What do you think about women-only spaces? Are they appropriate? For music festivals? For protest marches? For rape shelters? Is there any reason to limit such spaces to cis-women?
I understand the want for women-only spaces. It allows women to feel more safe and comfortable, not having to worry about certain issues that can come about when dealing with the opposite sex. It's one way that women can feel empowered, to have power in this patriarchal society. I think they can be appropriate, but it depends on what they are doing and who they allow.
The textbook discusses separatist feminists and their want for women-only spaces. In this case, I felt there were many issues. Separatist feminists do not believe that trans-women are real women. Separatist feminists "regard trans men as having abandoned their female identity in order to pursue male privilege. By contrast, they often regard trans women as still infected with the male privilege with which they grew up" (111). They do not want any interactions with men or women who associate themselves with men. I find this to be problematic in many ways. Though I do agree that cis-women and trans-women face different issues, trans-women are still women and need to be regarded as such. Trans-women need to learn and grow into womanhood, just as all girls do. Though they may have grown up with male-privilege, I am sure many of them dealt with gender dysphoria and identity issues throughout their youth. There are many difficulties that trans-women grew up with, even though that may not include being on the opposing end of male privilege. Trans-men are not transitioning in order to gain male privilege. I find that to be an extremely ignorant view and think it is so disrespectful. For these reasons, I think if there is going to be women-only spaces, then trans-women should be involved. Trans-women are still women. In these women-only spaces, the conversation could be opened up and cis-women and trans-women can talk about the difficulties of womanhood, whether or not they were born into it. So while I do recognize that the experiences of trans-women are different from those of cis-women, all of which are women and all can learn from each other and the differences can be celebrated rather than used for division.
All in all, I do not see a reason why women-only spaces should be limited to cis-women. I think women-only spaces overall can be really empowering and a great way for women to connect with each other. It can create a more comfortable environment in which women would be more willing to share/open up/etc. It is a great way to learn about each other and bring each other up. For example, I took part in a Take Back the Night march in my freshman year. Though there it was not just women there, it was a really empowering night where so many strong women took to the stage to give speeches about instances of sexual assault that they went through. It was an empowering night of learning and growing. I think women-only spaces can be appropriate but I feel as if they should not exclude trans-women. I do not see an instance that would call for the exclusion of trans women from women-only space.
Hello Bri,
ReplyDeleteI agree that women-only spaces can be appropriate depending on what they do and who they allow. I believe that women- only spaces should allow trans-women because they are women too. Trans-women have many difficulties, including the difficulty of womanhood. I found it appalling that some people view trans-women as still being "infected" and trans-men as transitioning to gain male privilege. The women-only spaces should be open to both cis-women and trans-women, in order to share with each other and empower each other.
Hi Bri,
ReplyDeleteThe strategy that you have taken to argue for your position in this post is to highlight reasons that fairly directly support your view that while there is a place for women-only spaces, those spaces should not exclude trans women. This is a good strategy! In addition, another way to showcase the strength of your position when making an argument is to explicitly discuss plausible objections and alternatives to your view and bolster your own position by issuing compelling responses to them. In the context of this post for instance, you might try to articulate the most plausible reasons for the position that 1) there is a place for some non-trans-only-women spaces, or 2) that no space should be women-only, and then explicitly discuss your critiques of those reasons.
Position (1) might initially strike you as just offensive, but perhaps there are contexts in which it would be appropriate for, say, non-trans women to gather together to deal with their own transphobia or transmisogyny without subjecting trans women to the burden of educating them and dealing with the emotional processing fallout of that education. See what I mean? Maybe you still think that such a gathering would be wrongfully exclusionary. It could strengthen your own argument to explain why.
Take care,
Dr. Nora