Categoriearchief: Queer

Destroy the cis-tem (on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2015)

Tonight I want to talk you about the “cistem”, about the role of some  “feminists” in the cistem. And for that I need to explain a lot of other things first. Like who is trans*? And who counts as trans*?

transfeminismI will give you a bit of basics on trans* and trans* people, because usually not even most trans* people directly know everything. Maybe a bit of a comedown, but we are not all experts. Some people just want to live their life.

  • Trans people are those who change their legal gender because that other option fits better.

  • Trans people dress up, cross dress. Sometimes seriously, sometimes less seriously. Some identify as cross dressers, some don’t. And some don’t dress up at all.

  • Trans people are those who choose medical assistance to get their body (better) aligned with their identity. But many don’t do that, for various reasons, including lack of access to (affordable and good quality) trans health care.

  • Gender identity is the deeply felt personal conviction of being of some gender, and that is not by definition male or female.

  • Gender theory is evil, gender studies less so.

  • Gender diversity is global and of probably all times.

  • Some trans people are bitchy and others are stupid or dumb.
    Just like with cis people. But definitely more beautiful 🙂

  • More than 40% of trans* people have pondered suicide.

  • Since 2009 more than 1,700 trans* people have been murdered. In Europe Turkey and Italy are the worst. The Netherlands had two killings last year.

  • Some of our worst enemies call themselves feminists

  • We write trans* with an * to include all diversity within trans*

Terminology

We have to be careful with terminology. Careful with male and female, because these are not neutral terms. They contain many assumptions. And when you are not aware of that, you easily end up with the wrong feminists.

It seems we are all born with gender identity, probably in a rudimentary form. Actually I don’t think that is so important. We are human beings and thus endowed with rights. Also if we would not have any gender identity. Probably I am only preaching to the choir when I say that gender or gender identity is a social construction. The debates around this just change on how that works, hardly on the fact. Except that Judith Butler made clear how much sex and gender are a Siamese twin. There is no gender without sex, and sex without gender is incomprehensible.

Already in the 1970s feminism started to dismantle the patriarchal idea of a direct coupling of body and role. The famous statement that biology is not destiny. In the 1990s this was taken radically further and now again. The important contribution, that trans* has for feminism is showing ever more clearly that having a certain body is not a prerequisite for certain identities and expressions. I think that trans* nowadays makes very clear, how much patriarchy and moral conservatism hate autonomous people self determining the identity that lives in their body.

laverne

Kyriarchy

What cis and trans* feminists of any gender have in common is an elevated interest in dismantling patriarchy, or kyriarchy if you want. Only some – mostly white middle class cis women – forgot to read on since the 1970s. They still stick with the idea sex is immutable and gender is only roles.

And actually you may not be free from that either. Hopefully just because you don’t know better for never having messed with it. Maybe the easiest way is to just say what I and many other trans people expect, above all in feminist circles.

  • An easy one: we have pronouns, like you. If you don’t know for sure, ask us how we want to referred to as. Don’t assume either he/she not ze/they/xie. Better ask, than fuck up. Because of endless misgendering we are a bit sensitive about it.
  • We take the bathroom we want to take. Because it is the one indicating where people of our gender should go. Or just because it is the first toilet door on the left. Who cares.
  • Just like everyone we have a right not to be harassed wherever we go, including the right or wrong bathroom. What’s a wrong bathroom anyway. Maybe one that is defunct.
  • If I identify as a woman – however my body and especially my genitals may look – I have the right to shower with the other women. Naked. Also if I still have my native “male” genitals.
  • Nobody has the right to harass someone. For whatever reason. So support your trans sisters if they would have trouble because they don’t look not cis enough. Not being used to things, is not a reason to protest or to question someone’s identity.
  • Same applies in reverse: trans men are men and actually everyone is the gender they say they are. Same with me, whatever body parts you see or I have, they don’t define me.
  • Just that you have a womb (if you have one) doesn’t make you more a woman than someone who does not.

The biggest and I think simplest link between trans* and feminism is that trans* people are being confronted time and time again with social sexism and ingrained misunderstandings about bodies and roles and identities. Where even science starts to agree with us, not only the social sciences. There are more than two sexes, some five or nine. And there are a zillion of gender identities and expressions. Feminism states already from the beginning that biology is not destiny. Except for some people of course when you were born with a penis. Then biology is destiny. All of a sudden. And then the genitals and the gonads and chromosomes suddenly make the woman, doing away with all complexity of bodies and genders. In that sense I consider them quite silly.

And of course trans* feminism is multi-coloured and anti-racist – as all serious feminism should be. We don’t want to repeat the arrogance of 1980s mainstream white feminism that kept out women of colour and anarcha-feminists. Something improbable anyway these days: current feminism strikes me as becoming (finally)  rather inclusive of colour. Still feminism still is a complicated question, also in the students’ movement. Issues as colour, ableism and class need to be addressed everywhere all the time (Vrankrijk being not accessible to dis_abled people and non-smokers is also a feminist issue).

TERF

Some history or herstory on TERFs, the Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists. And some names. Actually the TERF story can be done away with by logic and opening up. Because it is logic fallacies and myths.

As so many things, it started more or less in the USA. In the 1970s. With a certain Janice Raymond. She wrote a book advocating for her vice, titled “The Transexual Empire : the making of the she-male”. Under the guise of scientific freedom and the freedom of press, the book itself is just semi-scientific rubbish as there has been before and has been afterwards, like Michael J. Bailey’s “The man who would be queen”. However, Raymond did not just write a book, she actively campaigned at then president Ronald Reagan for the closure of all gender clinics in academic hospitals and non-financing of trans friendly therapists, by which she actively and willingly endangered the lives of many trans people. Also her ideas directly or indirectly instigated a troupe of lesbian “avengers” on the trail of trans sound engineer Sandy Stone who worked at Olivia records, a radical lesbian record label. Stone was out and had the full support of the crew, but had to got into hiding because of the lesbian killers on her trail. If you don’t take my word for this, check the interview that Transadvocate had with Stone.

Fast forward to now: “theoretical” TERFness seems to be an Anglo-Saxon game. The biggest trans* haters live in the UK and in the US, and all are cis white middle-aged lesbians. Janice Raymond doesn’t do trans* anymore, she only does sex work-hate now. But the Big TERF is Cathy Bug Brennan, a lawyer at the Maryland bar. She is one of a bunch of active doxxers. “Doxxing” is revealing the name and whereabouts of trans women who often don’t use their daily names online. By doing this Brennan and friend Gallusmag endanger the lives of many trans women – and enjoy it. By the way, since October 28, 2014 we know who GallusMag or GenderTrender is, we have a picture of her. Her name is Linda V. Shanko.

In the UK we have Julie Bindel, Sheila Jeffreys and some others, also Germaine Greer who tried to get rid of a trans woman astronomer at Cambridge university. I know of no famous Dutch transhating feminists, but there certainly are a couple of them.

The nicest things they do or say about us is misgendering us, but they also engage in doxxing and talking us out of existence. Calling us male lesbians, men’s rights activists … they are in favour of so-called “bathroom bills” that exclude and forbid trans girls and trans women to use the women’s bathroom. Forbids them to pee actually, because you don’t go into the men’s room. They are a bunch of fanatic hating racist cis women (not all lesbians) that corner trans* women and endanger their existence because we need to stop living.

“Dutch trans negative feminism is mostly cis women who are scared for trans women flagging their penises in their face, when in the bathroom or in the shower. That is what we do, it is our greatest pastime: waving our mighty tranny dicks into a cis woman’s face. Right. Complete and utter bullshit.

Cotton ceiling

An important misappropriated issue trans women are facing is the so-called “cotton ceiling”. So-called radical feminists blabber they are forced to have sex with trans women, because these are women and of course all women want to sleep with all other women. Analogous to the glass ceiling this describes the virtual isolation and lockout of trans* women where it concerns sexuality and relationships. It’s about the intersection of desirability and with transphobia and transmisogyny. The cis-academics among you all love us for research. But you never love us. Trans people are in almost all environments radically not loved.

And when, then it hardly goes beyond the underwear. Of course I must not bear the sins of a single researcher on all the others. #notallresearchers, #notallwomen, you know. And #yesalltrans people. My own experience appears to find collective recognition. So nowadays I only hang out with some of them, who happen to be my friends and quit trying to fuck my way into academia 😉

I would actually say: try us out. Not as in taking a trial subscription, but open up to us, explicitly. Be revolutionary and love a trans/inter person! Confront the unknown. We have to do it every time when we engage with a cis person. I do not want your acceptance, I want your transformation and don’t take “later” for an answer. You can help, you should help. The recruiting office is open after the discussion.

This is the text of a talk I gave on the occasion of March 8, 2015, International (Working) Women’s Day, in Casco, Utrecht.

The Right to Life for Trans* Persons, and Why Normal is Boring

Vreer Verkerke

Guest post on darafhoffmanfox.com

I have been asked by Dara Hoffman-Fox to write a piece for her site as a genderqueer gender educator and human rights advocate for the rights of trans* and inter* people. And I gladly comply with her request.

[Before I continue, a short orthographic notice: I write “trans*” and “inter*” without meaning to refer to a footnote, but the asterisk implies the vastness of trans and inter(sex/gender) identities and expressions.]

Dara’s eyes fell on this part of the vision page on my professional website:

We aim to break through (apart?) stereotypes around gender, gender identities and gender expressions. This goes for both trans people and non-trans people. The cisgendered (i.e. non-trans) are also entitled to be free from stereotypes about their way of life. We do this through gender education.

This Thursday trans* people and friends, partners, allies all over the world will pay attention to Transgender Day of Remembrance. This day started 16 years ago in a reaction to the murder of Rita Hester from Allston, MA.

As still is the case in the United States (10 killings this year), and in Brazil (the country with again the highest count of trans* murders with 113 this year) most victims of murders are black trans* women of African-African heritage, which makes this, apart from a gender issue, also a race and class issue.

Transgender Europe’s Trans Murder Monitoring project counted 226 killings worldwide this year only. Since the start of the project in 2008 we have counted 1,612 murders against trans* people. The Americas are the most dangerous place to live for trans people, surely for trans* people of color. This year 176 killings, with high proportions for tiny countries as Honduras (10 people). But also the Netherlands knows a trans related killing this year.

For trans* people, nowhere is really safe.

The Western societies we live in and its influence sphere have a political and economic system that systematically favors white (middle and upper class) heterosexual cisgender men. All cis men in the end. But also cis women. Think of the incident in the Baltimore McDonald’s where a trans woman was heavily attacked by a group of cis girls.

Women, cis or trans or intersex suffer under this patriarchal system. We trans* and gender-non conforming people are the first ones cis male anger is taken out at. That is criminal and against all human rights, amongst which the most basic one: The right to life. The system creates specific forms of masculinity and femininity and thinks trans* people have no place in that.

There are, however, possibilities to make life for trans* people easier. On the legal front slowly we are getting to possibilities for gender recognition without the need for medical intervention. And several health clinics over the States provide services to trans* people without the need of a pathologizing mental health diagnosis of “Gender Identity Disorder” (DSM-IV and ICD-10) or “Gender Dysphoria” (DSM-5). Health centers like of Callen-Lorde in New York City, or Howard Brown in Chicago, or Tom Waddell in San Francisco.

As trans* people we are very often frowned upon and people have absolutely no clue about us, our lives, our joys and our issues. Helped by crazy sensational TV programs or impertinent questions by many other talk show hosts we are the gender weirdos. Living la vida loca. Prejudice and lack of knowledge. If we could, we would for sure. Even for well off trans people life isn’t ideal.

And as a non-binary trans person (a “Nobi,” as I call it) I have more and more trouble in understanding all those normatively gendered people. Personally I have lost my gender ages ago and I am not really inclined in finding it again. I am a happy multiple/multi-gender.

On good days I can be fascinated by how the “normal” people do. Gender stereotypes – the way most “men” or “women” behave – are fascinating. If you’re not confronted by them. If the normatively gendered people don’t bother you for going to the wrong bathroom or looking too male for a woman, being too much a sissy for a “Real Man.”

I guess my being different makes me great for educating people on gender diversity. I see all those weird gender expressions by the majority of people and can explain our “weirdness” to the normal people. Because gender stereotypes are nasty things everybody suffers from. Even – and mostly – for those enforcing them. Because they miss out a whole lot of opportunities for more (gender) freedom. Sometimes I feel so sorry for them. Not sure they care, but still.

Cis and trans* women know quite well what it is to live under gender stereotypes. Cis women are to marry and take care of the kids. Sexual and reproductive autonomy is not accepted. Of course there are lovely cis men (even straight ones!). Only, in the morals of power, women’s autonomy is heavily fought over. Abortion clinic after clinic is forced to close, because the idea that a woman has a choice over her pregnancy is anathema.

Many times trans* people will have to comply to a similar moral scrutiny and only if you are “really” a woman and thus willing to sacrifice your fertility then you are allowed to change the gender marker on your birth certificate and their ID papers.

So yes, surely trans* people actively suffer under gender stereotypes and we shouldn’t. The situation is partially better with you in the USA, partially way worse. Not that The Netherlands or Western-Europe for that part is even remotely near trans* heaven. Trans* utopia is nowhere, not even in Argentina with its great legislation.

I feel a bit sorry for complaining so much, instead of immediately bringing you the Gleeful Gender Gospel. There is so much trouble and it so strongly interconnected, that I have to pay attention to it.

But as I say, the non-standard life, being gender non-conforming can be great. And the good news to the cis people over here is: you don’t have to become trans*. Usually I really advocate for people to become trans, to really change their gender identity and gender expression from the one belonging to the gender they have been assigned a birth to something completely different. It can be a great time. Like the book Dick For a Day in which the (female) authors fantasize what they would do if they had one.

But you don’t have to. Secretly we are pretty happy to be exceptional, to be “living la gender loca,” so to say.

In my workshops I dissect the working of gender norms, how they are very productive in enabling only certain gender roles and identities and how others are then violently or friendly.

Dear cis people, open up, be straight but not narrow. Really, being a soft open-minded man who understands his own feelings and that of others, who can deal with emotions in a sensible way, is more an asset to a better world and to better relationships than you may think.

You have got nothing to lose but your gender chains.

People (sensible people at least) will love you. Prissy peers may not, they may try to keep you inside the snake pit, but that has to do with your leaving the group, breaking group discipline or doing what they don’t dare to do. The problem with group culture often is that it only works with group discipline. Find yourself a best friend, of whatever gender, to support you.

You don’t have to become trans* to change your gender. Look at the Gender Identity Map from the Impact Project. There are so many possibilities for gender identity and expressions…No need to stick with what you learned in school or from your peers.

There is life out there. Don’t despair.

My biggest complaint around standard gender expressions and people living them is that it is so utterly boring. Who the hell wants to be a healthy, organic whole when you can be a brilliant, injured fragment, after all. This whole investment in wholeness, the whole expectation of living neatly in boxes (even round ones) so doesn’t comply with my jumpiness. I consider it so unhealthy.

Yes, I can associate healthiness etc. in a positive sense. Of course. But not default lives. Default lives are – on the political level – bad and dangerous. They are responsible for the zillions of trans related killings. Fitting in is unhealthy. But falling out may be dangerous.

The forces of normality are strong, the need to find your own way is bigger.

So here’s to the crazy ones, with their shiny gender and their sparkling identities. May we live long and prosper. With lovely, friendly cis people who love us dearly and don’t invest so much in being “normal.”

Author Bio

VreerFrom the perspective that there are more than two sexes and more than two genders, that being trans or gender-non conforming is diversity instead of an aberration, Vreer Verkerke of Vreerwerk does gender education and human rights education with students, sex educators, lawyers, politicians in The Netherlands and beyond.

Dag voor Trans zichtbaarheid – Int’l Trans Visibility Day

Vandaag. 31 maart. Sinds 2009.  Internationale Dag voor Trans Zichtbaarheid. Geen VN-dag (die hebben nog niks voor ons, al zegt de assistent van de Hoge Commissaris voor de Mensenrechten dat Transgender Gedenkdag wel die status van VN-dag zou moeten kunnen hebben). Gewoon uitgeroepen door een transpersoon in MIchigan, VS. Omdat er zo weinig positiefs was voor trans* mensen.

Vandaag is het dus  internationale dag voor trans zichtbaarheid. Dus voor alle trans-hoe-of-wat-dan-ook mensen, alle gender-non-conformen en gender-variante personen: HIeperdepiep hoera dat wij er zijn. Dankzij ons is de wereld mooier en raarder. Trans-zijn is Goed. Vandaag (en alle andere dagen wat mij betreft) trekken we een lange neus naar wie ons liever niet ziet: de zon is ook van ons. Wij weten dat je kunt vliegen als een vlinder.

vlinders op bloesem

 

Today is international Day of Trans Visibility. A 2009 Rachel Crandall invention. Already taken up in many places over this world (and maybe others?). Congrats to all of us trans*, GNC, gender variant people. Happy Day also for those who live with us and celebrate with us. Let us change this world for the better. And don’t let anyone tell you are not beautiful.

Transgender Gedenkdag 2013

Today is Wednesday November 20, 2013. The fifteenth time that Transgender Remembrance Day is held. ?The eighth edition in the Netherlands. Here it was started by then Queer Collective “The Noodles”, later on by Transgender Network Netherlands. This is the second local edition, done by United Trans Activists for Change. Coming Saturday a national ceremony will be held in Nijmegen. Lees verder →

Trans Remembrance Day 2013

Ieder jaar herdenken we rond 20 november de trans* mensen die gedood,vermoord zijn. Onze broeders en zusters, onze brusjes en zoertjes. In Amsterdam doen we dit op het Homomonument. Dit jaar weer op de 20e zelf, om 18.30 uur. Dan verzamelen we bij het Homonument, en daar kun je een fakkel en een roos krijgen. aan de roos zit een label met de naam en de plaats van overlijden van een vermoorde trans*persoon. Na een toespraakje en wat muziek leggen we de rozen op het laagliggende deel van het Homomonument. We spreken dan ook de naam en omstandigheden van overlijden van de betreffende persoon uit zodat iedereen het kan horen.
Na afloop kun je door naar Vrankrijk waar de wekelijkse queeravond wordt gehouden. Die staat deze keer ook in het teken van Transgender Gedenkdag.

Kun je niet in Amsterdam op de 20e, dan kun je op de 23e nog meedoen aan de nationale herdenking in NIjmegen¢. Zie daarvoor de betreffende website.

Gedenkdag Amsterdam wordt financieel mogelijk gemaakt door het Trut-fonds.

Screen Shot 2013-11-14 at 16.03.26

Trans murder monitoring map 2013
Every year around the 20th of November we commemorate the trans* people that have been killed, our brothers, sisters, bristers  and sothers…

In Amsterdam we do this at the Homomonument with roses and by sharing the names of those who left us this year through violence, or sometimes through self chosen death.

The program starts around 18.30h. Like last year a short speech will be held and then we will call one by one the names of those who left us. There will be 100 roses with names and we will have torches. We will continue until the last flower has been laid. Afterwards Vrankrijk is open for the regular queer night. The WTF! night will be also in the theme of TDOR. This event is possible thanks to the kind cooperation of Trutfonds that supports us!

logo fonds def

Pojktanten

Slakken zijn hermafrodiet. Dan wel tweeslachtig. En daarmee uitermate queer en verrassend. Zo min als de hoofdpersonen in Pojktanten snappen ze al te veel van mannelijkheid en vrouwelijkheid. 

Eli

Een kritiek op de queerheid van de film zou kunnen zijn dat het puber-gedrag is, zoeken, een fase. Voor een van de twee protagonisten is het dat misschien ook wel, maar ik wil een lans breken voor het herwaarderen van adolescent experimenteren. Juist door wild uitproberen kom je sneller op nieuwe dingen uit. En je moet natuurlijk niet volwassen willen worden. Kan altijd nog.

Misschien moet ik deze gelegenheid te baat nemen en eens wat meer praten over wat ik queer vind. Wat meer verwarring schoppen. Want verwarring is goed. Ik ben bijvoorbeeld moe van het strikte onderscheid tussen gender en seksualiteit in de witte westerse wereld. Seksualiteit en gender(identiteit) liggen veel dichter bij elkaar dan vaak wordt gesteld. En je ziet dat ook in queer kringen. Onze voormoeders in Stonewall, Silvia Rivera en Marsha P. Johnson, waren vooraleerst gay. En ze waren respectievelijk Puertoricaans en zwart.

Maar gay was altijd al ook trans. Genderidentiteit bestond nog niet zo lang. Dat is een uitvinding van Robert Stoller. Beroemd psychiater die samenwerkte met John Money, u weet wel die van David Reimer, de jongen die als meisje werd opgevoed omdat z’n besnijdenis dramatisch verkeerd was verlopen. En die daarna zichzelf het leven heeft benomen omdat ie teveel problemen had door die zaak. Stoller maakte als psychiater praktijken als die van John Money – zijn naam doet vele intersekse personen huiveren – mogelijk.

In gekleurde kringen zie je ook wel meer dat er een dunne lijn is, een overgangszone zo je wilt tussen genderidentiteit, genderexpressie en seksuele voorkeur. En je ziet het ook meer en meer in witte kringen overigens, dat u niet denkt dat het een puur antropologisch verschijnsel is. Ook u kunt dit doen! “Trans ist für alle da!”

Nou is het best nuttig om zelfgevoel en gevoelens voor anderen analytisch uit elkaar te trekken, maar het moet ook weer geen dogma worden. Daar komen weer nare en rare dingen van. Zoals dokters die niet in hun patiënten zijn geïnteresseerd maar in het overeind houden van de Genderdichotomie: gij zult alleen mannen en vrouwen maken. Of zoals Joris Hage, toen hij in de jaren 1990 als chirurg bij het VUmc genderteam werkte, zei: “We maken geen hermafrodieten hier!” Dat zei hij in verband met een transman die geen metaidoioplastie (operatie waarbij een minipenis wordt gemaakt van de door hormonen vergrote clit) wilde en z’n vagina wilde kunnen blijven gebruiken. Best queer. Die jongen zette zo de ideeën over hoe we moeten voelen en er uit moeten zien op z’n kop. Tegenwoordig wordt daar gelukkig niet meer zo moeilijk over gedaan.

Maar een relatief nieuwe en behoorlijk verontrustende ontwikkeling is dat – deels op verzoek van degenen die nog onder het mes moeten – nu de standaardprocedure is de vagina te verwijderen en een fallo (falloplastie, penisopbouw), haast standaard is geworden. Wat ik bij veel jongeren zie gebeuren nu lichamen steeds jonger en steeds makkelijker aangepast kunnen worden, dat alles op alles wordt gezet om de genderdysforie die het gevolg is van een transfobe maatschappij zo snel mogelijk te doen verdwijnen door aanpassing en dat is alles behalve queer.

Nou snap ik die paniek wel, dat je je zo vervreemd voelt van anderen en je hebt vaak geen perspectief hebt op iets anders dan wat je om je heen ziet. En pubertijd is voor de meeste transen nou niet direct een erg verlichtende, maar wel erg spannende ervaring. En met een vertoog dat nog steeds uitgaat van “het verkeerde lichaam hebben”, is het begrijpelijk dat je dus ook een veel grotere hekel aan je geslachtelijkheid – want daaraan wordt het opgehangen – krijgt dan eerdere generaties. Maar om nou uit angst en hekel je hele vagina weg te laten halen … dat levert ook nog wel problemen op mogelijk. En hét probleem erbij is dat je jezelf keuzemogelijkheden ontneemt. Angst is een slechte raadgever, dysforie ook. De nadruk moet (ja, moet) veel meer op zorg en ondersteuning komen in plaats van op slikken en snijden.

Bij transvrouwen is de chirurgie overigens ook niet zonder risico en terecht wil niet iedereen haar bestaande configuratie meteen kwijt. Zeker niet als dat niet moet om je papieren te kunnen veranderen. Wat een mensenrechtenschendende en bespottelijke zaak is überhaupt.

De Nederlandse maatschappij is ook nog eens behoorlijk binair ingericht en regeringen hebben tot nog toe vaak absoluut geen zin in iets doen aan genderstereotypen. De massamedia doen dat ook niet en sociale media hebben eerder een versterkend effect. Zo erg als in Engeland is het hier niet, maar “ombouwen” wordt steeds gemakkelijker gebruikt en acceptatie is vooral doordat je je man/vrouw verklaart. Genderqueer is zelden direct een optie. Hoewel we nu gelukkig wel meer voorbeelden hebben: Antony (& the Johnsons), Buck Angel, Loren Cameron en Kate Bornstein natuurlijk. Nederlandse modellen? Ik had ze niet. En heb er nog steeds knap weinig. Van eerder ken ik wel mensen maar dat zijn geen rolmodellen (niet queer) en nu moet ik wat dat betreft ook best puzzelen. Kom zo snel alleen op mede-Noodles uit.

Ik heb mijn idealen altijd samengesteld uit van alles wat ik leerde kennen, zoals ook extravagantie. Ik herinner me dat ik ooit met m’n moeder naar Robert Long en Leen Jongewaard ging in Haarlem voor Homo Sapiens – nog voor de oorlog. Een aantal flikkers en potten waren uitgedost als Rococo (pruikentijd) dames – waarschijnlijk ook wel heren. Het is de eerste herinnering die ik heb aan extravagantie en drag. Ik denk dat die gender-non conforme tendens ook is wat mij destijds aantrok in het flikker-wezen. Dat is de reden is waarom ik me weer flikker noem; niet de seks en de identiteit maar de genderexpressie de manier van leven. Terugkijkend ben ik ook wel altijd geïnteresseerd geweest in dissidenten omdat ik zelf geen thuis had. Dat klinkt wellicht dramatisch en dat was het ook zeker, maar dat is helemaal goed gekomen. Zodanig dat ik nu de neiging heb generaal Patton na te spreken met “Lead or follow or get out of the way”. Loop niet in de weg.

Even terug naar het grotere plaatje: binnen de transgenderpopulatie, geschat op een vijf procent van de Nederlandse bevolking, is het maar een 10% die nu medische assistentie vraagt bij de genderveranderingen die ze inzetten. Dus als je veel transen ziet, het zijn er eigenlijk nog eens minstens 10x zo veel. Wat mij als transsexofiel ook wel weer deugd doet ;o) Om de oude feministen te citeren ”Oh li oh li oh la. Onze rangen groeien aan!” Of alle feministen blij zijn met dit gebruik van hun leus, waag ik te betwijfelen, maar dat is dan jammer voor ze. Trans* en feminisme ligt helaas vaak nog best moeilijk.

Een betere oplossing dan het hele slik- en snijwerk, minder ingrijpend ook, is op z’n minst niet zoveel nadruk te leggen op het medische verhaal. Als lichamelijke aanpassing zo vaak is om de gevolgen van transfobie te bestrijden, waarom wordt dáár niet volop op ingezet? Het kritiseren van standaardgenderrollen. Ook in holebi-land. Waarom moet iedereen zo verdomde standaard zijn? Waarom kiest haast iedereen voor een leven met één partner? Waarom gedragen nichten zich zo mannelijk? Wat is er mis met butches en femmes? Waarom roepen bi’s om het hardst dat ze heus niet van meer walletjes tegelijk eten hoor!

Het gaat hier overigens om maatschappij-brede zaken. Niet direct om individuele verhalen. Op individueel niveau ligt het niet altijd zo eenduidig. De afwezigheid van geldige alternatieven maakt het zoeken en vinden van alternatieven moeilijk en niet legitiem. En dat leidt er uiteindelijk bijvoorbeeld weer toe dat Boy Hag-Lady Eli zhaar veiligheid op het spel zet in de film.

Vanuit mijn eigen ontwikkeling weet ik hoezeer voorbeelden nuttig zijn. In vele schakeringen. In mijn gender-niemandsland had ik pas laat voorbeelden. Ik vraag me af waar ik geweest was zonder Kate Bornstein’s “Gender Outlaw” en het bijgevoegde stuk “Hidden a gender” Waarin op Marxiaanse wijze de spot werd gedreven met het medische circus. Voor wie de Marx Brothers niet kent: zoek op, ga ze kijken. U moet toch minstens Groucho Marx wel kennen. Op een gegeven moment kwam ik het fotoboek van Loren Cameron tegen, die zichzelf als transman en mooi getatoeëerde bodybuilder met ongewijzigde geslachtsdelen op de foto zette. En hij is nog eens aardig ook.

Ik ben niet zo goed in het interpreteren van films, weet er weinig van af en voel me al snel op glad ijs. Ik vind dit ook bij tijden een moeilijke film. Vooral het zoeken en het avontuur weerklonk bij mij bij eerste keer kijken.  She male snails bevat genoeg elementen om mensen te verrukken en zich af te vragen, om een geheel queer perspectief op genderexpressie en identiteit te geven De film portretteert heel duidelijk allerlei redenen en wegen voor het zoeken naar een alternatieve genderexpressie. En dat is Heel Hard Nodig.

Boovenstaande is geschreven n.a.v. de vertoning van de film Poiktanten, She male snails, op Diep festival 14 jui 2013

trans* info night Vrankrijk (21-11-2012)

“identiteit kun je niet diagnostiseren” (c) Cuerpos distintos, derechos iguales

Trans info night

I will first talk about the situation in the Netherlands, since I think hardly anyone really knows about this. Then I will delve more into depathologisation of (trans*) identities.

 So, trans* in the Netherlands, what does that mean. How does trans* look here, how do I and my fellow trans* people live?

The first thing I think you have to understand, if you are from a non-Dutch background or know just a bit about trans*, is that everything trans* here is being seen through a transsexual lens, measured through a transsexual matrix. Reason for this lies in history: the Netherlands was one of the first countries in Europe to give trans specific health care. From the beginning of the 1980s a clinical centre got set up at the VU in Amsterdam, later in Groningen a second team.

And the Netherlands is country that loves to divide things up in neat categories. “Raked over”, “aangeharkt” is the comment we get from outsiders, and rightly so. “There be monsters” could have been a Dutch saying. Everything outside the categories is scary. We don’t mind monsters, as long as we can place them in a box.

Then: there is treatment for a small group of trans* people. And except maybe when working in a medical context, I loathe that word because of its “curing” aspects. What trans* people need more – next to getting rid of transphobic contexts – is psychological assistance, and maybe medical assistance if you feel that bad through all the shit of feeling different and being treated less favourable than non-trans* non LGBTI people.

 There is a law change coming up that will take care of the most flagrant human rights violation towards trans people. What will it bring?

  • The best: no medical intervention needed any more for LGR
  • Cool also: no judge, after approval directly to civil registryNeat: minimum age of 16
  • Unacceptable: expert letter
  • Unacceptable also: parent’s registration – male mothers stay fathers, and female fathers stay mothers

Then the current situation: it is shit. No murders, that is good. But because of the raked over character of Dutch society, and because of ignored but stimulated patriarchal thinking, almost 60% of the respondents abhor gender confusion when confronted with someone: people should be clearly recognisable as male or female. 20% of the respondents prefers not to have contact with transgender people, 10% would see it as a reason to disconnect, to break friendship, IRL that is.

 70% of Dutch trans people has considered suicide, 20% attempted and an unknown percentage succeeded. Has been suicided so to say by transphobic society. 40% is without a job with many in bijstand or WW (social security or unemployment benefit). Also 40% has followed high education.

Many get scolded or attacked, but fortunately: no killings here.

A very good thing is that work is being done on this. There is TNN, Transgender Network Netherlands and COC uniting their efforts, the ministry of emancipation also sees need for and work on improvement.

But that doesn’t mean things will be OK soon, as you will guess. Because all work from a reformist perspective, all have a transsexual lens through which they look. Most think from a perspective of trans as a big problem, something that can be “cured” by medical interventions. Poor trans people, that have to suffer so much.

That of course also has to do with and is caused by the pathological context that is so strong here. Dutch raked over society thinks it had erased the monsters, but actually through their biologistic legal thinking is creating new ones. And they will have trouble anyway: nature is not neatly raked over, nature is a mess. So their idea of having the birth giver registered as mother of a child, even if they are legally a father, creates male mothers, that socially are fathers. But conceding means they will have birth giving males, which fucks up their system again. And procreating, impregnating mothers also of course. All has to do with the fear for autonomous women. Poor legislators, poor believers. This fear for women also is one of the reasons for my booklet that I am presenting today here.

Practically speaking my booklet is only for people who master Dutch or who need a terrific good reason to start learning dutch. I just published a Dutch language booklet Transgender: why is that is disordered?” In English it already sounds more like my great example: the Spanish book “El genero desordenado” the disordered gender.

You never know what you've got until you read about it in the DSM-V

So I now want to delve a bit deeper into depathologisation. And mostly why that is so needed.

If we do not start real soon now with adhering to a different paradigm of pathology and of taking people serious in their stories about how they feel and what they experience we will end up with in the very small group of so called sound people and get rid of diversity, colour, an ultimately create only inbreeding. Sounds already rather eugenic. But I think that is the consequence and the expression of what is happening with the DSM 5: where the previous DSM already was huge, the new one gets even bigger. Critique is that too many phenomena get a place there, normal

 

behaviour is being pathologized. And surely where it comes to sexuality and gender it contains things that are considered bad for American morals. With trans* related issues they say it is only meant for people who experience distress, but that is a faulty explanation. Then you can just diagnose (or classify) the depression or anxiety the person has. Fetishistic cross dressing doesn’t hurt anyone. But if you get anxious because of it, then treat the anxiety. The problem is: DSM looks for psychiatric and/or psychologic solutions for problems caused by society without acknowledging society’s role in this. It prefers medication. Many authors, and surely all authors of the trans* related section, have ties with pharmaceutic industry. As have endocrinologists, at least in the US but probably not only, with the hormone sellers. That stinks.

In my booklet I write about normality (or actually I publish it): why are certain things considered normal and others pathological? I write about gender dichotomy and its idiocy, about health care and its coupling with legislation. About what is good legislation and where you can find it. Not in Europe.
I translated an article by a mainstream gender dysphoria care team psychologist in Spain, that pleads for a non binary approach of gender and actually starts founding all the trouble trans* people experience with becoming who they feel they are, in transphobic society. Bergero disproves, refutes many of the standard arguments used by pathologising gender teams.
And I end with a perspective of future trans: “Trans in your head”, as the most modern trans* movements in Spain and Ecuador create and live. If you rad Dutch, you should definitely buy ti.

Gender .. het blijft ingewikkeld

Hoe zit dat nou met trans* zijn? Is het aangeboren? Verworven? Aangeleerd? Wanneer tel je mee als trans*? Lastige vragen waar ik zelf soms ook nog tast naar het precieze antwoord en vooral één ding heel zeker weet: heel erg veel mensen hebben het gewoon fout en de oude feministes hebben het heel wat beter begrepen dan hen erkenning toevalt. Lees verder →