I think you're overly concerned about othering; you asked to be told if you were doing that in the original comment and nobody said a word. I mean I'm a transwoman who is PERFECTLY HAPPY with her cis female friends theoretically wanting to have a conversation about The Mysteries Of Being A Woman that excludes me because it involves being raised as a Bearer Of The Womb and all that entails in our society. They invite me to the parties that are actually about fun things like "getting drunk" and "watching bad movies" and "drawing crazy things" and that's what matters.
And geeze honestly I've never really studied exactly what the identity politics concept of "Othering" is precisely supposed to entail but if it means that it is a bad thing to state the simple fact that yes, transwomen really are at risk for being raped and for a lot of other things because of the power dynamics involved in their change from male to female and because their support networks are often completely fragmented by their transition, and maybe 'we' (where 'we' is whatever group the speaker belongs to that is Not Transwomen) should be cooler to them, then, you know, fuck worrying about othering because it's worrying about one little sapling in the middle of the Continent-Spanning Legendary Forest At The Mythic Center Of The World.
Not that this should be taken as a reason to guilt yourself out for not dropping everything and going to help every transwoman who needs a hand or something. I mean I'm a transwoman and my extent of Helping The Cause is pretty much limited to being open about my gender so that more people can say "hey I know this pricklady and she's pretty cool" because they've met me and/or like my art. I don't think you need to beat yourself up over that comment in any way, shape, or form. Though I guess if you want to pass it by someone with a PhD in Othering Studies and they say you should beat yourself up over it then I guess you should, I dunno, I think I've lost track of where this thought was going, if it was going anywhere in particular.
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regna
Re: Overdue Apology
Date: 2013-08-21 07:48 pm (UTC)And geeze honestly I've never really studied exactly what the identity politics concept of "Othering" is precisely supposed to entail but if it means that it is a bad thing to state the simple fact that yes, transwomen really are at risk for being raped and for a lot of other things because of the power dynamics involved in their change from male to female and because their support networks are often completely fragmented by their transition, and maybe 'we' (where 'we' is whatever group the speaker belongs to that is Not Transwomen) should be cooler to them, then, you know, fuck worrying about othering because it's worrying about one little sapling in the middle of the Continent-Spanning Legendary Forest At The Mythic Center Of The World.
Not that this should be taken as a reason to guilt yourself out for not dropping everything and going to help every transwoman who needs a hand or something. I mean I'm a transwoman and my extent of Helping The Cause is pretty much limited to being open about my gender so that more people can say "hey I know this pricklady and she's pretty cool" because they've met me and/or like my art. I don't think you need to beat yourself up over that comment in any way, shape, or form. Though I guess if you want to pass it by someone with a PhD in Othering Studies and they say you should beat yourself up over it then I guess you should, I dunno, I think I've lost track of where this thought was going, if it was going anywhere in particular.