http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/15/14910900/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-transgender-women-comments-apology
This is the blog for History 128, U.S. Gay and Lesbian History, Claremont McKenna College, spring 2017. It is open only to members of the class. Please post items relevant to the themes of our course, and please comment on other posts as well. Check back regularly for updates!
Monday, March 20, 2017
Chimamanda Adichie controversial comments on transwomanhood
This story about Chimamanda Adichie's comments on trans women have been kind of big in the news recently. It raises really interesting question about womanhood and how that relates to various systems of oppression, as well as current issues within feminism. The article I'm attaching does a good job explaining the issue. Would love to hear what you guys think!
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I definitely see why there would be controversy here with Adichie's comments, but I can also see where she is coming from. I personally believe experiencing the privileges of being a biological male and experiencing the grievances of being a trans woman are not mutually exclusive. Would love to hear others' input on this!
ReplyDeleteHere's an essay responding to Adichie's comments: https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganmpage/there-is-no-universal-experience-of-womanhood?utm_term=.kh6yMGK4W#.cakGrmZdN
DeleteIt sums up my thoughts on the matter pretty well. Some choice quotes:
"The specter of male privilege has long since been a way to deny trans women’s womanhood and basic humanity. Invoking male privilege is often meant to imply that trans women don’t know what it is like to live as “real” women — that we have not suffered the way other women have suffered, that we have not been disenfranchised by patriarchy because of our genders, and that our early experiences allow us access to forms of social power which influence how we move through the world even after we transition. This argument, beyond hinging all of womanhood on a relatively singular experience of suffering, has often been used to flatten the vast array of different life experiences among trans women and other transfeminine-spectrum people. At worst, it contributes to a culture of violence, harassment, exclusion, and erasure that presents a real threat to the lives and physical safety of the most marginalized among us."
"In the standard trans narrative, our lives can be neatly demarcated into two sections: 'before' and 'after' transition. Adichie’s comments reflect that narrative: She assumes the typical trans woman has 'lived in the world as a man…and then sort of changed gender.' But when I was younger, long before the rights of trans youth had entered the mainstream media, it just wasn’t that simple — and it’s not that simple for so many others."
"While not all trans women transition in the same ways, and no transition path is more or less valid than another, the experiences of those of us who transition early seriously call into question the idea of a monolithic male socialization. Novelist and poet Kai Cheng Thom observes that “male socialization, for us, is actually a coded message: 'You’re not who you think you are. If you try to be anything other than what we say, you’ll be punished.'"
"As many black feminists — like Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term intersectionality — have been pointing out for decades, race and class divisions create a such variety of life experiences that we can only come to view the idea of a singular experience of girlhood and womanhood as a myth. No one is actually saying trans women and cis women’s experiences are exactly the same — and that’s because no two women’s experiences are exactly the same. There is not one womanhood, but many."
After going into detail on those points, the essay goes on to discuss how "the myth of a singular (cisgender) experience of womanhood has led to real-world consequences for countless trans women" and points out that "while some cis feminists are openly hateful, like Janice Raymond, many are more middle-of-the-road when it comes to trans women and trans inclusion. But that kind of neutrality does nothing to stop the introduction of still more anti-trans bathroom bills, nor does it help trans women gain access to vitally needed women’s services. Neutrality certainly doesn’t do anything to stem the tides of violence many trans women, particularly trans women of color and sex workers, experience on a near-daily basis."