On the 'Cotton Ceiling' controversy

[marjaerwin]

As a lesbian womon, I am tired of the pressure to make myself romantically and bodily available to men. In straight circles, other womyn have insisted that every womon is really heterosexual and I'm in denial. In queer circles, some womyn and some men have insisted that everyone is really pansexual and I'm in denial. I think it's important to have people and communities which respect our lesbian identities.

As a trans womon, I am tired of the messages that tell us that our bodies are wrong, no matter where we are on the healing process, or that our identities are wrong. I am tired of the messages that tell our sisters that if they are attracted to trans womyn, they aren't really lesbian, and I am tired of the messages that tell us that if we're attracted to non-trans womyn we're intruders and if we're attracted to other trans womyn we're fetishists. Or 'pretendbians.'

You know what? I don't think anyone should feel pressure to sleep with trans womyn, or to never sleep with trans womyn. I do think it's important to recognize the body-policing and body-devaluing and work against them. And I really think it's past time to stop devaluing each other's identities and stop saying someone isn't lesbian because she is, or isn't, attracted to certain womyn's bodies.

Anyway, there's a brief anti-inclusion mention of the controversy here: http://bugbrennan.com/2012/03/13/178/

And this is also relevant, although I think sexualization and desexualization are both major problems: http://gudbuytjane.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/dating-from-the-margins-1/

Comments

[marjaerwin]

I got the implication from your comments and especially from Femonade's comments that you don't think womon-loving trans womyn are lesbians, and you don't think other womon-loving non-trans womyn who are involved with trans womyn are lesbians.

I don't think either side should be pressuring womon-loving womyn to be attracted to trans womyn or to never be attracted to trans womyn. Some will be, some won't be.

[cathy brennan (from livejournal.com)]

A penis is not a female organ. Easy peasy.

You be you. Best wishes to you!

[valeriekeefe.livejournal.com]

You think that by repeating your tautologies we will somehow come to understand. Actually, Cathy, womyn like us do understand, we just don't believe your insular worldview, one that would pretend that men are womyn by dint of mullerian bits or birth assignment, or that womyn are men by dint of a lack of mullerian bits or being coercively assigned at birth at variance with neurological sex.

[bugbrennan.livejournal.com]

blah blah blah - keep talking about mullerian bits, it's helpful.

[valeriekeefe.livejournal.com]

I come to expect more high-minded debate from someone who brags and blags [sic] about the precision she learned in education. That it isn't forthcoming is not surprising. Your need to engage without said logic and precision is, however, most surprising.

It's a shame, I hear Jesuit and I think of the crystal clear liberalism of Trudeau. I would have greatly enjoyed debating someone of that intellectual calibre. Do you think it's the LSE that teaches argument beyond a repetition of the thrust of the thesis?