One of the more bizarre acts of the powerless that has become a substitute for direct action and demanding equality even for those who are different has been the use of euphemisms and word games.
Yesterday there was omne of those columns over at Pam’s House Blend that just left me saying WTF.
Way too much of the fighting between people with transsexualism and people with transgenderism has been about those with a political agenda hegemonically colonizing and erasing the lives lived by people who had sex change operations and do not hesitate to call them sex change or sex reassignment operations.
Many of us are as guilty of the use of euphemisms as those Transgender activists with the whole bit about it not being a sex change operation but sex confirmation surgery and it not being transsexualism but rather HBS. For that matter there is a particularly bigoted set that identifies as “Classic Transsexual” coded language of the same nature as the use of “family” by the bigoted Christo-fascist right wingers.
As for me I had a sex change operation as did my friends Diane, Laurie, (all five or so Lauries among my friends), Leslie, Kim, Jan etc. Screw Glaad. We used transsexual and sex change as well as trannie or transy 40 years before this language was declared Verboten by a bunch of politically motivated people in academe and transgender activists who wish to erase the differences between transsexual and transgender lives.
There are differences. rather than my getting pissed off and screaming about those differences I am going to make the point that we know, those of you who haven’t had a sex change operation do not know. We get angry when pre-ops and non-ops tell us there isn’t because no one knows what is between our legs. Or the one about how it is only important to my sex partners.
This is a particularly Barbie or Disney type genital erasing point of view that assumes one does not pee several times a day or wash. Yeah it matters and yes it is different. One of the big aha moments is the first time you pee after decatheterization and dekinking of your urethra.
I have my own style sheet. I do not use transgender as a substitute for transsexual or transsexualism when some has had surgery or is surgery tracked. I do not use transgender as an umbrella term when using it in that manner erases the differences between people who have had their lives defined by other transprefixed words like transvestite or transsexual.
I see Transgender as Umbrella as a fiction. a political identity created by lazy people who wish to use those of us who had surgery to further the politics of those who have not.
Anti-colonial wars get fought over such matters.
By the way… To further discourse I agreed to stop calling names. I did not agree to surrender my principles. It does take two to make a fight and the systematic hegemonic erasure of the differences between transsexual and transgender is an act of unilateral aggression. It is not in the spirit of, “In spite of our having major differences let us work together for things that would benefit our different groups of constituents.”
Mostly though… Autumn, nice words and polite fictions are a piss poor substitute for an equality that recognizes differences and does not use those differences to deny rights every human should have no matter what their color or sex. The right to dress and present as one wishes is pretty implicit and shouldn’t require us to all be transgender or gender variants when gender itself is a fiction that oppresses women.
12/30/2009 at 11:31 am
Bravo…..well said and well put I’ve been saying the same things for many years and getting shit from all the wantabees….like Autumn who banded me from pams house blend for stating such opinions.
12/30/2009 at 1:59 pm
Now now Suzy, we all know that the fact that some people have (gasp!) surgery to correct their (double gasp!!) sex (oh my Goddess, she said sex!) is widely offensive to those who think these people would dare consider themselves women afterwards such as some religious nutcases, GLAAD, Lamba Legal, and Autumn Sandeen.
Back in the day it was me arguing with you about going easy on transgenders, it’s been weird finding that sometimes role reversed today.
The tactic has been far more than the umbrella use of transgender, the GLAAD “rulebook” actually erases out womanhood and makes offensive language out of terms to even discuss it! Shades of Orwellian newspeak.
12/30/2009 at 2:04 pm
Oh, you can write the APN at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com and let them know that transgender is not an umbrella term to many of us who have been erased under it. There is only apparently a couple of emails running against them, give them some support that sex change operations actually do change one’s sex and gender role adoption, while it should be ok to do so, does not.
12/30/2009 at 2:55 pm
I made a comment about this at Pam’s.
After so many years, the entire “transgender as umbrella” thing seems to just go chugging on – even after so many who are “represented” by this “umbrella” say it does NOT, in any way, represent them.
I wonder why it goes on.
Could it be that so many object to the word SEX? You know, transSEXual, SEX change, SEXual reassignment surgery, etc.?
Are some of us so hung up on NOT being “queer”, on it NOT being, in any way, manner, or form a “SEXual” issue, that we will misname, mischaracterize, , our condition / syndrome / issue / disorder / whatever?
Are we so intent on remaining “proper”, on NOT being at any time “queer”, that we fight against our own reality, our own best interests?
By “our”, I’m speaking about the “greater world of T folks”.
Please remember even among post-ops there are folks who got here as young people, as adults, as middle aged and older folks. Some got here from the worlds (yes, worlds) of heterosexual crossdressers, others from “Queenworld”, a few from the world of gay guys (though not many), and others were just folks who discovered, independently,where their true selves lay.
In other words, we took many different paths to get here (wherever “here” is). Many lived with intense shame while trying so hard to fit in, to be “normal”.
There are those who indulged in “hypermasculine” pursuits, many married, fathered children, etc. These are pretty extreme things to do in order to prove (mostly to yourself) that you are “normal”.
Then there are our individual journeys through “genderworld”, the various “support groups”, therapists, etc — some useful, others of little use.
So many are so intent on justification that they can not even admit their wrongs — the people they hurt (usually quite unintentionally) on their journey toward “full personhood” (as good as any other term).
It’s about OUR SEX. We change it. It’s about finding peace, our REALITY, our being. We do things. We live within that new reality. We grow within that new reality. We do far more than just claim it, say it. There are no magic shoes, no heel clicks — we DO it, and it often takes years, frequently very difficult years.
I think the goal is TO BE. While pre-op every one of us is, somehow, “special”. People know about us, about “it”. Sometimes there is something protective about being “special”.
Once post-op, it takes time to throw away the IDEA of being special — after all, the stated goal is to be “just another woman”. That takes time to grow into.
Another thing that happens (at least it happened to me) is that, with hindsight, we can see how “un-guylike” we were — no matter what we did.
So, we spend time re-evaluating our past, seeing ourselves through new eyes.
Then, a whole group of folks who have not done what we have start telling us who, what, why, how, WE ARE. If we say “NO, that’s not it” — we are told we do not know what we are talking about. If we tell our stories, we are often called liars – this by some in the “theraputic community”.
Some tell us we are “gay guys who have gone too far” — even if we dislike most men, see them as the authors of much of our pain.
Others who have not had, will never have SRS, tell us it “makes no difference” — even if we have been surprised by the difference it makes.
Then there are those who are straight. They want to marry a guy, and live their idea of a “normal” life. All their lives they have been running as fast as they can from the very idea of being gay / queer. Now that they are “right” with themselves, there are folks who want to define them as some sort of gay guy.
Is it any wonder they are angry?
Those of us who are lesbian find our path to acceptance within any sort of lesbian community very difficult. This often at a time we have lost all other forms of social support. We get to our destination — and there is no one else there. We find out quickly we no longer belong in pre-op support groups. With the queens, once the excitement about our change dies down, we see we are no longer a part of that group (in fact, with some Queens, if you come out as transsexual – and you are a performer – it becomes much harder to find work).
As all this goes on, the transgender folks keep on saying we are a part of their “umbrella” — all this as we are attempting to forge ahead, find our way, our niche in this wonderful new world.
Wouldn’t you be pissed off too?
While all this is going on — all the different folks who become post-ops are going their very different ways. As usually happens among people, we have different views of society, politics, religion (or lack of same). Some more radical than others.
Some attempt to integrate their past beliefs into their new lives, even if those beliefs state their new status makes them some sort of “abomination”..
All these differences make communication among post-ops impossible, or almost so.
In that void, many “transgender leaders” have stepped up to become “spokespersons”. They are now accepted as such.
In many ways, we have done this to ourselves. The need to distance ourselves from SEX. The branding of anyone who spoke for us a “professional tranny”. The huge split between straight and lesbian sisters. The need to remain, somehow, “special (HBS – Harry Benjamin Syndrome, “Classic Transsexual”), to differentiate our actions, our lives from those “other” trannys. The need to define what is truly proper for a “true” transsexual / post-transsexual.
Then there is the divide between some early transitioners, and late transitioners, and the inability of far too many to see how male privilege allowed them to transition with relative ease (at least in the material sense).
All this allows almost anyone with a suppposed “inclusive” agenda, that allows both gay guys and lesbians to retain their anti-trans beliefs, to have a voice.
Now what?
12/30/2009 at 11:20 pm
I’ve finely given up on trying to educate people on the differences between transgender individuals and transsexual individuals…being blessed with the ability to go completing stealth and fit back into society..I’ve done so which was my only goal from the very beginning. I have become so frustrated with trying to tell people about the differences in our two communities. it is my opinion that given the fact that society is not willing to accept the transgender community ie: cders Tvs and shemales who wish to live among them.. they (the transgender community ) have latched onto our diagnosis in an effort to have some sibilance of credibility in what they do. They DO NOT have a female gender Identity in my opinion as evident by their refusal to have gender surgery…and MTF who truly suffers from this condition doesn’t want a penis. It’s a major part of the diagnosis as is having a female brain and female gender Identity…..just my two cents worth.
Brandi
12/30/2009 at 11:37 pm
I sort of think the whole gender bit is kind of bullshit. Transsexuals change sex, transgenders change social roles and perhaps secondary sexual characteristics. Should they be respected and called by the pronouns of the sex roles they embrace? But of course… The same goes for having every single one of their rights protected…
I do not think the fighting between our groups or at least between the non-bigoted members of our groups has been about that although often times angry words seem to convey the feeling that we, post-op all take the same position as the right wing Christo-fascists, in search of a perfect scapegoat.
Hopefully, the pain we felt at having our lives trashed by people like Jan Raymond would make us a wee bit sensitive to turn around and spewing Ramond type bullshit on others. But too many of us see doing that as a way to get ”real girl” creds.
Instead when we do that we just come off as bullies.