The larger point Queen Emily is making is that saying "gender does not exist" is that it erases trans-spectrum experience. Queen Emily and other trans* people have every right to be angry at their lived experience being erased.
There are people born in male bodies who identify as female because of their subconscious sex. It is highly unlikely that it's because they're pressured to fit norms of femininity; rather, they're more likely to be pressured to fit norms of masculinity. Because of this experience, which falls on the trans spectrum (trans women) and is real, saying "gender is just some thing society made up" invalidates and erases their lives. That's why Queen Emily is pissed, and, frankly, I would be, too, if people kept telling me my life is fake.
Smashing oppositional sexism and traditional sexism will achieve the same goal (eliminating the rigid binary and allowing for "other" or "none of the above" to be an option) without erasing people's identities.
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chiming
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Date: 2010-06-23 01:45 am (UTC)From:There are people born in male bodies who identify as female because of their subconscious sex. It is highly unlikely that it's because they're pressured to fit norms of femininity; rather, they're more likely to be pressured to fit norms of masculinity. Because of this experience, which falls on the trans spectrum (trans women) and is real, saying "gender is just some thing society made up" invalidates and erases their lives. That's why Queen Emily is pissed, and, frankly, I would be, too, if people kept telling me my life is fake.
Smashing oppositional sexism and traditional sexism will achieve the same goal (eliminating the rigid binary and allowing for "other" or "none of the above" to be an option) without erasing people's identities.