ana veronica 3d ago
we don't look at people in the historical record and say "well those weren't "men" or "women" in the sense that we use the word today in western cultures" do we. i mean, we certainly could, but we don't
Show threadMs. Rachel Andry (Isn't Real)

@ana the idea that trans identities and trans theory are the sole domain of "western culture" is a transphobic attempt to inexorably bind transfeminist theory to whiteness and colonialism. the goal is to erase the agency of nonwhite, non-western trans people using lefty-sounding language and concepts, while simultaneously casting western trans people as interlopers foisting trans identities on the former.

and when we look at it that way, there's little difference between "trans theory is western colonialism" and "social contagion" theory.

Mar 25 at 5:42pmWeb
Show threadMs. Rachel Andry (Isn't Real)3d ago
@ana and all that, of course, is how we get things like India's recent decision to erase the legal category of "trans woman" while maintaining the legal category of hijra, on the principle that the latter is - ironically, per western scholarship - a third-gendered other wholly distinct from the "western, colonialist" trans woman.
Show threadana veronica 3d ago
@YKantRachelRead 💯 i see lots of trans people accepting this framing as legitimate and we really need to stop othering ourselves like this. the distance between "transness is a wholly social construct" and "transness is a western pathology" is actually nonexistent
Show threadMs. Rachel Andry (Isn't Real)3d ago

@ana yep, the number of times I've seen other trans people repeating "trans theory is a white western concept that doesn't apply to other cultures" is frustrating to me as someone who believes that our struggle is, and has been, universal across time and space.

they're usually not doing it maliciously, of course - in my experience it's a sincere, if misguided, attempt to engage with decolonial concepts. but it still serves to demonstrate exactly how easy it is to sell reactionary ideas cloaked in leftist trappings.