i dream of being possible

Reading Whipping Girl, Intro -- Ch. 7

2012-09-02

#classical biyuti #discussing discourse #media musings #teh trans community
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2.22086E+17 I'm just bored enough that I've started reading whipping girl.
2.22087E+17 Oh, hello false equivalency and appropriation. I'm like three pages in and here it is already.
2.22095E+17 @metalmujer I kinda figure… but I have my reasons for wanting to read the book. Mostly to trash it. But also for some context.
2.22097E+17 And… I officially don't care. Something is wonky with the e copy of whipping girl and it looks like I just won't read it.
2.22099E+17 How does this sentence even make sense?
2.22099E+17 "all transgender people experience transphobia, transexuals additionally experience…cissexism" I don't understand it. You make no sense!
2.221E+17 Serano upholds the fine tradition of white women assuming their experiences are universal and representative.
2.221E+17 What. Did. I. Just. Read. "By necessity, trans activism must be at its core a feminist movement" Oh. Hell. No.
2.221E+17 When feminism clearly seems to be a movement designed to help some while oppressing others, why 'take back' something that was never ours?
2.22101E+17 @metalmujer so very true. lol. also seem keen on keeping oppressive institutions alive long past their (arguable) usefulness.
2.22102E+17 "sometimes attempts to third-sex or third-gender trans people are…" Um. What? *shakes head*
2.22102E+17 @metalmujer Totally! Because everyone has the luxury to spend their lives fighting with feminists, so it clearly must be the best strategy.
2.22102E+17 @metalmujer 😀 I should probably be taking real notes or something, but this is more fun.
2.22103E+17 Omg. I'm on chapter two and she still hasn't even breathed a word about race… (yes, I'm doing a lot of skimming)
2.22103E+17 Manages to have a section on trans women in the media w/o mentioning how twoc are frequently bodies or prostitutes in crime serials.
2.22104E+17 @metalmujer but of course! She literally wrote the book!
2.22104E+17 @metalmujer No she doesn't. I'm waiting for the mention of Two Spirited people to be her token mention.
2.22104E+17 Couldn't have mentioned To Wong Foo, which while a shitty movie, at least had 2 poc as main characters.
2.22105E+17 Oh. Hey. A chapter on class. Wherein I have zero doubt that nothing of race will still be mentioned.
2.22106E+17 This book is a like a textbook for SJ language and theorizing gone wrong.
2.22107E+17 How do you claim to argue against essentialism just to put forward a notion of 'subconscious sex'?
2.22107E+17 And I applaud her rather callous use of Intersex bodies to make a rhetorical point.
2.22107E+17 "Personally, I am drawn the brain-hardwiring hypothesis" Um, but why? WHY IS COMING UP WITH A BIOLOGICAL CAUSE IMPORTANT?
2.22108E+17 That said, I actually feel that people should use whatever explanations make them happiest…
2.22108E+17 So if it is biology, great. If you feel that God created you the way you are, awesome.
2.22108E+17 But don't write a book arguing against something that you end up asserting in the same way. White people: you must obey your own logic.
2.22108E+17 @metalmujer It really does. Utterly obsessed with origin stories. But life is not a comic book.
2.22109E+17 Omg. How do you seriously say gender constructs and gender essentialism are both wrong when your own position is just essentialism?
2.2211E+17 Protip: if you argue that something is innate, you are arguing for essentialism. It may not be biological, but it is essentialism.
2.2211E+17 @lucypaw I don't think having a cause is important, at all. But so many people seem to think that it is. I've never understood why.
2.2211E+17 .@lucypaw perhaps it is because 'causes' are needed so that we can be humanized in the eyes of our oppressors. We excuse ourselves.
2.22111E+17 @metalmujer Heaven preserve me from white scientists.
2.22111E+17 HA! I KNEW THIS MOMENT WAS COMING!
2.22111E+17 "Examples of MTF spectrum transgender people in other cultures including Indian hijras, Brazilian transvestism, Thai katoeys…"
2.22111E+17 In case anyone is wondering that sentence is a perfect example of trans colonialism.
2.22112E+17 @lucypaw Totally. My approach? My humanity humanizes me. Also gives them nothing to latch onto for 'cures' or whatever.
2.22112E+17 "These transgender identities differ not only in name but their customs, practices, and social roles" THEN WHY CALL THEM TRANS IDs!!??
2.22113E+17 Omg. This paragraph is almost genius for how succinctly it outlines the whiteness of the trans movement and its colonial aims.
2.22113E+17 I'm also sure that this will be the only mention of non-white/western gender constructions will be mentioned or discussed.
2.22113E+17 Like Intersex bodies, bodies of colour merely serve to underscore Serano's rhetorical points.
2.22114E+17 Reading this book is so instructive for the ways I can see that it continues to influence so much of trans discourse.
2.22116E+17 Oh the irony: "we should question any view of gender founded on gender entitlement. When we project our own gender-based assumptions...
2.22116E+17 …and opinions onto other people's behaviors and bodies, we necessarily erase the distinctness of their individual genders and sexualities."
2.22116E+17 You mean like you just did for a goodly portion of the non-white world? How you talk about projection and not choke on this hypocrisy?
2.22117E+17 I think I may stop at chapter 7 tonight. I'm finished my watermelon and, that last jarring contradiction has irritated me a great deal.
2.22117E+17 @metalmujer It really is. Like. So white. Perhaps it is this glare that prevents them from seeing truth...
2.2215E+17 @5eren1ty Wow. Thanks! Expect more as I read the rest of the book at some future point. I can't believe I read so much in one sitting...

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