Food for thought

[dreamer_easy]

I said: Discussing the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival recently, which has long excluded transwomen who don't "share the experience of growing up under patriarchy", I wondered if I'd qualify as a woman by that definition, lacking so many female experiences: never been raped, never experienced intimate violence, never been pregnant. For that matter, I've only worn makeup a handful of times.

Multiple commenters remarked that rape was not "part of being female" and one disputed that "most women have been raped". Now the confusion is partly my fault for being unclear, so I've clarified what I meant in the comments - that rape is an experience of a large proportion of women "under patriarchy". But think about this: why were the only objections to the mention of rape? Why didn't anyone argue pregnancy is not an automatic part of being female, or dispute that "most women have been bashed by a boyfriend or husband"?

Comments

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I thought I objected to the motherhood bit, but maybe not as strenuously. Or maybe I edited it out. Then again, motherhood is something that women can choose; rape is by definition something that nobody chooses.

For what it's worth, transwomen do get a lot of that shit. They may not have grown up under it, having the outward appearance of boys, but then again they might have been constantly bashed for being sissy boys. When they start putting on the outward appearance of women, with or without surgery, they have to put up with the same crap that the rest of us do -- sexual harassment, discrimination in the workplace, pressure to conform to female beauty standards.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Preaching to the choir there. IMHO, the Festival's policy, far from benefitting women in some way, is amusingly fanboyish - squabbling over definitions, like arguing that Paul McGann doesn't count.

(Man, I really need an Inanna/Ishtar icon for these gender discussions.)

[vindaloo-vixen.livejournal.com]

It's really just kind of patronising and insulting to everyone involved, trans or otherwise, as I see it.