Recently I have had the misfortune to ban a facebook friend and member of my Femme In-visibility group for her very hateful posts against the transgendered community. This friend, who is a brilliant writer and painter of prose, is very much anti-transitioning as she feels it is born of misogyny and patriarchal values. I am writing this post to state my strong disagree with her views, and feel that her rhetoric is born of self- loathing. She claims that Butches must reach down and get in touch with the feminist inside which will enable them to not seek transitioning as an option or tool for coping with society's imposed hatred of women.
First I would like to address that IF (and that’s a very strong if) there is any basis in her claim that feminism is the answer to this “issue” (her words), how do you explain the systematic attacks and intended breakdown of self esteem of the butch and femme community by the very powerful and vocal Feminist community of the 1970s? Today’s Butches and Femmes continue to struggle to be seen and heard, to be counted and respected for our deep and strong historical roots. If you search Lesbian History from the very beginning, you will not find one picture or one document that shows a non Butch/Femme couple.
If one actually studies gender dysphoria and gender transition, it is clear that this is a medical issue that has to do with brains placed in mismatched bodies. It has nothing to do with women hating themselves. It has to do with men and women who want to live in bodies that fit. It's not about feminism, politics, or women-hating. It is impossible to place a political explanation onto a medical condition that for some is a matter of life or death and can finally be resolved, thanks to modern medicine and a more accepting and understanding world.
To continue addressing her argument, that lesbian butches need to embrace feminism and love themselves...
How do we discount our roots and history and still want to say we are feminists? Traditional feminism has wanted no part of butch-femme or our love. How do we claim that we are part of a thought process that has pushed us to the sidelines and has created so much self-hate and disconnection that many butches and femmes for years would not have even uttered the term butch/femme? The same analysis that she applies to condemn FTM's for surgically altering themselves in response to society's misogyny was used by 1970's Feminists to condemn lesbian Butches. I wonder if our loathing, our pain and suffering would have and could still be alleviated with simple acceptance…
………acceptance that we are a colorful Crayola box, a field of wild flowers that blanket the earth infusing it with an array of fragrances and visual delight. I don’t want every person to be like me, I want diversity because it is beautiful and magnificent. In an effort to find our place of belonging in this world, we so often isolate and push out those that are not exactly like us and that, in my view is the heart of it all.
