There seems to be a new attack to the feminine from the Transgender community, specifically with Transgender Men that are now “Women” that want to redefine the female anatomy in the name of equality and inclusiveness in feminism. My response to that is hell to the no, GTFOH!
I was recently binge watching “Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce” on Netflix and on Season 2 Episode 6; “Rule #25 Beware The Second Chance.” In this episode Phoebe enrolls in a feminism class “Gender Now,” and the conversation in her first class swirls around whether or not the students consider themselves feminists and why. There is a Transgender Woman in the class that jump starts the Transgender perspective who “cannot support feminism” as long as the word “vagina” continues to be used because as another student chimes in it is “exclusionary to the Trans community and offers an extremely narrow view on woman-hood,” and then a third student goes on to say the correct terminology is “front hole” or “internal genitalia” so as not to have a “binary view of gender.” Then I turn around last night and was watching Bill Maher on “The Messy Truth,” with Van Jones and the conversation came up about places cancelling the Vagina Monologues for being exclusionary. And I had to look it up like to learn exclusionary to whom and again this play which celebrates women was not Trans-Inclusive. Trans Women have a unique set of circumstances that are unique to their community and Women should not be attacked for not having the same set of issues and to be made to feel as if we now have to apologize for that reality.
I am a child of the 80’s. I worked in the Village in lower Manhattan for all four years of high-school. I had a host of gay managers and friends and even though I was a teenager, after work I partied hard at a gay bar on the West Side Highway before it was a trend and I embraced the idea of personal sexuality. Surviving childhood trauma’s surrounding sex, I understood, even as a teenager the idea of being able to claim your sexuality and to define it and set limits that meet your personal needs. Who you love, and how you love is not for me or the government to decide. And generally speaking even then if a woman hit on me I could stand my ground on my sexuality and we could still be good friends with a level of mutual respect. My adult life is about the same in that I have friends that truly reflect a rainbow covering a vast spectrum of wonderful individuals.
This new position of the Trans-Gender community however, I feel to be just another assault on women by men that choose to be women; Trans Women who want to redefine the rules of what womanhood means to meet their particular needs and I think that is wrong. Woman – is literal from the idea of a wombed man – the man with a womb is a woman. I personally do not like the idea of the term “vagina” because the scientific definition actually is as it relates to a penis – a vagina is the sheath for the penis. I would prefer that there was a medical term other than vagina that was independent of the penis and explained the duties of a woman’s anatomy unilaterally – but that is another subject. There does not seem to be some loud movement from the Trans community of women that are now Trans Men that want to rename penis and diminish the value of masculinity. You are born with one anatomy or another and on very rare occasions both; and if in adulthood you choose to redefine your gender your anatomy does not change unless you have it changed surgically. If you are unable to afford that step or opt out of that step for other reasons, I do not think the world now has to redefine anatomic terms for your personal comfort level and acceptance – those are emotional issues that should be addressed in therapy. When you go to the doctor because of a problem with your genitals, you are going to go to the appropriate doctor that understands your actual anatomy as there is no such thing as “front hole” or “internal genitalia.”
It is offensive to me that Trans Women want Women to bow down to their life choices and discount our bodies in the name of making them feel included. I have a vagina, a pussy, a nappy dugout, a punani, sugar walls, that ill nana, that other tongue between my hips that that rappers claim to want to kiss; And I am unapologetic about it! I am a woman and the closest thing to a front hole on my body is the point at which my urethra is connected to my vagina so that I can urinate. This assault on women from the Trans-Community needs to be addressed with truth. Do not ask me to bend my truth so that you can live yours do not ask any woman to do that. It almost stands against the idea of being inclusive because in a society where women are already second class citizens, make less money than men, where our bodies are legislated typically by men down to the care we receive medically, the last thing we need is Trans Women telling us what is feminine and what our body parts need to be re-named. Like a the Skittles commercial I love the rainbow, but I need the rainbow to love itself without hating on women in the name of being included. This is not a burden to be placed on the backs of women.
Unapologetically,
Friday Jones
Twitter @IAMFridayJones
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