Keep Your Gender Struggles Out of My Race Struggles
Monica Roberts has posted a rebuttal to an anti-transgender blog post by Bob Parks. The rebuttal is also in the comments for that post.
Bob Parks’ complaint is that “Transgenders are not like blacks,” or rather, that we’re appropriating black civil rights struggles to explain our own plight and justify why we need civil rights. Now, it is true that people inappropriately appeal to what black people have suffered as comparable to what they’re suffering, and this is not really a good way to make your point. It also ignores the intersections that trans people of color have to deal with both because of their gender and their race.
On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with drawing parallels, or learning from history. Bigoted speech about just about any minority parallels the speech about just about any other minority. The same tactics, the same silencing. Hate crimes happen the same way (even if for different motivations). The results of oppression are sometimes similar - lack of access to employment, housing, some protections. It’s possible to draw similarities between particular instances - such as same-sex marriage vs. anti-miscegenation laws - without claiming they’re identical.
What really disappoints me about Bob’s post is not that he is angry about racial struggles being appropriated for other causes. It’s how he goes on an extended tirade about how transgendered people are too weird to be acceptable, how trans women all dress like sluts, and how we don’t look right. In other words, he uses the language of bigotry to justify why he doesn’t want us to have our civil rights, and why he does not want us to even mention the black civil rights struggle in comparison to our own. He judges trans women by what he assumes we look and act like, and says this is a reason we don’t deserve civil rights.
Personally, I do not think it is cool to spread offensive stereotypes about a group of people and judge them as lacking based on those stereotypes. It does not matter whether those stereotypes are applied because you changed sex, because of who you love, because of the color of your skin, or because your body doesn’t fit into society’s norms.
November 11, 2007 at 7:04 pm
oh my GAWD it’s Men’s Nads Daily, wtf was Monica thinking? I mean, well, feministe does it too I suppose. among others. and I get the urge to respond, considering, I do, just…eh, maybe I should pay more attention to these people, but every time i look i get uncontrollably hives and the unshakeable notion that arguing with them would be like arguing with the Weekly World News people, only less fun.
“Dear Sir. About your 11/3 piece on Batboy’s anal probe…”
November 11, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Yeah. I had to, just because it’s such a perfect example of how bigotry of one kind is expressed in a manner similar to bigotry of another kind. Also, a good example of how being the target of bigotry does not give anyone a free pass on not being bigoted themselves. Since most of my subjects so far have been white feminists, the contrast is helpful as well.
My intent was less to argue and more to say “Look, this is the stuff that gets said about us all the time.” Plus, make a point about appropriating other people’s oppressions.
As for Monica, I figure it’s the same reason I started this blog - this stuff needs to be called out when it happens.
November 11, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Lisa,
If it helps, please feel free to zap my comment so as not to derail discussion with enragement. I just… well, seeing those women’s pictures posted, simply so the author could underscore his point by making transwomen into zoo animals to gawk at, really bothered me. If he has something to say, he can say it without encouraging people to stare at “the freaks” and judge their looks, you know? An article should not be a “hot or not” webpage.
(And most of those women were hot, IMO.)
November 11, 2007 at 7:28 pm
trans women, sorry. i’m used to seeing it all onewordified so I tend to type it thus.
November 11, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Yeah, I totally agree with you. It’s exactly the same thing Jimmy Kimmel was doing when he said that it’s impossible for a trans woman to be as attractive or feminine as Rebecca Romijn-Stamos - trying to show that we’re hideous caricatures of womanhood.
Which we’re not.
November 12, 2007 at 6:00 am
That man’s post made me tremble with anger. I mean, I just KNOW what he thinks about people with disabilities. Too weird looking? He is pretty fugly, if you ask me–no room at all to criticize anybody’s looks! Gahh! People like him are the reason why marginalized people stay marginalized. What an ignorant asshole! I’m sorry I can’t think of anything profound to say about his shit but…it’s just shit!
November 12, 2007 at 6:08 am
Yeah, the surgery comment was pretty awful for all that it implied as well. It seems to me that a lot of what he said was to get a reaction. Not to say he doesn’t believe it, but he really worked that sensationalism.
November 12, 2007 at 9:03 am
Yeah, I don’t think he realizes that thinking “all transwomen look like blah blah blah” is no different from “all the black kids talk in ebonics” or any other blanket stereotype. There are plenty of transwomen he didn’t even know were transwomen, duh!
We’re all expected to accept what we see, but have the transgenders taken the time to REALLY look in the mirror? It’s not polite to stare, but sorry; they just don’t look right, and if it’s a distraction in the workplace, it’s no one’s fault but theirs.
And I’ve heard the identical thing from old-school southern white people, in this part of the country, about the black hip-hop generation: their hair is ridiculous, their pants are falling down and their underwear is showing, gross tattoos, and why do they wear all that jewelry? Have they taken the time to really look in the mirror? ;)
November 12, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Weii, I for one found it highly educational. For example, I hadn’t realised that “civil rights” [...] is code for Black people, that my dysphoria was a matter of choice… and how wrong I was to think that my condition was all about *my* relationship with *my* body, when all the time I just needed to look in the mirror and I would have seen that my appearance was aesthetically offensive to everybody else. Had I done that I would surely have seen the error of my ways and crawled back beneath my rock.
As it is, I’m now just over 7 weeks post-op… and the sense of being whole, and real, the “one-ness” is without doubt the best thing I have ever experienced.
Mr Parks, you’re not even close. You’re talking out of your aspidistra.
Idiot…
November 12, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Yeah, there was a lot of territorial attitude in that post - not just the idea that you shouldn’t compare one form of prejudice to another, but also that claiming you need civil rights is something that should only be allowed for some people.
Daisy, I’ve heard that kind of statement applied more generally to black people, not just to any one group (like Hip Hop artists).
Anyway, I’m not sure if it would have been better to just post a rebuttal - which Monica’s friend did awesomely - or posting this post.
November 16, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I posted Parks’ article to TransGriot for several reasons.
It gives you an example of the attitudes we African-American transpeople have to battle within our own culture on transgender issues.
It helps you understand that African-American transpeople get a double whammy or prejudice when we come out. In addition to the racist bull that African-American tramspeople negotioate on a daily basis just being Black in America, we have to deal with faith-based dislnformation and prejudice huled at transpeople as well.
One thing my white allies need to understand is that Black culture is politically liberal, but SOCIALLY conservative.
November 16, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Good point. I admit, I don’t get that nearly as well as I could, or should.
I was torn about posting this in the first place, because - should I, as a white person? Or should I, because I’m a trans woman? I ultimately did, because regardless of race, the things he said were so vicious that they serve as an example of what gets hurled at trans people in general.