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

[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.