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LoginGender Bending, the Lesbian Hierarchy and Trans Cool
70’s feminism bought with it the idea that women could be just as powerful as men. Not a bad politics at the time but. What ended up happening was a hierarchy of oppression where those with the most oppressions were accorded the most privileged position. At a feminist conference a workshop was undertaken where you got a chocolate biscuit for every oppression you experienced. She with the largest pile of chocolate biscuits, poor, disabled, lesbian, in an interracial partnership… won. But what would those 70’s lesbians have made of transsexuals, would they have been welcomed to privileged end of the lesbian hierarchy? or would they have been accorded the status that went with heterosexual privilege, access to better jobs, bank loans, credit card…? Who know’s trans politics wasn’t out there yet, but I suspect, if they had been allowed to come to the conference at all ( and in many cases they still are not, any more than any kind of queer heterosexuality makes it onto the tropical fruits agenda) they would have been kept firmly outside the magic central circle. It’s all not very radical politics really. All it says is you’ve got to be the same as me to be part of my group. No more radical than the privilege accorded to white middle class males in 1970’s.
In the transsexual community, it seems to me, being as close to a genetic girl as possible is the privileged position. I understand this. Gay men only have to come out once, when they tell their friends and family. Transexuals on the other hand come out every time they go out. No wonder passing as a woman is so important. The closer you look to a genetic girl the easier it is. But what I have got to say and I want to say it really clearly is that it’s time for trans cool politics. Personally, I love gender play, gender bending.
Linda Karen in this photo also looks fabulous, yes it’s a totally girl look but even without the hair and make up the pleasure of expressing herself in an appropriate gender position I am sure would shine through. I guess what I am trying to say is that gender is more than how you look and my trans friends can be totally fem without even lifting a mascara wand. It’s time those old hierarchies were laid to rest girls.
Linda Karen doing girl in Boy Mode
What do you girls think?Is there more to doing girl than genetic girl mode? Is there more to being a girl than walking the walk, talking the talk and wearing make up?
Dr Michelle Mars is a free lance sexologist living in Sydney. You can contact her on 0415768084 or Michelle@sassi-inc.com
