The Hypocrisy of Trans-Exclusionary Feminism

The experiences of transgender people cannot be excluded from the feminist aspirations for gender equality and freedom from stereotypes and gender roles. Transfeminism, which was predominantly defined and introduced into academia by scholar and activist Emi Koyama, is a category of the feminist movement. It applies feminist beliefs to transgender discourses and includes the transgender perspective as crucial to the feminist movement in general. It views the liberation of trans women as “intrinsically linked to the liberations of all women and beyond”. It aims to reflect that the internalization of heteronormativity and patriarchy is a shared experience of both cisgender and transgender women. In fact, trans women are often subjected to gatekeeping and forced to display traditional gender expression and gender roles in order to assert their identity as women.

Transfeminism incorporates all the significant themes of third-wave feminism, including diversity, body image, self-definition, and women's agency. This is why it has been frequently opposed by Second-wave feminists, many of whom believe that trans women can never be accepted as ‘real women’. In the past few years, TERFs or Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists have used online spaces to push transphobic and trans-exclusionary rhetorics. The author of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, recently made a series of controversial tweets that undercut the rights and safety of trans people under the premise that transgender self-expression leads to the erasure of the lived experiences of women.

The most common rebuttal to the rights of trans women is that cisgender men might claim to self-identify as transgender in order to gain access to women’s spaces and assault them. But if that is the case, then the problem here lies with predatory men and not with transgender women. Another argument used to challenge the ‘womanhood’ of trans women is their inability to get pregnant. This is a reductive claim which implies that childbearing is essential to being a woman, ignoring the existence of infertile or older women who also cannot reproduce. However, above all else, this ideology of radical feminists is one that doesn’t allow self-definition and autonomy over gender expression, and that is where they contradict themselves. The notion that trans men are just women who have surrendered in the face of patriarchy is also an inherently anti-feminist one because it delegitimizes the agency that women have over their own lives. Transgender discourse has pushed the rethinking of concepts like sex and gender and this is seen as a threat, even though feminism itself cannot exist without the re-evaluation and deconstruction of gender systems and gender roles.

Furthermore, it cannot be ignored that women have succeeded far more than trans people in the fight for formal equality. Transgender women are far more likely to face both intimate partner violence and stranger violence. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 53% of all anti-LGBT homicides in the US were those of transgender women. Last year in India, the Rajya Sabha passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019. This act trivializes sexual abuse against transgender people. It offers offenders reduced punishment ranging from 6 months to 2 years, while similar offenses against non-trans women warrant a minimum sentence of 7 years which can then be extended to life imprisonment.

Transgender people who fall on the feminine side of the gender spectrum, like trans women and transfeminine individuals, are victims of overlapping discrimination. They face both misogyny and transphobia, which has come to be known as transmisogyny. Trans inclusion and women’s empowerment are incorrectly perceived to be clashing objectives. In actuality, women’s empowerment and freedom of gender expression are not mutually exclusive. Both are essential for the broader feminist aspiration of gender justice. Liberty to express gender identity supports the emancipation of women from the policing of ways in which they enact their gender.

References

Koyama, E. (2004). The Transfeminist Manifesto. In Catching a wave: Reclaiming feminism for the 21st century. Boston: Northeastern University Press.

Waters, E. (2017). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and HIV ... Retrieved August 15, 2020, from http://avp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/NCAVP_2016HateViolence_REPORT.pdf