You Ain't the ONLY Woman: The White Cis Grasp on Womanhood Is Failing
Women who have been dismissed as women by extreme “radical” feminists, because they are trans, black or both. (Photos of Caitlyn Jenner, Nicki Minaj, Janet Mock, Beyonce, Julia Serano and Laverne Cox).
Some of you may have noticed that a small, but loud, group of white, academic, feminists have attacked and invalidated trans women like Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner.
In a must read in Ebony Leslie-Ann Lewis points to the similarity between their dismissal of trans women and black women, both marginalized groups:
“Black and feminist, it’s very hard for me to miss the similarities between critiques of Caitlin Jenner and the precious few trans women in the public eye and the critiques of Black celebrities like Nicki Minaj and Beyonce. The tone is historical, borne of the idea that White cis womanhood is the only true womanhood. These critiques rest on idea of Black and/or trans bodies being oversexed, grotesque caricatures of womanhood. White women are the only true women, the rest of us are just playing at it.”
Lewis points out that when the trans-exclusionary white “radical” feminist Elinor Burkett speaks about the lives of trans women, it is clear that she had never considered trans women of color, specifically black trans women who have the highest rates of poverty, murder and suicide than any other group.
It is important to underline that these feminists are not representative of feminists in general. The feminists I know support the identities and expression of trans women and women of color.
