NEWSFLASH: TRANSWOMEN ARE NOT MONOLITHIC!

There seems to be this misconception in both the straight and gay community that all transwomen are created equally. For some reason people seem to think because they know a particular transwomen this means that they know everything there is about transgender identity and everything about every transwoman that ever lived and will live. People come up with all kind of crazy and ignorant things to say about transwomen based on whatever isolated experience that they have. So let’s get some things straight about transgenderism and transwomen shall we?

First up:

Transgenderism is more about what is between ones ears than it is about what is between ones legs. So many people seem to think for some asinine reason that transgenderism is all about genitals. While some transwomen like to connect their physical to their mental that is not the case for all transwomen, so please stop approaching transwomen and thinking you can figure them out in a heartbeat based on whether they are pre or post op. You can’t.

Secondly:

There is no “look” to transwomen. To the ignorant people who think they can tell a transwoman based on certain characteristics and that this physical test is a full-proof way of identifying transwomen you are wrong. Transwomen are as diverse as cisgender women. They come in many shapes, colors, sizes, and degrees of femininity. Some are feminine ideals and some are just regular women who look like every other regular woman on the planet. You can’t tell all transwoman are transwomen by their hair, their legs, their feet, their hands, their neck, their shoulders, their eyes, their lips, etc. Doing so only makes you look like an idiot so please give that up.

Thirdly:

Associating all transwomen with sex workers is unfair and inaccurate. This is the problem with stereotypes. As Chimamanda Adichie so powerful noted, “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” And thats what associating all transwomen with the sex workers is INCOMPLETE. Are there transwomen who are sex workers? Of course there are. As is the case for straight, gays, men, and women. Its not something unique to transwomen. There are many transwomen who are making honest livings, college educated, and even making waves in the White House (Helena Bushong).

Fourth:

Transwomen are not a threat to women in public restrooms. There seems to be this narrative of painting transwomen as threats to other women in public restrooms. Obviously this is nothing more than a scare tactic used to reduce transwomen to nothing but men in dresses. I haven’t heard of a case of a transwoman entering into a bathroom and raping a woman. If someone can find me evidence of this happen I will stand corrected.

Firth:

Transwomen are not the ugly stepchild of the LGBT communty. Many gay men with nothing better to do with themselves take to the waves and say awful things about transwomen. Why this is done? Perhaps its because oppressed people need someone else to oppress? Perhaps the people are just losers? But transwomen are just as valid and just as deserving of respect as everyone else in the LGBTQIA community. And for any gay man who is a member of a marginalized group to turn around and marginalize a transwoman, shame on you and you need your head examined.

Finally:

Not all transwomen like stereotypically girl things, they don’t all want to have surgery, they aren’t all sex workers, they can’t all be identified by some random test, they aren’t all interested in fooling straight men.

The more we educate ourselves about cisgender and transgender the better off we all are. So lets please release some of these assumptions and stereotypes we have about transwomen please?

About these ads