• Read the Leslie Feinberg Reading•Then,
Define the main point of the reading (in your own words);
List 3 supporting points (in your own words first, followed by a quote that speaks to each point);
Explain how the reading defines the term transgender(in your own words first and then supported by a quote);
then, discuss why you think it is important to understand this term this way.
For example: What ideas about trans peopledoes it support? Why might this terminology be personally orpoliticallyuseful?
16 Transgender Liberation A Movement Whose Time Has Come LESLIE FEINBERG LESLIE FEINBERG, WHOSE PARTICULAR STYLE OF BEING TRANSGENDER helped non-gender-speciflc pronouns like "s/he" and "hir" achieve a limited popularity over the past decade, must be considered a founding figure of contemporary transgender studies. Hir influential pamphlet, reproduced below, took an older (and apolitical) term-transgender-and infused it with a radical new meaning. Previously, "transgender" had referred most frequently to biological males who lived socially as women, but who did not undergo genital modification surgery. In Feinberg's redefinition, the term came to refer to a "pangender" movement ofoppressed minorities-transsexuals, butch lesbians, drag queens, cross-dressers, and others-who all were called to make common revolutionary cause with one another in the name of social justice. The tract provided an ideological and historical framework for the similar but more emotionally moving fictionalization of Feinberg's life, Stone Butch Blues. The pamphlet was subsequently expanded in two book-length treatments, Transgender Warriors and Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink and Blue. -Through many examples drawn from a wide range of cultures and historical periods, Feinberg, a Marxist, argues that transgender people in pre-capitalist tribal and agrarian societies were revered and honored, while the widespread contemporary oppression of gender-variant people is an effect of the capitalist mode of production. Though hir particular theory of history has not attracted Widespread support in transgender communities, hir work has gained a devoted and grateful following for the powerful way it calls upon transgender people to recover their historical legacy, and to harness that knowledge to the current struggle for a more just society. It is an important foundational text of con temporary transgender theory and activism. This pamphlet is an attempt to trace the historic rise of an oppression that, as yet, has no commonly agreed name. We are talking here about people who defy the "man" -made boundaries of gender. Gender: self-expression, not anatomy. AU our lives we've been taught that sex and gender are synonymous-men are "masculine" and women are "feminine." Pink for girls and blue for boys. It's just "natural:' we've been told. But at the turn of the century in this country, blue was considered a girl's color and pink was a boy's. Simplistic and rigid gender codes are neither eternal nor natural. They are changing social concepts. Nevertheless, there's nothing wrong with men who are considered "masculine" and women whose self-expression falls into the range of what is considered "feminine:' The problem is that the many people who don't fit these narrow social constraints run a gamut of harassment and violence. 205 ; l I 'lhlS raises the question: Who decided wh;1I t he "norm" should he t Why are some people ' for their self-expression" PUfitsht,: Many people today would be surprised to learn that ancient communal societies held tr dered people in high esteem. It took a bloody campaign by the emerging ruling classes toatlsgen. what had been considered natural to be its o!'[10slle, '111;lt !'rejuclice, foisted on society by' detlaJ, . Its ruJ.u, elite, endures today. ~ Yet even in a society where there arc harsh social penalties f(lr not fitting, a large part of the lation can't or won't change their nature. It is apparent that there are many ways for women anrpu· to be; everything in nature is a continuum. men Many of the terms used to describe us are words that cut and sear. When I first worked in the factories of Buffalo as a teenager, women like me were called "he-sh . Although "he-shes" in the plants were most frequently lesbians, we were recognized not by our se~ preference but by the way we expressed our gender. There are other words used to express the wide range of "gender outlaws": transvestites, transsexu als, drag queens and drag kings, cross-dressers, bull-daggers, stone butches, androgynes, diesel d)'kel or berdache-a European colonialist term. We didn't choose these words. They don't fit all of us. It's hard to fight an oppression without! name connoting pride, a language that honors us. In recent years a commun ity has begun to emerge that is sometimes referred to as the gender or transgender community. Within our community is a diverse group of people who define ourselves In many different ways. Transgendered people are demanding the right to choose our own self-definitions The language used in this pamphlet may quickly become outdated as the gender community coalesces and organizes--a wonderful problem. We've chosen words in this pamphlet we hope are understandable to the vast majority of working and oppressed people in this country, as a tool to battle bigotry and brutality. We are trying to find words, however inadequate, that can connect us, that can capture what is similar about the oppression we endure. We have also given careful thought to our use of pronouns, striving for both clariry and sensitivity in a language that only allows for two sexes. Great social movements forge a common language-tools to reach out and win broader under· standing. But we've been largely shut out of the progressive movement. It was gay transvestites who led the 1969 battle at the Stonewall Inn in New York City that gave birth to the modern lesbian and gay movement. But just as the lesbian and gay movement had to win over the progressive movement to the un· derstanding that struggling shoulder to shoulder together would create a more powerful force for change, the transgendered community is struggling to win the same understanding from the lesbian and gay movement. Many people think that all "masculine" women are lesbians and all "feminine" men are gay. That is a misunderstanding. Not all lesbians and gay men are "cross"-gendered. Not all transgendered women and men are lesbian or gay. Transgendered people are mistakenly viewed as the cusp of the lesbian and gay community. In reality the two huge communities are like circles that only partially overlap. While the oppressions within these two powerful communities are not the same, we face a common enemy. Gender-phobia-like racism, sexism and bigotry against lesbians and gay men-is meant to keep us divided. Unity can only increase our strength. Solidarity is built on understanding how and why oppression exists and who profits from it. It is our view that revolutionary changes in human society can do away with inequality, bigotry and intolerance. irit of builc In the sp . the commonalt bist~~_walked that gtnLoOk at us. We are t T~NSGENDER PRJ musician Billy Til jaZZ. but for the reVt PlUS1C, •• ther than VlSltuJcer r3 . After his death thl~ in a male_dominated 1 It is true that worn economic pressures t tral1sgendered womer ~xtreme harassment a transgendered wom~l anti-lesbian oppresslC transgendered warne) [f"masculine" won patriarchal capitaliST! IT'S "PASSING" n Transgendered woml products of oppressi visibility. Transgendt threats of violence. E There are legions is "at odds" with tht ostracism they endu Today all gender fordable river rages' men to express then Transgender is a regarded with hono ing classes that rely continents were res "SHE IS A MAN" "Strange country, t males assume the their own sex:' Randy Burns, a Project documentt J nations. - t rRANSC;ENDER LlIlERATION 207 In the spirit of building that fighting movement, we offer this view of the sweeping patterns in history, the commonality ofwomen and men who have walked the path of the berdache, of the trans gendered-walked that road whether we were held in high esteem or reviled. Look at us. We are battling for survival. Listen. We are struggling to be heard. TRANSGENDER PREDATES OPPRESSION lazz musician Billy Tipton died in 1989 at the age of 74. He will be remembered most not for his music, but for the revelation that Tipton was born a woman. Tipton died of an untreated bleeding ulcer rather than visit a doctor and risk exposure. After his death this debate began: Did Tipton live as a man simply in order to work as a musician in a male-dominated industry or because of lesbian oppression? It is true that women's oppression, especially under capitalism, has created profound social and economic pressures that force women to pass as men for survival. But this argument leaves out transgendered women-women who are considered so "masculine" in class society that they endure extreme harassment and danger. Many of these women are forced to "pass" in order to live. Of course lransgendered women also experience the crushing weight of economic inequity and, in many cases, anti·lesbian oppression. These factors also playa role in forcing "masculine" women as well as non transgendered women to pass. If''masculine'' women are acknowledged at all, it is implied that they're merely a product ofdecadent patriarchal capitalism and that when genuine equality is won, they will disappear. IT'S "PASSING" THAT'S NEW Transgendered women and men have always been here. They are oppressed. But they are not merely products ofoppression. It is passing that's historically new. Passing means hiding. Passing means in \isibility. Transgendered people should be able to live and express their gender without criticism or threats of violence. But that is not the case today. There are legions of women and men whose self-expression, as judged by Hollywood stereotypes, is "at odds" with their sex. Some are forced underground or "pass" because of the repression and Ostracism they endure. . TOday all gender education teaches that women are "feminine;' men are "masculine;' and an un lordable river rages between these banks. The reality is there is a whole range of ways for women and men to express themselves. Transgender is a very ancient form of human expression that pre-dates oppression. It was once regarded with honor. A glance at human history proves that when societies were not ruled by exploit ~:g c.lasses that rely on divide-and-conquer tactics, "cross-gendered" youths, women and men on all , nllnents were respected members of their communities. 'sHE IS A MAN" 'SIrlange country, this;' a white man wrote of the Crow nation on this continent in 1850, "where iTla es as h 'h . sume t e dress and perform the duties of females, while women turn men and mate with