Kansas State University Libraries New Prairie Press 2000 Conference Proceedings (Vancouver, BC, Adult Education Research Conference Canada) Menacing Feminism, Educating Sisters Robert J. Hill PennState Capital College, USA Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/aerc Part of the Adult and Continuing Education Administration Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License Recommended Citation Hill, Robert J. (2000). "Menacing Feminism, Educating Sisters," Adult Education Research Conference. https://newprairiepress.org/aerc/2000/papers/35 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Adult Education Research Conference by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Menacing Feminism, Educating Sisters Robert J. Hill PennState Capital College, USA1 Abstract: Transsexuals are engaged in a profusion of learning dynamics, critical education, opposi- tional practices and sense making. Male to female transsexuals (MTFs) especially struggle to define the boundaries of what it means to be a “woman.” The result is an emerging new feminism, called transfeminism that challenges the institutionalized gender system in a way that other discourses can- not. Transfeminism is part of a social movement that is taking up trans/gressive acts and constructing learning communities built on gender-identity difference. Background based, included new social movements as sites of Western society is structured such that there exist: learning where a pedagogy of contestation and re- women by chance (genetic/biological; women-born- bellion are carried out; identity as a source of women), women by choice (transgendered and meaning and experience; and critical postmodern transsexuals, i.e. persons whose core gender iden- analysis to explore power asymmetries. Methods tity differs from what is culturally associated with included a literature review of texts with subsequent their biological sex at birth), and women by force analysis, a critical ethnographic qualitative survey, (intersexuals whose anatomy is assigned at birth by and the unique use of the Internet for sur- coerced “normalization”). vey/interview purposes. Numerous individuals have engaged in the con- Twenty-six transgendered folks were initially struction of feminist ideology since the 1960’s, pro- interviewed. Informants were selected from organi- ducing strands identified as liberal-, radical-, zations dedicated to transsexual/transgender educa- socialist-, Marxist-, black-, lesbian-, cultural-, tion and through “snow-ball” techniques. postmodern-, critical-, and cyber-feminism, to name Respondents represented more male to female a few (Whelehan, 1995; Brooks, 1997). This re- (MTF) transsexuals than other groups. Interviewees search unearths a new genre of feminism, con- were culled to ten key trans-respondents who par- structed by transsexual and intersexual women, ticipated over a one-year period. Formal interviews, termed “transfeminism.” Transfeminism is a prod- informal discussions, and other noninvasive tech- uct of the trans- and inter-sexual communities con- niques (snagging public email messages posted on structing new meanings from their lived the Internet) were used to capture data which were experiences. Transsexuals and intersexuals, nomi- coded and analyzed for themes related to adult edu- nally included in the queer community, are arguably cation in the transsexual community. the most marginalized group of gender outlaws (Feinberg, 1996). Hate crime violence is rampant Findings of the Literature Review against this segment of society. There is currently a A review of the literature revealed several themes, powerful surge of trans-struggles positioning them including: transsexual/ intersexual communities are within the borders of new social movements work- engaged in a profusion of learning dynamics, oppo- ing for social change. sitional practices and sense making. As women, MTF trannies struggle to write their own narratives, Methods called difference feminism (Shalit, 1999). It, in part, This qualitative research investigated the ways that rejects marginalization at the hands of society, in- transsexual feminist knowledges are produced, cluding “Othering” from the straight, gay, and le s- used, and distributed in their contest for collective bian communities. Some respondents saw this new identity and control over their own lives. It also ex- menacing feminism as the latest development of plored the relationships of trans-people to “non- feminist thought. Trans/actional learning included transsexual” feminist discursive practices. Theoreti- educational dynamics within trans communities, cal frameworks, upon which this research was and outreach to “non-trannies,” especially to “main- stream” women feminists who frequently reject years of patriarchy, we have found a special value male to female transsexuals’ identity claims. Trans in a place where women can be seen without the respondents noted that few people ask, “Who male gaze, and speak without the male ear.” Femi- counts as a woman?” The literature produced by nist music festivals with women-born-women-only transfeminists revealed a battle over identity and admittance policies were major arenas where the naming. struggle for acceptance and identity-recognition oc- Data show that: numerous organizations exist curred. Educational programs and grassroots activ- for education, support and advocacy in the trans- ism were key tools at these. Yet, not all transsexuals gender communities; the mainstream lesbian and agreed to resist womyn-born-womyn policies at gay communities have been obstacles to transsexual festivals, saying it is “a mistake for the trans liberation; many “traditional” feminists have been movement to target [them]; they do not have the especially troubling for and troubled by trans- kind of institutional power that male establishments feminists; the transfeminist community is actively have. The real enemy…should be the patriarchal creating a narrative space not yet recognized in system rather than womyn-only events.” feminist theories; and, transsexual educational ef- One of the prospective educational avenues cited forts are often specifically oriented as outreach to by a respondent was course work in “trans femi- “our sisters.” nism.” Feminism itself is a difficult term to de- The transgender movement is polyvalent, en- scribe. As Whelehan (1995) writes, “Feminism is compassing enormous diversity within a unifying itself problematic, because the theories that inform field surrounding gender. The antagonistic tendency it are heterogenous (p.25).” Yet, she has discovered of new social movements to produce and simulta- that “all feminist positions are founded upon the neously deconstruct group identity (Gamson, 1998) belief that women suffer from systematic social in- is operative in the transgender movement. A tension justices because of their sex and therefore, ‘any exists between creating stable collective identities feminist is, at the very minimum, committed to through an essentialised educational discourse on some form of reappraisal of the position of women one-hand and blurring/deconstructing identity in soc iety’” (Evans, in Evans et al. 1986, p. 2). boundaries on the other. Koyama (1999), a respondent, wrote, “trans- feminism cuts through all of the major themes of Interview Findings third wave feminism: diversity, postmodern identi- Education was universally posited by the transsex- ties, body image/consciousness, self-definition, and ual community as indispensable in the struggle for female agency.” It has been pointed out that this “is identity, acceptance and building an equitable soci- not merely about merging trans politics [with] ety. The terms education and learning emerged as feminism, but it is a critique of the second wave key words in transcribed interviews; concepts re- feminism from third wave perspectives.” Koyama lated to them dominated. also points to the diverse strands of “transfemi- nism.” Trans feminism has at least two distinct ex- To the Rescue: Trans/itional Sites and pressions in the trans community. One is the Trans/Actional Education application of feminist perspectives to trans dis- The research located multiple transsexual sites and course, aptly called “transsexual feminism.” Trans- opportunities employed in the struggle for cultural sexual feminism is premised on an extrinsic authority against the hegemony of transphobic dis- acceptance of transsexuals as women. A second courses. One wrote about the relationship between manifestation is “transfeminism.” This strand is female transsexuals and other women, “There is no more than a transsexual reading of feminism. It is enemy. This is not war. This is a rescue mission.” It about establishing transfeminism within the main- is a sortie to liberate their sisters. Another penned, stream of feminism with specific content that re- “I will not fight [them]...I’ll do my best to educate lates to transsexuals’ experiences, but which is them....” The education was trans/actional; one applicable to all women. Transfeminism has char- male-to-female transsexual wrote, “The women acteristics unique and special to the trans commu- who socialized me taught me that sisterhood is nity. Both strands of trans feminism challenge the fierce, not demure.” Another MTF extolled the vir- rigorously policed links between biological sex and