People who have known me for a while, who have read this blog, or have followed me on twitter will know that I’ve not always been the intersectional anarcha-feminist I try to be these days. I used to be, especially a couple of years ago, an apologist for the forces of austerity. And while I could go down the route of some campaigners on the Left, pretend I never said that, pretend I was born on a mountain with a double rainbow in the sky when the angels sang my heralds, it’d be duplicitive and untrue. I’m human, and I’m flawed. And I think it would be much more honest to own my history as an activist.
RadFem 2013 correspondence
With this weekend’s RadFem2013 conference, there has been sizeable controversy due to it taking place at the Camden Centre, which is a conference venue owned by the London Borough of Camden Council. Because of this, several people, including myself, have FOIed the council for documents relating to the booking. While we’re waiting for that, one of the councillors for the ward the centre is in – Sarah Hayward, Leader of the Council and one of the three councillors for Kings Cross – has been rather helpful in elaborating some of the council’s reasons over the weekend. With her permission, I am publishing the correspondence.
Queer elephants in the room
This is the third, and most likely the last, post in a series of recent posts about feminist circles; the first was a rather theoretical post on the roots and problems within neoradical communities, the second then followed on and talked about political acts of sexuality. This third post looks at problems within queer feminist and otherwise queer circles, and how we can fix them. Some of this is inspired by a blog post/talk called “Communities Built on Exclusion”, which has since been taken down, itself partially inspired by the Jo Freeman essay The Tyranny of Structurelessness.
I identify as queer, and more or less, I do enjoy queer spaces. However, as a trans woman, I do sometimes feel unsafe too. Queer spaces are good as a bulwark against patriarchal forces, but we must recognise that we cannot escape patriarchy and even choices to reject patriarchy may reinforce it. With this post, as I know many people who are as queer as I am, I would like to emphasise more than most that no harm is meant by this post; indeed, I would like a safer space for myself, as a trans woman, within queer spaces. Because these are issues that we, as queers, do need to recognise.
The real pretendbians?
This is a shorter post compared to the earlier one this week. And in some cases, it’s a bridge between the previous and next post.
As a lesbian trans woman, like other lesbian trans women, I am often criticised by neoradical feminists for being a “pretendbian”; I am pretending to be a lesbian. Because I’m really a man, you see. And as such, by my very existence as a trans lesbian, I run the risk of appearing on the site of the same name, which is basically an excuse for transphobes to dox trans people. Because that’s what feminists do, apparently, put other women in danger.
Examining neoradical feminism
I’ve written on transphobic radical feminism before, and I’ve talked about it outside this blog too. Over the past few years, there has been a renewed focus on examining the sort of radical feminism espoused these days, where criticism is often laid on it for being transphobic, whorephobic, or otherwise prejudiced, as opposed to the prima facie more exclusive intersectional feminism. And it should come to no surprise that I identify more with intersectionialism, given personal circumstances; arguably, it should follow, lived experience would lead to a similar conclusion. And while today’s radical feminists claim lineage from those of old, from the Steinems and the Dworkins and the Firestones, I would personally think that they would flock to the banner of intersectionality.
The F-Word: Her Name was Lucy Meadows
It’s a bit late, but on Saturday I wrote a guest blog for The F-Word entitled “Her Name was Lucy Meadows“. It talks about the complicity of the entire press system in the transphobia that may have led Ms. Meadows to take her own life. It’s very much worth a read, so follow the link … Read more
The Devil in the Details: Reading the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill
I would like to thank Sarah Brown, Jae Kay, and Zoe O’Connell for their analyses of the bill so far; I’ve had some time to read the bill over the past 36 hours and I’ve got my own comments.
Were I to grade the legislation, I’d give it 6/10, could do better. In the abstract, it’s a good bill, in so much as two people of the same gender will be able to marry. However, there are some seams in which the concept of equal marriage start to fray.
The Guardian’s Trans Hate Week
I’m fucking angry. And if you were in my position, you would be too.
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, it’s been filled with an onslaught of articles from the nominally liberal paper The Guardian against the transgender community. And finally, thank god, it looks like it’s reached a point where cis people are saying it’s gone too far.
Why No Platform is broken… and how we can fix it.
Leeds University Union’s No Platform policy was renewed two weeks ago at one of their Better Union forums but a motion to extend it to the student newspaper was sent to referendum. The reason for the second motion was an interview that was published with Griffin in Leeds Student a month ago, which caused a massive controversy on campus because it didn’t technically break the No Platform policy. The whole controversy, though, I think exposes exactly why the policy is broken as it currently stands.
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. While I personally have my issues with participating in it, due to the intersectional nature of trans murders, I feel it would be remiss not to acknowledge it. Natalie Reed has a blog post of a similar nature. It contains links to voices of trans women of colour instead … Read more