Author Archives: Valerie Kominer

Final Reflection

Valerie Kominer

Professor Ashton

WGST 1001

20 December 2021

 

Upon entering this class, I thought I knew what to expect. Just by simply looking at the name of the class, I thought that it would be a generalized version of women, gender, and society. After the first day of class, I quickly realized that this class was not going to be the “typical” class. It was a breath of fresh air to have a professor take time in the beginning to ask how people’s days and classes were going. More specifically, it was so nice to have the professor give actual feedback to the student’s personal problems and care about them, rather just asking for the sake of seeming nice. Additionally, the class took a very informal approach to education as a whole. We spent a lot of time talking about current issues and how they connect to sexism and misogyny. The same applied for assignments, as students would get a voice on both the progression of assignments and the rubric. Overall, it was a great class to take as I entered my final year of college.

There were a couple of interesting topics that we covered over the course of the semester. One that was particularly interesting was our discussion of TERFs. Finding out about a radical group of women who denounce the trans-community due to extreme ideals surrounding gender was shocking. I found it interesting to hear the professor’s comments about the hypocrisy surrounding the group, along with their strange definitions of activism. Another topic that stood out to me was the discussion of the history of transgender activism. Reading an article about the first protests and civil discourse that surrounded it was very moving. The professor would often connect the topics that we were learning, with her research from the book that she is currently writing, which gave a very interesting perspective on both how little and how much progress has been made.

The blog posts were my favorite part of the class. It was nice to get one topic and focus your research on that and that only. It allowed me to write a piece that contained a lot of information from both the text and my background knowledge. Having time in class to ask your peers for edits was also insightful, because I was able to hear people’s opinion on both my writing and the information before submitting it for a final grade. The two-step writing process, of a draft and a final, was a nice addition to the class, because it allowed me to improve my writing in order to get the best grade possible. I got very lucky with the peers who reviewed my writing because they really took the time to read and give me great feedback. As a result, I found myself doing the same when I was asked to review other’s work, which hopefully gave them the opportunity to improve their writing as well. It also gave me so many different perspectives on what we were learning, which aided in my understanding of the topics and provided me with more comprehensive answers to share out in class.

The group that I was in for the final project chose to research gender stereotypes. I really liked being able to choose a topic and have full creative control over the presentation. Because of this freedom, my group chose to cover different professions which resulted in a great presentation. Personally, I really like to study history, so I chose to cover the historical perspective in relation to hegemonic masculinity and toxic perceptions of gender. We were given plenty of time to work on this in class, which was helpful as we did not have to worry about reaching out to people outside of class to meet. My group discussed everything that we needed to in class and worked on it together. This not only decreased my stress levels but made me more confident when presenting.

Overall, I think that the format of this class took into consideration the student and craziness that is this pandemic. There was a lot of discussion about the topics, the assignments, and the ways for students to deal with everything as a whole. I think that I truly improved my public writing skills and learned a lot about the ways that gender has been misconstrued over the course of history.

Radicalism Behind TERF – Valerie Kominer

Radicalism Behind TERF

Throughout time, people have clung to the idea of normalcy. People often treated normalcy as a standard, a sort of ingroup sense of belonging. While this may seem like a positive attribute in society, the reality is the completely opposite. Normalcy, as an idea, was set by the straight white wealthy man. As a result, it was in their favor to set the norm to fit their template. Therefore, anyone who did not fit that same template was left not only in the outgroup, but facing all sorts of discrimination. One community that has faced and continues to face scrutiny is the transgender community. For years, the trans community was not able to even be considered a thriving part of society, with their existence marked as unworthy of a seat at the table. From a twenty-first century progressive perspective, it may seem insane to think that people were seen as “not human” simply because of their sexuality, yet transphobia has been and continues to be a huge issue in our society.

In Julia Serano’s article, “Thoughts about transphobia, TERFs, and TUMFs,” Serano goes into great detail discussing the various types of transphobias and how they affect society as a whole. That being said, it was shocking to hear how the very movement that credits itself with societal progression, is the one that is feeding into transphobia. TERF is “an acronym for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists,” a subgroup of radical feminists (who sometimes self-identify as “gender critical” feminists) that are strongly opposed to transgender identities, experiences, and rights” (Serano 7). It was very interesting to hear how their reasoning for their inherent transphobia juxtaposes the one used by the alt-right community. Rather than using religion or societal norms as their justification, they reinterpreted progressive ideals to fit their own narrative. They believe that gender is a man-made class system that thrives through the oppression of women. While the toxic nature behind gender is an idea that is common in the progressive community, they managed to twist it to make trans people the oppressors rather than the victims. They believe that the transgender community reinforces the class system, specifically trans women who infiltrate the “women’s spaces” (Serano 4).

I have always known there are exceptions to every rule. We, as a society, do not have a definitive mold on how a group of people think. The right can have left-leaning views and the same can be said vice versa. However, the ideology behind the TERF movement was so bothersome to me, as it was yet another example of how people act high and mighty strictly for the sake of pushing their viewpoint forward. It is so disheartening to hear how women who stand up for gender-based injustices are not willing to do the same for people who go through the same issues. You would think that there would be some sort of compassion towards people who are clearly suffering, especially in the progressive circle. One mainstream feminist even went as far to say, “trans women are not women,” it is not because they adhere to a unilateral radical feminist perspective that asserts that the goal of feminism is to bring an “end to gender,” and that trans women (as well as sex workers, feminine women, sex-positive feminists, etc.) are “reinforcing gender.” (Serano 5). As discussed in class, there is a spectrum of thought when it comes to progressivity. However, saying that trans women are any less of a woman due to their genitalia goes against all ideas of inclusivity. Additionally, making these claims about sex workers and feminine workers is ironic given that these women are embracing their femininity/sexuality, which is exactly what started the feminist movement to begin with.

Reading this type of material only reinforces the idea that victims of inequality, such as the transgender community, face hardships that are very difficult to overcome. When you are scapegoated by the public from every side, it is difficult to find a safe haven to belong to. Therefore, it is important to remember that despite radical opinions, a human being needs to be treated with the utmost compassion and respect, no matter the genitalia.

Work Cited:

 

Serano, Julia. “Thoughts about Transphobia, Terfs, and Tumfs.” Medium, Medium, 23 Oct. 2019, https://juliaserano.medium.com/thoughts-about-transphobia-terfs-and-tumfs-b77a18c1a225.

Blog Post Draft- Valerie Kominer

Throughout time, people have clung to the idea of normalcy. People often treated normalcy as a standard, a sort of ingroup sense of belonging. While this may seem like a positive attribute in society, the reality is the completely opposite. Normalcy, as an idea, was set by the straight white wealthy man. As a result, it was in their favor to set the norm to fit their template. Therefore, anyone who did not fit that same template was left not only in the outgroup, but facing all sorts of discrimination. One community that has faced and continues to face scrutiny is the transgender community. For years, the trans community was not able to even be considered a thriving part of society, with their existence marked as unworthy of a seat at the table. From a twenty-first century progressive perspective, it may seem insane to think that people were seen as “not human” simply because of their sexuality, yet transphobia has been and continues to be a huge issue in our society.

In Julia Serano’s article, “Thoughts about transphobia, TERFs, and TUMFs,” Serano goes into great detail discussing the various types of transphobias and how they affect society as a whole. That being said, it was shocking to hear how the very movement that credits itself with societal progression, is the one that is feeding into transphobia. TERF is “an acronym for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists,” a subgroup of radical feminists (who sometimes self-identify as “gender critical” feminists) that are strongly opposed to transgender identities, experiences, and rights” (Serano 7). It was very interesting to hear how their reasoning for their inherent transphobia juxtaposes the one used by the alt-right community. Rather than using religion or societal norms as their justification, they reinterpreted progressive ideals to fit their own narrative. They believe that gender is a man-made class system that thrives through the oppression of women. While the toxic nature behind gender is an idea that is common in the progressive community, they managed to twist it to make trans people the oppressors rather than the victims. They believe that the transgender community reinforces the class system, specifically trans women who infiltrate the “women’s spaces” (Serano 4).

I have always known there are exceptions to every rule. We, as a society, do not have a definitive mold on how a group of people think. The right can have left-leaning views and the same can be said vice versa. However, the ideology behind the TERF movement was so bothersome to me, as it was yet another example of how people act high and mighty strictly for the sake of pushing their viewpoint forward. It is so disheartening to hear how women who stand up for gender-based injustices are not willing to do the same for people who go through the same issues. You would think that there would be some sort of compassion towards people who are clearly suffering, especially in the progressive circle. One mainstream feminist even went as far to say, “trans women are not women,” it is not because they adhere to a unilateral radical feminist perspective that asserts that the goal of feminism is to bring an “end to gender,” and that trans women (as well as sex workers, feminine women, sex-positive feminists, etc.) are “reinforcing gender.” (Serano 5). As discussed in class, there is a spectrum of thought when it comes to progressivity. However, saying that trans women are any less of a woman due to their genitalia goes against all ideas of inclusivity. Additionally, making these claims about sex workers and feminine workers is ironic given that these women are embracing their femininity/sexuality, which is exactly what started the feminist movement to begin with.

Reading this type of material only reinforces the idea that victims of inequality, such as the transgender community, face hardships that are very difficult to overcome. When you are scapegoated by the public from every side, it is difficult to find a safe haven to belong to. Therefore, it is important to remember that despite radical opinions, a human being needs to be treated with the utmost compassion and respect, no matter the genitalia.

Work Cited:

 

Serano, Julia. “Thoughts about Transphobia, Terfs, and Tumfs.” Medium, Medium, 23 Oct. 2019, https://juliaserano.medium.com/thoughts-about-transphobia-terfs-and-tumfs-b77a18c1a225.