transgender/Transition would be a lot easier. Many people spend a lot of pain and money on things like FFS so we'll pass. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if we were accepted as we are? If male-born facial structure on a transgender woman were considered feminine (Which it is. It's on a woman, ergo it's feminine.)

Hmmm . . . not to minimize the importance of the views expressed in the article, but on the one hand I have to point out that the views expressed by Gloria Steinem in 1983 were like those allegedly racist remarks made by Mark Twain in his books - a product of their times.  Not that they should be excused, but they should be examined through the appropriate lens.

Of course, on the flip side we can assume that if the book was recently republished she continues to support her earlier views, but what if?  I haven't followed her much in the past couple of decades, so I don't know if she still maintains these views regarding transwomen.  Does she?

I, for one, would love to hear her current views before passing judgement.

Quote from: agfrommd on September 29, 2012, 06:52:43 AM
At the risk of enduring flames, I'm going to agree with Ms. Steinem on some points. People *are* forced into gender roles by society and it *is* unjust. If they weren't, I think Transgender/Transition would be a lot easier. Many people spend a lot of pain and money on things like FFS so we'll pass. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if we were accepted as we are? If male-born facial structure on a transgender woman were considered feminine (Which it is. It's on a woman, ergo it's feminine.)

Sure, it would help in some ways, like I might have come out sooner. But physical dysphoria is still a thing. And I'd still have done facial surgery so I didn't feel sick looking in the mirror. My brain was perfectly aware of the things that altered in puberty that should not have altered. There is a biological basis for the difference in facial structure remember. It's not all social.

I mean I transitioned to an androgynous queer female. If I was trying to fit in, I'm obviously doing it wrong. As far as social convention goes that was walking up the downslide. I didn't modify my body to mesh with my desired social role. I modified my body because my body was wrong. I don't even have a desired social role.

So, yes, I'd love a much less rigidly gender-policed world. But I'd still have "mutilated my body" in exactly the same way.

(Flames! Flames!)

The revolutionaries of one age are the reactionaries of the next one.  'Twas ever thus.

Quote from: Abracadabra on September 29, 2012, 10:43:16 AM
PS: Flames? Why at all?

It was kind of a joke? Because agfrommd wrote "at the risk of enduring flames." So it was sort of a lighthearted way to make it clear that my response wasn't meant to be an attack on her, just a different perspective.