Here is the text of an Open Letter that 140 signatories and I published in the French edition of the HuffPost on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 12 o’clock, after it was read and approved by a journalist of their editorial staff. It was deleted from the site at 5 o’clock the same day, with the following comment:
“This text had no place on our site. It was a mistake to have published it. The transphobic comments it contains run against the values advocated by Le HuffPost since its creation. Transwomen are women. We sincerely apologize for having published this piece.”
A French anti-feminicide postering collective is splitting over “the trans issue” and warns that all women are under threat.
The anti-feminicide postering collective (“Colleuses contre les féminicides ») is split over the “trans issue ». This is more than a squabble over theory: beyond the “Colleuses” postering group, it is the future of feminism and of equality politics that is at stake.
The controversy began when some activists took advantage of the visibility of the postering tactic to impose their own slogans.
Their goal was to condemn—in this case, “to being burned at the stake”—those whom they call “TERFs”, an acronym meaning: Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists. Indeed, many feminists believe that m-tof trans folks should not be allowed access to women dedicated spaces and should not be at the centre of the feminist agenda.
Are “transwomen” women? In other words, is it enough to self-proclaim oneself a woman to be able to demand being considered as such?
How can a society defend women’s rights and work toward equality if the word “woman” loses its definition?
According to radical and materialist feminists, women are foremost female human beings. They have a double X chromosome and, barring malformation or abnormality, their genital system allows the gestation and delivery of children.
The physical characteristics related to procreation correspond to biological sex, a concept distinct from that of “gender,” which refers to a social construction, and more precisely a system of oppression that organizes humanity into two groups, one dominating and exploiting the other.
This exploitation of women is intrinsically linked to their biology. In our societies, girls are educated differently from boys, because of their female sex. Women are collectively and individually devalued and reduced to a status of sexual objects and caregivers, because of their female sex.
Transactivists, however, deeming themselves enemies of “TERFs,” have a completely different definition of these terms. For them, gender is certainly a social construct, but it is not linked to sex. A person can have one type of body or another, he or she will be male or female (or something else…) depending on how they feel. If someone claims to feel like a woman, she is a woman. If someone claims to feel like a man, the same principle applies. Gender is therefore an identity without any material basis.
There are contexts where, indeed, feelings cannot be challenged. If I feel physical or moral pain, only I can state this, and no one should deny it.
But being a woman is not a feeling. It corresponds to a very specific physiological reality and an equally specific social experience. All of this is real. In our societies, being a woman means suffering and being exhausted every month but having to work as if there was nothing amiss. It is to be considered a potential prey in the public space and a volunteer worker in the private realm. This status is based on bodily reality. If I am, among other things, discriminated against in employment and underpaid, it is not because I “feel like a woman,” nor because I have a woman’s “identity,” but because everyone can see that I have a woman’s body. No “feeling” can be equivalent to this reality.
As for “transwomen”, they are people born as boys, who have in most cases kept a male body (in 75% to 80% of cases in France, they have not undergone any surgery), but who claim to have a woman’s “gender identity,” and thus to be women in the same way as female human beings who have a uterus and who have been subjected since birth to the misogyny of our society.
If “transwomen” are deemed women, regardless of their body or appearance, then the word “woman” applies to anyone on their say-so, even to people with a male body and appearance.
Yet, in a society that remains patriarchal, the words “woman” and “man” must retain their meaning. We need to be able to measure sex inequalities in order to denounce them and, above all, to correct them. We need to be able to implement public policies and corrective measures specifically addressed to women.
What would be the meaning of gender parity lists in politics, targeted programmes for women entrepreneurs and scientists, women’s sports competitions … if men can barge in on such resources by a mere self-identity declaration?
Deeming “transwomen” to be women raises even more concrete problems. No matter how these persons feel, no matter how sincere they are, women do not have the luxury of taking the risk of accepting men in non-mixed spaces: sports changing rooms, public toilets or youth hostel dormitories, but also prisons and emergency shelters for female victims of male violence.
No feminist questions the suffering of people who feel they weren’t “born in the right body”. That said, we must ensure the preservation of our spaces and keep our strategies focused on girls and women. It is the survival of our movement that is at stake, and therefore the survival of our rights and integrity.
Signatories:
The 140 signatories:
Christine Delphy, researcher and gender scholar
Florence Montreynaud, historian, cofounder of Les Chiennes de garde, Encore Féministes and Zéromacho
Annie Sugier, physicist, former MLF, cofounder of the Ligue du Droit des Femmes, former President of the Ligue du Droit International des Femmes, Commander of the National Order of Merit
Marguerite Stern, ex-Femen, activist who created the Postering Against Feminicides movement.
Dora Moutot, journalist and activist
Marie-Noëlle Bas, President of the Chiennes de garde (Watchdogs)
Diane Guibault, President of Pour les droits des femmes, Québec
Fatiha Boudjalat, teacher and universalist feminist author
Ana-Luana Stoicea-Deram, Co-Chair of the International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogacy (CIAMS)
Catherine Morin Le Sech, member of the International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogacy (CIAMS)
Francine Sporenda, academic and journalist
Judith Tanné-Gariépy, Doctor of Neuroscience
Florence Humbert, teacher
Claire Fougerol, physiotherapist and activist
Rhea Jean, philosopher
Lise Bouvet, philosopher and translator of feminist texts
Ibtissame Betty Lachgar, clinical psychologist and feminist activist
Françoise Morvan, universalist feminist
Joana Vrillaud, Founder and Coordinator of the Collectif Abolition Porno Prostitution
Richard Poulin, publisher
Dominique Nouet, pro-feminist activist
Catherine Moreau, CSR expert
Anne-Emmanuelle Lejeune, teacher and universalist feminist activist
Marie Josèphe Devillers, Co-President of CQFD Feminist Lesbians
M.P., clinical psychologist
Elaine Grisé, sexologist
Yaël Mellul, legal coordinator of the support centre for victims of violence at the Monceau centre
Martin Dufresne, translator and pro-feminist blogger (TRADFEM)
Flo Marandet, teacher and feminist activist
Vincent Menauge, press cartoonist
Kelly Renaud, clinical psychologist
Marilou Clerc, Librarian
Frédérique Ghroum, French as a Second Language trainer and feminist activist
Isabelle Moisse, feminist activist
Martine Llanes, feminist and radical lesbian
Sofia Recham, secular feminist activist
Karine Bertrand, teacher, equality referent at the French National Education system
Françoise Mariotti, Doctor in Psychology
Corinne Leriche, teacher and feminist activist
Léna Trouvé, student in political science and member of the Les Veilleuses collective
Céline Omer, creator and feminist activist
Stéphanie Fourrier, visual artist
Christelle Raspolini, co-founder of the “Ni Putes, Ni Soumises » movement (Neither Whores Nor Submissives)
Corinne Roche-Goy, press translator
Sylviane Francesconi, feminist activist
Marie-Hélène Vaurs, feminist activist
Jérôme P, pro-feminist activist
Isabelle Moulins, Co-President of the Lilith Evolving Centre
Cathy Lavigne, business leader
Clara Desfilhes, business leader and feminist activist
Léa Champagne, social geographer and expert on gender issues
Annie-Ève Collin, philosopher
Chantal Faubert, universalist feminist activist
Valérie Pelletier—Legal Tender, radical feminist activist
Aude Exertier, lawyer
Mathilde Naud, engineer and feminist activist
Laura O., sociologist
Anne-Marie Bilodeau, jurist, feminist universalist activist
Nadia El-Mabrouk, member of Pour les droits des femmes, Québec
Malika Mansouri, union activist
Rose Sullivan, feminist activist
Hélène Lepennetier, student instructor educator
Hélène Morin, feminist activist
Agnès Setton, doctor and feminist activist
Blandine Deverlanges, teacher, feminist activist
Virginie Malthiery, feminist activist
Anissia Docaigne-Makhroff, lawyer and feminist activist
Stéphanie Charlier, director of a training centre
Malvina Kuri, feminist activist
Claire Séna, librarian
Malvina Kuri, feminist activist
Muriel Petit, teacher
Morgane Rickar, activist
Afaf Bessa, feminist activist
Mathilde Petit, feminist activist
Nathalie Mallet, psychologist
Martine Arrighi, secularism activist
Grace Slick, member of the Les Sorcières du LAC Collective
Anna Goldin, member of the Les Sorcières du LAC Collective
Solange Beaudouin, financial manager, feminist
Cécile Chaudesaigues, company manager
Emeline Offenstein, feminist
Noemie Huart, Feminist Continuing Education Facilitator
Adèle Sartre, academic
Alyson Quilichini, student, feminist activist
Carole Foret, bus driver
Yasmine El Jaï, independent consultant and trainer
Yannick Humbert-Droz, computer scientist
Deborah Rozenblum, wool dyer
Hélène Lorraine, feminist activist
Sara Martinez, feminist activist
Carolyne Gagné, teacher
Martine Vaugien, lecturer in Geography
Orianne Perie, social psychologist, sociologist of work organizations
Claire Dodé, engineer
Sandrine Rodriguez, legal assistant
Agnès Rakovec, feminist activist
Camille Girard, life coach, lesbian feminist activist
Nolwenn Sauvage, teacher
Nathalie Clavaud, independent consultant Christelle Rousseau, HR Manager
Claudine Salvaire, teacher
Fiji Phoenix, abolitionist survivor activist
Marie-Clotilde, Pirot, lecturer and teacher-researcher
Laurence Cavenne, clinical psychologist
Joyce Grall, freelancer
Anne Mariotti, student and feminist activist
Léa Colin, Art Director
Gaétane Adam, stained glass designer
Tiffany Roussel, feminist and animal-rights activist
Charline Beauvais, nurse
Diane Ledent, feminist artist
Gabrielle Blanchard, art history student
Héloïse Beillevaire, screenwriter
Aurore Van Opstal, feminist journalist (Belgium)
Camille Giron, feminist activist
Annie Navorra, actress
Lilia Staphy, lawyer
Emmeline Céron, copy editor
Janice Dodin, psychologist
Lise Roure, head of a creative assistance fund for documentary disciplines
Charline Beauvais, nurse
Emeline Pouce, business executive, feminist
Marika Bouton, radical feminist activist, domestic worker
Pablo Parrado, chef
Laurence Martin, school life assistant
Adrian S.Thiago, member of the RadicalGirlsss collective
Dorothée Jolly, photographer
Nathalie Delattre, special education teacher, radical feminist
Nadine Bretagnolle, activist
Coralie Millerioux, cashier, feminist
Martin Dandelot, sports commentator
Audrey Arnaud, environmental executive
Karine Toussaint, community worker
Lohanna Proupin, restaurant employee
Amanda Leafy, member of the Les Sorcières du LAC Collective
Alix Nicolas, law student
Lauren Da Costa, academic
Françoise Emma Roux, Chief Honorary Curator of Libraries, lesbian radical
Original French version: http://fleurfurieuse.blogspot.com/2020/02/tribune-les-femmes-trans-sont-elles-des.html
English translation by TRADFEM
