The amount of vitriol that cis women (including those who identify as feminists) levy to trans women & femmes (especially those of us who are gender non-conforming) is staggering and concerning.
Trans women & gender non-conforming people know intimately how dangerous a feminism is that displaces sole culpability on cis men, and not a gendered system to begin with. What is becoming increasingly apparent to me is that cis women redirect many of the patriarchal tactics used by cis men on them against US!
In response to trans critiques, liberal cis feminism has created a binary of the *good tranny* and the *bad tranny* to establish who is permitted in feminism and who is not.
The *good tranny* identifies as a woman, mostly keeps quiet and dresses conservatively, defers to cis leadership, is heterosexual and gender conforming, narrates her transition as always knowing she was a woman, tries her best to invisibilize her difference, blames her oppression on cis men only, does not speak about violence she has experienced from cis women, and re-confirms what cis women believe about gender (that it is real, fixed, binary, etc.).
The *bad tranny* is gender non-conforming, may engage in sex work, queer, not respectable, does not claim allegiance and sisterhood with all cis women, speaks explicitly about the violence they/she have experienced by cis women, does not apologize for their body/genitalia, does not shave, asserts their leadership, is critical of the essentialism of "womanhood," is skeptical of dismissing men as uniformly privileged and oppressive, and directly challenges cis women's political project and worldview more generally.
In a political moment where it's increasingly unacceptable for cis feminists to openly exclude trans women, new forms of exclusion through the performance of inclusion have been devised. while perhaps more subtle, these tactics are just as troublesome. it's a moment of "I accept trans...but!" Our acceptance is contingent on our erasure: both of our appearances and our experiences. Our acceptance is contingent on our willingness to perpetuate gender binary thinking and not challenge it.
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