Adrienne Rich and transmisogyny: We can begin by acknowledging that it matters
29 Mar
https://yrwelcome.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/adrienne-rich-and-transmisogyny-we-can-begin-by-acknowledging-that-it-matters/ (https://yrwelcome.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/adrienne-rich-and-transmisogyny-we-can-begin-by-acknowledging-that-it-matters/)
I have complicated feelings about Adrienne Rich's passing: respect for everyone I know who was deeply impacted by her work, and disappointment at her contribution to pervasive transphobia. This piece is mostly an attempt to compile insights from others. Because as I witness my friends and community members mourn her, I also witness friends and community members who are outraged by the lack of conversation around her transmisogyny. I think this is a conversation we need to have. And for those of us who aren't trans women, it's an opportunity to check ourselves.
What's transmisogyny? "The intersection of transphobia and misogyny that specifically targets trans women," Tobi Hill-Meyer further articulates in this incredible piece on Bilerico (seriously, please read it).
So what's this got to do with Adrienne Rich? From Wikipedia:
TransGriot
Adrienne Rich-Transphobe
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2012/04/adrienne-rich-transphobe.html
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-uO0-OAXTPxo%2FT3sMZIYOwAI%2FAAAAAAAAWh4%2FFpzYAYHSWcY%2Fs320%2Fadrienne%2Brich.jpg&hash=2317d3d23a87b8a98e6209b0a1120709b7e87a11) (https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-qFHYjuK3Gh0%2FT3s8jCJbGVI%2FAAAAAAAAWiA%2FzJkLdk1LoM8%2Fs1600%2FThe%2BTranssexual%2BEmpire%2Bbook.jpg&hash=a5fa23c1f25158252d889db777f3ee89384df262)
One of the things the feminist blogosphere conveniently didn't talk about when feminist writer and poet Adrienne Rich died March 27 was her role in planting the seeds of transphobia that infect radical feminism today
In the acknowledgments section of the transphobic waste of trees Janice Raymond penned in 1979 called The Transsexual Empire, Raymond said, "Adrienne Rich has been a very special friend and critic. She has read the manuscript through all its stages and provided resources, creative criticism, and constant encouragement."
In the chapter of The Transsexual Empire entitled "Sappho by Surgery", Raymond cites a conversation with Adrienne Rich in which Rich described trans women as "men who have given up the supposed ultimate possession of manhood in a patriarchal society by self-castration"
One more bigot gone I guess.