My dear friend,
After a bit of delay,
I again revisited the link you shared with me.
After viewing it
several times & jotting down notes & thinking, I visited http://womensliberationfront.org/. Kara Dansky,
interviewed in the link above, is on the Board of Directors.
The site intrigued me
for a lot of reasons – impressive goals on the part of females - & gave me
pause to rethink some things. More on
that later.
First, in response to
your request to share my reaction & feedback, & in the interests of
transparency, I need to disclose that the issue of biological sex & gender
identity was & remains a major part of how I read, how I approach political
issues, & how I interpret & navigate with Others in this ever evolving
world.
In 1996, I requested
to attend a graduate seminar in Modern Literary Theory as an
undergraduate. And was allowed to do it
as a Special Project class for my major.
My paper in that seminar was entitled, “Feminism and Foucault: Pinning & Unpinning Women to Their Sex.
Using the philosophy
& writings of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, I set out to find a way to
bridge the gap & subsequent divisive discourse between Feminists who insist
that gender is defined in terms of biological determination & those who
insist that gender is determined by culturally imposed construction.
And to find a way how
I, who believe gender is a combination of both biology & culture & time
& self-realization & more, fit into the debate.
Dansky, as a
representative of WoLF (Womens Liberation Front), argued in the Tucker Carlson
interview on Fox News that the group’s objection to using Title IX as
justification for a federal decision to allow biologically determined boys
& girls & men & women to defy the culturally constructed ideas of male
& female & identify with a gender not in sync with their genetic
makeup, demeaned women & girls.
Or so it seems to
me. Dansky spoke articulately about
several concerns she shares with WoLF members.
For her, including transgenders in the choice to define oneself &
write the text of one’s own life, somehow is a threat to biological girls &
women.
Not once did she mention a
similar threat to biological boys & men.
As the mother of two
sons, that omission bothered me.
Dansky also voiced the
assertion that the Federal mandate under Title IX was a threat to the civil
rights protection of girls & women.
No mention of the civil rights protection of biological boys & men
or transgender boys & girls or transgender women & men.
That bothered me. Again.
Over the past decades,
when the term “transgender” was first used, women & girls were not the only
ones, as Dansky suggested in the Fox News interview, asking What is gender identity?
Her discussion of that
question was, once again, limited to females.
This is simply untrue. Especially
now, when both young people & adults born both female & male struggle
to find an answer to what defines their gender identification.
As do philosophers,
theorists, writers, artists, musicians, doctors & lawyers - males & females in all walks of life &
in all positions.
On WoLF’s website, it
defines its “Task Forces.” One of the four is:
GENDER ABOLITION
·
Seeks to abolish the
gender-caste system.
·
Educates about the harms
of gender and its centrality to male domination.
·
Vigorously defends
women-only spaces.
·
Defends sex-segregation
of domestic violence shelters, bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams.
·
Supports detransitioners
in their struggle to be healed and heard.
If, by “Gender
Abolition,” WoLF means abolishing artificial roles assigned to both males &
females, I am on board.
While I understand the
theory & reality of a “gender-caste system,” I would argue that “gender”
itself is not central to male domination.
Rather, it is the interpretation of gender, the language & images
used to describe & impose attributes to males & females that
contributes & helps fuel patriarchy.
And while I understand
the Task Force initiative’s to “vigorously defend women-only spaces,” I think
it is a justification for the organization’s exclusion of anything Other than
biologically female.
About the final Task
Force initiative – to support “detransitioners” in their struggle – because I
understand the complexities of the issue of gender, I understand that there are
those who struggle & experiment & decided that they are not, after all,
transgender.
However, the wording
suggests that transitioning is like a condition or a disease & must be
healed. That wording & suggestion is
the fault of the writers of the initiative & perhaps, of my reading of the
words & my interpretation.
Dansky spoke about how
women can no longer talk of body parts or pregnant women (citing “pregnant
people” as the preferred term - a term I
have never encountered). About the
refusal to ignore biological reality.
I would, not so humbly, suggest that Dansky revisit her position. To
revisit her refusal to acknowledge how
the expectations of what defines male or female are determined by more than
anatomical equipment or even DNA.
How would Dansky &
WoLF deal with a young teenage girl whose birth certificate defines her as a
female, who possesses all the necessary female equipment, but whose DNA does
not have the second X chromosome that genetically defines her sex as female? She is one out of every 2,500 live births of
female babies who have Turner’s Syndrome.
My young friend, now
14, chose not to allow Turner’s to define or limit her. She has lived her entire life as a fierce,
loving, funny, talented & kind young woman. She has never doubted that she is a female.
Now that she is in
high school & studying DNA, & because she has educated herself about
Turner’s Syndrome, she recently asked questions about the implications of
missing that X chromosome in defining her sex & gender.
And has been reassured
that she is, indeed, a girl. She chose
& claimed that identification as she has done & lived long before her
diagnosis.
What would Dansky
& WoLF do with other genetic inconsistencies? With children born with complicated,
conflicting body parts? With children &
adults whose original birth certificates defined them as male or female, and
undergo sex reassignment surgery? As
both infants & children & adults.
I would also encourage
Dansky to open her thought process to the impact of culturally specific expectations
& the traits & limits those expectations assign to both males &
females, the influence of environment, diverse family history & traditions
affect the way we perceive gender identity in ourselves & Others.
Neither Woman
nor Man can define identity & claim self-identification based
totally on genetics or anatomy. Humans
are more than the sum of our body parts & genetics. What is written on the text of our bodies
& our lives is influenced by so much more – culture, tradition, education,
experience, choice & time.
Unfortunately, my
visit to the Women’s Liberation Front did nothing to endear me to Dansky’s
position or WoLF’s mission. The page
states:
WoLF is a radical feminist organization. In order
to join, you have to agree with basic radical feminist ideas. Please note
that we are a women-only organization, intended to serve and include
biologically female persons who survived girlhood.
What Kara Dansky &
WoLF need to come terms with is the reality that females are not alone on the
planet. We are surrounded, thwarted
& supported by both females & males. And all the different & evolving definitions
of gender. We cannot exist or fight
against discrimination, or promote inclusion & understanding or continue as
a species without one another.
WoLF membership excludes
males & non-biological females. Which begs the question – do they accept
biological females who identify as males?
In my own mantra &
thought process, I believe in the power of inclusion & its ability to
change the world for the better.
Integration without
assimilation, union without loss of self, difference without dominance.
No positive change in
the human experience ever emerged from fear of the Other. Nothing fine or worthy ever came from
exclusion & marginalization. Or from
claiming the right to define one’s identity while rejecting the rights of Others
to do & make the same claim.
Progress comes only
with inclusion – when those who aim toward the same goal look past differences
between one another & focus on the common ground needed to achieve the goal.
Women can only change
thousands of years of patriarchy & its linear discourse by inclusion of the
Other. Those who do not look like
us. Or always think like us. Or do not possess a clitoris, vulva or
vagina. Others who are often the perceived enemy of
Self.
I have no problem with
women only or women centered groups & organizations. But I do have a problem with limiting the
definition of who is or what constitutes “woman.” It far more complex than biology.
One more thought.
The coverage of Kara
Dansky’s position on allowing transgenders to choose which anatomically defined
restroom to use – “Feminists &
Christians Unite” - implies that Feminists & Christians are mutually
exclusive.
As a self-proclaimed Feminist
& as a Christian, I maintain that this implication is fundamentally
untrue. And, in the end, divisive &
destructive.
Pitting Feminists
against Women who are Christians.
My conclusion is
this: I cannot get excited about a
self-proclaimed radical Feminist who defines Women as the sum of their body
parts & excludes Others.
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