An Open Letter to the National Center for Transgender Equality on the Cotton Ceiling Debacle
by bugbrennan
http://radicalhub.com/2012/03/27/an-open-letter-to-the-national-center-for-transgende%E2%80%8Br-equality-on-the-cotton-ceiling-debacle/Dear Mara,
Hope you are well. I am writing to ask the National Center for Transgender Equality to weigh in on a controversy that has pitted Lesbians, many of whom have been "good" allies to the Transgender community, and Transgender women. I am sure you have heard of it – the "Cotton Ceiling," a term porn actress Drew DeVeaux and other Transgender women use to "challenge lesbians' tendency to support Transgender causes generally but draw the line at sleeping with Transgender women or including Transgender lesbians in their sexual communities."
Lesbians and Feminists object to the "Cotton Ceiling" metaphor as ahistorical and rape invoking. The metaphor cheapens the struggles of Females to shatter the glass ceiling in the workplace by suggesting that the right to sexual access to Females is on par with the struggle for equality in the workplace. The metaphor suggests that Females are a barrier to be broken, or that Females owe some obligation to "penetrate" the veil of Transgender Women's underwear (God, I wish I was making this up). Lesbians and Feminists also object to the metaphor because it suggests that Lesbians (i.e., Female homosexuals) need to open themselves sexually to Transgender women in to demonstrate that we are "good" Transgender allies. Consequently, the metaphor dictates that Lesbians are bigots for not wanting to consider sex with male-bodied persons.
