What is Traditional Femininity?
By Lauryn R. Antoine, via Submission (@laurynsvolume)
“I have studied race and gender throughout my school from 10th grade to my final year of college. I want to use my background in political science to reform the government and ensure equity. I plan to use my writing skills to spread information on inclusive activism and reach everyone.”
Reach her complete blog at laurynantoine.blogspot.com
In this piece the terms “cisgender” and “transgender” will be used. Let’s define these terms from a reputable source. Harvard University Science in the News Blog published “Between the (Gender) Lines: The Science of Transgender Identity Transgender”, this article defines transgender as those “who identify with a gender that differs from their assigned sex”; while cisgender is defined as those “who identify with their assigned gender.”
At birth, all women are conditioned to stay within the strict confinements of femininity at all times. Venturing outside the lines of femininity brings social consequences and ridicule. Transgender women’s identities fall outside what is deemed as traditional femininity by patriarchy. Our widely transphobic society only accepts cisgender individuals who fit into the binary of female or male.
However, scientists fully recognize that sex and gender fall on a spectrum. Scientists’ knowledge and studies contradict the concepts taught, for decades, in general sex education and biology classes across America – that humans are either cisgender females or cisgender males. Nature, an international weekly journal of science, wrote an article titled “Sex Redefined.” In that article, biologist Arthur Arnold of University of California says, “The main problem with a strong dichotomy [or binary] is that there are intermediate cases that push the limits and ask us to figure out exactly where the dividing line is between males and females. And that's often a very difficult problem, because sex [and gender] can be defined in a number of ways.”
Women are constantly pushed to only perform the type of womanhood approved by patriarchy’s standards. Performing womanhood and femininity includes vigilant self-observation, a tactic of oppression coined by gender studies academic, Patricia Tiernan. Vigilant self-observation is the internalization to adhere to predetermined gender norms. Examples of vigilant self-observation are critiquing other women’s looks and policing gender expression. If gender norms are not abided by, social consequences can be deadly for trans people. Consequences include violent physical acts, verbal harassment, and even murder for simply expressing their identities. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation goes as far as declaring the murders of transgender and non-gender conforming individuals as an epidemic in its 2013 report.
There is obvious malice amongst cis women towards trans women. Within the confines of femininity, patriarchy acts as the sole dictator of the laws of womanhood, while cis women position themselves as the policing authority that strictly enforce these laws. Subconsciously, cis women are fighting to maintain and exercise what limited power patriarchy allows them. Unbeknownst to cis women, reinforcing the rigid definition of womanhood will never be an avenue to higher status. Patriarchy will always work to oppress all women with no regard to whether they are cisgender or transgender.
It is common to see cisgender women act as gatekeepers to femininity that oppose the acceptance of trans women. Trans women are purposefully misidentified as male, outed as trans, and bullied by cis women to highlight their “lack” of femininity and to promote the “desirability” of cis women.
The act of policing trans woman comes from deep rooted insecurities in cisgender women’s own womanhood. Cis women are threatened by trans women’s ability to acquire some of the very minute advantages that cis women get from patriarchy. Cis women are angered by trans women who have achieved acceptance without abiding by what is deemed as “traditional” femininity. In response, cis women assert themselves over trans women by purposefully inciting violence towards them.
As reported by The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, inaccurate beliefs, cultural marginalization, invisibility further dehumanize transgender people. In all, negative attitudes towards transgender women contribute to a culture where violence against them is justified.
