#julia serrano

the thing about whipping girl is, the thing i always heard from trans men and trans mascs is that it doesn't mention trans men and their experiences. except it fucking does!!!!! julia serrano has multiple direct quotes and sources from trans men discuss their experiences with the invisibility we might face and how it contrasts with trans women's hypervisibility. how a trans male author had press looking around confused trying to find the t-slur in the room until they realized no the Man was the author. and how ultimately, our invisibility is to our benefit in comparison to the supposed "representation" that hypervisibility affords trans women.

and it SHOULD BE Like yeah no shit a trans woman who is writing a book about trans women and the experiences of trans women isn't going to talk That Much about trans men, no shit!!!!!!!! oooough like sometimes we really affirm our own genders by behaving like the worst type of men by going "what about me what about MY Rights" be forreal.

and the other criticism i hear of whipping girl is that she doesn't write enough about the experiences of trans women of color, or lower class experiences. serrano herself admits she is a middle-class able-bodied white woman who was able to afford transitioning and that is the experience she writes of, so she admits that is a blind spot for her. so like, i agree with that critique but that is also addressed within the text itself and ultimately to find more about more marginalized experiences, you need to seek that out. thankfully theres so many websites and apps where you can listen to the experiences of working-class trans women and trans women of color if you just search it out, it is not hard to find.

im not saying there's gonna be nothing to criticise in the book itself (the author herself says there is!!) but it really feels like reaching to be accusing serrano of being intentionally 'exclusive' and wanting all trans-activism to exclusively follow her lead, rather than having written a book about her identity. like, with all the love in my heart, if you're reading this for insight into transmasculinity... why are you trying to buy clothes at the soup store?

[ID: The "was anyone going to tell me" meme, edited to say, with linebreaks added for accessability:

"Okay, was anyone going to tell me that Julia Serrano is exorsexist as fuck and thinks nonbinary people are just binary trans people who won't admit it so that they can feel superior to trans women

(Because she identified as nonbinary before she identified as a trans woman and apparently thought she was superior to trans women)

And thinks gay people aren't oppressed for their same gender attraction

And insists that brains are inherently gendered as either male or female

And says that the white western gender binary wouldn't exist if it weren't the most natural and right system, ignoring the historical and continuing destruction of the genders of other cultures

And pretends that trans men being seen as women is a privileged while also claiming that they always pass as men with no problem ever???

Or was I just supposed to find that out by reading Whipping Girl myself???"

End ID.]

[ID: The "was anyone going to tell me" meme, now edited to read:

"Okay, was anybody going to tell me that Julia Serrano is exorsexist as hell, or was I just supposed to find that out while reading Whipping Girl myself?"

End ID.]