Out of the Closet and Into the Streets by Emily Hardy

Author:Emily Hardy [Hardy, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, Gay Studies, Feminism & Feminist Theory
ISBN: 9781636764917
Google: 9cqOzgEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Emily Hardy
Published: 2021-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

Exclusivity in Action

Exclusivity inherent in the feminist movement remains incredibly dangerous. Just as exclusive concepts of womanhood in the First and Second Waves denied BIPOC people access to feminist spaces, TERF sects of the present enable similar forms of discrimination. Present production of gender and selective acceptance into feminist spaces are still steeped in cisgendered and heterosexual norms that fail to account for expression across the rainbow spectrum. The gendering of womanhood can be found in everything from targeted consumer branding at stores (a women’s section) to menstrual products (often specifically labeled as feminine hygiene or women’s products). In our conversation, Olivia noted the gendered branding of period products is one particular realm of gendering they find to be extremely harmful.

The exclusivity embedded in labels like feminine hygiene or women’s only period products insinuate only women or feminine people can menstruate. Of course, this is far from the case. Trans, intersex, and nonbinary individuals (all of whom vary across the masc-femme spectrum) can simultaneously identify as something other than a woman and yet menstruate or need to use menstrual products. The flip side is also true: one does not need to menstruate in order to access womanhood, feminism, or femininity. Instead, the introduction of gender-neutral terminology like “menstrual products” or “people who menstruate” can create a far more inclusive space that recognizes the diversity of people who need such items without delegating gendered stigma or ostracizing Queer needs. To Olivia, “it is degrading to boil down womanhood to the vagina.”

Menstrual products, makeup, dresses, and colors are all examples of items that have been gendered and yet have no reason to be. Society has invented the gendering process and with it, norms dictating appropriate behavior. Inherent in constant gendering and the emergence of cis women-only spaces is the exclusion of individuals who don’t conform to the cis man versus cis woman binary (trans and nonbinary) or male versus female paradigm (intersex). At the most fundamental level, feminism needs to recognize access to womanhood and feminism is no more predicated on genitalia than it is on one’s skin color.

The common denial of trans women or nonbinary individuals—especially masculine presenting or androgynous people—from accessing feminist spaces despite experiencing unique forms of gendered oppression is indicative of feminism’s attachment to binary concepts of sex and equality. Feminism has long since viewed masculinity as its enemy rather than the elements of WAATCCCH-patriarchy that have weaponized certain forms of masculinity to oppress people across the rainbow spectrum. Masculinity is not the problem. Plenty of individuals who perform masculinity simultaneously experience gendered oppression and discrimination. Rather, it is the institutions of WAATCCCH-patriarchy that need to be resisted through the process of ungendering the feminist definition. A vagina, uterus, or need to menstruate does not make someone a woman, nor does the absence of a vagina, uterus, or need to menstruate bar someone from being a woman. Woman is in the cultural mythology. It is in the invention of gender. It is in the process of socialization. And

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