Reddit mentions of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

One book that really resonated with me and my own experiences was Julia Serano's Whipping Girl. There's a lot of stuff that critiques feminism and talks about how masculinity and femininity are treated in society, but for you the most interesting parts will probably be her personal anecdotes. The most important thing you can take away from it is that everyone has a radically different experience.

When did your character realize they were transgender? When and how did they transition? How supportive or hostile was their environment, and how did they feel about themselves? Keep in mind that being transgender affects so many parts of your life, but in the end it is only one part of you. Trans people are people, just like everyone else, and we come in all different types and flavors. We can be introverts or extroverts, kind or cruel, insightful or oblivious, artists or accountants, saints or sinners. Figure out who your character is, who the playwright has written her as and how you are interpreting her, and then figure out how being a transwoman has shaped and influenced her. And after you've done that, I would go to your trans friends and ask if your interpretation has any unrealistic or offensive stereotypes. I can't imagine them being upset if you're sincere and coming from a place of respect. And if you don't feel comfortable, you can always ask reddit.

I'm going to type out a paragraph from Julia Serrano's extremely smart book Whipping Girl and let you see if any of it sounds familiar:

"When I hit puberty, my newly found attraction to women spilled into my dreams of becoming a girl. For me, sexuality became a strange combination of jealousy, self-loathing, and lust. Because when you isolate an impressionable transgender teen and bombard her with billboard ads baring bikini-clad women and boys' locker roomn trash talk about this girl's tits and that girl's ass, then she will learn to turn her gender identity into a fetish."

Whipping Girl should be required reading.

Not doing summaries/reviews, cause it's late and I'm tired. On request, I suppose. Mostly books, with a couple docs and a few blogs.


Less theory, more personal experiences:

• Stone Butch Blues (fiction)
  
• S/He
  
• 3 to Infinity: Beyond Two Genders
  
• Gender Failure
  
• Neutrois Nonsense
  
• Asexy Sex
  
• (a)sexual
  
  Actually Theory:
  
  
• Not Your Mom's Trans 101
  
• My (new) Gender Workbook
  
• You and Your Gender Identity (The author also has some videos)
  
• Any of the videos or articles Zinnia Jones does
  
• As Nature Made Him
  
• Whipping Girl
  
• Queer Theory: An Introduction
  
• Gender Outlaw
  
• Gender Outlaws (same author, different books)
  
• Transgender Warriors
  
• Sexing the Body
  
  And a couple links I make it a point to share whenever I can:
  
  
• Trans 101 (for trans people
  
• there are some things I need to tell you

Cissexual is the full term, cis is actually the abbreviation. It's as opposed to transsexual, although that term has fallen out of use. So I guess I was meaning to say cisgender, but I've been reading Whipping Girl and the author uses slightly older terminology so I've been mentally using her words lately.

Oof, that's a tough one. I really like Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber, This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin and Whipping Girl by Julia Serano.

Yep, I always recommend her book, Whipping Girl, to tons of people.

A book by Julia Serano

Nicht /u/sandmaninasylum , aber das absolute Standardwerk ist Whipping Girl von Julia Serano.

I'd personally suggest reading Whipping GirlWhipping Girl for a surface level understanding on top of taking to trans girls. There's a few details in your post that suggest you have the right idea, but definitely do need some more research - like how you used "Male to Female" as a noun, when it's an adjective (which can be slightly offensive). Also, many trans woman prefer not to identify with / as male at all, so you'd be hard pressed to find someone who calls themselves even a MtF woman in real life. I'll PM you my email for if you want to chat more!

Absolutely. I'm loving it so far. This is one: https://www.amazon.com/Whipping-Girl-Transsexual-Scapegoating-Femininity/dp/1580056229

Some of the chapters are kind of information dense (like a college textbook) which are difficult for me to read because my brain doesn't work as well as it used to, but other than that it's very insightful.

Even though I'm being blocked from transitioning right now, the book makes me want to get more involved in the community and activism. It gives me a reason not to kill myself.

its patriarchal bullshit. homosexuality is a "threat" to straight, male dominated society - not a real threat, just a perceived threat. the statistics for intimate partner violence, rape, abuse, as well as suicide for bisexual women are almost as high as for transgender women - which is astonishing when you think about it. discounting transgender women, bisexual women rate the highest in these categories. because of this, bisexual women are only tolerated insofar as they amuse and please the whims of straight men.

the rates for these issue for bisexual men are the highest in their category. at least according to a presentation i recently saw on bisexual health (geared towards health care workers). admittedly, it was a couple years old and did not include statistics for transgender people, so i cannot say that bisexual men are statistically treated worse then transgender men, and i haven't looked for more information at the moment.

there was a great section in julia serrano's book Whipping Girl where she described patriarchal reaction to femininity, a thing she called Effemimania. which is basically the contempt and controls put on feminine people in a patriarchal society. in effemimania, abuse is heaped disproportionately on trans women because of their perceived threat to masculinity and "traditional" gender roles. i feel like bisexuals fall into this because we challenge what they believe are "traditional" sexual mores.

And I'll be honest with you; I was wary of transgender rights and issues when it was first being talked about. I found I didn't have enough information about trans folk. So...I looked for stories.

May I suggest some books that helped me to understand?

https://www.amazon.com/Shes-Not-There-Life-Genders/dp/0385346972

https://janetmock.com/redefiningrealness/

https://www.amazon.com/Whipping-Girl-Transsexual-Scapegoating-Femininity/dp/1580056229

I'm amazed no one has mentioned this yet, but Julia Serano's books (The Whipping Girl and Excluded) both discuss this in great detail with a focus on anti-trans and anti-bisexual discrimination in queer/feminist circles.

Definitely worth checking out if you're interested in this stuff.

This is a good place for asking questions for sure. I only meant that in this specific example if you want a direct answer then the person on YouTube would be a good option... and it's worth stating that if someone is putting videos of themselves on the internet with the express point of transgender topics going on then I have a feeling they wouldn't mind a friendly and respectful question like you're asking.

If you're interested in learning more about trans people I highly suggest this book, it's a quick read and very informative.

• Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580056229

Reading it right now and it's so great, please go buy a copy

Sure, susans.org is a huge forum with allies and partners and trans people of all stripes.

This website is part of the Silvia Rivera project who is a rather well known leader in the community, since Stonewall, who died of cancer.
https://srlp.org/resources/trans-101/

There’s tons of trans vloggers you can go to. Most but not all have a 101 video, and/or talk about their experiences being trans. Here’s a list:
https://blog.feedspot.com/transgender_youtube_channels/

There’s a number of authors you may look into as well, here’s some books:
https://www.amazon.com/Whipping-Girl-Transsexual-Scapegoating-Femininity/dp/1580056229
https://www.amazon.com/Redefining-Realness-Path-Womanhood-Identity/dp/1476709130/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543615079&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=janet+mock&dpPl=1&dpID=5179e6QMxzL&ref=plSrch
https://www.amazon.com/Surpassing-Certainty-What-Twenties-Taught/dp/1501145797/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1543615079&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=janet+mock&dpPl=1&dpID=511ZZslW8TL&ref=plSrch
https://www.amazon.com/Transgender-History-second-Todays-Revolution/dp/158005689X/ref=pd_aw_sbs_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=158005689X&pd_rd_r=0ddc8e87-f4eb-11e8-8ad5-2179f688e965&pd_rd_w=dZYLz&pd_rd_wg=l40fZ&pf_rd_i=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=926ebe02-3236-40c6-ac63-01ad178f498a&pf_rd_r=7XK0K0TEGTZS8SNQ9YMP&pf_rd_s=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=7XK0K0TEGTZS8SNQ9YMP
https://www.amazon.com/Trans-Bodies-Selves-Transgender-Community/dp/0199325359/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_of_15?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0199325359&pd_rd_r=0ddc8e87-f4eb-11e8-8ad5-2179f688e965&pd_rd_w=mqDub&pd_rd_wg=l40fZ&pf_rd_i=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=57b46099-d750-4d74-83ee-63ad64b310a4&pf_rd_r=7XK0K0TEGTZS8SNQ9YMP&pf_rd_s=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=7T7APJ7MA85RWVJHJW5T
https://www.amazon.com/Shes-Not-There-Life-Genders/dp/0385346972/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_of_17?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0385346972&pd_rd_r=0ddc8e87-f4eb-11e8-8ad5-2179f688e965&pd_rd_w=mqDub&pd_rd_wg=l40fZ&pf_rd_i=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=57b46099-d750-4d74-83ee-63ad64b310a4&pf_rd_r=7XK0K0TEGTZS8SNQ9YMP&pf_rd_s=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=BNNAHM1QDG52M4D25XX2
https://www.amazon.com/Gender-Outlaw-Men-Women-Rest/dp/1101973242/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_of_20?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1101973242&pd_rd_r=0ddc8e87-f4eb-11e8-8ad5-2179f688e965&pd_rd_w=mqDub&pd_rd_wg=l40fZ&pf_rd_i=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=57b46099-d750-4d74-83ee-63ad64b310a4&pf_rd_r=7XK0K0TEGTZS8SNQ9YMP&pf_rd_s=mobile-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=WC57YE4ZTSS8XPR20CRY

>Your own experience is irrelevant when it based on nonsense.

My experience of gender dysphoria, as a trans person, is nonsense? Wut?

>That's ironic, we aren't making the sense we think we are? You haven't heard yourselves, clearly.

Says the one who gets in a tizzy at the mere mention of gender identity? I can call it 'subconscious sex' a la Julia Serano if you prefer?

>The point is, gender identity shouldn't be taught as a bunch of nonsense.

A subconscious sex differing from our sexes bodies is the reason we transition to lessen the gender dysphoria this causes. Without it, what motivation can be provided for gender re-assignment?

>Homophobic nonsense, usually.

Wut?

A person's subconscious sex is independent from their sexual orientation.

>Gender is regressive and I'm glad people are getting fed up of it being reinforced when sex is what matters.

The way society structures expectations around gender can certainly be regressive, as those same structures would be when applied to sex.

To me, your statement is as nonsensical as "democracy is regressive and I'm glad people are getting fed up of it being reinforced when politics is what matters."

>Most people literally couldn't care less what you identify as, it changes nothing. & The language matters as it is an attempt to validate it with terminology irrelevant to dysphoria.

Validate what?