Mansplaining Gender; or Sissifying Feminism
I post in a lot of Facebook groups -- transgender groups, genderqueer groups, feminists groups, generic LGBT groups.
In one of the feminist groups, a participant took exception to me using transgender terms and transgender rhetoric. I replied that I'm just trying to communicate and I can lay things out using other words. I proceeded to explain a lot of the same things deriving my points from radical feminist theory, concepts and notions well-established as part of feminism.
"Ooooh", this person answered back. "So now you're going to mansplain feminism to us".
There's a reason I am mostly positioning what I have to say as part of the LGBTQIA dialog about gender these days. It's not that I am more fervently in agreement with what transgender activists have to say about gender. I have a lot of dissents with them, too, in fact. Been kicked out of a few when having a dissenting opinion was upsetting to people: the Trans, Enby & Genderqueer Network booted me to the curb, as did Transgender Support 30+, Non-Binary Gender Pride, Nonbinary Femmes, and GenderQueers+ ... so it is not as if feminists have a monopoly on "if you aren't saying exactly what we already agree with, you must be one of THOSE people, the wrong people, and we don't want you here".
But I'm less easily stripped of the authority to have an opinion in the first place. I identify as a genderqueer femme who is male. It isn't orthodox for transgender and it isn't exactly typical of what nonbinary and genderqueer people tend to say when they identify, but in general the rainbow has enough diversity and rhetoric about inclusiveness that it's hard for people to say I don't qualify or get to identify as I do. Individual lesbian, gay, trans, bi, genderqueer, or nonbinary people may take issue with what I say, but they've got less of a structured mission statement to point to that says I don't belong there.
But within feminism, as a person calling myself male, I am not regarded as a person for whom the platform exists.
My second book, *That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class*, comes out later this year. It explores the limitations of participation for a male person with political gender issues. Feminism was a beacon of light at the time I came out.
Some people ask why I bother to post in the feminist areas, especially the ones that don't condemn TERFs. It's feminist theory. The LGBTQIA world still has nothing to compare to it. It's the single most important political perspective to emerge from the 20th century. It has brilliant insights and develops a world-view that's coherent from top to bottom, individual behavioral nuance to ensconced political structure. And I'm a student and a participant, even if some of the world's feminists are not inclined to acknowledge me as a feminist.
But I can't effectively use it as my platform.
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You're secluded in quarantine, and all the performances and events have been cancelled, so it's a good time to read a book!
My book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, has been published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page
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This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts
comments at Dreamwidth -- https://ahunter3.dreamwidth.org/75867.html#comments
In one of the feminist groups, a participant took exception to me using transgender terms and transgender rhetoric. I replied that I'm just trying to communicate and I can lay things out using other words. I proceeded to explain a lot of the same things deriving my points from radical feminist theory, concepts and notions well-established as part of feminism.
"Ooooh", this person answered back. "So now you're going to mansplain feminism to us".
There's a reason I am mostly positioning what I have to say as part of the LGBTQIA dialog about gender these days. It's not that I am more fervently in agreement with what transgender activists have to say about gender. I have a lot of dissents with them, too, in fact. Been kicked out of a few when having a dissenting opinion was upsetting to people: the Trans, Enby & Genderqueer Network booted me to the curb, as did Transgender Support 30+, Non-Binary Gender Pride, Nonbinary Femmes, and GenderQueers+ ... so it is not as if feminists have a monopoly on "if you aren't saying exactly what we already agree with, you must be one of THOSE people, the wrong people, and we don't want you here".
But I'm less easily stripped of the authority to have an opinion in the first place. I identify as a genderqueer femme who is male. It isn't orthodox for transgender and it isn't exactly typical of what nonbinary and genderqueer people tend to say when they identify, but in general the rainbow has enough diversity and rhetoric about inclusiveness that it's hard for people to say I don't qualify or get to identify as I do. Individual lesbian, gay, trans, bi, genderqueer, or nonbinary people may take issue with what I say, but they've got less of a structured mission statement to point to that says I don't belong there.
But within feminism, as a person calling myself male, I am not regarded as a person for whom the platform exists.
My second book, *That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class*, comes out later this year. It explores the limitations of participation for a male person with political gender issues. Feminism was a beacon of light at the time I came out.
Some people ask why I bother to post in the feminist areas, especially the ones that don't condemn TERFs. It's feminist theory. The LGBTQIA world still has nothing to compare to it. It's the single most important political perspective to emerge from the 20th century. It has brilliant insights and develops a world-view that's coherent from top to bottom, individual behavioral nuance to ensconced political structure. And I'm a student and a participant, even if some of the world's feminists are not inclined to acknowledge me as a feminist.
But I can't effectively use it as my platform.
-------
You're secluded in quarantine, and all the performances and events have been cancelled, so it's a good time to read a book!
My book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, has been published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page
-------
This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts
comments at Dreamwidth -- https://ahunter3.dreamwidth.org/75867.html#comments