Blog: Challenging Transsexuality?
http://btbelt.blogspot.com/2007/12/challenging-transsexuality.html
12/24/2007
The above quotation by sociologist Judith Lorber is an example of the so-called gender-progressive challenge to transsexuality (understood as a process of surgical changes to the body that would transform one's sex or gender identity). The standard argument goes something like this: Transsexuals are victims of society's oppressive gender diktat. They mutilate their bodies because gender norms require having 'the right' genitalia in order to be a 'real' man or a 'real' woman.
Quoted from the article in "Below the Belt:"
In addition, the 'progressive' critique of transsexuality treats changing one's genitalia as an ultimate act of social conformity. As most trans people will tell you, however, it is anything but that! Not having the genitalia one was born with (the so-called 'natural' ones) is viewed with painful amounts of stigma and violence. Transsexuality is an attempt to be oneself against immense social odds. It is true that this image of 'selfhood' is constructed by social gender expectations. Nevertheless, this does not make it any less respectable and any less remarkable of a triumph.
I don't know the most appropriate rejoinder for Ms. Lober's approach to transsexuality. Maybe this is the best I can do: *BUNK!*
I am not conforming to any societal norm. If I was I would be a male person with all of the physical, mental, emotional, and social attributes of a male. This statement in no way refers to anyone who is transitioning F-to-M.
Perhaps the progressive approach to Ms. Lober's way of thinking is for her to sustain a concussion that causes her to think clearly and sensibly, IMHBPAO.
Wing Walker