double standards from those looking in from the outside
This post took a while to write, the date when I started, (18th August), is International Butch Appreciation Day.
Not to take anything away from this, but the obsession some have with conflating expression and gender roles with gender identity will come into play here and that's what i'm going to write about.
In fact expression has little or nothing to do with what I'm writing this about ... gender expression is great fun to play with, just don't ask me to present myself in a masculine manner because it upsets, depresses and even disgusts me ... having spent as long as I did expressing in masculine way due to the pressures of society I cannot stomach it any more ...
But does this mean Nicola is just a flowery dresses and tutus kind of girl all about arrogantly performing femininity for others? what those who are excluding of trans women in particular like to call 'woman face' to make a false equivalence with stage performers in 'blackface'
Really? how reductive is that...
In my job, for practicality reasons I wear composite toe safety boots, combat trousers , polo shirt and if it's chilly a fleece gilet / jacket topped off with a high vis... because I'm in and out of the warehouse, sometimes hands on actually doing order fulfillment and along with other members of the team I'm part of we do spend some of our time driving forklifts etc.
So perhaps my style outside of work is rather more femme than it might be if I worked in a role where everyday was office attire...
The whole personal presentation thing has been done to death...
Behaviours however turn into a battle ground, when the 'gender critical' / trans exclusionary types, in their unholy alliance with the religious right start policing gender.
If a cisgender woman fixes her car it's all about how she's no-one's fool and is sticking it to the patriarchy ... If a trans women enjoys cars , never mind fixes her car, she's 'not trying hard enough', 'hankering after still being a man' and the like...
What's even worse however, is when a trans woman or AMAB (assigned male at birth) genderfluid person does something that traditional gender roles determines to be the preserve of women, or something where white, middle class cisgender women need to be protected from those who do not meet some arbitrary standard of femininity.
Not to take anything away from this, but the obsession some have with conflating expression and gender roles with gender identity will come into play here and that's what i'm going to write about.
In fact expression has little or nothing to do with what I'm writing this about ... gender expression is great fun to play with, just don't ask me to present myself in a masculine manner because it upsets, depresses and even disgusts me ... having spent as long as I did expressing in masculine way due to the pressures of society I cannot stomach it any more ...
But does this mean Nicola is just a flowery dresses and tutus kind of girl all about arrogantly performing femininity for others? what those who are excluding of trans women in particular like to call 'woman face' to make a false equivalence with stage performers in 'blackface'
Really? how reductive is that...
In my job, for practicality reasons I wear composite toe safety boots, combat trousers , polo shirt and if it's chilly a fleece gilet / jacket topped off with a high vis... because I'm in and out of the warehouse, sometimes hands on actually doing order fulfillment and along with other members of the team I'm part of we do spend some of our time driving forklifts etc.
So perhaps my style outside of work is rather more femme than it might be if I worked in a role where everyday was office attire...
The whole personal presentation thing has been done to death...
Behaviours however turn into a battle ground, when the 'gender critical' / trans exclusionary types, in their unholy alliance with the religious right start policing gender.
If a cisgender woman fixes her car it's all about how she's no-one's fool and is sticking it to the patriarchy ... If a trans women enjoys cars , never mind fixes her car, she's 'not trying hard enough', 'hankering after still being a man' and the like...
What's even worse however, is when a trans woman or AMAB (assigned male at birth) genderfluid person does something that traditional gender roles determines to be the preserve of women, or something where white, middle class cisgender women need to be protected from those who do not meet some arbitrary standard of femininity.
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