A common theme brought up when feminists debate genderists is that not all trans* people are attempting to switch between two genders. (For those not in the loop, the asterisk after trans refers to transgender and transsexual individuals, as well as “genderqueer, Non-Binary, Genderfluid, Genderfuck, Intersex, Third gender, Transvestite, Cross-dresser, Bi-gender, Trans man, Trans woman, Agender“). From this wording alone, it is clear that those who do believe they are opting out of the gender binary are actually playing with gender.  If one is participating in a genderfuck or calls themselves genderfluid, there is still an assumption that two genders exist and that stereotypes from the two genders can be mixed and matched. But, what about someone who considers themselves not to have a gender at all? What is the feminist response to this?

We have different definitions of gender.  Queers and postmodernists, as well as the LGBTQ movement as a whole, sees gender as something that happens in one’s head. Various items and activities are assigned to each gender. If one hangs out in radical circles and has never strongly fit in with fellow members of her sex (in the case of women: not wearing make-up, being very into sports, not knowing “how” to dress, etc), she may start to question whether she is actually a woman. In the past, she might have been deemed a lesbian. Now, she may still be regarded as not “a proper” woman, but she has the option of not being woman-identified (note that this is NOT the same as “identifying as a woman.” Being woman-identified means identifying with women as a social class, not choosing to identify as a woman in your head). Instead she can say she’s not actually a woman at all. Thus, we end up with houses where different people, largely women, end up wanting to be called “zhe,” “they”, “hir”, etc and precious energy is spent making sure there is respect for each person’s pronoun of choice.

Feminists see gender as an arrangement of power between two social classes. This plays out differently in different places. Some examples include: rape, battery, incest, child marriage, FGM, and female infanticide. Although male supremacy takes different forms in different cultures, it still exists. The ones oppressed are still women.  How spending time making sure others use the preferred pronoun assists in dismantling this system, I do not know.

Additionally, feminists are angry that the prominent, male-based LGBTQ movement erases lesbian feminism. Today’s generation of women is taught to believing they cannot love other women unless they are “born that way”. Yet, we know that both women and men’s sexuality is capable of change. Indeed, lesbian existence more generally is erased under the LGBTQ label. There tend to be special groups for the other letters of the alphabet, but the needs that lesbians have, as women loving women in a patriarchal society, are completely dismissed by LGBTQ groups.

The vast majority of people self-identify as non-gendered are FAAB. It is important to look at who is doing what to whom. All of us are assigned a sex at birth and are forced into gender roles to go along with it. But, it is females who get the raw end of the deal, because virtually every part of  modern society is male-dominant, male-centered, and male-identified. Men have nothing to gain by seeing themselves as ‘non-genedered’ and a whole lot of entitlement to lose. But women are using this stance as a kind of personal escape route in an attempt to get out of the position of fuck-object. Additionally, demanding respect for one’s pronoun choices may be the first time a woman actually voices demands on her behalf.  Being vocal about one’s choice of gender is a way to feel empowered without having material power.

Personal solutions don’t bring down the system. Some, if not many, of the women who declare themselves outside of the gender binary do so at least  in part because they know just how brutal the system of gender hierarchy is. They want it to end, but how does one do that? Declaring oneself outside of the gender binary can make sense from this perspective. However, one has to ask what this is doing to really threaten power structures of oppression. Is a man not going to rape a woman because she self identifies as genderqueer? Somehow, I don’t think so. And when she is raped, she will still be raped as a woman.

This is because, under male supremacy, women are fuck-objects.  When men are raped, they take the social role of women as a rape victim. Men know this; to take but one example, a man raped in Abu-Grahib said a male soldier drew a woman on his back before he raped him. To the rapist, this man was socially male. It wouldn’t have mattered one iota whether this male “identified” as outside the binary; this would not have stopped his rape. (Keep in mind the likelihood of an individual male being raped in a male-prison is the same as a female being raped under what we currently call free conditions).

It’s much, much harder to think about creating a broad-based social movement to end the subordination of women to men than to make the personal choice to identify as outside the gender binary. The feminists that I know do not fit into some stereotypical feminine ideal, but they  don’t say doing so in itself is a political act. Not shaving one’s legs or wearing make-up, etc. are forms of individual of resistance that can help give women the self-respect to work on attacking larger political institution. But for that, we need an actual social movement.

None of us “consent” to gender. An argument I sometimes hear from trans* folks is that by not calling them whatever they wish to be called, people are imposing their will on them without their consent. I find this argument absolute ludicrous. As I have discussed previously, the entire argument in favor of “consent” uses an anti-feminist framework. Consent is not of importance under conditions of inequality. There are those who believe it’s perfectly fine for women to consent to being murdered and used for porn, as I learned recently (if you want details on that quote, email me). Next, none of us chose our gender, nor did we choose to be born under male supremacy, white supremacy, and capitalism. What is important is how we behave in our attempts to change such conditions.  Couldn’t it also be said that forcing women to accept people raised as men into our bathrooms is non-consensual? But somehow, the idea of women’s consent holds no importance in this case. Consent is a favorite word of rapists, and feminists reject it.

Feminists are not enforcing the system of gender by stating that women and men are social groups; it is male supremacy that creates the caste system in which women are fuck-objects. To bring down the system we need to dis-identify with it; in other words, women need to identify with their own social group. Men need to admit they have privilege and work with other men on figuring out the root sources of male entitlement and domination. (HINT!! Rape culture needs to stop! Men need to stop owning women’s bodies, whether via rape or FGM).

Once again, I ask you: how can we bring down patriarchy if some women won’t even say that they’re women? A social movement cannot happen until we name and describe reality. The gender we are is one such (social) reality. Getting together with other women to talk about our lives may not be as much fun as “fucking” with gender (who is the one getting fucked, I wonder?), but it is essential in working towards an egalitarian society.

For more on how patriarchy operates as a structural system, I recommend Marilyn Frye’s Politics of Reality and Allan Johnson’s The Gender Knot.