I really appreciated these readings by Julia Serano. She opened my eyes to so many things that I never realized or even thought about before. Some of the points she made reminded me of that Ted Talk by Paula Stone Williams. Both women were able to give us the experiences they had while living both as a man and as a woman. I also think it is important that Serano discusses the way that transgender women have been maligned within our society. I think one of these reasons may be due to the toxic masculinity that dominates our culture. If a man finds himself wanting to align with more "feminine" things, then there is something wrong with him. Transgender women are not deemed feminine enough and often said that they are just men in dresses. There is also a stigma around straight men being attracted to a transgender woman and calling that man gay. Serano discusses some of these difficulties that specifically transgender women face in this society. She talks about the way that media hyper feminized transgender women, how they are hypersexualized, and objectified, and constantly asked if they have had gender reassignment surgery. These are just some of the ways that transgender women are targeted in our society and treated poorly. There are even feminists that mistreat transgender women.
Serano discusses feminism and where transgender women fall. Feminists are fighting this patriarchal society we live in, upset by the misogynistic standards we are often told to meet. This upsets women because it is unfair. However, Serano writes about the way that some feminists do exactly this to transgender women. They deem them not woman enough and that they do not meet the standards of what it means to be a woman (17). Obviously, this is horrible. Those who call themselves feminists and yet do not fight for all are TERFs. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Women know how difficult it is to be a woman, the high standards, glass ceilings, misogyny that we face on a daily. So why would we exclude transgender women from the fight for equality? To fight for feminism is to fight for equity for all. Rather than finding differences between us, we need to realize that we all want the same thing, and that is to be treated like a person regardless of the way that we identify. It does not matter if one is born a woman or makes the decision to transition. We need to fight for all women. I like how Serano says that we need to stop trying to distance ourselves from feminity but rather to empower feminity Anybody can be feminine, no matter what gender they identify as. So with that, we need to empower feminity. The stigmas around feminity need to change. Often we associate feminine acts/clothes/anything with being weak. That is so extremely harmful. We don't do that with masculinity. If a woman appears to be more masculine or enjoys typical masculine things people often call that girl a "badass" or see no issue in it. But the reactions are much different when it comes to feminity. Even women who enjoy feminine things are seen as weak/dumb/annoying. This is why I love that Serano says we need to empower feminity. Overall I enjoyed reading what she wrote and found that she had a lot of strong messages. I appreciate her sharing her experience as a transgender woman and how she now sees the world in a different way. She makes some great points and I do hope that one day we are able to judge people for the person they are and not something as trivial as the things they enjoy or the gender they identify as.
Comments
Post a Comment