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Real women
Apr. 12th, 2016 02:50 pmIn her appearance on Q&A, Germaine Greer acknowledged the fact that male and female aren't adequate to describe human physical and anatomical sex - "I'm not entirely immune to information", she quipped - but continues to have reservations about trans women which sound more like they're coming from a random person on the street, not someone who has thought about gender their entire lives. Do trans women know they are women, or merely believe it? No-one thinks to ask Germaine whether she knows she is a woman, or only believes she is one.
She makes a more interesting point, though, when she remarks:
I've seen this position before: that being a woman is a sort of privilege, something that must be earned, and trans women have not earned that privilege. This is an extraordinary inversion of our understanding of privilege. We know from the accounts of trans women in the workplace that they have lost their male privilege**. Unless she passes, a trans woman also loses her cis privilege.
Also missing from Greer's comments is an understanding of why a trans woman might live as a man, with a traditionally male occupation, and father kids. Why do these masculine things if you are a woman? Let's put aside the possibility that you might not want to be beaten to death. In recent months I've read about trans women who joined the military and deliberately did brave, dangerous things. They were hypermasculine men precisely because they were trying to defeat their urges to be feminine - to prove to themselves that they were "real" men. Greer's hypothetical virile truckie may well be doing the same thing.
But why would any feminist ask: Why do these masculine things if you are a woman? If you are a truck driver, have a wife, and have kids, you are not a real woman. Lesbian truck drivers with wives and children are not real women. Wait, what? What are the essential criteria here? Are straight women who drive trucks and have children real women? Is an unmarried male nurse a real man? If he is married but does not beget children, is he a real man? If he begets children but does not marry, is he a real man?
These are deep questions about our assumptions about gender - assumptions which Greer, despite thinking deeply, has not yet come to grips with. I've barely begun to read the real-life stories of trans women (and men). When Greer does, she'll have a lot more to think about.
* It wasn't "fair" of the lesbian in Melissa Etheridge's song "The Wanting of You" to marry a man, either. Gender prejudice fucks everyone up.
** The term "privilege" is both confusing and overused. In this instance, the trans women reported that they were now the victims of sexism which they previously hadn't had to deal with. "Cis privilege" is when I go into the women's bathroom and no-one calls security or beats me to death.
She makes a more interesting point, though, when she remarks:
"I don't believe that a man who has lived for forty years as a man, and had children with a woman, and enjoyed the unpaid services of a wife - which most women will never know - that he then decides that the whole time he's been a woman... you believed you were a woman, but you married another woman? Well, that wasn't fair, was it?"*
[And summarising her position:] "If you're a 50-year-old truck driver who's had four children with a wife and you've decided the whole time you've been a woman, I think you're probably wrong."
[And summarising her position:] "If you're a 50-year-old truck driver who's had four children with a wife and you've decided the whole time you've been a woman, I think you're probably wrong."
I've seen this position before: that being a woman is a sort of privilege, something that must be earned, and trans women have not earned that privilege. This is an extraordinary inversion of our understanding of privilege. We know from the accounts of trans women in the workplace that they have lost their male privilege**. Unless she passes, a trans woman also loses her cis privilege.
Also missing from Greer's comments is an understanding of why a trans woman might live as a man, with a traditionally male occupation, and father kids. Why do these masculine things if you are a woman? Let's put aside the possibility that you might not want to be beaten to death. In recent months I've read about trans women who joined the military and deliberately did brave, dangerous things. They were hypermasculine men precisely because they were trying to defeat their urges to be feminine - to prove to themselves that they were "real" men. Greer's hypothetical virile truckie may well be doing the same thing.
But why would any feminist ask: Why do these masculine things if you are a woman? If you are a truck driver, have a wife, and have kids, you are not a real woman. Lesbian truck drivers with wives and children are not real women. Wait, what? What are the essential criteria here? Are straight women who drive trucks and have children real women? Is an unmarried male nurse a real man? If he is married but does not beget children, is he a real man? If he begets children but does not marry, is he a real man?
These are deep questions about our assumptions about gender - assumptions which Greer, despite thinking deeply, has not yet come to grips with. I've barely begun to read the real-life stories of trans women (and men). When Greer does, she'll have a lot more to think about.
* It wasn't "fair" of the lesbian in Melissa Etheridge's song "The Wanting of You" to marry a man, either. Gender prejudice fucks everyone up.
** The term "privilege" is both confusing and overused. In this instance, the trans women reported that they were now the victims of sexism which they previously hadn't had to deal with. "Cis privilege" is when I go into the women's bathroom and no-one calls security or beats me to death.
