AIN'T I A WOMAN
Submitted by Laverne on Tue, 03/23/2010 - 2:34am
http://lavernecox.com/gender-studies/aint-i-woman (http://lavernecox.com/gender-studies/aint-i-woman)
THIS IS A PIECE I WROTE A FEW YEARS AGO LOCATING MY TRANS IDENTITY IN RELATIONSHIP TO MY BLACK WOMANHOOD. SOMEONE IN THE VH1 CHATROOM WANTED TO HEAR MY THOUGHTS ABOUT BEING A TRANS WOMAN OF COLOR. HERE ARE SOME OF THEM.
"Ain't I a woman.' This is a phrase that's been popping up in my head a lot lately. It's a phrase we all know, of course, from the famous Sojourner Truth speech of the same title. This is a phrase that evokes for me the historic devaluation of black womanhood in America. Ms. Truth said in 1851 at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio: