I read a few blog posts recently that all struck the same chord for me, so I thought I’d link y’all up:
First, courtesy of Pam’s link roundup at Pandagon, come a couple posts from Out Front Blog:
Laura Nguyen on being gay and Asian (aka Gaysian)
Ivette Lopewz Sisniega on being Hispanic and LGBT
I definitely feel this stuff, and not just because I am a GaysianTM. Sometimes I feel like I’m one of the poster children for this kind of thing. For that eye-opening, possibility-awareness moment of… you mean there are actually Asians who are gay? You mean it’s possible to be trans AND queer at the same time? What do you mean she’s a feminist, Asian, queer, dyke, fat, slutty, genderqueer, intersex, disabled survivor? (OK, that last one is about Emi, not me.) An old joke a friend of mine used to tell about me is that people like me are a triple-word square on the Scrabble board, and when non-profits manage to recruit us for their boards, they core tons of extra points. The secret is: there are a whole lot of us out there. There are more and more people living on the busy intersections as opposed to along just one quiet street.
The one post I really want to point you to, however, is from a while ago. Maybe some of you have already read it, but it’s worth reading again. It’s Brownfemipower’s post about women’s studies departments. And there are a lot of reason it’s worth reading. I’m not mentioning it here because I think it’s worth diving into the debate over Full Frontal Feminism yet again–although I do think it’s always worthwhile to ask ourselves why some of us get so defensive when racism is brought up. I’m linking it partly because of this passage, which is from an older post of hers:
Because what was there for me, a liberal (but really closer to conservative) Mexican (but mostly white) woman (but really girl) who didn’t know that lesbians of color existed (but had been dreaming of making love to women anyway) to do except keep herself in a safe space and tell those powerful black girls that they were expecting too much of me/us? That white centered feminist thought was enough for all of us?
And partly because everyone should be aware of exactly how whitewashed women’s studies has been, and from what I keep hearing, continues to be. That definitely has some import for every single new book on feminism that comes out. Keep it in the back of your head for next time, folks. Or heck, why not in the front of your head?
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thank you for specifically adding trans and queer. a friend of mine has had people (at trans-related conferences, no less) tell him to his face that that’s not possible. is he supposed to then fade away like Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future?
Wow, I’d really like to hear more about those incidents, harlemjd. I mean, it used to be conventional wisdom that all trans people were 100% super-duper-straight (actually, it used to be an institutional requirement in a lot of places) but that was back in the 80s and maybe the early 90s. I definitely heard that a lot when I was growing up, and it made me feel very isolated and confused. But I had sort of hoped it had passed into outdated myth, especially within trans communities.
the person who said it wasn’t trans himself. if I remember correctly, he was a doctor who worked with transfolk – nice gatekeeper, huh?
it really varies greatly by community. in some queer communities, trans people are expected to be queer by default.
Icky social pressure in certain queerer-than-thou circles is a little different than people and institutions and textbooks stating or assuming that it’s simply not possible for trans people to be gay or queer, I think. A lot of that had nothing to do with local communities at all — it was the orthodox medical/legal construction of things, for many decades.
The “queer by default” crap definitely exists and is definitely gross, and your comment about varying between communities is right on. I was just talking with a friend of mine recently about how every little gay, queer and/or trans community he goes to speak in about queer issues, trans stuff, gender policing, etc. seems to have a different “social mandate” that messes with people in that community. In some places it’s butch/femme, in some places it’s “absolutely no butch/femme” in other places transfaggotry is the order of the day. Actually I think you were around once when he was talking about this, Jay? (In Minneapolis.)
But all of that is pretty apples & oranges when compared to overall socially-prescribed heteronormativity, i.e. the classic narrative that’s still the default assumption for most people whereby trans people are supposedly all transitioning into becoming “normal” heterosexual proper members of society, etc.
Perhaps people are becoming so diverse that no one marketing strategy will work. You might catch an over all group with one specific word, but leave the rest of who they are in the dust.
For generations prior, it was man and woman. White and poc. And everybody was suppose to be het.
We’ve expanded from the list above. People define themselves as being gay, lesbian. Until a man who has transitioned to a woman who likes women identifies as being lesbian as well. Or vice verse. You then run into the ‘that’s impossible’. What I find impossible are those who won’t allow others to define themselves as they chose. As if their circumstances are so extra special they can’t be defined by anything else other that what they demand.
I see that predominantly from women who resent transpeople for infringing on their territory. I’m a woman, I enjoy being a woman, but being one isn’t that damn extra special to the point I’m going to bash anybody for wanting to be one. Hell, I say welcome to the crowd. It’s all good whether you got your vagina by birth or by doctor. My vagina isn’t that special after all. It’s just a vagina. Not something I identify as making me the woman that I am. Same goes for the tits.
I guess I can, to a degree, understand the confusions coming from people who view the world under terms of what they themselves are. And it’s perfectly fine to view the world that way if you want to. But to argue something doesn’t exist just because you say it doesn’t is ridiculous.
Labels just become more idiotic as people decide to define themselves way beyond those labels. What I am? Oh hell, I don’t know anymore. I’m just me. I always did hate labels. If you need them, I suppose I’m gender undefinable under the current gender identification, unless I feel like telling you my sexuality I define it as my own damn business. Maybe there is something good to labels. I’ll just make up my own to further confuse the masses.
I’m kind of finding it strange that anybody might have thought there were no gay Asians, Hispanics, or Martians if those existed (unless their body systems negated sexual activity, or it’s really, really impossible to tell a Martian female from a male, even for the Martians).
The prior statements are just the comments of one person and may not necessarily reflect those of everybody else in the world.
As a WASP as they come gender queer bi-sexual trans woman I know how easy it is to become defensive when the whitewashing of history and practically everything else is brought up by people of color. Which is why articles like these are so important on so many levels.
The whitewashing of womens studies is depressing but not alas unexpected. At the turn of the twentieth century a lot of progressives and leftists where every bit as racist as the average Klan member.
Thank you again for the Links Holly.
Just read through the discussion on BFP. It was almost exactly a rehash of the issues argued between international/American WOC and upper/upper-middle class White feminist classmates and their WOC allies* that I heard about and witnessed at my alma mater back in the mid-’90s.
Two common criticisms I kept hearing from WOC feminists, especially those who were international students at my college was that the Women’s Studies Department was too centered on upper/upper-middle class White feminist discourse and that it was too U.S.-centric. Since I graduated, the college has hired some WOC Professors specializing in feminism in non-Western areas…though I cannot speak to whether that would be considered an improvement.
Though my college has been regarded as one of the best campuses for GBLTQ students, there were campus protests calling for the institution of a Queer Studies program/department by the GBLTQ student organizations and allies during my time there.
* There were a large number of completely assimilated suburban upper/upper-middle class Asian-Americans included in this which caused a split within the AA student community while I was there. Though I am an AA myself, I ended up identifying more with the international Asian/working-class AA classmates as I had almost nothing in common with the suburban upper/upper-middle class AAs.
Everybody, I know this might not be exactly the place to bring this up, but it *is* a relevant issue. I’m not a WOC – I’m as white as they can be. However, I am queer – and deaf. This is a distinct category, separated from being disabled (although deaf people do have many similar issues in regards to accessibility and socially-enforced disabilism that other disabled folks have).
This distinct category of being deaf brings into yet another layer of the issue. First, it is so rare that deaf people are recognized as part of the LGBTI community, I can count on my hands the number of times it’s been mentioned online in the past year. Even my favorite bloggers, who I normally worship, have revealed an astonishing ignorance/disinterest in exploring their own “hearing” privilege. How many times have you guys put up a youtube video and said, “go and watch”, without even thinking of those who couldn’t hear? How many of you have ignored me when I asked for a transcript or a summary? (“YOU” as in a generic, not to any specific blog/person). do you realize that Congress has been cutting funds to provide captioning services, as well as taking away funding from deaf theater programs in the last few years?
Second, the “whitewashing” of the feminist/queer studies departments extends not only to WOC but also to those who are disabled/deaf, simply because we are regarded as “other”, in the same way as WOC are.
In some ways, this is very regretful because the queer (LGBTI) community as a whole has more in common with the deaf community than any other minority. Here, let me outline the points.
1. Most deaf people are born in a family of hearing people. They are the “outsider” and have to struggle with acceptance issues, overcoming ingrained social prejudice, and struggle to establish an identity that is positive and self-affirming. Sound familiar?
2. There is a deaf person in every culture, every country, every city and every place in the world. A deaf person could visit another country, see another deaf person across the room, and think, “it’s one of us!”
3. Deaf people’s voices are often marginalized, ignored, and suppressed in favor of a majority theme that is socially approved by those in power, those who act as gatekeepers with access. (Hello, HRC,what was up with that whole hate crimes bill fiasco??!!)
4. Deaf people have a variety of educational upbringings, types of hearing loss, styles of coping, communication methods used, that is only paralleled by the diversity within the gay community. In the deaf community, you can be deaf, hard of hearing, oral, signer, mainstreamed, an alumni of a deaf program, in support of ASL/not in support of ASL, simulatenously. You cannot be a member of a deaf community which you embrace it fully if you possess an black/white viewpoint.
5. There is an entire movement that aims to eradicate the causes of deafness, to take away sign language from deaf children, to separate them from deaf adults or those who could provide guidance. Hearing parents are consulted to “stay away from those people” so that their children would not be “influenced by those militant radicals”. Even now, there are people among you asking, “why wouldn’t deaf people want to be able to hear and speak?.” Some of you *will* laugh at me and think I’m being silly to react this way, since we all know being able to hear is just SO MUCH BETTER. Then when deaf people stand up and say, “hey, we think this way is better!” we are ignored, ridiculed and shooed off the stage so the “experts” can pontificate, take their money, and go home. Meantime, those of us in the deaf community see the damage that is done to our own. It breaks our hearts and angers us.
6. Deaf (and LGTBTI) people of color.
Now, I apologize for hijacking the thread, but I’ve been reading more blogs from a disability viewpoint (as opposed to “deaf blogs”), and have noticed a common thread among our experiences, as well as those of the feminist/queer LGBTI community. Deaf people do have some similiar issues with people of color, and even into our own community, there is “whitewashing” when it comes to some major deaf organizations.
I just thought it was time to say, “hey, you know. We exist too. Take a minute to remember us.”
Back to your regularly scheduled thread.
katie, thank you for saying that–the youtube thing esp is something i do all the time.
I had a couple WTF? moments reading bfp’s experiences in her blog post, but I will comment only on this:
“Women of color feminism” (or “race and feminism” or “womanism” or “dissent to feminism” as the subject has been variously defined by different teachers), was *always* left to the end of the semester–it was discussed in the last week or two of class “if there was time”.
My suggestion for such classes: Turn the syllabus around 180degrees. Start with the back of the book; pick something else to run out of time on. Or better yet, integrate the experiences of all women for each era covered. Or, focus the introductory course on the experiences of women of color, and discuss the experiences and accomplishments of white women “if there’s enough time at the end.”
Yeah, my comment was pretty much a nonsequitor–something in the first comment made me think of that. Wasn’t really relevant, sorry.
And, Holly–that was Milwaukee and not Minneapolis. Not that I blame you for mixing them up given that we trade in non-descriptness here in the Midwest. (:
Other people say gaysian? Asian people say gaysian? You mean I didn’t invent the word all by myself when I watched a slew of gay melodramas from mainly Korea, Japan, and China last year? Lots of the movies I watched shared certain characteristics, despite coming from different countries and eras. I thought I’d discovered a new genre of film, and privately named it “Gaysian Cinema.” Even though I was amused by my own cleverness, I never said it aloud because I couldn’t decide if it was a shitty thing for a non-Asian person to come up with, or if it was as benign as “blaxploitation.” Then I had to to wonder how benign the word “blaxploitation” actually is. And that was a lot of thinking to do when all I wanted was to watch two boys fall in love. Anyway, this is so off topic, but I had to comment. The trademarked gaysian startled me.
i think the vast majority of people are privileged in some areas. i know i am, even as a jewish transwoman. despite all my mental issues, i know i have able body privilege, white privilege, and most people see me as having het privilege, in that i’m married to a straight looking man.
it’s posts like this, and comments like katie’s, that help keep me grounded, keep me examining and searching myself. comments like katie’s, and posts like these, are never “might not be exactly the place to bring this up”. thanks for the posts and the comments.
by the way, little light over on taking steps, just posted a relevant essay, that also speaks to this issue. she’s been ill, and experienced a temporary loss of her able bodiedness..
and for what it’s worth, i think every youtube video should have captions – in many, the audio is so horrible i can’t make out a word they say.
Thanks everybody. In light of examining our own privileges I am very much aware of being a white, middle class professional with a supportive family and an advanced degree in my field. Woc, both deaf and hearing have called me on it, as well as people of a different socieconomic class.. I have the luxury to examine my personal identity as a deaf/queer person, as compared to a deaf person who was robbed of an meaningful education struggling day to day just to survive.
Often I think we forget what benefits the “other” benefits us all. Captions on youtube being helpful for all of us? From my position, my only response would be, duh! It can be maddening seeing how other people can be blinded by their own privileges…
And while subtitles or a transcript would be nice, until better voice to caption recognition software is installed, a simple summary goes a really long way.
This is, of course, only one example of how accomodating “the other” benefits us all.
That would be nice but I’d settle for a written description of the video or a transcript. Captions would only be helpful for the people who can still play the video. There are plenty of people with older computers, slow networks, spying bosses, sleeping babies, and other situations where videos are not feasible.
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Also, I don’t think ‘minority’ is the right word for this. Some groups are ‘othered’ who aren’t in the minority. And overlapping oppressions are not a result of being in a minority. They are a result of power-mongers grabbing power whenever and where ever they can.
The title is partly from Sisniega’s post, but on top of that, when it comes to this feeling of “I never knew there were X who were also X” that people have while they’re growing up, it often does have to do with being a minority. The point here is not just about overlapping oppressions, although it’s related. It’s about becoming invisible and not being able to conceptualize your experiences or yourself because the slivers of intersection are considered so miniscule by society at large. Katie’s post about being queer & deaf is a good example.
Thanks ever so much for bringing this up Holly, as it should be mentioned loads.
I’m white, but I’m not American, despite living here for my PhD. I’m transnational, having been born in New Zealand, living there and in continental Europe. While kiwiland will always be identified for me as ‘home’, the cultural melange that I have inside me now means I don’t and won’t really ever have a true ‘home’ anymore, as I am now almost always a foreigner in some respect.
Not that I want to say “boohoo, this white person has it so bad” because, honestly really, as a while person in the US, I really CAN’T have it that bad. However, I often feel that my identity and cultural values as ‘non-American’ get subsumed by ‘white’ as it is performed here in this country. I get myself denied by being positioned as ‘White American’ … course, until I open my mouth and start talking … but even then, my being white (and I am definitely white, being of english, welsh and dutch ethnic backgrounds) seems to trump everything, even overt statements to the contrary.
White is incredibly powerful.
I’ve actually had this discussion with a few people that are also transnationals (itself being a particularly privileged category of _chosen_ a-nationalism) where intersections of ethnicities, culture, and nationalities become HIGHLY blurred. It is only around other transnationals where I can speak of having a large majority of my ex-girlfriends having been non-white and non-american without it being seen as some kind of colonialising and objectifying fetish. Dating other transnationals for the most part MEANS a majority of your ex’s will be non-white, simply because the far majority of transnationals are non-white.
I’ve thought about ways in which I could access my non-American-ness here … joining an API (Asian/Pacific-Islander) group, as being from NZ, I am a PI. However, that WOULD be imposing my white privilege by forcing my inclusion on their space, so I don’t do that.
But, in this long-winded way, I wanted to speak to and agree with your mention of the intersections of identities and oppressions, because even this white person is very very aware of such.
i wanted to share my lucky and apparently unusual experience with Women’s Studies taught from a womanist perspective. i attended the Master’s program at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. This program, in my opinion, did exactly what was suggested earlier, turn the syllabus around and center the women of color experience. It could have very easily been called “Womanist Stdies.”
One of the professors, Dr. AnaLouise Keating, was Gloria Anzaldua’s co-editor on “This Bridge We Call Home” the follow-up to “This Bridge I Call My Back.” The intersection and overlapping of oppressions was the groundwork for the entire term of study. Dr. Keating and the head of the department, Dr. Claire Sahlin, both have backgrounds in feminist and womanist spirituality, which is also a main part of the program.
There were students from every continent on earth, which obviously added to the inclusive scope of the program. And there were also two women who were activists in the area of being inclusive of women with disabilites, and their insights were also taken by the profs and are now a part of the curricullum. it is a mind-opening, inspiring, and very inclusive program, and i would certainly recommend it highly to anyone.
When i think of how beautiful and open and inclusive the program i was lucky enough to study in was, it is really heartbreaking to read that so many women are not having this type of experience in women’s studies.
BFP’s post was absolutely brilliant. Despite being mixed race, I’d never looked at Women’s Studies in that view before and to be honest, I was truly shocked by how much had never occured to me, how many women I’d missed simply because I wasn’t aware of them…of their very existence, which is really the point, isn’t it?
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