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Title: Gender is Political Author: N.H Date: June 6th, 2020 Language: en Topics: gender, gender abolition, transgender, transgender liberation
I think we have lost the war before it has even begun. I am in part to
blame for the crimes I will write about, and because of that I wish to
be sentenced by my peers. God willing my soul is lighter than a feather
but my body is not. I have killed us, I have killed you, and I have
killed myself, but I repeat myself, but I repeat yourself, and I repeat
ourselves. It would mean the world to me if you could take the time to
read this confession, you are under no obligation, neither am I, but I
repeat myself. Thank you for our time.
I pray that this isn't just an exercise in self indulgence but I can
actually explain myself. Last June, I made the best decision I have ever
made in my life, to come out of the “closet” as a trans woman and
destroy my cowardice. Foolishly I chose to let parts of it live (not
coming out to my family, choosing to keep most of my masculine wardrobe,
and being forced to use the word trans to describe myself). This lets
the cowardice live still, I can not be me, I have to be the “good” trans
woman. The Problem is she doesn't exist, there is no trans woman that is
good in a European gender system because that system (and to my
knowledge all known gender systems) does not allow for people to “trans”
their gender. If we were allowed to, we would not need to use the term
trans. The term is meant to signify a permutation in one’s gender, we
are forced, by politics or a matter of safety, or whatever reason, admit
to the world that a mistake has been made, that we had to become what we
are, that our identity is impure. Thus the primary distinguishment
between a “good” trans woman and a bad trans woman (a trap, a tranny, a
faggot, a t-girl, what have you) is the advertisement of her trans
status.
I have failed like the rest of them. Instead of declaring myself a
woman, I capitulated. I have declared myself a trans woman, making me
impure, keeping ******** alive, just shortened, into trans. It allows my
enemies to know that I am, in their minds at least, not who I say I am.
When I came out I stated I was in a war against my cowardice. I’ve won
that war, now it is time to crush out counter-revolutionary actors in my
mind. It's time to begin the psycho-political cultural revolution.
The progressive discourse on gender has been castrated. Instead of
focusing on investigating the truth, it sets its focus on comforting and
justifying the existence of white cis She/Theys, even at its best it’s
focusing on comforting trans people and not supplying trans people with
the knowledge to “win” or aid themselves in the “game”. It is focused on
“validity,” the fundamental question of inter-trans discourse is “am I
allowed to do this” The fatal flaw in this strategy is that it assumes
that the truth does not affirm our actions, we obviously want to
transition, we obviously are reacting to some impulses, some stimuli, so
the question of our we valid is self evidently yes, we don't need to
prove ourselves anymore, stop being insecure and do politics.
So it's time to disregard the anti-traditional discourse, and return to
the fundamental question, what is gender? Two authors I like, Vikky
Storm and Eme Flores, answer that question by updating, or “yassifing”
the Second-Wave, Marxist Feminist idea that gender is a class system
defined by the distribution of reproductive labor, it is crucial to note
that reproductive labor is not just child birth, as a woman who is old
and infertile is still both a woman and task with reproductive labor, as
well as reproductive labor is not just the reproduction of children, but
as Saide Plant and N1x point out, reproductive labor can be seen in the
bureaucracy behind cyber space, a prime example of this is the fact that
the vast majority of the people who make our computer chips and other
technological instruments, as well as developing the base code and
structures of computers, are women. In truth reproductive labor is about
the reproduction of systems, it's why women are so often teachers,
secretaries and nurses. Their role in capitalist society, especially
western capitalist society is focused on ensuring everlasting growth as
dictated by European Capitalist Patriarchy, whether that be through
child rearing, child care, logistical work, key support roles, it's all
about making sure this shit runs.
Because gender is a class system, the idea that gender is self defined
is fundamentally wrong. If all it took to change our gender in the eyes
of the gender system was a simple form of self declaration, gender would
have already been abolished as it is in the self interest of the lower
classes to reclassify themselves as a higher class. A class system with
100% mobility is not a class system. So if we were able to transition
strictly through social means, in the genesis of gender it would simply
die out as those who would see their oppression would just choose to
side step it, so there must be some other entity enforcing gender. That
enforcement is ourselves.
When you look at someone, you subconsciously gender them, you can not
help but assume their gender. You have been conditioned to. This is
because gender is something that you do not do to yourself, but others
do to you. You, at birth, are assigned one of two class categories, and
are judged based on that categorization. If you fail to meet an adequate
benchmark for your category (if you do not act feminine or masculine
enough) you fall victim to the policing of that role. If a man dresses,
talks, or acts to femine he is called a fag, beta, pussy, soy boy. If a
woman does the same in a femine seance, she is called a dyke. If people
try to change their class assignment they are called a tranny,
misgendered, deadnamed and so on and so on and so on. It is important to
note that while these words are harmful, the real violence is in what
these words justify, they are an active part of the dehumanization
process that allows for violence, interpersonal and systematic, to take
place. While it's obviously immoral to kill an innocent woman, who gives
a shit if you kill that she-male, she tricked you. While every man
deserves the equal access to healthcare, fags deserve to die.
This is why the idea that gender is performative is fundamentally false.
Every boundary that is set on the acceptable forms of gender expression,
and for that matter the acceptable forms of gender identity, is set by
other people and social/cultural institutions that we have no power
over. Gender is performed, we do actions and are judged in an audition
that we didn't ask for, and that may very well be the difference in life
and death.
If gender is performed, and our gender is defined by other people, and
gender is a non-fluid class system, then what gives trans people the
ability to transition?
The premise of the question is flawed. It assumes that the process of
transitioning is socially legitimized and acceptable, something that you
are allowed to do, but it is anything but. Cis society, broadly, does
not accept and legitimize trans identity. While a sizable amount say
they do, they’re lying. They are attracted to the aesthetic of
acceptance, tolerance, and virtue. They don’t really see us as who we
say we are, but instead we are viewed as the extension of our deviation
from the acceptable norm of gender identity and expression. They say “we
think you are a woman” but they mean “we will pretend you are a woman.”
This boils down to the fundamental problem in trans discourse. We mix up
what is, with what ought to be. When I say that I am a trans woman, I
know for a fact that 99% of the people who I will be interacting with
will not see me as a woman (I mean look at me), but I still request that
people treat me as a woman, because I want to be a woman, and in some
futile attempt reach that dream I try to get people to assign me the
category of woman. Saying I’m a trans woman is not saying I am a woman,
it's a request. A request that can never, has never, and is not honored
by those around me because the world does not recognize trans women as
women, instead a degenerate, delusional deviation of a male.
The beauty, or perhaps the tragedy, behind this scheme is that gender
can be changed, it's a social construct. And if we are given enough
cultural power we can change that construct, uniting the Is: the class
version of gender, and the Ought: the performativity, and eventual
abolition of gender. The problem is that while we have hope we also have
to face the political reality, that at least in real life, we do not
have that power, but perhaps all we need to do is rethink what spaces we
can exert power in and how we can leverage that space to change our
culture. What spaces can win the war, how can we define what winning is,
and how do we turn the is into the ought.