The Other Black 'Unwoman'

Yesterday was International Women's Day. I spent it talking to some of the women that matter in my life and contemplating what and how transwomen fit into this day.

One of the things I thought about was how Black women are considered by society as the 'unwoman'.

Black women aren't considered beautiful vis a vis the vanilla tinged beauty standard. We're considered 'angry ' just for speaking our minds, less than intelligent despite having advanced degrees earned with summa cum laude grades, and when we excel in athletic endeavors we're presumed to have either cheated or it's dismissed because of 'natural ability'.

Even Black men are ignoring us when it cones to choosing their life partners.

That burden of the 'unwoman' is also shared by African descended transwomen as well.

If you look at the lists of transwomen who are considered beautiful, the discussion doesn't include us. We have to deal with not only the same baggage that is hurled at our cis sisters, but have the additional baggage of dealing with being trans as well.

It's time to destroy that paradigm that considers us the 'unwoman'. It's something that we can work on with our cissistahs as we strive to become the phenomenal women we are despite spending time one the other side of the gender fence.