I just saw someone say transfem solidarity was somehow less intersectional than broader trans solidarity. I don't think you people know what intersectionality is about and should probably stop saying it until you do.
Like, why do you think the Combahee River Collective split off from the broader civil rights movement? Like the fundamental motivation behind intersectionality theory was that broad liberationary movements cannot appropriately address. Anti-racism movements did not solve misogynoir, and neither did feminist movements. There was a need for solidarity among specifically Black women to address their unique form of oppression. That's the foundation of intersectionality!
Transfem solidarity outside broader trans solidarity is literally intersectionality in action. Neither broad trans movements nor feminist movements can appropriately address transmisogyny, so there is a need for a specific transfeminist solidarity movement. Think about the meaning of the words you use for god's sake
@jake2 I would counter that black transfem solidarity would be intersectionality in action. What I see in general transfem solidarity is just a farcical repeat of second wave feminism. And a general reactionary retreat from the third wave approach generally.
@FinalOverdrive i would agree with the first sentence except for its framing as a counter. wouldn't agree with the rest at all.
@jake2 I'm just calling it as I see it. All I see is a growing cultural and political and economic gap between black trans women and everyone else. What does the blåhaj obsessed, disprortionately computer programming centered subculture I see really have to do with them? Or anyone outside a few scattered countries? And a tiny section of these places at that.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. All I see here is a path to assimilation, not revolution or even effective reform. Mark my words, unless we get our heads out of our collective asses and realize that white trans fems with programming chops aren't the most put upon creatures on Earth, this will end the way the second wave did. As a joke, a punchline, and eventually slipping into senility as younger successors stare flabbergasted as white trans women, in an irony of irony, recreated the cliquey narrow millieu of the second wave, only trans.
It's important to remember the Combahee Collective was in no way separatist or allowed themselves to only be concerned with their problems. Without subordinating their struggle to black men, they still recognized that were bound by a common experience of racial oppression, however much misogyny shaped it. Likewise, while being very critical of the larger feminist movement, they still did not remain separaye from it. I can go on down the list, but this would be longer than it already is.
The point is, they understood you can't solve anything by picking up your toys and stomping off. They did both support the larger black struggle while fighting the patriarchal bullshit in it. They supported the larger women struggle while attacking the overwhelming whiteness of it, often in concert with women from other racialized groups.
Lesbian separatism wasn't cute when it was cis, it's a tragic farce when we do it. A struggle is only effective when it is intimately interwoven with every other, centered on the most marginalized and defined around their needs. At least cis lesbian separatism ended in the face of AIDS. Nothing like a disease to remind one of common destiny.
If we really want to honor Combahee's legacy, then that means collaborating with others even when it's not fun, while not taking shit. It means not aspiring to anything resembling white womanhood in the slightest detail. It means not being monomaniacally dedicated exclusive to ones own liberation, without subordibating it to others. It means bringing our whole selves into every struggle.
I hope that I am misreading the situation online. Maybe it is more promising offline. Let me end on something.
Sisterhood in the face of everything tormenting the world is not a natural given. It must be constructed in such a way that it doesn't merely center on a parochial section of trans woman world. It is so much richer and interesting than blåhaj and endless computer jokes. I know I stated my point bluntly, even harshly. This is only because this is something I care deeply about. The only way we get free is by actively supporting the struggles of others, while insisting that we are no second banana, their liberty bound up with ours in shared struggle.
This is only my subjective point of view from my limited observstion.
This was much longer than expected
@jake2 @FinalOverdrive do you really think white trans women are mostly programmers? The white trans women I know in real life are unskilled and constantly homeless
@destroy @jake2 I have no doubt that is the case. And even those lucky enough to be in the blåhaj ranks are one bad day away from joining that majority. But that doesn't change how I described that particular set, and the effect they have on the larger millieu, who it includes and who it doesn't...and its proximity to white womanhood. I say none of this in anger and hatred. And jake has largely corrected me in my judgement about the ranks of white trans women. I admit i overstated the case.
I speak as someone who, also, generally finds the blåhaj set charming on most days.