Transphobic feminists are an embarassment

So the embarrassing old aunties of feminism are bickering again. I almost don’t know where to start in my criticism of Julie Burchill’s Guardian article (Transsexuals should cut it out). It’s almost like having to write a rebuttal to granny’s views on immigration or explaining privilege to Grandpa. However as we both identify as feminists and I really want to distance myself from her views as much as possible, I feel I have to try.

I’m not naive. I know there is an ugly anti-trans vein running through feminism, and there always has been. Germaine Greer is famously transphobic, as were a lot of the 1970s radical feminists. But those were the dark ages in a lot of ways for many issues, ideas were in their infancy, things were new... but come on now, 40 years later and surely the world has moved on and has a better understanding of the psychology, physiology and sociology of trans issues?

So in what myriad ways is Ms Burchill so offensive? Well, her overarching hypocrisy as a feminist for a start. The ‘trans lobby’ have upset her feminist friends for standing up for themselves and being (quite rightly) appalled with Julie Bindel and Suzanne Moore’s frankly shocking use of language and stereotypes. Right. Obviously she has never, as a feminist, rebuked anything that has been offensive and misogynistic towards women? To me Julie Burchill’s notion of trans people ‘cutting it out’ (don’t even get me started on the offensive puns) is no different from admonished men the world over telling women to ‘calm down ladies’. Every sexist cliché about opinionated feminists have been re-written by Burchill against trans people. I say ‘trans people’ but Burchill only seems to take issue with trans women, making no acknowledgement of transgender men whatsoever, I don’t suppose she’s even given any thought or time to acknowledge the struggles they too face.

I also want to know why Julie wants to keep feminism as an elitist club that is only allowed to tackle certain issues affecting certain women? And also do we have THAT much support that we can turn people away for not having the correct chromosomes at birth? She champions her friends for all their feminist virtues: ‘anti-domestic violence activist Julie Bindel’ is sainted in the article. Now violence is something that I’m pretty sure trans women understand only too well, especially the threat and experience of bullying, harassment, violence, abuse and murder. Trans women are threatened by violence, domestic or otherwise, just as much as cis-women (Yes Julie, I am happy to use the term cis, get over it), and in some situations even more so. As Julie so crudely compared this fight to that of race through her vulgar black and white minstrel’s analogy, I will sink down to her level. Imagine if then Bindel was only focusing on violence against white women, and got upset when women of other ethnic backgrounds explained that they were victims of it too.

The rest of the article just seems pointless to examine as it is no more than Burchill trying to come up with and fit in as many crude names for trans women as she can think of, like some drunken white van-man with Tourette’s. She blathers on about her working-class origins (yawn) and after coming up with at least ten truly vile attacks on trans women, has the audacity to call trans people ‘bullies’.

So I just want to explain a few things to Bindel, Burchill and Moore. Firstly, Burchill says that other than this row she has no experience of ‘the trans lobby’ before this Twitter war. Here’s an idea, how about meeting and talking to a few trans women and men and listening to their experiences? Finding out what they’ve been through and what their stories are, she might actually learn something new and open up her mind a little. Secondly, she assumes that all trans women are anti-feminist and all cis-women (yup did it again) feminists are with her and are anti-trans. This is rubbish. I believe every group that are fighting a battle needs allies. I am proud to be a trans-ally as I and many other cis-gendered female feminists are. I would like to publicly distance myself from any corner of feminism that is transphobic. On the other side of this, many trans folk (men and women) are also feminists. I know of trans people who write feminist blogs, are activists and deeply care about feminist issues, even ones that don’t affect them directly, as well as the ones that do. And even if they didn’t and you continue to see them as forever different to cis women, are we doing so well in the fight against patriarchy that we don’t need more allies? Why on earth you would want to alienate a whole group of people who are fighting the feminist corner is bewildering.

I would like to think I have always been a trans ally. However this past couple of years it has been closer to my heart through watching my gorgeous niece transition. From a personal point of view this has had little impact on me other than swelling me with pride and awe as I’ve seen this amazing girl blossom and face all challenges with confidence and gusto, but I have also had days where I have had worries too, worries that she may face ignorance, bullying and discrimination. How sad to think that the worst of this actually comes from the poisoned pens of feminist writers, especially as my niece herself identifies as a feminist! As well as anger I feel truly sad for Julie Burchill that she has such a woeful lack of understanding. Her King Edward-sized shoulder chip blinds her to privilege and alienates her from a large community of fellow feminists; the trans community, and I would even say the LGBTQ community at large. She is stuck in the dark ages, and I for one hope that her vile article merely serves as the final nail in the coffin of this backwards-thinking school of feminist thought.