Day 30: Hero and Villain

One of my favourite people, on chat shows, review shows, and for comments on current affairs, is Germaine Greer. I've always loved her on everything I've ever seen her on, and while she might at first sound as though she is being reactionary and unpleasant about something, she always has a well thought-out point of view that I generally find I share. She has a way of cutting through the bullshit that I find particularly endearing, and is able to engage with the modern world without seeming massively out-of-touch. She is able to send herself up, and appear in the most lowbrow as well as the most highbrow of places. She is one of my all-time heroes.

But.

I just don't understand her attitude to trans women. She seems to have said things that are massively transphobic,  as detailed here. But they seem to be the words of someone who has had very little contact with trans women, and she seems to be rushing to conclusions which are just bizarre.

I mean yes, I can see how some trans women are like drag queens, and dress and act completely wrong for their age and level of attractiveness, but that's true of some cis women as well, surely? I can understand that position, even if not sympathise with it, but I feel like her real position hasn't been drawn out yet, all we have are a few out of context sentences in wider-ranging texts. Are some trans women horrible people? Of course. So are some natal women. And some men. You can't write off millions of people because of blind prejudice.

For the record, I don't agree with the principle of transexuality being just linked to a brain sex difference. I suspect that difference is also present in a lot of effeminate men who end up just identifying as gay, for instance. I think a lot of people who end up being trans probably don't have it at all. It is just the gender you identify with, and that can have a million disparate causes. I am with the feminists on the notion of gender identification being largely cultural (which means, individually, psychological). And no, that doesn't mean you can be talked out of it, any more than you can be talked out of your sexuality, or dyslexia, or epilepsy, all of which may also have psychological roots.

What I have trouble understanding is why, knowing/believing that as she apparently does, she thinks that identifying as a female requires having been born with an inny instead of an outy. If gender is cultural, then not identifying with that culture is open to all. If a woman can choose to be masculine, I can choose to be feminine. If she wants to argue over the words alone, she is assigning them too much weight. If she thinks a woman should not be limited to a role because of that, I should not be limited to a role because of this either. We choose our identities. Women are freer to choose now than men are, and hence transition to male much more rarely. I hate that gender is so damned important to everything at all, but while it is, and while it makes such a difference to how people treat you, and how we think of ourselves, transition is necessary.

I despise the Men's Rights movements that I've found thus far, because while women's rights movements are about the choice to be more male, in their power, rights, roles and responsibilities, the men's rights movements are about the choice to be allowed not to have to change. I want the choice to be feminine, but I am so constrained by society that I recognise I cannot be happy in myself or accepted in society without transition, at least socially. Greer appears to want the movement all one way, as though she feels that all female roles are inherently inferior. That is wrong, on so many levels. And I would love the opportunity to confront her about that, and either make her justify or explain her position. Because it is one on which I believe her feminism stands or falls.

Greer is a very clever woman. There is not one subject I have heard her discuss at length upon which I have not agreed with her. I have not heard her discuss this at length, and I refuse to write her off because of what may just be a couple of badly thought through sentences. I reserve my judgement until I have seen my questions posed and answered to my satisfaction.