I’d like to start off by saying that I am in no way a professional on Trans-issues and am not claiming that I am correct… I am open to commentary and imput. I am a two-spirit (androgynous person of indigenous descent) and am going with what I have read, been taught and have learned in a queer, trans and academic level. I am open to conversation, but please, respect is highly valued.
I have sensed tension in regards to the past transgender umbrella photo I posed and some folks who have stated strong disapproval to it for countless amounts of reasons. With no intentions of being the “know all, say all” individual with trans-issues, as many have been sneering to be, I thought I should make a follow up post to clarify my reasons for posting this picture (http://radicalqueerbrownboy.tumblr.com/post/3244641404/the-best-transgender-umbrella-ive-seen-yet#notes).
The way I best understood what transgender was, was by knowing the definition of transphobia. Transphobia is fear of or prejudice against people who don’t fit society’s rigid gender expectations. It is bigotry against gender variant little kids and transgender youth and adults. It leads to some of the most blatant discrimination and virulent hate crimes in the world today.
For starters, there has been political tension between the identities that fall under the “transgender umbrella” for some time now. Many white transgender folks of middle and upper social classes knocked on working class and low-income transfolks (often times who were of color) for not being able to financially fund their transitioning essentially not accepting them as trans. Many transfolks have rejected those who choose not to follow through with SRS. There are some transpeople who ridicule other transfolks for not being “passable enough” which transcends to not being accepted.
What knowledge I was trained with when I facilitated Transphobia Workshops and when I ran a Transgender Youth Group at my former workplace is that TRANSGENDER posses two definitions.
- the general definition is for introductory information and
- the umbrella term is to define the broader spectrum of transgenderism
Transgender (in the basic/general definition) is when a person’s mind (gender) does not match their body (sex). As a result of this, individual people’s life circumstances may or may not determine if transitioning to make their mind and body or gender and sex match is an option.
The Transgender Umbrella term covers all individuals who don’t fit society’s rigid gender expectations. This includes anyone who shakes the core, the foundation, the standards constructed meaning cismale=masculine and cisfemale=feminine by bending the rules, smashing the comfort, crossing expectations, mixmatching social roles and blurring perceptions. For that reason, anyone who identifies with any of the words listed (and not listed) into the “umbrella term” because they CHALLENGE the status quo are attacking the binary and its foundation. What is key is that one must identify as trans to be considered a part of the transgender umbrella and have an identity that coincides with its principles.
Those who are excluded from the transgender umbrella are folks who are: 1. biological folks who are AMAB (assigned males at birth) who identify as men and are masculine, and 2. biological folks who are AFAB (assigned females at birth) who identify as women and are feminine. We call those experiences cisgender, or cismen, ciswomen cispersons, cispeople and so on.
Each culture has it’s standards of what a cismale and cisfemale is, and each culture also has developed an “other” for folks who don’t fit in either box. The importance of recognizing and understanding transgender identities from other cultures is not claiming identities from a culture that is foreign to yours. Many people, forget about privilege, objectification and appropriation. A white transwoman can not and should never call herself a hijra or two-spirit… Why? Because she is not South Asian or Indigenous. Claiming such identities would be like claiming the identity black, latino or indigenous without being… BLACK, LATINO or INDIGENOUS.
One thing must be clear… not everyone of the transgender umbrella is transsexual. Because of that, some folks are more privileged than others within the umbrella. Yes, feminine cismen, masculine ciswomen, crossdressers, transvestites, androgynous and genderqueer folks defy what is socially acceptable to the binary, but there is a very clear privilege these groups posses. The privilege to hide their gender expression, “tone-down” their expression (not that they should, but they could), or not even appear to be within the umbrella because they can “take it all off” (such as Drag Queens, Drag Kings and Transvestites).
I heard quite a few folks state… “intersex isn’t transgender”. From what i have learned, Intersex folks fall under the transgender umbrella because they automatically are made the “other” in our gender binary. That makes for very unique experiences regarding gender, gender identity, gender expression and social acceptance.
All in all in regards to what i have learned, Transgender itself is so broad a term that includes a large variety of experiences, people and ethnicities. Knowing boundaries that respect specific identities so not to appropriate, disrespect or colonize an identity is key in knowing transgender as an umbrella term, and respecting anothers culture.
Oh! and P.S. - Me saying that this is “The best Transgender Umbrella I’ve seen yet” does not necessarily mean that I am completely content with this umbrella drawing, but more so that I am happy that it does cover more than other umbrellas I’ve seen. Transgender activism is ULTRA euro-centric, and I think that including more than just Genderqueer, androgynous, genderfuck and bigender becomes kinda annoying. IM DONE! :)
