Trans Icon Rachel, Feminist

one of the most enlightening things for me in Trans/Rad/Fem is the fact that Serena Nanda, author of Neither Man Nor Woman, the book that set out a theory of India's hijra as "third-gendered" "homosexual men," was a cis TERF who cited Raymond's The Transsexual Empire in the book's first edition.

Neither Man Nor Woman contains the foundation for much of western scholarship on non-white, non-western, transfeminized "third genders." and this shit - the conception of exoticized/Orientalized "third genders" versus an imperialist western transsexuality - is basically mainstream feminist thought now. I see it show up regularly in everyday discourse, voiced by white people who no doubt innocently believe that they're engaging in anti-racist praxis through being inclusive of these "third genders" and their totally wholly different conception of transfemininity that definitely wasn't imposed upon them by cissexist patriarchy.

and it's all just TERF rot to its core.

Dec 9 at 10:05pmWeb
Show threadTrans Icon Rachel, FeministDec 9

the idea that trans women and transfeminine people share a global class struggle - that our right to self-determination, access to transition care, and liberation from feminized labor and sex work, among other things, are struggles universalized across time and space - has been intentionally fragmented through western academia's insistence that people like the hijra and other "third-sexed" transfeminized groups represent a Secret Third Thing, a prop to pit against the degenerate western transfem, rather than a different incarnation of the same phenomena.

and it's all because of TERFs.

Show threadTrans Icon Rachel, FeministDec 10
Show threadTrans Icon Rachel, FeministDec 10

thinking more about this today, because this all has me Grumpy As Fuck.

other white trans people have periodically pitched the idea to me that hijra and other "third-sexed" groups have this mystic alternative framework of transfeminine identities that flies in the face of western transsexuality, and that centering westernized language and concepts constitutes a sort of reenactment-in-miniature of white settler-colonialism.

and that's certainly true to the extent that transfeminized people from the Global South are seldom heard in academic-feminist discourse. intersectionality demands that we listen to their voices, how they frame their identities, and what they need to live decent, fulfilling lives, and alter our working theory accordingly. any theory that doesn't work for transfeminine people from South Asia, East Asia, Africa, South America, etc, will not work for transfems as a whole.

but as it turns out, the people that we're listening to aren't the hijra et al themselves, but instead cis "scholars" with transmisogynist views, people whose agenda consists of casting western transsexuals as decadent oppressors lording our imperialist, medicalized concept of transfemininity over the poor silenced men in dresses.

according to them, the "thing that we all have to learn" from third-sexed transfems isn't how racism, global capitalism, and settler-colonialism further marginalize Black, brown, and Indigenous transfeminine people, barring them from legal recognition and transition care,

but instead: the act of desiring feminizing medical transition is bourgeois western cosmopolitanism, with a side of: why can't western transfems just shut up about hormones and surgeries and be feminine men like [my Orientalist, transmisogynist conception of X, Y, and Z third-sexed groups]?

Show threadisuggestkillyourlocalrapistDec 10
@YKantRachelRead as an aside the reason i don’t have equal access to gender affirming care is not bcs some evil white western transfems have taken resources away from me. on the contrary i have learned a lot from resources generated and compiled by evil white western transfems. the real reason is our government that has power and agency, which is populated by people with the same skin color as me, deliberately put in place policies that gatekeep transtion, policies that are modeled from western policies from like thirty years ago. , that which were also put in place by transphobes. the real gender imperialism is being a bad role model so that people in my country point to you and say “developed countries do it this way so it must be right”. the real gender imperialism is letting christian fundies throwing anti lgbt lobbying moneys around africa. the real gender imperialism is western academia generating bullshit discourse like “lgbt is western imperialism” which nationalists in my country echo gleefully to deny us rights
Show threadrefraction Dec 10
@YKantRachelRead for anyone that wants to read this piece in particular, it is published here: https://taliabhattwrites.substack.com/p/the-third-sex
The Third Sex

“The Gender Binary” is a misnomer; gender has always been a hierarchy.

Trans/Rad/Fem
Show threadrefraction Dec 10
@YKantRachelRead this reminds us that we should archive this piece in case we won't be able to access it in the future.
Show threadin the nightDec 9
@YKantRachelRead this class struggle is also really important because it resolves the definitional woes that terfs and transphobes impose on us. "what is a woman?" "why are you a woman?" the answer isn't essentialist crap it's being part of a class
Show threadWandering StarDec 10
@YKantRachelRead I realize that I am not required to have an opinion about this, but, without either agreeing nor disagreeing with your premise, I'd like to offer than in my understanding, traditional hijra cultures represents a diversity of thought on spirituality and sexuality, and includes a continuity between trans women and third-gendered or otherwise non-binary individuals, similarly to pre-Stonewall femme communities in the USA/Europe.
Show threadŚniąca Syrena (Detrans Arc)Dec 10

@YKantRachelRead Talia and a few others were a huge help for me introducing me into transfeminism and I'm so thankful to them that they did took the time and patience

Genuinely a lot of cool women I still keep looking up to 

Show threadShura System  Dec 10
@YKantRachelRead They basically ignore hijras campaign to be recognized as women but Nanda's opinion is now used by Indian supreme court to third gender them.