WHEN THE MODERN FRAMEWORK OF GENDER, SEX, AND SEXUALITY WAS LITERALLY BORN OUT OF 19TH CENTURY RACE SCIENCE YOU CANNOT DISCUSS FEMINISM OF ANY KIND WITHOUT HAVING TO FIRST DISCUSS THE RACIALIZATION OF GENDER ASSIGNMENT/PERCEPTION
like i cannot stress enough that when "man" and "woman" got codified "scientifically" in the 1800s as intrinsically seperate categories within western society THEY EXPLICITLY STATED BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE WERE TOO PRIMITIVE TO DEVELOP THIS DISTINCTION. WE WERE QUITE LITERALLY SEEN AS A THIRD UNDIFFERENTIATED CATEGORY BELOW (WHITE) MEN AND WOMEN.
Like you CANNOT divorce gender as a construct from race as it was literally born out of the social construct of race. Black/Brown Trans Woman and White Trans Woman are, for all intents and purposes, discrete gender identities historically speaking. And the worst part is that this way that both Black/Brown women of ANY gender have had to fight to be recognized as people - much less women - should be a point of solidarity between white trans women and black/brown women. but every time we try to have this discussion it turns into a fucking flamewar bc of white fragility
South American Feminist Maria Lugones discusses this in The Coloniality of Gender.
Just out of sheer curiosity, why isn't this discussion about all trans genders? Masc and NB people are also hurt by this system, are they not? Like why are we singling out twomen?/genq
because not everything has to be about everyone. sometimes we can talk about just women. sometimes even just trans women. maybe even possibly we can sometimes talk about specifically trans women of color and our experiences. "what about masc (being used as a blatant stand-in for men) and nb people" lets stop making feminism about everyone but women for a second ok? can we actually focus on womens issues for once? thanks.
Except this shit doesn’t just affect women. Black and Brown men were included in this systemic denial of gender and personhood.
