also tbh, while it is good that Serano later admitted that WG had issues in its scope and how it depicted nonbinary people & trans men and the need for further terminology etc., i do not feel like she has fully taken accountability for the impact of her book. what accountability would look like, to me, is becoming outspoken on nonbinary issues, challenging exorsexism in the community, and educating people on anti-nonbinary attitudes.
Whipping Girl was originally intended to be a book of personal essays, and as such, it is replete with my own personal stories and perspectives on the world. Of course, these particular anecdotes and interpretations stem in part from me being socially situated as a white, middle-class, able-bodied, “generation X,” out, queer-identified transsexual woman living in a major city in the U.S in the early 2000s. But now that it is often presented in classrooms and other settings as an “authoritative” or “definitive” book about trans people and issues, its rather specific focus unfortunately results in a number of other important topics getting relatively less consideration. Whipping Girl offers little discussion about the issues and experiences of non-binary-identified people, intersex people, trans male/masculine-spectrum people, straight-identified trans people, trans people of color and other cultures, and so forth. Over the years, numerous people have expressed to me their disappointment in these omissions. Had I known at the time that the book would one day be viewed as an authoritative or definitive “transgender book,” I probably would have written it very differently: less personal and transsexual-focused, and more general and intersectional. But, for better or worse, it is what it is: the perspective of one individual trans woman situated in a particular time and place.
I’d like to think that Whipping Girl makes numerous points that remain insightful or useful. But I will be the first to admit that it is far from the whole story, and I am grateful for the many other gender-variant writers of various identities, backgrounds, generations, and geographies that are filling in the many gaps that the book overlooks.
and yet, i feel like we keep hearing this song and dance and nothing ever changes. "whoops, i excluded nonbinary people and trans men, my bad! i'm not gonna really do anything about that, though, i'll leave it up to other people to talk about that stuff"
and then what happens? nothing. there never is a larger reckoning with these issues, with the erasure, with the fact that no one is as interested in talking about exorsexism or anti-transmasculinity not because trans women are remotely privileged, but because those issues cannot be narrated into cissexist feminist frameworks as easily. which is why its also so frustrating because if we actually TALK about these issues, we can start critiquing cissexism on an even deeper level and push feminism further and further to where it needs to go.
but back to Serano. i don't think the issue of the "queerer than thou" stereotype can be laid entirely at the feet of Serano, but her very very popular book she admits is taken as authoritative does spend quite a bit of time promoting that way of thinking. its frustrating that she doesn't seem to feel there's anything else to do for nonbinary people other than go "yeah its not a perfect book because it was about my experiences" and your experience being bigoted against nonbinary people? which contributes to and helps legitimize bigotry against nonbinary people in the community at large? she says if she had known it was going to be viewed this way, she would've made it "more general and intersectional," but are we meant to believe that the Serano who wrote paragraphs on subversivism would have been capable of writing a text that wasn't exorsexist at the time? the problem here is a little deeper than "the book was meant to be personal."
it just feels like another example of how not being exorsexist is seen as a matter of politeness, and not a matter of justice. the problem isn't that you didn't check our box, its that you are contributing to our oppression. its not that its rude to leave us out or forget our identities exist, its that being nonbinary has a real, material impact on people's lives, and plays a role in patriarchy and gender oppression, and we are constantly getting fucked over by people who claim to care about these things and then when called on it, they go (at best!) "oh yeah, my bad, someone else can write about that" and then nothing. ever. changes.
like. at bare minimum she should write as much about exorsexism and misandrogyny, and in as much detail, as she has about "subverisivism." i need her to go through a 12 week class on nonbinary oppression and the degree of forced/coerced binarization that occurs even in queer spaces that make a big stink about being radical and transgressive. but those classes don't even fucking exist and it doesn't feel like Serano notices or cares.
