so i see that mentioning that emi koyama coined
2014-12-14
so i see that mentioning that emi koyama coined the term ‘trans feminism’ yesterday brought about the rumours that she isn’t a trans woman….
thus far, i’ll i’ve seen is people asserting that she isn’t without any actual evidence (other than stuff she wrote 10+ years ago that isn’t even about her, specifically).
does anyone have better proof than “i heard this from someone else” (ie, ‘hearsay’)?
bc like. i need something more compelling to disregard her autonomy and agency of self-identification.
funnily enough, i see in the notes of the post one person who vigourously defended a friend who was accused of the same thing (ie, not being a trans woman despite IDing as such) and i was willing to believe this same person’s word that their friend is, indeed, a trans woman without any ~proof~ for the same reason that i believe emi.
and… yeah. like. i read through parts of the transfeminist manifesto and cringed at the dated language and discursive frameworks. it was written in 2001. like i still see ppl fucking quoting serano’s 2005 book like it is the fucking bible and it is just as full of shitty oppressive garbage.
i suppose i can look forward to, in ten years or so, ppl doing the same with decolonizing trans/gender 101, which i have zero doubts will be dated and oppressive in ways that i can’t currently imagine. discourse and frameworks shift and evolve over time as we push boundaries and create new knowledge.
last… if it does turn out that emi isn’t a trans woman, this doesn’t actually make the historical fact that she coined ‘transfeminism’ untrue, you know.
as far as i’m concerned, giving credit to a trans woman of colour for what she’s done is something we all should be trying to do.