Womyn-born-womyn
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Womyn-born-womyn (an alternative spelling of women-born-women; see article on Womyn) is a term used by some feminists to distinguish cisgendered women from transgendered women. It is an extension of the concept of womyn. Some feminists, intersex people, and transgender people object to the term and the biological determinism inherent in the concept citing the predicament that while an apple may be an apple, if it so desires, it may become a pear.
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[edit] History
The term was developed as a response to patriarchy in Western culture during Second-wave feminism, to create spaces for, by, and about women who were born as girls, raised as girls, and live as women. Though transgendered and intersex people have been present in women's only spaces for decades (often in the closet), the term came into wider use in response to the increasing visibility of transwomen and intersex persons accessing "women's only" spaces, such as Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. [1]
Some cisgender women, especially separatist-leaning feminists, argue womyn-born-womyn exclusions are a strategic and important means of resistance and survival and a means of unlearning internalized misogyny unrelated to and independent of transculture and politics. [citation needed]
The controversy has sparked scholarly discussion. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
[edit] Scope
Womyn-born-womyn policies center around the idea that womyn's experiences under patriarchy are unique, learned, and transformative. Troping Judith Butler's assertions that gender is a performance, womyn-born-womyn tackles the ontology of the script and creates spaces wherein the enforced and policed performances of "girl" in patriarchy can be reshaped and recoded outside of the gaze and presence of those not subjected to those limitations. By definition of having not lived under the strictures of the enforced performance of "girl," and, in fact, having been subjected to the performance of "boy," transgender women are excluded. Although such spaces recognize that large diversity of the label "women," womyn-born-womyn spaces argue that the shared experienced of having been born and raised as a "girl" under patriarchy is a distinct category; one that isolates and looks at a particular embodied and lived experience of oppression. By comparison, "womyn born womyn" parallels the experiences (and frictions) in black communities between light and darker skinned peoples. Although the varying shades are generally seen as "black," the experience of race within that spectrum is dramatically different and contains divergent lived experiences within racist cultures.
The enforcement of specific womyn-born-womyn policies may vary with some choosing to only exclude pre-operative transwomen. However, this inevitably results in classist discrimination, as sex reassignment surgery or SRS is generally not covered under many public and private health insurance policies. This functionally results in the situation where only transgender women of greater financial means who can afford to pay for expensive SRS procedures are admitted. 'Women-born-women' policies based on operative status may effectively exclude only impoverished and disenfranchised transgender women and may also selectively exclude transgender women of color who are disproportionately impoverished.
Frequently, however, womyn-born-womyn policies retain the strict definition of womyn-born-womyn, and ask that all womyn respect the life experience of others and "police" themselves regarding whether they were born as, raised as and currently live as womyn. Some would argue that this is in the same vein that white people would be expected to respect, understand and self-select out of people of color spaces in small steps to dismantle a history of racism and the ancillary privilege of constant access to the "other," transsexual women are asked to confront for themselves the differences between living as a transkid and a girl. The contrasting view would argue that this is in the same vein as, for instance, an Islamic Rights Group who refuses to assist a non-Arabic Muslim.
Other debates about womyn-born-womyn space have become vocalized in recent years. Opponents of womyn-born-womyn space have attempted to dismantle the concept completely by collapsing butch female identity -- not a transgender identification -- into a transgender umbrella[citation needed] and by hailing the inclusion of transmen (thus identifying transmen as women) in womyn-born-womyn space. Such a flattening of female experience presupposes a homogenous "girl."
One point which is sometimes lost in this debate is the context of what kinds of space can function as womyn-born-womyn only spaces. One example of this is the Canadian case Vancouver Rape Relief Society v. Nixon 2005 BCCA 601, where the judgement allows any group protected by section 41 of the Canadian Human Rights Code to restrict its work to a sub-group of the group it was created to serve. In this case, it means that this, or any other, women's rape charity does not have to provide its service to all women who have been raped.
[edit] Examples
There have been several notable instances where transgender women have been denied access to or even been evicted from women's spaces.
[edit] Arguments
Supporters of 'women-born-women' policies cite several reasons that such policies are necessary and appropriate.
- 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".
- Transgender women have received and in some spaces benefited from male privilege.
- 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.
- Transgender women may make other women in the space feel uncomfortable, especially in the case of pre-operative transwomen.
- 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 women who have been abused or sexually assaulted. Such women might feel threatened by the presence of transgender women.
However, critics of such policies argue that:
- While transgender women did not grow up with physically female bodies, they did grow up with female gender identities and thus should not be considered 'second-class' women any more than would a woman who grew up with other physical differences.
- Although transgendered women did not experience sexist repression growing up, they experienced other forms of repression which are its equal, viz. society's insidious transphobia
- There are no tangible differences to be respected between being born and raised as female and identifying as a woman.
- If exclusion of transgender women because of access to male privilege is appropriate, then banning female-bodied people who are gender variant makes little sense.
- Thus far, there are no known instances of cisgender males claiming female gender identity as a means to access women's only spaces. Using this theoretical risk to exclude an entire class of women from women's spaces is not appropriate.
- While transgender women may make cisgendered women uncomfortable, the discomfort of the majority is not an acceptable reason to exclude minorities. An analogous situation is that of many workplaces prior to second wave feminism. Many men felt uncomfortable allowing women into places that had traditionally been open to men only; however, the discomfort of men was not adequate justification for denying rights to women.
- Transgender women are not only subject to the same sorts of sexual assault and partner abuse as cisgendered women, but are in fact at higher risk of interpersonal violence because of their transgender status. Exclusion of this most vulnerable population of women from shelters and support services is not appropriate.
[edit] Other issues
Establishing women-born-women policies results in other difficulties in addition to the problems faced by transgender women. Enforcement of such policies is not always straightforward. Some female-identified but gender variant women, such as butch lesbians, boidykes, etc have reported privacy invasions due to questions whether or not they were indeed 'women-born-women.' Paradoxically the major victims of such policies are less likely to be the small population of transgender women, but the far larger population of gender variant women such as butch lesbians.
Because such policies take as a given that sex is a binary division even in biology, they make intersex individuals invisible. As many as one child in a hundred is born with a physical intersex condition. Many of these people are raised as girls and most identify as women in adulthood. Such individuals may often however, have ambiguous bodies or genitalia. These female identified women may be the inadvertent victims of such policies as well.
While some transgender women may be less able to pass and thus unable to access women-born-women spaces, other transgender women after complete SRS may be completely unrecognizable as transgender. Indeed some transwomen have reported being evaluated by examinations from gynecologists who remained unaware of their transgender status. Thus, for some transgender women, accessing women's only space is possible as long as they remain closeted. So, far from ensuring that all transgender women are denied access, the policy is for some transwomen much like the don't ask, don't tell policy in the US military.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Vitello, Paul (August 20, 2006). The Trouble When Jane Becomes Jack. New York Times
- ^ Gamson J (1997). Messages of Exclusion: Gender, Movements, and Symbolic Boundaries. Gender and Society, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 178-199
- ^ Moorhead C (1999). Queering Identities: The Roles of Integrity and Belonging in Becoming Ourselves. Behavioral Science Volume 4, Number 4 / October, 1999
- ^ Cvetkovich A (2001). Don't Stop the Music: Roundtable Discussion with Workers from the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies Volume 7, Number 1, 2001, pp. 131-151
- ^ Hird M (2000). Gender's nature: Intersexuality, transsexualism and the 'sex'/'gender' binary. Feminist Theory, Vol. 1, No. 3, 347-364 (2000)
- ^ Burgess R (2005). Feminine Stubble. Hypatia Volume 20, Number 3, Summer 2005, pp. 230-237
