Hell Naw I'm Not Supporting Megyn Kelly

One of the major reasons I identify as a womanist is because far too often, I see situations in which white feminists will rush to the defense of any white woman who has been slimed by 'the menz' or call for across the board female solidarity in those situations, but you're cricket chirping silent when it is women of color who are being attacked.

Yeah, that's why that #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag exists.   We have glaring examples of it popping up and not being reciprocated with depressing regularity

Another glaring example of it popped up in my Facebook feed today when I was sent a link to a Salon article by Mary Elizabeth Williams in which she asked feminists to support Megyn Kelly in the wake of Donald Chump Thump's misogynistic attacks on her, even though she has never declared herself to be one, and sides with a political movement that believes feminists are The Enemy.

I'm damned sure not down with what Trump said about her and it needs to be forcefully called out.  But stand in solidarity with her?  Not no but hell naw am I not going to stand with her. 

Since when has Kelly ever stood with women of color, much less not said anything  that wasn't straight up racist? 

And while she has her broken clock moments every now and then, on balance she earns every penny Rupert Murdoch pays her for being the pretty blonde face peddling that odious right wing agenda.

Her azz had the nerve to say from her FOX Noise propaganda perch that a Black female teen manhandled by an out of control McKinney, TX cop earlier this year 'was no saint'.   She declared that Santa Claus and Jesus were white.   She tried to downplay the racist e-mails discovered in the DOJ probe when Ferguson was on everyone's minds last summer by claiming 'racist e-mails are everywhere'

And yeah, I would be remiss in not pointing out that one of her broken clock moments involved trans people on September 1, 2011.

The transgendered, they go through so much pain and emotional turmoil in dealing with the effects of that disorder or whatever you want to call it and I don’t think they need people piling on and mocking them once they do something that many people consider very brave. But that’s me, that’s my two cents. [emphasis added]

But ever since them, she has devolved on trans issues as her FOX Noise employers shift tactics to attack trans people.

So not no, but oh hell no am I as an proud unapologetically Black trans woman going to support Megyn Kelly's behind, especially when she can't seem to do the same on a consistent basis for women of color and trans women.

Ani DiFranco's Full Of Fail Feminist Plantation Retreat

Another prime example of why I'm NOT a feminist is breaking out as I write this on the Net 

Ani DiFranco is planning what she calls The Righteous Retreat in The Big Easy.  It's 4 days of music, seminars and feminist conscious raising from June 25-29 in Louisiana.

Sounds like an interesting event. huh?   Just one problem.  It's not being held in the New Orleans city limits, it's being held on a plantation.  When Black women called that problematic point out, all hell broke loose.

When Black women expressed their concerns about having this event on ground where our foremothers were raped, tortured, had the children they bore sold from them, the response was predictable from vanillacentric privileged white women rushing to defend DiFranco and this jacked up event. 

Mandi Harrington took it a reprehensible step further and engaged in virtual blackface to defend the indefensible.

Now they have trotted Toshi Reagon out to make a statement in a predictable attempt to hide behind her skirts as a human shield, but it still doesn't change the fact you are having this event at a plantation and we're pissed off about it.  It's the equivalent of having an event at Auschwitz.  

I'll bet if Jewish women told you that hypothetical Auschwitz event was triggering,  you'd be changing that venue with the quickness.   And these repeated race fails and being disappointed by white feminists is why I am a womanist. 

What next Ani?  A cruise that simulates the Middle Passage?  Your silence Ani will not protect you from the seething anger that is building up over this BS.   Neither will your weak attempt to use Toshi Reagon as a human shield for your fauxgressive frack-up.

White women's tears start in 5...4...3...2...1...

Yeah, #BlackTwitter, it's time to do what we do best    #AniDiFrancoRetreatIdeas



TransGriot Update: DiFranco put out a non-apology statement written in lowercase cancelling the plantation retreat, and the Twitter hashtag is slowly gaining momentum.

Why This Janet Mock Photo Is More Important Than You Think

My sis Janet Mock has been piling up the frequent flyer miles lately with recent trips from New York to the University of Louisville and The Ohio State University to talk about our issues.  But it's the Ohio State trip that raised my eyebrows, especially after I saw her photo with the legendary bell hooks.

I called Janet Saturday to catch up with her and get her impressions about meeting the iconic Ms. hooks.   She was on the Ohio State University campus as part of a discussion entitled,  "Gender Policing and the Politics of Defining Womanhood." organized by OSU's Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Multicultural Center

They met in their Columbus hotel before the actual event and Janet gave bell an advance copy of her soon to be released book Redefining Realness. 

Janet was elated to discover the next day that Ms. hooks not only stayed up all night to read it, she was quoting passages from it during their discussion. 

Last night, upon our first meeting, I gave bell my book Redefining Realness, and she surprised me at breakfast this AM by having read the entire book. She actually read passages to the audience! It was a transformative experience for both of us, as black women from different generations and experiences to share stories, insights and thoughts.

One of the things we African-American trans women have needed African American cis women to understand is that trans women are women.  We are just as down for the cause of uplifting Black womanhood if just given the opportunity to do so.  We have also needed cis Black women to understand that some of the issues we Black trans women face walking around in a Black female body are the same cultural and societal issues Black cis women face with the additional challenges of anti-trans discrimination and off the charts violence we have to deal with on top of it.

So yeah, that picture of Janet and bell hooks is a Big Fracking Deal.  So are the Black Trans Revolution Will Not Be Televised (or blogged about) conversations Janet had with her once the just as important one during the OSU event was completed.   

Gloria Steinem-Trans Ally?

Last September I wrote a post calling out feminist icon Gloria Steinem for her transphobic attitudes that were expressed in her writings of the seventies and early 80's.  

It was a period when I was a teenager and college student wrestling with my own gender issues and as a Houstonian, I had a ringside seat for the 1977 National Women's Conference that took place at the old Sam Houston Coliseum downtown. 

I was also a student in junior high school when Renee Richards' gender transition was blowing up as a major news story.

Translation, I grew up in the same time period that Steinem wrote those transphobic words along with the other trans-exclusionary radical feminist transphobes like Janice Raymond, Germaine Greer, Sheila Jeffreys, Robin Morgan and the late Mary Daly.

Declaring in 1977 that transsexuals "surgically mutilate their own bodies" in order to conform to a gender role that is inexorably tied to physical body parts and concludes that "feminists are right to feel uncomfortable about the need for and uses of transsexualism.", then just six years later giving a shout out to Trans Public Enemy Number One Janice Raymond in a subsequent book in which Steinem repeated the mutilation line on page 227 of Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions led me to call it as I saw it in the first place.

The power of the pen and written word can and historically has been a catalyst for change.  It also cuts both ways.  The written word can either inspire people to fight for their human rights or enable negativity and hate as it did when the pen was wielded by the Raymond, Greer, Jeffreys and Daly transphobic cabal. 

And I was disappointed that you could include Gloria Steinem in those ranks.

In other words, transsexuals are paying an extreme tribute to the power of sex roles. In order to set their real human personalities free, they surgically mutilate their own bodies...
Gloria Steinem- Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, 1983

But I was surprised to see the words Steinem penned in an October 2 Advocate op-ed 

So now I want to be unequivocal in my words: I believe that transgender people, including those who have transitioned, are living out real, authentic lives. Those lives should be celebrated, not questioned. Their health care decisions should be theirs and theirs alone to make. And what I wrote decades ago does not reflect what we know today as we move away from only the binary boxes of “masculine” or “feminine” and begin to live along the full human continuum of identity and expression.

I’m grateful for this opportunity to say that I’m sorry and sad if any words floating out there from the past seem to suggest anything other than support, past and present. As feminists know, power over our own minds and bodies comes first.

Steinem saying 'I'm sorry' is more than the other surviving feminist transphobes have done (or will ever do) and it's a start.  In fact Sheila Jeffreys is doubling down on her transphobic hate right now by releasing another waste of trees book attacking us.   

But the trans persons who really deserve the apology are Renee Richards and all my trans elders who in the 70's and 80's were viciously forced out of lesbian and feminist spaces by people gleefully citing the poisoned words of Raymond and company and the ones you wrote co-signing them.  

Your words during that time period had far more power and credibility because of your media coverage and status as a major feminist leader. 

Because you referred to SRS surgeries multiple times as 'mutilation', it gave credibility to the 1980 paper that Raymond wrote to Congress that led to SRS being eliminated from Medicare and Medicaid coverage and the insurance company medical exclusions on trans related health care. 

It co-signed the anti-trans attitudes in feminist circles that have led to the suffering and deaths of far too many trans people.  It led to trans people being cut out of desperately needed LGBT human rights legislation in the 80s, 90's and early 2k's.in many cases by lesbian identified feminists embedded in or leading Gay, Inc organizations 

If you are a trans ally, and we're only learning this because you broke your silence about your previous anti-trans remarks on October 2, 2013, prove it.  Convince me and other trans skeptics to take the question mark off of trans ally as it pertains to you and replace it with an exclamation point. 

Lobby with the trans community in Washington DC for a trans inclusive ENDA.  Call out the trans exclusionary radical feminists and help us get the Southern Poverty Law Center to declare them as a hate group.  Declare there is no room in feminism for anti-trans hatred and bigotry.  As a Smith alum you can help us ensure that your alma mater puts admissions policies in place that allow qualified trans feminine students to enroll there. 

Ms. Steinem. we've seen your apologetic words you wrote in the Advocate op-ed.  It's your verifiable deeds from this point forward which will help the trans community determine whether they are sincere or you were selling us woof tickets and engaging in revisionist history.  

Kat Blacque-Why I'm NOT A Feminist

Kat Blacque, don't let the idiots drive you off of YouTube.   If you need to take a break for a minute, do that.   Your eloquent voice and your thoughts about the issues affecting our community are needed.     

Kat speaks in this video why she doesn't call herself a feminist.

A Statement Of Trans Inclusive Feminism And Womanism

TransGriot Note:  As a womanist and a long-time trans human rights activist, I was asked by several people to be one of the original signatories to this statement.  I did so with a caveat. 

The title of this statement gives the false impression that womanism has the same four decade old problem of off the chain foaming at the mouth trans haters that feminism has when in reality it doesn't and womanists have worked diligently to keep it that way.  

No womanist at this time has ever openly worked to oppress me as a trans woman, called for my extermination, or opposed trans human rights legislation on a local, national or international level as predominately white feminists gleefully have done for over 40 years, so I have a problem with the potential false equivalency perception here. 

But I found this collective trans inclusion statement too important to NOT sign especially since I have been a target of racist TERF hate from time to time.

And now for your TransGriot reading pleasure, courtesy of the feministsfightingtransphobia blog, the Statement of Trans Inclusive Feminism and Womanism.

***

We are proud to present a collective statement that is, to our knowledge (and we would love to be wrong about this) the first of its kind.  In this post you’ll find a statement of feminist solidarity with trans* rights, signed by nearly 100  feminists/womanists from at least eleven different countries [it's now 383 individuals and 17 organizations -- exactly 400! -- from at least 15 countries] who wish to affirm that feminism/womanism can and should be a home for trans* people as well as cis. 

It has been signed by activists, bloggers, academics, and artists.  What we all have in common is the conviction that feminism should welcome trans* people, and that trans* people are essential to feminism’s mission to advocate for women and other people oppressed, exploited, and otherwise marginalized by patriarchal and misogynistic systems and people.

If you are a blogger/writer/academic/educator/artist/activist/otherwise in a position to affect feminist or womanist discourse or action and you would like to sign on to this statement, let us know!  You can use the form on the contact page or you can email us at feministsfightingtransphobia1@gmail.com.  We’d love to hear from you.

[NEW: You can also just sign right on in the comments, particularly if you're wanting to sign in a personal, rather than professional capacity--this will be much quicker and also easier on our moderators!]
Note: this blog in general and this post in particular are places where trans* people can come and find welcome and support from feminists.  For this reason, all comments are moderated for now, and hateful or abusive or bigoted discourse directed against marginalized groups or their members will not be approved.  It will either be deleted or it will be replaced with mockery of that discourse, depending on what the moderators feel like doing.  To be clear, transphobia, misgendering, racism, misogyny, slut-shaming, etc. are unwelcome.

We particularly welcome comments regarding ways in which feminists and womanists, both cis and trans*, can organize to demonstrate solidarity with and support and acceptance of trans people.  Reading the names of prominent feminists on statements of transphobia is heartbreaking to many of us, but as Joe Hill said, “Don’t mourn; organize!”
– Moderators

A Statement of Trans-Inclusive Feminism and Womanism
We, the undersigned trans* and cis scholars, writers, artists, and educators, want to publicly and openly affirm our commitment to a trans*-inclusive feminism and womanism.

There has been a noticeable increase in transphobic feminist activity this summer: the forthcoming book by Sheila Jeffreys from Routledge; the hostile and threatening anonymous letter sent to Dallas Denny after she and Dr. Jamison Green wrote to Routledge regarding their concerns about that book; and the recent widely circulated statement entitled “Forbidden Discourse: The Silencing of Feminist Critique of ‘Gender,’” signed by a number of prominent, and we regret to say, misguided, feminists have been particularly noticeable.  And all this is taking place in the climate of virulent mainstream transphobia that has emerged following the coverage of Chelsea Manning’s trial and subsequent statement regarding her gender identity, and the recent murders of young trans women of color, including Islan Nettles and Domonique Newburn, the latest targets in a long history of violence against trans women of color.  Given these events, it is important that we speak out in support of feminism and womanism that support trans* people.

We are committed to recognizing and respecting the complex construction of sexual/gender identity; to recognizing trans* women as women and including them in all women’s spaces; to recognizing trans* men as men and rejecting accounts of manhood that exclude them; to recognizing the existence of genderqueer, non-binary identifying people and accepting their humanity; to rigorous, thoughtful, nuanced research and analysis of gender, sex, and sexuality that accept trans* people as authorities on their own experiences and understands that the legitimacy of their lives is not up for debate; and to fighting the twin ideologies of transphobia and patriarchy in all their guises.

Transphobic feminism ignores the identification of many trans* and genderqueer people as feminists or womanists and many cis feminists/womanists with their trans* sisters, brothers, friends, and lovers; it is feminism that has too often rejected them, and not the reverse. It ignores the historical pressures placed by the medical profession on trans* people to conform to rigid gender stereotypes in order to be “gifted” the medical aid to which they as human beings are entitled.  By positing “woman” as a coherent, stable identity whose boundaries they are authorized to police, transphobic feminists reject the insights of intersectional analysis, subordinating all other identities to womanhood and all other oppressions to patriarchy.  They are refusing to acknowledge their own power and privilege.

We recognize that transphobic feminists have used violence and threats of violence against trans* people and their partners and we condemn such behavior.  We recognize that transphobic rhetoric has deeply harmful effects on trans* people’s real lives; witness CeCe McDonald’s imprisonment in a facility for men.  We further recognize the particular harm transphobia causes to trans* people of color when it combines with racism, and the violence it encourages.

When feminists exclude trans* women from women’s shelters, trans* women are left vulnerable to the worst kinds of violent, abusive misogyny, whether in men’s shelters, on the streets, or in abusive homes.  When feminists demand that trans* women be excluded from women’s bathrooms and that genderqueer people choose a binary-marked bathroom, they make participation in the public sphere near-impossible, collaborate with a rigidity of gender identities that feminism has historically fought against, and erect yet another barrier to employment.  When feminists teach transphobia, they drive trans* students away from education and the opportunities it provides.

We also reject the notion that trans* activists’ critiques of transphobic bigotry “silence” anybody.  Criticism is not the same as silencing. We recognize that the recent emphasis on the so-called violent rhetoric and threats that transphobic feminists claim are coming from trans* women online ignores the 40+ – year history of violent and eliminationist rhetoric directed by prominent feminists against trans* women, trans* men, and genderqueer people.  It ignores the deliberate strategy of certain well-known anti-trans* feminists of engaging in gleeful and persistent harassment, baiting, and provocation of trans* people, particularly trans* women, in the hope of inciting angry responses, which are then utilized to paint a false portrayal of trans* women as oppressors and cis feminist women as victims. It ignores the public outing of trans* women that certain transphobic feminists have engaged in regardless of the damage it does to women’s lives and the danger in which it puts them.  And it relies upon the pernicious rhetoric of collective guilt, using any example of such violent rhetoric, no matter the source — and, just as much, the justified anger of any one trans* woman — to condemn all trans* women, and to justify their continued exclusion and the continued denial of their civil rights.

Whether we are cis, trans*, binary-identified, or genderqueer, we will not let feminist or womanist discourse regress or stagnate; we will push forward in our understandings of gender, sex, and sexuality across disciplines. 

While we respect the great achievements and hard battles fought by activists in the 1960s and 1970s, we know that those activists are not infallible and that progress cannot stop with them if we hope to remain intellectually honest, moral, and politically effective.  Most importantly, we recognize that theories are not more important than real people’s real lives; we reject any theory of gender, sex, or sexuality that calls on us to sacrifice the needs of any subjugated or marginalized group.  People are more important than theory.
We are committed to making our classrooms, our writing, and our research inclusive of trans* people’s lives.

Signed by:

Individuals
Hailey K. Alves (blogger and transfeminist activist, Brazil)
Luma Andrade  (Federal University of Ceará, Brazil)
Leiliane Assunção (Federal University of the Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)
Talia Bettcher (California State University, Los Angeles)
Lauren Beukes (novelist)
Lindsay Beyerstein (journalist)
Jamie “Skye” Bianco (New York University)
Hanne Blank (writer and historian)
Kate Bornstein (writer and activist)
danah boyd (Microsoft research and New York University)
Helen Boyd (author and activist)
Sarah Brown (LGBT+ Liberal Democrats)
Christine Burns (equalities consultant, blogger and campaigner)
Liliane Anderson Reis Caldeira (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil)
Gloria Careaga (UNAM/National Autonomous University of Mexico)
Avedon Carol (activist and writer; Feminists Against Censorship)
Wendy Chapkis (University of Southern Maine) – “I don’t love the punch line ‘people are more important than theory.’  More to the point, it seems to me, is that feminist theories that fail to recognize the lived experiences and revolutionary potential of gender diversity are willfully inadequate.”
Jan Clausen (writer, MFAW faculty, Goddard College)
Darrah Cloud (playwright and screenwriter; Goddard College)
Alyson Cole (Queens College – CUNY)
Arrianna Marie Coleman (writer and activist)
Suzan Cooke (writer and photographer)
Sonia Onufer Correa  (feminist research associate at ABIA, co-chair of Sexuality Policy Watch)
Molly Crabapple (artist and writer)

Petra Davis (writer and activist)

Elizabeth Dearnley (University College London)
Jaqueline Gomes de Jesus (University of Brasilia, Brazil)
Sady Doyle (writer and blogger)
L. Timmel Duchamp (publisher, Aqueduct Press)
Flavia Dzodan (writer and media maker)
Reni Eddo-Lodge (writer and activist)
Finn Enke (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Hugh English (Queens College – CUNY)
Jane Fae (writer and activist)
Roderick Ferguson (University of Minnesota)
Jill Filipovic (writer and blogger)
Rose Fox (editor and activist)
Jaclyn Friedman (author, activist, and executive director of Women, Action, & the Media)
Sasha Garwood (University College, London)
Jen Jack Gieseking (Bowdoin College)
Dominique Grisard (CUNY Graduate Center/Columbia University/University of Basel)
Deborah Gussman (Richard Stockton College of New Jersey)
Dr Sally Hines (University of Leeds)
Claire House (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, Brazil)
Astrid Idlewild (editor, urban historian)
Sarah Hoem Iversen (Bergen University College, Norway)
Sarah Jaffe (columnist)
Roz Kaveney (author and critic)
Zahira Kelly (artist and writer)
Mikki Kendall (writer and occasional feminist)
Natacha Kennedy (Goldsmiths College, University of London)
Alison Kilkenny (journalist and activist)
Matthew Knip (Hunter College – CUNY)
Letícia Lanz (writer and psychoanalyst, Brazil)
April Lidinsky (Indiana University South Bend)
Erika Lin (George Mason University)
Marilee Lindemann (University of Maryland)
Heather Love (University of Pennsylvania)
Jessica W. Luther (writer and activist)
Jen Manion (Connecticut College)
Ruth McClelland-Nugent (Georgia Regents University Augusta)
Melissa McEwan (Editor-in-Chief, Shakesville)
Farah Mendlesohn (Anglia Ruskin University)
Mireille Miller-Young (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Lyndsey Moon (University of Roehampton and University of Warwick)
Surya Monro (University of Huddersfield)
Cheryl Morgan (publisher and blogger)
Kenne Mwikya (writer and activist, Nairobi)
Zenita Nicholson (Secretary on the Board of Trustees, Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination, Guyana)
Anne Ogborn (frightening sex change)
Sally Outen (performer and activist)
Ruth Pearce (University of Warwick)
Laurie Penny (journalist and activist)
Rosalind Petchesky (Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, and Sexuality Policy Watch)
Rachel Pollack (writer, Goddard College)
Claire Bond Potter (The New School for Public Engagement)
Nina Power (University of Roehampton)
Marina Riedel (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
Mark Rifkin (University of North Carolina – Greensboro)
Monica Roberts (Transgriot)
Dr. Judy Rohrer (Western Kentucky University)
Diana Salles (independent scholar)
Veronica Schanoes (Queens College – CUNY)
Sarah Schulman, in principle (College of Staten Island – CUNY)
Donald M. Scott (Queens College – CUNY)
Lynne Segal (Birkbeck, University of London)
Julia Serano (author and activist)
Carrie D. Shanafelt (Grinnell College)
Rebekah Sheldon (Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis)
Barbara Simerka (Queens College – CUNY)
Gwendolyn Ann Smith (columnist and Transgender Day of Remembrance founder)
Kari Sperring (K L Maund) (writer and historian)
Zoe Stavri (writer and activist)
Tristan Taormino (Sex Out Loud Radio, New York, NY)
Jemma Tosh (University of Chester)
Viviane V. (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil)
Catherynne M. Valente (author)
Jessica Valenti (author and columnist)
Genevieve Valentine (writer)
Barbra Wangare (S.H.E and Transitioning Africa, Kenya)
Thijs Witty (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Groups:
Bishkek Feminist Collective SQ (Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia)
House of Najafgarh (Najafgarh, India)
House of Kola Bhagan (Kolkatta, India)
Transgender Nation San Francisco

TransGriot Update: These are additional individuals and groups who have signed on to this statement.

[See http://feministsfightingtransphobia.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/welcome-to-our-most-recent-signatories/ for our newest signatories, as of the end of the day on September 16, 2013]
[See http://feministsfightingtransphobia.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/six-hours-later-we-have-a-new-signatory-list/ for our newest signatories, as of the end of the day on September 17, 2013]

[See http://feministsfightingtransphobia.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/welcome-to-our-our-newest-signatories-update-3/ for our newest signatories, as of the end of the day on September 18, 2013]

[See http://feministsfightingtransphobia.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/better-late-than-never-update-4/ for our newest signatories, as of the end of the day on September 20, 2013]

Still Ain't Feeling Feminism

Feminism, according to a popular bumper sticker is the radical notion that women are people, too. Many feminists have forgotten over the years that the word 'people' also includes their Black, Latina, Asian and native American sisters as well as their transgender ones. 
--TransGriot  Ain't Feeling Feminism   January 23, 2009

While we transwomen have had a contentious thirty-six years of drama with the feminist community, it pales in comparison with the ongoing parallel struggle that women of color have with them. They have fought the ongoing silencing of their voices in the feminist movement, got tired of being dissed, ignored and being accused of or being labeled as 'crazy' or 'racist' anytime they critiqued their treatment.
---TransGriot   January 23, 2009 

Those words I wrote in 2009 are just as prescient now as they were four years ago.  I took the predominately white feminist world to task for their four decade long pattern of attacking trans women and their ignoring or silencing of Black, Latina voices in the feminist movement to the point where both groups have said adios and see ya to feminism. 

And yeah, they've also done the same thing to native American, Asian and other women around the world as well, but that's another post.    

The simmering pissivity blew up once again between white women and women of color fed up with a feminist movement that seems in the last few years to only care about a Feminist Prime Directive of power and privilege equality with white males and clocking dollars.   

And they clock those dollars while gleefully appropriating the work of Black and Brown women of color.

It led to another contentious and needed discussion and the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag created by Mikki Kendall that went viral. 

It also began to create another moment of conversation on the issue of women of color and feminism.

Hell, myself and other trans women have been calling out feminism for years over their transphobia and their cricket chirping silence over the four decades of hate speech the trans exterminationalist exclusionary radical feminists (TERF's) have aimed at trans women.  It's also a major reason why combined with my pissivity over the erasure of women of color from its ranks that I dislike feminism and identify as a womanist.  

You gotta love a movement like womanism that is not only is rooted in your culture, as of this point in its development it has embraced me as a trans woman, hasn't disrespected my humanity and encourages mine and the input of other trans women to make it better and more inclusive when it comes to our issues as African descended trans women.

As I wrote in 2011 and it is still true today, since my March 31, 2009 'I am a womanist' declaration, I have yet to run into a womanist who disrespected my evolving feminine journey or has actively worked to deny me and my trans sisters and brothers human rights coverage like people who call themselves feminists repeatedly do. 

I hope and pray I'm able to continue saying and writing that critical difference point about womanism and womanists for the rest of this decade and beyond.


But back to the current drama.  Will anything substantive come out of this round of calling out feminism?   That is the $64,000 Question.  Or has the fissure between white and Black feminists that has over a century of contentious history predating the Schwyzer faux feminist mess become an impossible to bridge Grand Canyon?

Time will tell us what the end result will be, but I'm betting that four years from now I'll be writing another post if this blog is still in operation as to why I'm still not feeling feminism. 

When Brazilian Trans Women Are Being Murdered, That IS An Insulting Comment

"We are angry with ourselves for not being happier, not being loved properly and not having the ideal body shape – that of a Brazilian transsexual."    Suzanne Moore


That was the line that started the whole international kerfluffle.   While Moore's piece was originally about sexism and the things that make pwomen angry, what made transwomen angry was the 'Brazilian transsexuals' line.  

Then her transphobic partners in crime Bindel and Burchill in their zeal to defend her poured more gasoline on the raging fire with their transphobic insults, with Burchill's bordering in hate speech territory.

There are far too many cis people saying that the trans community shouldn't have been offended by Moore's line.  Well, first of all it is not up to you cis people to decide for a marginalized group like trans people what is and isn't offensive to them.

Yes, Brazilian transsexuals going back to Roberta Close are some of the most beautiful women on the planet.  Lea T, Carol Marra and Felipa Tavares are continuing to walk in Roberta's pumps and rock fashion runways around the planet along with other trans models..  

But the reason that comment was considered insulting by many of us in the international trans community was for a dynamic we painfully know is not getting much mainstream news coverage.

When the memorial names lists were read during the 2012 TDOR events around the world, 100 of the names that were read of our transsisters who lost their lives due to anti-trans violence were from Brazil.   Judging by the early 2013 news blurbs I read concerning trans murders tracked by various trans bloggers around the world, seems like the trans haters down in Brazil are trying to exceed last year's total.

Cecilia Marahouse, the Brazilian trans woman I have pictured in this post was shot multiple times in Fortaleza, Brazil back on January 11 while these British feminists were ranting and disrespecting trans people justifiably upset about their stank comments.

It is over 40 years of anti-trans hate screeds that have created and stoked the climate of transphobic hate aimed at transwomen.   That hate greases the skids for these near genocidal level of murders.aimed at our trans sisters, and you cisprivileged whyte womyn don't care 

Thank God trans people around the world and our allies do.

So yes, when you make an out of context reference to Brazilian transwomen, it IS insulting.   And don't get an attitude or start crying white women's tears when transpeople around the world call you out on it.

Tipping Point On Radfem Transphobia?

The British Transphobic Feminist Troika unleashed their hate speech upon the world last week probably thinking they would get pushback from the trans community they and their acolytes could spin and demonize them with until it quickly blow over.

Not this time. 

This time it isn't just our British trans cousins who are pissed off about the transphobic scribblings.   They got reinforcements from various trans bloggers around the world and pushback from the surprising direction of feminists, allies and other justice minded folks tired of the radfem transphobia making them, their nation and their movement look bad.

All I can say is thanks and what took y'all so long?   

It also leads me to ask this question concerning the international kerfluffle that has been stirred up on the Net by the Transphobic Feminist Troika.   Is this a tipping point sign that like the trans community, feminists are also tired of the transhate speech that has been said in their names for over 40 years?

We transpeeps can only hope that's exactly what is happening, but only time will tell in that regard.  We still have radfems on this side of the Pond who revel in spouting hate speech on a regular basis 

Are we going to see this year and from now on serious efforts to root out the cancer of transphobia in feminism, or is feminism just going to go back to business as usual, decry it in private and allow the radical feminists around the world to continue pushing trans hatred in their name?

Transphobic British Feminist Troika Crying White Women's Tears

I've had several people blow up my e-mailbox and my Facebook page asking my opinion about the vile transphobic scribblings of the unholy trinity of British feminists Suzanne Moore, Julie Burchill and Julie Bindel.

Y'all sure about that?   Because you know I'm not going to hold my tongue about it.

This kind of passive-aggressive crap that white radical feminists have been aiming at transwomen and engaged in for over 40 years now with not a peep of complaint from major white feminist blogs is a prime reason why I can't stand and reject feminism. 

And while I'm on that subject, do not ever refer to me as a feminist.   I am a proud womanist, thank you very much.  I consider it an insult to be called a feminist since it is painfully obvious feminism is of, by and for white cis women only.

If you think I'm overreacting or off target with my assessment, peep what Renee of Womanist Musings wrote back in October 2009, 

It comes down to the fact that many self labelled White feminists aren't really interested in equality for all, they are interested in equality with White men.  It's never about tearing down the system, but assuring that they have the power to oppress others.

And when it comes to oppressing transwomen, you have shown that you will gleefully engage in that nekulturny behavior.  When you get called on it, you climb back onto the pedestal of white womanhood, shed those tears, try to play the harmless victim who wouldn't hurt a fly role and assert these people you disrespected and oppressed are being mean to you when you know in your soulless hearts you threw the first sucker punch.

That crap is getting old.  You need to pull up the big girl panties, practice what you screech at others and take responsibility for your reprehensible words and actions.  But then again, you're white women reeking of vanillacentric privilege and will never apologize for the stank shyt you do, so why am I wasting mine and the international trans community's time demanding an apology that will never come?.      

But back to riffing on these across the Pond jerkettes.   This troika of transphobia has some nerve to think that just because they were born white, British and with a vagina they could just write their transphobic screeds and think British transpeople and their allies here in the States and around the world weren't going to justifiably call them out on it.  

But then again, they're white women reeking of vanillacentric privilege, so that level of arrogance shouldn't surprise me.    


News flash for your flat arses, we transwomen could, should, can, and will push back just as hard rhetorically and not give a rat's anus whether your feelings were hurt or we plucked your delicate, precious nerves, because you and your like minded ilk haven't cared about our feelings or our humanity since the 70's. 


We'd be justified in playing the dozens on your behinds being that as usual, you started it.  We're fed up with you radical or whatever kind of feminists you call yourselves disrespecting us and then crying white women's tears when we trans women call your arses out about the stank stuff you do .

But as tempting and temporarily ego satisfying as that would be, then we'd be stooping to your sophomoric WWE level of discourse and I don't feel like going there today. 

The bottom line in case you haven't noticed is this is January 2013, the second decade of the 21st century, not the 1970's.  You can no longer say or write whatever in the hell insulting comments you wish about girls like us as y'all could during the disco era and not think we aren't going to respond to it.   Your vanillacentric privilege will not shield you from the consequences of your transphobic hate speech that you proudly unveiled to the world..


As an African-American transwoman, I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of your racist and transphobic hate speech that is stoking the white hot flames of anti-trans bigotry and discrimination.  It is not only getting transwomen of all ethnic backgrounds killed, but disproportionately ones that share my ethnic heritage.

Note that despite all your jacked up rhetoric, the world is moving rapidly towards acceptance and integration of transwomen in nations all over the world including Great Britain. 

April Ashley was recently awarded an MBE for her human rights work.  Other transwomen do everything from compete in beauty pageants, walk fashion runways and raise kids to being doctors, lawyers and serving in their nation's parliaments. 

Despite your rhetoric, to paraphrase Maya Angelou's words, and still we trans women rise.

Almost 60 years to the February 13, 1953 day that Christine Jorgensen stepped off her flight from Denmark in New York to the glare of camera flashbulbs and massive publicity, the cold reality is that despite your rhetoric, we're winning the trans human rights battle in Great Britain and around the world.

The wonderful part about that is there's nothing that you three can do or say to stop the inevitability of the arc of the moral universe from bending toward justice and human rights coverage for transpeople. 


TransGriot Update: Surprise, surprise.  Suzanne Moore has apologized for her transphobic remarks and the Observer's editor has taken down the transphobic Julie Burchill piece that she still has not apologized for.  Our British trans cousins were putting together a protest march planned to end at the Guardian and Observer's shared HQ building, which may still happen because of the perception of increased levels of transphobia in the British media 

Stay tuned, the fun is just getting started across The Pond.


TransGriot Note: photos in order from top to bottom are Suzanne Moore, Julie Burchill,  Julie Bindel and April Ashley MBE

Black Female Intellectuals Chat About A New Black Feminist Reader

I'm not a feminist and identify as a womanist, but I was intrigued to see the note on Dr Kaila Story's (AKA Niece) Facebook page in which she talked about a chat she'd had with Dr. Yaba Blay and Dr. Brittney Cooper

When they aren't teaching their lucky students at their various colleges, Niece is the co-host of the WFPL-FM radio show 'Strange Fruit', Dr. Blay was featured on the recent episode of the CNN series Black In America, and  Dr. Cooper is one of the co-founders of the Crunk Feminist Collective. 

They discussed the persistence of terrible images of Black women in Hip-Hop music and during the course of that discussion, Professors.Story, Blay and Cooper began a dialogue about the need for an updated anthology of Black Feminist Thought.

That what happens when you get three brilliant and accomplished African-descended women chatting about issues in our community.

I hope if that anthology comes to pass and becomes available, Black feminists will take the opportunity to make it explicitly clear where their movement differs from white-dominated feminism.  I hope they call out the maddening tendency of white feminists to engage in cricket chirping silence when prominent Black women such as First Lady Michelle Obama get misogynistic attacks aimed at them, but are in full throated protest if someone even says a bad word or looks crosseyed at a white female no matter what side of the political spectrum she's on.

I commented in the thread I hoped they would condemn the trans exclusionary radical feminists to that discussion.  It is a Black feminist issue since predominately white TERF's have been pushing virulent anti-trans rhetoric for 40 years that I and other trans people believe fuels anti-trans discrimination, negativity toward our community and the anti-trans hate that leads to our murders.   The people who have taken the brunt of those anti-trans murders have been Black and Latina trans women.

If it does happen, it was suggested by Dr. Story that I write that portion of it   And if they do (or someone else) starts working on that updated anthology, should I get the invitation to write that essay, I most certainly will.

Alice Robb, Why You Tripping About The POTUS Calling His Daughters Beautiful?

One of my readers brought an article by Alice Robb of the Oxonian Globalist to my attention in which she criticized the part of President Obama's victory speech last week in which he said this about the First Daughters:

“Sasha and Malia, before our very eyes, you’re growing up to become two strong, smart, beautiful young women, just like your mom, and I’m so proud of you.”

While the rest of the world, the TransGriot and Black America loved this comment, check out what the third year Oxford University's Keble College student from NYC had to say about it

Obama’s comments beg the question of why a girl’s beauty should be source of pride for her father— and why beauty should be a value lauded alongside strength and intelligence.  The President may have been directing his comments at only two people, but he had the ears of the world, and on a day that should have been a triumph for women, his remarks stung.

Alice, since you didn't grow up as a Black female and don't interact with this world with a Black female body, allow me to break it down for you and demonstrate just how clueless and vanillacentric privileged your comment is.

The beauty standard you rail against is one that exalts women who look like you as the measuring stick that all women should aspire to.  

That same beauty standard that lifts white women and white girls like yourself up as the penultimate beauties is conversely the same one that is used to denigrate non-white women, and especially Black women and girls. 

Lets not pretend that the Black 'unwoman' demonization meme aimed at Black women and girls doesn't exist.  If you think I'm kidding about that, Exhibit A of it is the jacked up Satoshi Kanazawa May 2011 article entitled 'Why Black Women are Ugly.' that I had no problem putting on blast like I'm doing your comments right now.

Note that when you pick up any fashion magazine not named ESSENCE  that all you see in them are glamorous fashion photos of white women.   Same with television shows, movies, commercials, print ads or beauty products that predominately feature white women in them.  In your hometown of New York, one of the world modeling hubs, during the spring and fall Fashion Week shows the numbers of Black models strutting those runways are so minuscule you can count them on one hand.

President Obama is a parent of two daughters first and foremost.  The First Lady, Sasha and Malia have been attacked and had the Black unwoman meme frequently flung at them by a cavalcade of right wing idiots (something white feminists have been cricket chirping silent about).

You damned skippy he's going to do everything in his power like any Black father would do to push back against the negative forces working on the self esteem of his daughters by telling them (and his wife) at every opportunity, including his victory speech that they are strong, smart and beautiful young women.  . 

So Alice Robb, why you tripping about President Obama calling his daughters beautiful?  You mad because he took a few moments in a speech that went around the world to show his daughters some love? 

There is nothing wrong with what President Obama said about his daughters because, frankly, Sasha and Malia ARE strong, smart, beautiful young women that I'm happy will be residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the next four years.

Gloria Steinem-Transphobe

You long time TransGriot readers know I'm not a feminist and I cringe when I hear Black women even say the term because of its history of marginalizing women of color to the point they left the movement.

And don't even get me started on its outright hostility to trans women, which is why I identify as a womanist.

And yes, it's time to unmask another one of the feminist icons, Gloria Steinem as a transphobe. 

She not only wrote some foul stuff centered on Renee Richards in 1977 when hating on transwomen was par for the feminist course, but in the 1983 book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions that was recently republished.

But before I get to the transphobic 1983 scribblings, here's what she said then about Renee Richards and transpeople in general.  It was also in reaction at the time to comments that characterized the Richards saga as "a frightening instance of what feminism could lead to" or as "living proof that feminism isn't necessary."  

Steinem wrote at the time, "At a minimum, it was a diversion from the widespread problems of sexual inequality." She writes that, while she supports the right of individuals to identify as they choose, she claims that, in many cases, transsexuals "surgically mutilate their own bodies" in order to conform to a gender role that is inexorably tied to physical body parts. She concludes that "feminists are right to feel uncomfortable about the need for and uses of transsexualism."

She then concluded the transphobic article with the quote: "If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?

Moving on to the Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions in which pages 224-228 of it contains a five page essay on trans identities in which she cited Janice Raymond and her odious 1979 waste of trees The Transsexual Empire in it several times. 

Let's start with these transphobic gems.   On page 226 of the book:

Was it fair for women to face someone trained physically and culturally for forty years as a man?

On page 227 Steinem pulls out the 'mutilation' card:

In other words, transsexuals are paying an extreme tribute to the power of sex roles. In order to set their real human personalities free, they surgically mutilate their own bodies...

And ho hum, here we go again with the tired 'waste of medical resources' meme as she gives a shout out to Janice Raymond:

Instead of serving more lifesaving but often less lucrative needs for their surgical and hormone-therapy skills, some physicians are aiding individuals who are desperately trying to conform to an unjust society. It’s a small group of successful physicians she [Janice Raymond] names ‘the transsexual empire’.

So if you wonder why I have such a low regard for feminism no matter what wave it is in or have eye roll inducing suspicion of trans feminism, it's because of transphobic scribblings like this from a long list of white feminists and trans feminists like Chelsea Sayre who spend more time apologizing for the TERF's than calling them out for their nekulturny behavior.   

Discovering feminist icon Gloria Steinem shared those anti-trans sentiments, combined with feminism's appalling silence over the fact that their poison pens and the anti-trans sentiments they stoked have caused deleterious real world effects in the lives of trans women only adds to my distaste of feminism.

Feminists Need To Stop The Rad Fem War On Transwomen

Chelsea Sayre, one of my fellow Transadvocate columnists with whom I have disagreed with before,  just wrote another post in which I need to point out what she failed to discuss. 

In her post she calls out elements of the trans community for the escalating nastiness as she saw it between the feminist and trans feminine communities that needs to stop.  On that point I agree with Chelsea that it is deplorable and needs to stop before somebody gets hurt on either side. 

However, where I part company with her is in noting that her focusing the post on trans women is problematic.  She also failed to understand that what has been done unto transwomen in the first place by rad fems is the reason why the hostility between the two camps exists.

I note you ignored the War on Transwomen was started in the 1970's by predominately white radical feminists.  In the last four decades in addition to sliming us at every opportunity, they have gleefully done everything possible to thwart the enacting of desperately needed trans human rights legislation and policies. 

You do recall the paper Janice Raymond wrote in 1980 to Congress that erased the ability of low income trans women to use Medicare and Medicaid to pay for trans health care and was the impetus for insurance companies to enact trans exclusionary riders in the policies we insultingly pay hard earned T-bills for?

They have pimped their disco-era dogma in transphobic books like The Transsexual Empire and countless other wastes of trees others penned that have called us 'Frankenstinian', for transwomen to be 'morally erased from existence' and called for the worldwide banning of SRS surgeries.

They have also used their positions of vanillacentirc cis privileged power to oppress trans women by any means necessary and swarm attacked in the blogosphere any trans advocates or our cis female allies who have dissenting opinions about their jacked up vanillacentric and racist points of view.


Hmm.  No mention of the 17 year old transteen being outed at his school for daring to express his First Amendment rights online to criticize one of the more vicious ringleaders of the War on Transwomen and whyte rad fem womyn engaging in cis privilege filled right wing intimidation tactics of calling the jobs of trans advocates they don't like and who tell it like it T-I-S is about them in an attempt to frack with their lives.

Curiously, no mention of the 'womyn born womyn' pimping disco era trans hate and feminism ignoring and in some cases leaders like Gloria Steinem and Adrienne Rich co-signing it.  That transphobia egged on by feminists has had a deleterious effect on the lives of trans people and transwomen of color to the point we're getting murdered at the rate of two per month

So yeah, you damn skippy we transwomen have a right to be angry and pissed about that.  I'm not surprised that in your feminist sisterhood of the traveling white pantsuits supportive point of view in your post you'd ignore the right wing bullying tactics they have been engaging in to support their failed disco era dogma..

The point is that I have something you don't as a POC transperson.  I have decades of experience in living as a marginalized person before I even transitioned and I see things from the perspective of being an oppressed person. 

When you are subjected to daily microaggressive and macroaggresive tactics aimed at your humanity by a group that is wielding societal power (and don't even go there in vanillacentric denial that white women don't hold societal power) that they gleefully exercise when they have the opportunity to do so, it is inevitable it will cause resentment and anger in the marginalized community that is targeted by said attacks.

This is simply a reaction to the almost 40 years of dehumanizing trans rhetoric combined with active work by radical feminists in the War on Transwomen.   I'm not saying it's justified, and like I said in the earlier paragraph I agree with you and Monica Maldonado in it needs to stop.

But it needs to stop on both sides. 

If the feminist community is going to point fingers at the trans feminine one and demand we get our over the top misbehaving peeps under control, then you need to do the same thing with your feminist bad actresses as well in order to help ratchet down the developing bad blood.  

Feminism's decades long silence and inaction with the rad fems combined with what it has done to our community is why transwomen are pissed off in the first place and feminism has the negative connotation it does with elements of us. 

Feminism also needs to stop crying white women's tears about the pushback from transwomen against the nekulturny negativity aimed at us by rad fems.   It also needs to immediately stop pretending they are the victims in this kerfluffle and ignoring the fact that the transfeminine reaction to this just didn't organically occur in a vacuum. 

So Chelsea, when you feminists start actively working to rein in the hate group that whyte womyn born womyn claim is part of your movement in addition to feminists actually being seen more frequently unequivocally standing up for transwomen's human rights, maybe then transfeminine women will not feel compelled to go to Defcon 3, 2 or 1 levels to defend their human rights, their femininity and their humanity.

Renee Discusses Motherhood And Feminism

Happy Mother's Day TransGriot readers!  Since it's your day, what better way for me to spend it than listening to one of my favorite mommy bloggers who is all that and four bags of ketchup flavor chips?

Renee of Womanist Musings spent a few moments on Friday as a guest on the CBC Radio show The Current discussing the topic of motherhood and feminism.




And as you those of you who read her blog know about her, she's going to tell it like it T-I-S when it comes to motherhood and the different ways she intersects with the topic.  

The Current is hosted by Erica Johnson, and here's my Timmy's IceCapp drinking homegirl for your  TransGriot listening pleasure.

Calling Someone a Feminist is Not Necessarily a Compliment

 
Another guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings.

I love the blog The Crunk Feminist Collective, but I recently came across a post that I found disturbing that feel I need to respond to.

I’m a feminist. Sometimes it feels like I live breathe, eat, and sleep feminism. Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I’m just feminist enough. A while ago, I made the mistake of calling another like-minded individual a feminist. I don’t even remember what they did to merit the honor, but I sure do remember their reaction. They actually got offended at the fact that I called them a feminist. Wait. Stop. What?

I was taken aback by the negative reaction. I didn’t even know what to say or where to start. I apologized for offending them and we both went our separate ways. I still think of them as a closeted feminist. This made me realize that I need to be prepared. Should the opportunity present itself again, this is what I will say:

“Relax. I wasn’t trying to offend you. Me calling you a feminist was a fucking compliment. Why? Well, for starters your actions showed me your amazing strength. In spite of the patriarchal/political/cultural/societal structure that fails and oppresses you daily, I saw you fight back. I was impressed. So impressed that I called you a feminist. That was some real feminist shiiiiiit.

So, the next time you want to go on and be offended because I called you a feminist, please check yourself. You’re a fucking feminist. Deal with it. Don’t do feminist shit if you don’t want to be called out. Stop fighting it. Join the movement (willingly). We fight for you. We will fight with you. We believe in you. We will believe with you. We SEE you. We will always see YOU.” (source)

I probably would have let this go, had I not come across a piece on Transadvocate exhorting trans women to take on the label of feminist, despite the history of transphobia engaged in for decades by feminists.  Monica of Transgriot, responded by talking about the issues faced by transwomen of colour. I have written several posts about why I am not a feminist, since starting Womanist Musings almost four years ago. 

I remember how excited I was when I first became a feminist.  In my early years, I was hyper aware of gender imbalance in my own family, and that coupled with my experiences inside of the Pentecostal and Seventh Day Adventist faith, left me feeling extremely disillusioned.  At one point, I had even stopped believing in God, because I saw no place in the doctrines that I was raised in for gender equality.  It is thanks to feminist theologians that I can declare myself a believer in God today.  I was so excited to find a group that affirmed by beliefs and gave me back my religious faith.  I thought that I had found a home for life, and it is only over time that I discovered the various ways in which feminism can be exclusionary.


I was desperate for the longest time to hold onto this label. How could I turn my back on something that had given me so very much?  I found a way to justify everything, and told myself that it was all in the service of the greater good, but over time, the bad simply out weighed the good and I was forced to say goodbye to feminism.  This separation did not cause me to change my belief system, or my desire to fight for social justice.  After some time I stumbled across womanism, and though it does have problems largely based in those whose womanism is faith based, it was a place that I could call home because it recognized all facets of my identity. You see, I cannot separate my race from gender and still be myself.  Womanism allowed me to marry my belief in anti-racism with gender equality and in time with more reading, gave me the language to talk about various other isms.

As I mentioned earlier, this latest post at Crunk Feminist Collective makes the second post in a week to pressure women into taking on the label of feminist.  How is this different than Jehovah's Witnesses going door to door in an effort to get new converts? These kind of pleas place no interest in what the individual woman believes, they simply seek to create converts to their way of thinking, and yet we are to believe that feminism is about respecting the agency of women.  Trust women they tell us, and yet they have displayed no trust that we are capable of deciding for ourselves what label we want to identify as.

It is not now, or ever will be a compliment to call someone a name that they either find offensive, or are uncomfortable with.  It will never be acceptable to tell women to cast aside their lived experience for the greater good.  None of these suggestions support women, and in fact represent patriarchal thinking, because that is the genesis of the idea that women need to be told what to believe, and what to do for their own good. Even though the name of this blog is Womanist Musings, I still have people refer to this as a feminist space, denying my very obvious stated identity.

Instead of fixating on what women choose to call themselves causing a rift, what feminists should be doing is seeking to build alliances and examining what kind of activism that women are involved in.  Just because this space is a womanist space, does not mean that I am not actively engaged in challenging various isms, and in fact, a look through the archives proves this.  I am further positive that women who refuse to take on the label of feminist also engage quite actively in the struggle to end gender based oppression. The suggestion that women need to be feminist in order to be active to end gender inequality specifically discards the work of womanists, and radical women of colour, who separated from the feminist movement due to decades of active racism engaged in by White women, in an effort to maintain their White privilege.  It also ignores the work of disabled activists, and trans women, who separated themselves from feminism due to ableism and transphobia.  Feminism is not the only vehicle in which women can come to awareness and choose to rise up against the forces that restrict their lives.

The following list printed at Crunk Feminist Collective are feminist beliefs:

• Don’t believe the hype
• Take action to make the world a more just place (for all its inhabitants)
• Question the patriarchy
• Acknowledge your own privilege(s)
• Believe that you are beautiful just they way you are–even on bad days
• Talked to your friend/child/neighbor/family about the skewed norms the media/marketing machines create, uphold and push on us
• Stood up to someone when they did you (or someone you love) wrong
• Told your child that his/her hair, skin, smile, are beautiful
• Questioned a double standard
• Gave yourself permission to love yourself and others

But they are also the beliefs of scores of women who don't identify as feminist for various reasons.  Feminism does not hold a monopoly on women's activism, and it's time that they start to understand this. If they truly want women to identify as feminist, rather than attempting to force this label on us, perhaps they should address the various issues which have caused so many to take issue with feminist organizing.  It's far easier to point a finger outward, than it is to look inward and examine the various issues within feminism.  It is not those of us who continue to work for change and refuse to identify as feminist that are failing women, it's feminists who have failed to work on the exclusionary aspects of the feminist movement that are failing us.

Disrespect Of Black Womanhood Is Why I'm Not A Feminist

Chelsea Sayre, my fellow columnist at Transadvocate and editrix of the Trans Femmergy blog wrote an interesting post entitled It's Bigger Than Your Womanhood.

It was in her words 'a rant directed at the trans women who want absolutely nothing to do with feminism (no one in particular) because a mean, scary woman somewhere called you a name or the wrong gender.'

Well Chelsea, I'm one of those transwomen who wants nothing to do with feminism and the disrespect it aims at us.  

I'm about to tell it like it T-I-S is as to why I feel that way and expound on my reasons for saying thanks but no thanks to feminism.   They are bigger than the loud and wrong group of transphobic radical lesbian separatists still stuck in the disco era.  

If you were wearing my Afrocentric shoes, explain why should I have any respect for or rush to join a movement that has repeatedly shown it has no respect for me, my cis African descended sisters and doesn't care about any woman that isn't a cis white one?  

Too many feminists fail to recognize they exist with white privilege they gleefully exercise when it suits them while ignoring how race and class issues affect non-white cis and trans women. 

It's why like many Black women who have had the same epiphany about feminism I pivoted to and eventually became a womanist

If we're 'all women' as I hear repeatedly said as a talking point  in some quarters of the feminist movement and the feminist blogosphere, why the cricket chirping silence in terms of the sexist and racist attacks on the First Lady that have been ongoing since 2008, but feminists leap to the defense of Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann if any man even looks at them cross eyed or says a disparaging word about them?

If 'we're all women', why does a white transwoman who is beaten at a Roseland, MD McDonald's get a rally while a little over 100 miles away a Black transwoman who gets beaten outside a Fredericksburg, VA 7-Eleven doesn't?

Don't even get me started on the feminist cricket chirping silence over the nastiness, transphobia and oppression that white radical lesbian separatists and radfems have engaged in and aimed at transwomen of all ethnic backgrounds since 1979.

Respect of my humanity and femininity is a big fracking deal when I live and interact with a vanillacentric society and culture that paints women of color and especially Black women as the 'unwoman' vis a vis the white women they put on society's pedestal as its idyllic feminine ideal all women should strive to emulate.

As a transwoman of African descent disrespect aimed at my femininity and humanity is an even bigger fracking deal because it builds upon a historical four century foundation of racism, oppression and sexism.  

The unwoman meme also fuels the transphobia and anti-trans violence that disproportionately affects transwomen of color.


If it escaped your attention, working for the advancement of the human rights of transwomen is also working for women's issues because it not only improves the lives of transwomen, it expands the human rights of all women. 

Sadly cis white feminists have been major players in impeding the progress of trans human rights over the last thirty years because they lack the vision to see that granting rights to transwomen expands them for cis women.

Feminism in whatever wave it is in has consistently demonstrated it only respects, cares about and works for the advancement of only one monoracial segment of cis women. That's why Black women pulled out of the feminist movement in the late 80's-early 90's and became womanists or joined with Latinas, Asians, Native American and other women to become Radical Women of Color.

Any transwoman of color who wants to do more to be down for the big picture cause of advancing the human rights of all women cis and trans should consider becoming womanists, radical women of color or joining cis women of color organizations dedicated to doing that uplift work.

Don't waste your precious time, energy and sanity considering feminism until it cleans up its bigoted and transphobic vanillacentric act.  

Why should I as a African descended transwoman or any transwoman of color work in or for a movement that doesn't benefit us or consider the issues of cis and trans women of color important?   Nor can I in good conscience as a leader in the African-American transfeminine community recommend that transwomen of color become feminists until it does.

Thanks, but no thanks.   Disrespect of mine and cis Black womanhood is why I'm not a feminist in the first place.