From StandingWatch.net
http://standingwatch.net/2009/08/02/hate-101-the-womyn-born-womyn-movement/
Reprinted with permission
There is a particularly confusing and controversial form of bigotry that exists within the lesbian population that subscribes to a particularly extreme and radical form of feminist politics and views, commonly referred to as “Womyn Born Womyn,” or WBW. Womyn-born womyn policies center around the idea that women’s experiences under patriarchy are unique, learned, and transformative. These policies assume that girls are forced to behave in a submissive and subjugated position in society, while boys and transgender children grow up in an environment of privilege and power over girls.
Supporters of ‘WBW’ policies make the following claims:
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Most transgender women do not have the experience of growing up female in a sexist society and as such have no embodied experience of the culturally prescribed position of “girl”.
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All transgender women have received and, in some instances, benefited from male privilege, especially late transitioners.
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All oppressed peoples should be allowed to make spaces aligned through a commonality of oppression to heal and recover without explanation and solely through the ease of lived experience.
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Transgender women may make cisgendered women in the space feel uncomfortable, especially in the case of pre-operative transwomen.
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Policies that do not exclude transgender women would allow men to enter the space if they simply wear stereotypical women’s clothes and claim a female gender identity.
- Many women’s only spaces provide a safe shelter for cisgendered women who have been abused or sexually assaulted. Such cisgendered women might feel threatened by the presence of transgender women.
Of course, these claims have little, if anything, to do with the realities faced by intersex, transsexual, or transgender persons. For instance:
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Most transgender women do not have the normal experiences of growing up female due to the extreme abuse and violence at the hands of adult authority figures and peers, including immediate family members.
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I know of not one true intersexed or transsexual woman who received in whole or part, nor benefited in any way, from male privilege. To make such an assumption is to claim that the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse intersex and transsexual children face daily is somehow appropriate and beneficial to those children.
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Whether or not intersexed or transsexual women make cissexual women uncomfortable is due to the bigotry taught by the very patriarchal system WBW supporters claim to oppose. For those who have been oppressed by this system to then apply this oppression to others is reprehensible at best. I would argue it is the ultimate evil of hypocrisy.
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Policies that exclude intersex and transsexual women do not, by default, automatically imply that men won’t enter women’s only spaces by virtue of simply dressing as women. In fact, I’ve seen such policies used to justify excluding intersex and transsexual individuals from events or facilities, while at the same time male drag performers were welcome with open arms, even in female restrooms.
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I have worked with rape victims, both in volunteer counseling centers and in hospitals. I know of none who had an issue with my being other than a cisgendered woman. Quite frankly, the issue never came up. My focus was on the needs of the victim, to help her become a survivor. Somehow, discussing my personal life under such circumstances seems completely inappropriate. And, as someone who has been raped (WBW supporters don’t believe anyone but a WBW can be raped), I think I bring quite a bit to the table, and on many levels.
This particular brand of feminism, which really is anything but, also fails to take into account that, what one group can do, so can others. For instance:
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In California, Proposition 8 became law by constitutional amendment, through a vote of the simple majority of the voting population. The amendment bans same-sex marriage and recognition of the same within the state, and effectively excludes LGBT persons from protections under the Equal Protection clause of the state constitution. WBW supports this right of the majority to oppress and deny rights to any minority, by virtue of a majority decision.
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Many heterosexual cisgendered women are quite uncomfortable with lesbians sharing personal spaces with them, such as shower and bathroom facilities. Should lesbians now be segregated from the rest of the population, and given separate facilities, so that heterosexual women won’t feel uncomfortable?
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According to WBW, only cisgendered women should be permitted to help a victim of domestic abuse or sexual assault. Using that logic, if there are no cisgendered females trained and equipped to deal with the criminal investigation, helath care needs, and to help the woman deal with the deep trauma caused by the rape, then she is on her own.
Despite all the reasons given by WBW advocates, these are but smoke screens to disguise a particularly hateful policy towards all women not born strictly women, which in particular targets intersexed and transsexual individuals, both children and adults. The true reason behind the WBW movement is that advocates of the policy believe:
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Transsexuals are persons who really homosexuals seeking to conform to a patriarchal societal gender stereotype in order to continue benefiting from patriarchal privilege. This applies regardless of which gender assigned to at birth, or which gender surgically assigned to later.
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Intersex persons are individuals who must undergo surgical gender assignment to either male or female, depending upon how they were raised. Even then, regardless of the gender surgically assigned to, intersex women are not WBW, because they benefited from patriarchal privilege.
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All cisgendered males, intersexed persons, and transsexuals are likely potential sexual predators seeking by any means to invade the space of women to sexually exploit and abuse them.
No, I’m not kidding. Advocates of WBW policies really do believe this, and have told me so. That this particular view, along with the other more public views, dovetails nicely with religious extremist groups opposed to any rights for any LGBT, especially those not strictly cisgendered and heterosexual, seems to be lost in this rather unusual partnership of beliefs. Neither acknowledges the coincidence of so man similar beliefs, despite claiming to be extremely different groups.
But they are in agreement on one thing. If they cannot force intersexed, transsexual, and transgender individuals to live according to stereotypical gender expectations of a patriarchal system, they will isolate them and oppress them until they conform. While I understand the need for women to have their own space free from the prurient and predatory interests of men, I cannot approve of advocacy or policies that turn the oppressed into oppressors themselves.
We’re simply better than that.
