While reading Koyama’s piece Whose Feminism Is it Anyway?, I was struck by the prejudice shown WITHIN groups. The GLBT community suffers so much prejudice as it is. I’m confused as to why, within the smaller groups such as “womyn-born-womyn” for example, they choose to be so exclusive. If the basic point of trans liberation is acceptance and tolerance for all choices, how can these people who have fought so hard to be respected for their own choices exclude others who are trying to do the same? If the ultimate goal is respect and acceptance of everyone, Koyama makes a good statement: “when they say feminism and sisterhood, it requires any important issues other than “the celebration of femaleness” – i.e. racial equality, economic justice and freedom of gender expression – to be set aside”. I guess I’m wondering if the bias within the groups is slowing down the fight for gender equality.
I found Cheryl Chase’s article really interesting. This is an issue I have heard very little about it but it sounds like the birth of intersex children isn’t too uncommon. The emotional and physical challenges that these children face later in life because of an arbitrary choice made by a doctor, and based on societal norms, are huge! Chase notes that “intersex status is considered to be incompatible with emotional health….”. Have viable studies been done that show the emotional differences in those that had these “corrective” surgeries as infants versus those that waited and were able to make the choice on their own?
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Hi Jennifer! I really liked the questions you posted. I also wonder a lot about your first question, why do LGBT groups show prejudice from within? It seems to me that all of these groups could find something to agree on, but it does seem that they are fighting among each other. Why? It doesn’t make sense that they would persecute each other after being persecuted themselves…or does it? It seems that all minority groups have some form of this happening within their ranks. Is it because they feel that since they have been put down they need to put down others? I always thought that two wrongs don’t make a right, but, in modern culture, it seems that we are obsessed with being “better than” someone. It does not matter what group we are better than, just so long as we are not the worst. This competitive nature is distinctly patriarchal, and its manifestations are often ugly and unfair. People from all classes are constantly comparing themselves to others, determining who they are better than and who they need to strive to be like. It is a vicious cycle. I think it would be fun to send letters to opposing groups and ask exactly why they think it is fair for them to persecute others when they are trying to liberate themselves. Shouldn’t liberation be a united front for all people
ReplyDeleteYour second question really got me thinking about children who are born intersex. I know it's weird, but when I first read that article, I thought back to the medical tv shows and how they represent intersex kids. If you think back to shows like "House" and I believe it was called "Mental," kids who are born intersex grow up to be teenagers and then are faced with horrible emotional and health breakdowns. It is then that the find out they were actually born "the wrong sex." Their reactions are the same. They blame the parents for not telling them the truth. They feel as though their entire life had been a lie. They begin to truly question the sex that was chosen for them. And after all this drama takes place, they are finally able to pick the sex they want, everyone is happy and everything is back to normal, all within an hour. So I feel as though tv has partly influenced opinions of people out there. I think it would be very interesting to see actual scientific data that really explores what these children go through.
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