Jo, thank you for this thoughtful post. I wonder if any terfs actually know any trans women; the JK Rowling hoopla loomed large because she's so famous, causing hurt to so many of her readers. I have a beautiful trans daughter who's super feminine, without a speck of masculinity about her (while others may be on more of a continuum, and that's fine too, and no one else's business). Life has been challenging for her, and no one who is courageous enough to be who they are is doing it to annoy others, whether it's the "mean girl" terfs or the Tr-mp administration.
There's another piece that I wrote that I addressed JK Rowling -- that Rowling is taking out her trauma from her past experiences on trans women instead of the men who actually assaulted and abused her. Seems like a lot of terf's have a lot of misplaced emotion. With emotion that strong, I doubt logic and data come into play. With Rowling, I'm sure some trans women have reached out to her, and I'm sure despite that, she continues leaning into her perspective.
It feels to me like conservative movements pick a boogie man and rally up a lot of fear around that for every generation (right now, seems like it's trans women and immigrants) -- it's awful and sad.
I noticed that, even as a kid reading fiction, I tended to identify with the victim/people being hurt -- so I continue doing that as an adult. I really don't understand how people identify with the bullies.
Agree with you about courage! And I hope your daughter is doing well, and glad you are supporting her through this tough time.
Trans women, non-binary folks, and lesbians etc. have actually freed us all from such a rigid gender hierarchical society and we should thank and support them for this everyday. I do believe that the new feminist movement forming is intersectional or on its way to getting there ✨
My next essay is going to be about exactly that -- how LGBT+ folks have contributed positively to rethinking the gender binary/compulsory heterosexuality, through some materialist feminist thinkers.
Jo - Thank you for your post. It's a necessary read and I have shared and re-stacked it. Everything you said chimes with me. It's also compassionate, and compassion is something we need a LOT of in this world.
Wonderful piece. Butler and hooks are the two feminists I return to the most too. They were the most influential on me in my feminist undergrad studies, and I still carry their words with me everyday. I appreciate being reminded of them through your substack. I guess I'm not surprised that you get the most anti-Butler comments as people are so attached to preserving the gender binary, not just for others, but for themselves. To detach from the gender binary requires that one unravel how they identity on a fundamental level, and question gender essentialism. It's so engrained in people, eh? Thank you for freeing us through what you share.
I think that people indeed are attached to gender essentialism, and change of any kind (especially the kind that makes you think) is uncomfortable a lot of folks.
This is such a beautiful and insightful essay, Jo! Thank you for your effort to pour your knowledge and thoughts because it helped me a lot. I have been thinking about these even before, and reading your essay felt like my thoughts were fully presented for me to comprehend it better. I used to proudly call myself an angry feminist that only focuses on how men dominate women and how they always have more privilege than me and my fellow women also. Recently, I have been reading a lot of books and also articles that focuses on intersectionality and radical feminism as well. This essay of yours offered me a lot of knowledge. Thank you, Jo!
I think it's hard, isn't it, to examine your own privilege relative to others? But it's the way to be a more compassionate, more effective person and activist.
As a second wave feminist, thank you for educating me about intersectional feminism. I’ve always felt ashamed that we abandoned our lesbian sisters when trying to pass the ERA.
As a retired psychologist who worked with several trans clients, the ignorance and callousness directed toward this population is outrageous. I am angry that the innocent are made to suffer even more than they already do.
I have been fighting for equality and inclusion for most of my life. The current backlash is deeply discouraging. Younger women like you- passionate, intelligent, informed, compassionate and strong reassure me.
One thing I have found is that regardless of the injustice and callous disregard I have experienced, there are some things the patriarchy could never take from me. They could never take away the truth or my ability to continue the fight.
Thank you for picking up the torch and improving on the efforts of second wave feminists.
transwomen who are trans in order to invade women's spaces for the purposes of assault, rape, and general harrassment are few and far between. why don't people get this? It's just not a statistical fact. oh, same with transwomen who apparently want to take over women's sports.
I have not read this as carefully as it deserves. You have made it dense (in a good way) with lots of thought and research.
But I got caught emotionally. I have been where many of the women you mentioned were … from the very conservative woman to gradually opening my thoughts and actions through learning about the first women like Susan B. Anthony, wanting to be like Betty Friedman and Gloria Steinem to being a cis woman adopted by a fun group of Lesbians, to voicing my minority experience in a group of young White educated privileged women to being an older voice of experience with some compassion for and experience of the many stages. Right now I am going from being open to trans people theoretically to understanding in IRL with my grandchild.
I can understand and even agree with your anger with the blind spots of women who were fighting for their own rights/freedoms and exclude others. We need that push to more understanding and acceptance but we also need to have some compassion and understanding of how enormous some of those first steps seemed at the time. Keep pushing boundaries but don’t close out those of us who are a little slower.
I'm not angry. I sometimes wish I could write with greater emotional charge, but I can't force what's not there.
To be told I am angry, though, or that I'm closing people out in a piece that calls for inclusion and goes out its way to include and address various groups doesn't sit well with me, especially as someone writing about feminist and antiracist. That's an accusation that's levied at both types of activism to discredit them.
I do, however, believe it's important to call attention to the lack of intersectionality in the first- and second-wave feminism so that we don't repeat the same mistake in the future.
Sorry to misinterpret what you wrote. Maybe I got defensive when you listed the limitations of the earlier feminists. But my thing, one of my bugaboos are people who don’t understand their roots and think that their thoughts were born fully formed when in fact they are built on small incomplete pieces that came before.
Right. But Black feminists like Audre Lorde also called themselves “third world”, so it seems more broad than a reference to the countries themselves.
What I was asking is if anyone reading my essay was a feminist advocate/activist back in the 1970s/1980s, and understood why American women of color used the terminology to refer to themselves. I'd imagine they're saying that they descended from the third world, but I wanted to know if anyone had more complete information than my hunch.
Jo, thank you for this thoughtful post. I wonder if any terfs actually know any trans women; the JK Rowling hoopla loomed large because she's so famous, causing hurt to so many of her readers. I have a beautiful trans daughter who's super feminine, without a speck of masculinity about her (while others may be on more of a continuum, and that's fine too, and no one else's business). Life has been challenging for her, and no one who is courageous enough to be who they are is doing it to annoy others, whether it's the "mean girl" terfs or the Tr-mp administration.
There's another piece that I wrote that I addressed JK Rowling -- that Rowling is taking out her trauma from her past experiences on trans women instead of the men who actually assaulted and abused her. Seems like a lot of terf's have a lot of misplaced emotion. With emotion that strong, I doubt logic and data come into play. With Rowling, I'm sure some trans women have reached out to her, and I'm sure despite that, she continues leaning into her perspective.
It feels to me like conservative movements pick a boogie man and rally up a lot of fear around that for every generation (right now, seems like it's trans women and immigrants) -- it's awful and sad.
I noticed that, even as a kid reading fiction, I tended to identify with the victim/people being hurt -- so I continue doing that as an adult. I really don't understand how people identify with the bullies.
Agree with you about courage! And I hope your daughter is doing well, and glad you are supporting her through this tough time.
Trans women, non-binary folks, and lesbians etc. have actually freed us all from such a rigid gender hierarchical society and we should thank and support them for this everyday. I do believe that the new feminist movement forming is intersectional or on its way to getting there ✨
My next essay is going to be about exactly that -- how LGBT+ folks have contributed positively to rethinking the gender binary/compulsory heterosexuality, through some materialist feminist thinkers.
thanks for reading!
Powerful!
Thank you, glad you liked it!
By the way, I citied your piece on evolution of Chinese feminism (feminism in China?) in a reading list I put together. Thank you for writing that :)
Jo - Thank you for your post. It's a necessary read and I have shared and re-stacked it. Everything you said chimes with me. It's also compassionate, and compassion is something we need a LOT of in this world.
Thank you so much! I’m so glad it resonated with you.
And yes, we need compassion and understanding.
Wonderful piece. Butler and hooks are the two feminists I return to the most too. They were the most influential on me in my feminist undergrad studies, and I still carry their words with me everyday. I appreciate being reminded of them through your substack. I guess I'm not surprised that you get the most anti-Butler comments as people are so attached to preserving the gender binary, not just for others, but for themselves. To detach from the gender binary requires that one unravel how they identity on a fundamental level, and question gender essentialism. It's so engrained in people, eh? Thank you for freeing us through what you share.
I think that people indeed are attached to gender essentialism, and change of any kind (especially the kind that makes you think) is uncomfortable a lot of folks.
This is such a beautiful and insightful essay, Jo! Thank you for your effort to pour your knowledge and thoughts because it helped me a lot. I have been thinking about these even before, and reading your essay felt like my thoughts were fully presented for me to comprehend it better. I used to proudly call myself an angry feminist that only focuses on how men dominate women and how they always have more privilege than me and my fellow women also. Recently, I have been reading a lot of books and also articles that focuses on intersectionality and radical feminism as well. This essay of yours offered me a lot of knowledge. Thank you, Jo!
I think it's hard, isn't it, to examine your own privilege relative to others? But it's the way to be a more compassionate, more effective person and activist.
Thank you for reading, and your kind words.
As a second wave feminist, thank you for educating me about intersectional feminism. I’ve always felt ashamed that we abandoned our lesbian sisters when trying to pass the ERA.
As a retired psychologist who worked with several trans clients, the ignorance and callousness directed toward this population is outrageous. I am angry that the innocent are made to suffer even more than they already do.
I have been fighting for equality and inclusion for most of my life. The current backlash is deeply discouraging. Younger women like you- passionate, intelligent, informed, compassionate and strong reassure me.
One thing I have found is that regardless of the injustice and callous disregard I have experienced, there are some things the patriarchy could never take from me. They could never take away the truth or my ability to continue the fight.
Thank you for picking up the torch and improving on the efforts of second wave feminists.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
transwomen who are trans in order to invade women's spaces for the purposes of assault, rape, and general harrassment are few and far between. why don't people get this? It's just not a statistical fact. oh, same with transwomen who apparently want to take over women's sports.
I have not read this as carefully as it deserves. You have made it dense (in a good way) with lots of thought and research.
But I got caught emotionally. I have been where many of the women you mentioned were … from the very conservative woman to gradually opening my thoughts and actions through learning about the first women like Susan B. Anthony, wanting to be like Betty Friedman and Gloria Steinem to being a cis woman adopted by a fun group of Lesbians, to voicing my minority experience in a group of young White educated privileged women to being an older voice of experience with some compassion for and experience of the many stages. Right now I am going from being open to trans people theoretically to understanding in IRL with my grandchild.
I can understand and even agree with your anger with the blind spots of women who were fighting for their own rights/freedoms and exclude others. We need that push to more understanding and acceptance but we also need to have some compassion and understanding of how enormous some of those first steps seemed at the time. Keep pushing boundaries but don’t close out those of us who are a little slower.
I will revisit this when my mind is not as tired.
I'm not angry. I sometimes wish I could write with greater emotional charge, but I can't force what's not there.
To be told I am angry, though, or that I'm closing people out in a piece that calls for inclusion and goes out its way to include and address various groups doesn't sit well with me, especially as someone writing about feminist and antiracist. That's an accusation that's levied at both types of activism to discredit them.
I do, however, believe it's important to call attention to the lack of intersectionality in the first- and second-wave feminism so that we don't repeat the same mistake in the future.
Sorry to misinterpret what you wrote. Maybe I got defensive when you listed the limitations of the earlier feminists. But my thing, one of my bugaboos are people who don’t understand their roots and think that their thoughts were born fully formed when in fact they are built on small incomplete pieces that came before.
So I apologize for misunderstanding you.
Third world meant undeveloped. Not industrialized. Possibly formerly colonized.
Second world meant developing, in process.
First world meant developed, technology at the cutting edge.
Right. But Black feminists like Audre Lorde also called themselves “third world”, so it seems more broad than a reference to the countries themselves.
What I was asking is if anyone reading my essay was a feminist advocate/activist back in the 1970s/1980s, and understood why American women of color used the terminology to refer to themselves. I'd imagine they're saying that they descended from the third world, but I wanted to know if anyone had more complete information than my hunch.