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why passing is not awesome
Passing is perhaps the central component through whether trans lives are considered ‘successful’ or not, and as such it is the central component of trans oppression. It is the part of our lives always up for debate in public, and by which cis people mark trans individuals as ‘other.’ I’ve written about this before, as a response to the cis belief that places self-erasure as trans people’s greatest fantasy, and my attitudes about passing remain the same: Passing is a system used by cissexist cultures to control trans people, to ostracize, and to justify violence perpetrated against them. Although passing is presented as a trans endeavor or desire, the truth is it is a system for cis people to identify trans people and to alert other cis people to their presence.
Just trying to work my brain around the concepts in this blog is showing me how much internalized transphobia I have. Part of that is that this culture is totally cissexist and we all get a great, heaping dose of it. And it is also that I grew up trans(sexual) in an earlier era -- the late '90s was when I was really involved, when I was on the mailing lists, when I was figuring myself out. I read Kate Bornstein (problem #1?) and Leslie Feinberg. We were thinking, synthesizing and growing, but still, passing as primary goal was the centerpiece* of our discussions, our struggles, our advice to each other. Turning that upside-down is really good but... disorienting.**
And I can that see this analysis, this questioning of transphobia, is starting to break down the walls to exactly what we wanted, the utopias we were envisioning but didn't know how to get to.
On a less personal level, it's got really good pointers for cis folks.
* On the trans youth mailing list, at least. Not so much on the Sphere list.
**And it makes me feel old.
Just trying to work my brain around the concepts in this blog is showing me how much internalized transphobia I have. Part of that is that this culture is totally cissexist and we all get a great, heaping dose of it. And it is also that I grew up trans(sexual) in an earlier era -- the late '90s was when I was really involved, when I was on the mailing lists, when I was figuring myself out. I read Kate Bornstein (problem #1?) and Leslie Feinberg. We were thinking, synthesizing and growing, but still, passing as primary goal was the centerpiece* of our discussions, our struggles, our advice to each other. Turning that upside-down is really good but... disorienting.**
And I can that see this analysis, this questioning of transphobia, is starting to break down the walls to exactly what we wanted, the utopias we were envisioning but didn't know how to get to.
On a less personal level, it's got really good pointers for cis folks.
* On the trans youth mailing list, at least. Not so much on the Sphere list.
**And it makes me feel old.
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*I subscribe to the blog, but I haven't read my RSS feeds in several days and now they're so overwhelming I've been avoiding even opening Google Reader. D:
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That's how I feel about my flist(s) right now...