Mainstream Feminism and Throwing Others Under the Bus
Within the past few years, feminism has re-entered the spotlight of mass media and pop
culture. Despite having encouraged several positive changes in the way women are treated and
perceived, the fact of the matter is that (much like any movement that gains rapid popularity in
the eyes of the public) mainstream feminism tends to only address surface issues, and to ignore
or profit from the continued persecution of other marginalized groups. It’s become a trend for
many feminist campaigns to claim to be counterculture and subversive, while only serving to
empower women who are white, straight, cisgender, neurotypical, and able-bodied. There have
been particular issues pertaining to transmisogyny (the systematic oppression of and prejudice
against transgender women), which is largely present both in the community and in its endeavours.
Just recently, on January 6th, Ovarian Cancer Canada aired a video with the goal of
spreading awareness and empowering women who have fought or are currently suffering from
ovarian cancer. However, it does so by capitalizing off of the shock value derived from implying
that a woman can have testes. “Women have balls too. And they’re at risk,” the group’s latest
video states, referring to women’s ovaries. The campaign’s tagline “Have the ladyballs to do
something about it” provoked a mixed reaction among the public, ranging from criticism of the
“obscene” phrasing to praising the charity for broaching the issue in a way that avoids portraying
survivors as objects to be pitied. However, the one issue that has been entirely ignored is the
aggressive gendering of reproductive organs in a way that makes it clear that transgender women
are excluded from the label of “lady”. Using “lady-” as a qualifier to the subject of testes when
referencing ovaries implies that having ovaries is the only accepted biology for women,
invalidating transgender women. Not only does the campaign endorse the myth that all women
are born with ovaries and that all people born with ovaries are women, but it also uses the
suggestion that a woman can have testes to try to induce shock in its audience as a means of
spreading its message, wholly disregarding the effect this has on transgender women in favour of
empowering solely cisgender women.
Undercutting transgender people (particularly women) as a means to further the success
of cisgender women is not an uncommon trend for many feminist campaigns directed at the
general public, whether it is done intentionally or simply out of inconsideration. Just last year,
the National Women’s Law Center released a video starring comedian Sarah Silverman that
focussed on attacking the US wage gap where she jokes about receiving sex-reassignment
surgery in order to be paid as much as someone born with a penis. Not only does the video
trivialize the transgender community’s views on gender and transitioning, it also fails to mention
that in the US, transgender workers still make less money than their cisgender counterparts. For
example, a transgender women who has transitioned suffers an average pay drop of 32%, which
results in her income becoming 9% less than what cisgender women make on average.
Transgender men also receive less money for their work, being payed approximately 79% of
what cisgender males are payed. It should be noted that these statistic only apply to transgender
women or men and cisgender women or men of the same race, as employees that are white tend
to receive more income than those who are not. While Silverman’s video addresses the wage gap
between white, cisgender women and white, cisgender men, it ignores the wage gap that
transgender employees face, as well as the frequency of workplace discrimination for
transgender workers. While failing to consider these issues, it ignores and belittles the struggles
of transgender men and women in order to try and advance talk of erasing the wage gap – but
only for white, cisgender women.
Feminism was originally created in order to combat inequalities and provide a voice for a
group being constantly undermined, both socially and politically. It was meant to stand up to
oppressors and those who achieved undeserved positions of power through inherent traits. Now,
partially due to its recent popularity, many of the tactics being used to promote and encourage
women are also excluding certain groups of women from the movement. There is no excuse for
this perpetuation of intolerance and ignorance, as it is entirely unnecessary to harm other
marginalized groups in order to alleviate the oppression of one’s own marginalized group.
It’s 2016. Mainstream feminism needs to step up to the plate.
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