Categories: uncategorized
Date: 19 May 2012 16:17:16
There has been a debate going on via Twitter, Facebook and the blogesphere regarding a conference a group of radical feminists are organising called Radfem 2012. The reason this conference has gained coverage is linked to its definition of those who can be participants. Within this is a paragraph saying:
" RadFem 2012 is women only. We respect that discussion spaces are needed free from oppression and dis-empowerment, and we assert our right as women to organise a women only space. As Radical Feminists we recognise that patriarchy dominates personal and political spaces across the globe. In turn we ask that RadFem 2012 be respected as a space where women born women living as women are able to meet and share information in a peaceful and safe environment."
The reaction of both trans groups and other feminist groups to this definition of "women" and so towards the conference has been negative. Examples of good posts which have taken this line of argument have included Laura Woodhouse's on the f word blog and this one from the transmeditations blog.
In turn social media from radical feminists defending the conference has occurred including this post from Gender Trender. Within this post the writer says:
"Anti-female activists are already organizing against the rights of females to hold a conference for females. Besides the usual conservative MRA types, some of the anti-female forces against this conference include transgender activists and pro-prostitution pro-trafficking activists who claim that females must be prevented from organizing and meeting together in female-only spaces."
This paragraph is disturbing in terms of who it chooses to lump transgender activists with. However, it is also reveals what the key question is, "how do we define women?" This is not a new debate within the feminist movement as Caitlin Moran shows in her critique of Germaine Greer's feminim within her book How to Be a Woman. Moran believes that transgender women are women; Greer has disagreed in the past - such as in this 2009 Guardian article. Ignoring the fact that Greer and others appear to ignore both the intersex and female to male transgender issues the question I want to focus on is are these people being transphobic?
Looking at the evidence and some of the more disturbing posts on the web I think some radical feminist activists are.
However, if the Twitter reports I have been reading are correct and radfem spokespeople are now talking about reproductive rights I think they are getting caught up in the same focus on biological understandings of sex as opposed to gender and the link with reproductive possibility - which leads to many supporters of the coalition for marriage to take a heterosexist approach which is labelled homophobic. This linking to groups such as the c4m is something I know radical feminsts would find abhorent as they are often lesbians but the fact is they apparently using the same kind of justifications to exclude transgender women as the C4M crowd do for banning same sex marriage. This means the radical feminists attitudes towards biological sex may not be homophobic or transphobic but they are using assumptions that come from a hetero-sexist view of sex and gender when it comes to transgender people whilst not coming from that position when it comes to sexual orientation. The differentiation between transphobia/ homophobia and using hetero-sexist assumptions is made because one has to decide if the conclusions regarding gender are not based on fear . In this case I would argue they're not but they do result in prejudice.
As an aside I think this is an interesting debate because it shows that the second wave feminism style debates regarding who has entry to "women's spaces" and how radical feminism differs from other forms remain relevant. For a fuller understanding of the historical feminst debates and practices which feed into this debate I would signpost you to You Tube and the series of clips from the BBC Lefties programme "Angry Wimmin" which interviewed and explore the beliefs second wave radical feminists.