This month?

Queer West Shout Youth Program

ShOUT! (Un)Conference Series For Wednesday July 28, 2010

Feminism in Transition? A Trans/Feminist Conversation

All Positive & Respectful Folk are Welcome to attend!

Taken March 31, 2010

 “ShOUT is an Unconference” A Participant-Facilitated Discussion 

OUTtv.ca and Youth Employment Services and the Gay West Community Network Inc. (Queer West) have initiated a series of monthly community events through the SHOUT Unconference Program for Young Adults.  

Feminism in Transition?

A Trans/Feminist Conversation

Wednesday July 28th.,  Unconference aims to create a forum to celebrate the powerful voices of feminist identified trans people and trans allies/advocates. Despite a long and fraught history–and let’s admit, present–of transphobic violence and exclusion from certain feminist (and/or) lesbian and gay communities/spaces/politics, our participants this evening, through a range of creative expressions, are encouraged to reflect informally on how they may or may not, or the extent to which they see these two movements, as necessary allies. Given the mutual interest of trans advocates and feminists alike in troubling the stability and coherence of an oppressive sex/gender system, tonight’s dialogue hopes to flesh out the myriad of ways in which the struggle against trans discrimination is deeply and intimately bound up in the very same struggle against misogyny/sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, ableism…

Discussion Questions:

1)      Emi Koyama’s phenomenal website http://eminism.org/  cleverly highlights the racist and classist undercurrents of the exclusionary politics of the “no-penis-policy” supposedly “protecting” the integrity of women-born-women-only spaces, (such as the widely-cited and the contentious past of Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival and the Vancouver Rape Relief Society). Emi points out that our preoccupation with genitalia as the primary marker of power and as a potential threat of violence, functions as a form of denial for other important markers of power, violence and exclusion such as whiteness and class privilege. Though much development has taken place within feminist political frameworks to embody a more all-encompassing anti-oppression politic rather than one which centralizes the oppression of the category “woman,” even contemporary radical feminist communities must become increasingly conscious of the inherent racism and classism of a politic based on the statement that women’s oppression is the most pervasive and fundamental—since maintaining this unilateral claim requires speaking from an embodiment of those for whom their gendered position can function as their primary or only marked identity. This mentality fails to recognize other aspects of women’s identities, such as race, class, ability, nationality, religion, sexuality, etc. In what ways might expanding the feminist compass in this way be vital in moving towards an increasingly trans-feminist politic? Considering a vision for an increasingly gender-queer future, why is it so vital that the relevance of feminism be preserved?

2)      “Although the trans movement challenges how the hegemonic discourses of sex/gender interpellate individuals into binary sex gender categories, without offering a sustained challenge to the masculine hierarchy that inherently denigrates femininity, transmasculine individuals will be forced to continue proving that they are masculine enough to belong… AND… even though feminism challenges the relationship between masculinity/femininity, this challenge cannot be transformative of hegemonic sex/gender discourse until masculinity’s equation with men and maleness and femininity’s equation with women and femaleness are disrupted.”  (Reese Simpkin, in article from anthology: Trans/forming Feminism)

 In what way are transpersons expected to uphold the gender binary, and in what ways are transpersons able to challenge it? In what ways can transmen challenge traditional masculinity that is typically misogynistic? Is it transmen’s social responsibility to be feminist men? 

 3)  How are the experiences of being “gender-policed” similar and different amongst cis-gendered and trans-gendered people? In what ways is the cultural persistence of gender-policing, founded upon a system that has stakes in maintaining a gender hierarchy based on a two-sex/two-gender system that equates men=maleness=masculinity and women=femaleness=femininity?  Is the act of living in a marginalized body, in whatever way, mean that we are/should be inherently politicized subjects? Related to this, what are some examples of gender-policing in the way trans folks are represented in the mainstream media? 

4)      Transphobic rhetoric within and amongst various feminist circles have been known to perpetuate the accusation towards transwomen of appropriating femininity and of “penetrating” women-only spaces in a way that in extreme arguments (such as Janice Raymond’s infamous transphobic attack) have been analogized as a kind of rape, even! Equally vicious attacks have historically been made towards transmen, accusing them of abandoning their lesbian feminist sisters by transitioning merely to access male privilege thus fortifying and perpetuating patriarchal power. To what extent do variations of this hateful logic still linger in contemporary feminist and queer communities? What are some trans-feminist responses to these discourses and why are they so important? In what way is trans acceptance central to feminism?

5)      Is there a coherent “trans community”/ “feminist community”/ “queer community”? How do these spaces converge/diverge/overlap? What are some strategic ways that trans political and legal advocates/activists and feminists form community and organize around an unfixed identity category?

6)      Trans lives have been capitalized on and deployed by the cis-gendered majority in media, literature, art, medicine, psychiatry and academia (particularly by feminist and queer cultural theorists). Though increasing visibility and representation of trans lives may be a step forward in some regards, how do these representations function to further silence and marginalize trans voices/experiences? What is the importance of self-representation for the trans community? Do trans voice provide a more authentic voice/representaion?

We also have a number of guests speakers lined up, including MPP Cheri Di Novo, and Evan Vipond, (playwright on Trans issues and founder of (Deviant Productions Theatre Company) and have a few more in the works.

Related video below on this topic.

Transfeminism, Overthrowing Masculinity – Radically Genderqueer 3

EVENT LOCATION.

Wednesday July 28 ….It’s free Runs 6:30 pm to 8.30 pm at the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre, 220 Cowan Avenue (Toronto Parkdale) Wheelchair accessible. Yummy Vegan refreshments provided. Street MapFamilies welcome too. RSVP Project Director and Queer West Vice President Jaclyn Isen qwshout@gmail.com Help line 416-879-7954 Brochure Queer West, Toronto Ontario

ShOUT is brought to you by our Fabulous Sponsors