Trans Allyship Workshop 01/11/2015 FIRST SECTION: Discussing together what we would say in response to someone asking us a question about a trans person/transness in general.
If a friend says: “Have you heard that xyz (a mutual friend, someone you both know of etc.) is trans?” 1) Why is it such a big deal? Are they sensationalising that person’s trans identity? 2) Outing someone is unacceptable; ask whether the person in question has given their explicit permission for their gender to be talked about, and if not, tell the person talking to you that they shouldn’t talk about this person’s gender and that doing so is outing them without permission, which can be really dangerous. 3) Reply: “is that a problem for you?”
“What’s the difference between trans people and drag queens?” 1) Drag is a performance, trans is an identity. 2) “Drag is what I do, trans is who I am”— quote from a trans woman who also performs drag. 3) Prompt Q: What could be problematic about certain ways of doing drag? 4) –it can make people conflate gender identity with performance? 5) –if people conflate the two, it brings the impression that all trans people are extroverts and want to perform: homogenises idea of what trans people, especially women, are like. 6) –difference between drag performance, drag lifestyle, and cis men dressing up for laughs (which is transmisogynistic). 7) –drag queens reclaiming slurs that aren’t theirs to reclaim is very problematic (t-slur for example)
“Don’t trans people reinforce the gender binary?” 1) Being trans is who people are – they are oppressed for being that way and you’re now accusing them of doing something negative by doing the very thing they’re oppressed for 2) Reverse the question back at them—why are they asking the question? 3) Why are binary-identified trans people reinforcing the binary more than binary-identified cis people? 4) For trans people, conforming to certain stereotypes of gender can be necessary as part of accessing healthcare. Medical gatekeeping can mean that if you don’t present in a certain way, you cannot access hormones, surgery, support for mental health and more that can be necessary and life-saving. 5) Dichotomy: trans women thought to be reinforcing binary stereotypes if wearing a dress, or not being genuine if wearing jeans. 6) As well as medical gatekeeping, it’s a question of safety on a daily level. 7) The representations trans people get in the media are often very stereotypical and give a very narrow view of trans people which is not necessarily representative of the wide-ranging experiences, presentations, identities and more of trans people (e.g. non-binary people exist!)
“What is a TERF?”
1) Originates in second-wave feminism. Trans women are seen as “invading” and even more of a threat to cis women than society at a whole/trans women are seen as more of a threat to cis women than cis society is to trans women. 2) The idea that there is one experience of womanhood. You must be AFAB [assigned female at birth] to have this universal experience. Links to erasure of women of colour and others, idea that “nobody is a woman unless their experience of being a woman is like me”. Problematic idea of womanhood as a homogenous shared experience. 3) Example of of “you have never known the experience of accidentally getting your period on the train etc.” but this is also true of intersex women/post-menopausal cis women/other cis women who for whatever reason don’t have periods. 4) Framing their arguments as “nothing against trans women, they just aren’t women”—helps reinforce “it is just an opinion” (it’s not; it perpetuates and reinforces transmisogynistic violence). 5) TERFs are also often incredibly actively violent: will look up your employer and contact them, out you and slur you. Give false accusations of abuse etc. 6) Janice Raymond’s “The Transsexual Empire”, it’s been estimated that it’s caused 50 000 deaths via the legitimacy it has been afforded and how it’s affected healthcare etc. 7) Intersection – TERFs are much worse towards non-white people and/or people with disabilities.
“Aren’t trans people… [insert trope here – eg predatory etc. stereotype (they are fine but not in my changing room)]” 1) Shut them down ASAP. 2) “Why do you think that? Where does that stereotype come from?” 3) “Your obsession with genitals is even more predatory.” 4) It’s our responsibility as cis allies to use our privilege, not to get angry (it’s not our anger to have) but to reason with them.
“Is all representation good representation?” 1) Majority of narratives of trans people are tragic, not representing any positive future for trans people. Lots of trans existence *is* tragic/difficult but media frames it as individual cases rather than as constant violence from everywhere in society, so cis people absolve themselves of the responsibility they have in perpetuating that violence. 2) Inspirational, “you’re so brave” narratives, fetishising transness. 3) Media latching onto “glamourous” white transfeminine people. 4) Problem of “look at this trans person, they’re hotter than I am!” and framing it as a compliment and having that element of “surprise, they’re trans!” – why does it surprise you that they’re hot? 5) Question: if somebody wants to represent an non-binary person on screen, would it be OK to get for example a binary trans person to do so? 6) – lots of people may use “binary” pronouns, ID as a trans woman etc. but their identity does actually not just encompass a binary gender; lots of transfeminine people ID as “non-binary
7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13)
14) 15) 16) 17)
trans women”, often because of pressure to ID as male or female (e.g. gatekeeping we’ve talked about). Therefore this question needs more nuance than just “no” - BUT - there are NB actors, employ them - as previously discussed with representation of binary trans people, we also get a v limited representation of NB people and “androgyny” (white, skinny, AFAB, abled) Question continued: gender is so individual to people, can you only ever play someone whose story relates to yours? Like “trans in a way” etc. - friend who ran Gendered Intelligence identity acting classes: focus doesn’t need to just be on the actors involved but on the writing of the script, how that character is constructed etc. – also we take for granted that cis women play cis women and cis men play cis men. In general they never “switch” without the idea of “drag” etc. – it’s difficult to get out of the habit of comparing things, e.g. race, to gender (which can be harmful and erasive comparisons to make) Big problem = not just cis people playing trans people, but the “wrong” way around so it isn’t a cis woman playing a trans woman but a cis man playing a trans woman. Reinforces “trans women aren’t women”/”are men in dresses”. Exception example: in Ugly Betty, the transfeminine sister is played by a cis woman, that is interesting. - Still takes away the job from an NB person but in a way it is “less bad” in representation terms. - Writing is very important. NB person written by NB person, played by NB person would be cool! Tangerine apparently did well with consulting the trans women of colour sex workers who it is based on.
“Do trans people want to abolish gender?” 1) It’s bad to talk about trans people as just one voice. So many views even amongst trans people; some do advocate for abolishing gender/the binary/gender stereotypes/obligatory gender but not all/not all the same 2) Not trying to abolish gender inherently by being trans! Just being themselves. 3) Generally not trying to get rid of gender just the oppressive structures. 4) Links to intersex stuff: the idea of “compulsory/enforced gender”. 5) [Personal] I would advocate for abolishing the practice of assigning gender at birth (would not just benefit trans people!) 6) Colonialism has already wiped out a lot of gender outside of the binary. White people, even trans, saying “abolish gender” is problematic as heck—we already have abolished lots of indigenous genders/gender systems! 7) Question: what are some examples of those gender systems? – be careful; it can be kind of tokenising to speak about it in examples. Plus, it perpetuates the idea that it was just a handful of societies; it was EVERY society, since even if they didn’t have different systems of assigning gender & still had male-female categories, often their understandings of gender were v different to the white gender binary (eg matrilineal societies).
SECOND SECTION: Looking at three articles written by cis people about trans issues, and discussing good bits/bad bits within them. Article links: -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hunt/the-lgbt-divide-from-a-ci_b_5175019.html http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/20/trans-transphobia-will-youngbrave-man http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/11/caitlyn-jenner-transgenderfeminism-woman
“The LGB/T Divide From a Cisgender, White Gay Male of Privilege” 1) Good: states that using slurs that aren’t yours to reclaim is not OK 2) Good: says that telling trans people to not be so whiney is bad, telling cis people not to tonepolice is good. BUT then the article does it! leads to the bad paragraph 3) Bad: disclaimer of “don’t get angry, but I’ll use a slur!” (unnecessary and trying to be a content warning but almost making it about himself) 4) Bad: the idea that trans people have been silent until now and are finally talking. Feels patronising. 5) Bad: “t-slur is against trans men and women”. Firstly, say “trans people” not “trans men and women”, and also t-slur is specifically violent against trans women not men/AFAB trans people (also true for lots of other slurs) 6) - Importance of distinction between transphobic and transmisogynistic. Lots of things are specifically against trans women but it is implied that they affect trans masculine people too; as an ally, pay attention to the difference & don’t use “transphobic” where it’s actually specifically transmisogynistic. 7) Bad tone: talking to trans people in imperatives but to gay men etc as “perhaps we could do xyz” 8) Bad tone: claiming trans people are “hurt/annoyed/upset” not genuinely under threat of assault, abuse, murder 9) General idea that someone is “a good man”/”a good cis person” etc. not a bad one, so can do no wrong . Strawman of “I’m not a bad person for doing this thing!!” as though you’ve been called a bad person when you’re called out for something. 10) Bad: talking like LGBT community is one thing uniting and to be united, ignoring how many different voices there are & which have been and are the loudest (this discussion continued in relation to the next article).
“You Don’t Have to be Trans to be an Ally against Transphobia” 1) Lots about “the LGBT community” and almost trying to erase cis privilege with the claim that as a gay man he is part of this community, so erases the violence within the community 2) Good: starts by saying it is problematic to talk about oppression that is not yours 3) Bad: does it anyway
4) - Though he does directly quote trans people & platform trans views, which is good 5) Question: would it be better if the famous and influential guy didn’t write it at all? 6) - It would be better if he didn’t, & instead used his platform to eg provide links to pieces written by trans people. Good thing to consider as an ally – use the opportunity/your privilege to promote trans voices, rather than saying what you think, even if what you think is good/right. 7) Problematic: people say “I am coming from a position of privilege” or “it isn’t my place to say this but…” as a disclaimer then say it anyway. As though recognising the fact excuses you from it/ is enough to negate that privilege. 8) Good stuff: he doesn’t want to be the one adjudicating the debate. 9) Bad: states that the debate needs to be had, as if trans people haven’t been having this debate for ages! 10) Self-congratulatory element? “I am not willing to adjudicate” – as though he’s being selfsacrificing, rather than a decent human. 11) The way he brings up the word cis feels uncomfortable/unclear. 12) Scare quotes around “cis” 13) Why do they say “from trans people to cis straight people”? Transness is an identity not a sexuality, why bring up straight? 14) - Question: Paris Lees (as an example) is very problematic according to many trans people but is popular. So if a cis person says they like her or she says good stuff or whatever, as a cis person can you correct them? is that talking for/over trans people? 15) - Suggestion: in that situation, I often say I am aware of disagreement within trans communities about this person/ these views, so they can go look it up themselves but I’m not talking for trans people. 16) Author brings up that he has faced shit from TERFs and was therefore made anxious about engaging with trans issues. But almost tokenising when he says “but of course, this isn’t about me”. 17) Doesn’t talk about the actual violence trans women are facing from TERFs but “they said bad things to me on the internet” – yes, they made you anxious, Oh No! Doesn’t it matter more that they’re actively violent to trans people (esp trans women)? 18) Paragraph on notion of community: around time of Stonewall riots there seemed to be more notion of community/ fewer divides between gay men, queens, trans women. Sexuality, gender identity, gender expression weren’t seen as such separate categories – “gay” meant more than just same-gender attraction. BUT the fight for gay rights (e.g. legality, depathologisation) was simpler & more palatable when just focusing on sexuality. So cis gay people actively decided to leave trans people behind. (Lots more reading available on the history of queer rights struggles/how cis queer people threw trans people under the bus, e.g. Transgender History by Susan Stryker) 19) In view of this, neither this nor previous article recognise that the reason trans rights struggle is “behind” cis queer rights struggle is in great part **as a direct result of certain choices/actions by cis queer rights activists** – articles somewhat absolve cis LGB+ people of their privilege under the notion of “community”.
“Does Feeling Like a Woman Make You One? It’s Ok to Ask”
1) Word “transgenderism”—there is no equivalent like “gayism”; it medicalises/politicalises. Use “transness”, or reword your sentence. 2) Bad: platforms a TERF’s argument in the first place. 3) Bad: frames it like an innocent debate where both sides are on equal footing. 4) - The Cambridge style thing: ~everything is up for debate~. It shouldn’t be. 5) Bad: dead-naming Caitlyn Jenner. It is unnecessary. Still counts as deadnaming if you’re not referring to them with that name, but mentioning it as “previously known as”. If a trans person hasn’t told you explicitly that it is OK to use or even mention their deadname, don’t!!! 6) “and by extension all trans women”—you can’t infer that! Generalisations are harmful. 7) - Question: what do you think of constant referral to Caitlyn as examples? I don’t think she’s more famous than e.g. Laverne Cox. (One reason why - She is white!) 8) - Agreement: she is very privileged and fairly disconnected from other trans people; as an ally, look for more varied examples to use, acknowledge Caitlyn’s privilege, don’t hold up individuals as representatives of the trans community. 9) Good: says that comparing gender and race is outdated/harmful. 10) Bad: “bungled the argument” - Cambridge thing again: you aren’t wrong because you’re being oppressive, but because you have argued badly. You can “lose” a debate because of debating skills; what you’re saying & how it’s harmful is overlooked. 11) Says it is OK to ask questions. BUT assumes that’s all people are doing - asking innocent questions, rather than challenging people’s right to identify etc etc. People aren’t doing it nicely! They are often being very violent about it. And not giving people the choice about answering, even if asking in a nice way, is violent in itself. Trans people don’t always have to be open and available for your questions. As an ally, don’t feel entitled to answers, always look for answers yourself first, and ask respectfully. Call out people who say they’re “just asking questions!” when they’re actually being oppressive (eg “why do you think you get to call yourself a woman?” isn’t just a question! 12) “TERF” in scare quotes. 13) Why say “we are all humans”/ we should all debate nicely/ try and mellow it out? Taking the force and severity out of the issue. Again presents it all as a ~reasonable debate~ when it shouldn’t be up for debate. 14) Comparing TERFs and “trans extremists” is a false comparison. Uses an out of context example of trans “extremism” (which might actually have been totally reasonable, eg it’s reasonable to tell people they’re exclusionary for saying eg “all women have vaginas” – we can’t tell from the article if it is or not since it’s badly represented).