Challenging heterosexuality and nationalism through queerness.

As summer turns into autumn and winter the giddy joy that came with the season grows dim. This summer we celebrated Pride as usual. For the most part the festival is in accessible to me due to the cost. The other factor is that the festival does not speak much to me. Commercialism combined with a touristy feel make the event seem like one big giant party.

As a few LGBTQ friends and I walked past Manchester’s gay village on Pride Saturday and Sunday one of them remarked at the glut of rainbow flags in town in the shops of big business. Pride she claimed had lost the plot. I agree with her. It is wonderful that big businesses is supportive of the LGBTQ community but are they really? In a world where big business has taken over smaller business, exploits its workers a mere rainbow flag does not remedy the exploitation. As a black lesbian my friend saw the precarious peace she occupies in a homo-nationalist celebration.  Now that LGBTQ people are protected by the law of the land institutions that were once known (and still are) for their homophobia have jumped on a similar bandwagon.

Perhaps the most ironic one of these institutions was the Home Office and its support for LGBTQ people. For over a week now I have seen rather disturbing news of a young gay Ugandan friend being deported back to his country. This is not an isolated case, another friend I admire is in a similar situation for over a year. She is Nigerian and not lesbian enough. I am not comforted by the fact that the Home Office employs LGBTQ people. Both these people are Christian and members of the LGBTQ community. I mention their religion, as this is almost always a reason quoted by people of the faith and not to bash Africans and to justify the superiority of Britain. In more liberal Christian circles being tolerant of LGBTQ people is a sign of changing times in the nation, homophobia and transphobia is an African problem relegated to that continent alone. To non-Christians homophobia and transphobia in the global south is due to being trapped in religion and culture. Then of course there are cultural Christians to whom Christianity is an identity which is white and European. While the continent of Africa has some nations that have re criminalised homosexuality this takes on a nationalistic fervour. Homosexuality is imagined to be a western import corrupting the youth distancing them from good family values. Heteronormativity is invoked family is imagined to be a perfect situation where men and women marry in a lavish ceremony and produce the right amount of children. These ideas aren’t left unchallenged feminists and LGBTQ groups in these regions do challenge this idea. While Western Europe is imagined to be a safe haven for the community the rest of the world is thought of as backward lagging behind in social progress it does not have the same magnanimity to accept some of its citizens.

Intersectionality is lost in these debates, LGBTQ identity is thought of as the preserve of white lesbian and gay people (the the b’s, t’s and q’s don’t make it in this fantasy). That one can be non-white, LGBTQ, religious, disabled….. is never considered. White LGBTQ groups are notorious for their racism. The village in Manchester is perfect example of this which is very selective in its demographic. People of colour are not participants in this community only cab drivers and kebab makers, on the periphery. LGBTQ people are conceptualised through a homo-nationalistic lens, white, gay male and middle class, who then occupy the majority position in public forums. Terms like pink pound explain this situation perfectly. Revolutionary fervour and the precarious position the community occupies are lost in this celebration. It is wonderful that some sections of the community are in influential positions and have it easier than others however that sections acceptance has meant that homophbia and transphobia are thought of as a thing of the past, it happens everywhere else but here.

There is another way of looking at queerness and nationalism and that is through a black lesbian feminist perspective. Gloria Anzaldúa suggests another way that reaches out across national boundaries.

As a mestiza I have no country, my homeland cast me out; yet all countries are mine because I am every woman’s sister or potential lover. (As a lesbian I have no race, my own people disclaim me; but I am all races because there is the queer of me in all races.) I am cultureless, because as a feminist, I challenge the collective cultural/religious male derived beliefs of Indo-Hispanics and Anglos; yet I am cultured because I am participating in the creation of yet another culture, a new story to explain the world and out participation in it, a new value system with images and symbols that connect us to each other and to the planet.  Page 102- 103 Anzaldúa

In an era where nationalism is becoming a universal feature of all nations challenging notions of nationhood and homo-nationalism are pressing issues. Culture must be deconstructed.

Reference:

Anzaldúa, G. (1999) Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza . 2^nd edition. Aunt Lute Books. San Francisco

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Every year transgender people are killed across the world. They are murdered due to their identity as transgender people.  At the start of the year I heard about the deaths of five transgender women the number has grown since.

In the month of November we remember them and hope that there comes a time when transgender people can live their lives in peace.

A remembrance event has been set up in Nexus Cafe on 19th November between  7.30-8.30 pm 

Har saal transgender log duniya bhar mein maare jate hain. Unkie hatya is wajeh se hoti hai kyon ki unki pechan trangender hain.  Is saal ke shuruwaat mein maine paanch hatyaon ke bare mein suna tab se yeh sankhya badti gayi hai.

November ke mahine mein hum unko yaad karte hai aur ummed karte hain ki aisa waqt aye ki transgender log apne zindagi shanti se guzaar paye. 

Unki yaad mein ek ghante ke liye hum Nexus Cafe mein 19th November ko shyam ke 7.30 se 8.30 baje tak mil rahien hai.


हर साल ट्रांसजेंडर लोग दुनिया भर में मारे जाते हैं. उनकी हत्या इस वजह सो होती है क्यों की उनकी पेचानट्रांसजेंडर हैं. इस साल के शुरुवात में मैंने पांच हत्याओं के बारे में सुना तब से यह संख्या बढ़ती गयी है. 

नवंबर के महीने में हम उनको याद करते है और उम्मीद करते हैं की ऐसा वक़्त आये की ट्रांसजेंडर लोग अपनी ज़िन्दगी शांति से गुज़ार पाये.

उनकी याद में एक घंटे के लिया हम नेक्सस कैफ़े में १९थ नवंबर को शयम के ७.३० से ८.३० बजे तक मिल रहैं है. 

Not trans enough’ how the standard trans gender model gives in to cisgenderism

Here is an abstract of a paper that will be presented at manchester Sparkle and at the Psychology of Women's Section Conference. 

This paper challenges notions of what makes a good transgender person. In recent years the community has turned to more cisnormative ideals of gender to gain acceptance and often remain safe. The critique is not of specific people but how the transgender community is subjected to sexism, transphobia which is internalised and manifested in various ways.

This paper is going to be presented at the Psychology of Women's Conference. Here is a link to the program.

This is the abstract 

Not trans enough’ how the standard trans gender model gives in to cisgenderism – Pauline Sometimes and Sonia Soans

Abstract –

Amongst the LGBTQI community there are narratives of the ‘good trans’ person which alienate parts of the community that fail to identify according to the binary model of gender. Standard narratives about gender identity include transition from birth assigned gender and eventual hormone therapy and/or surgery. It is assumed that there is a strong desire to pass in cisgender society

Non-binary and bigendered individuals are often seen as confused and insufficiently transgender. Traditionalist views of what it entails to be transgender divides a community that is marginalised and creates a scramble for power and identification with ones oppressors. Attempting to restrict the transgender spectrum within a binary model imposed by cisgender society marginalises and excludes the most vulnerable members of society. Methodology is based upon lived experience of one of the co-authors supplemented with information published by transgender support organisations and social media postings by transgender, bigender and non-binary individuals.

Keywords: Transgender, Bigender, ‘oppositional sexism’

A free and open talk based on this paper will be given at Manchester Sparkle. For details consult the poster below 

The Politics of Respectability- Free Comic #FCBD

Here is a comic produced by Jem Perks. Jem is a freelance illustrator whose interest lies in sci fi, fantasy and comic books styles. More of his work can be found on his website. 

Jem very kindly volunteered to illustrate my work

Using a previous blog post as a basis for the idea we present to you 'The politics of respectability'. We hope to raise awareness about how discrimination is hurtful to people and is a divisive force. We live in a climate of hate and fear, minority groups are often used as scapegoats and pitted against each other this comic hopes to challenge our stereotypes.

As it is  free comic book day #FCBD  we would like you to read and share this comic widely and do leave us suggestions and comments. Thank you :) 

The insecurities of men

‘Here take some hand cream’ I said to a male friend who sat next to me working. His hands were chapped badly and they looked painful. He looked at me with great disdain and said ‘I can’t use that I am not a woman’. To be honest I did expect that reaction. A lot of heterosexual cisgender men have a deep fear of loosing their masculinity. This is expressed in pathology, anger, violence and policing. Anger and violence is directed towards people who don’t conform to their masculine ideals, women, LGBT people, disabled people and even other men. Sometimes this fear leads to pathology, take for example Dhat Syndrome a condition that is characterised by a male patient feeling physical symptoms due to loss of semen.

Masculinity is not an unchanging state it is time and culture bound. What constitutes masculinity has undergone significant shifts in my lifetime and will keep changing. It is not the traits that matter it, some of them are decided upon in an arbitrary manner sometimes they are carefully chosen. Take for example the wearing of lace is now taboo for men, look at paintings from three centuries ago men wore lace. Lace is neither male or female but we have come attribute its use on clothing as exclusively female. Men who give into feminine styles of dressing are taunted for their choices, thought of as gay or even worse becoming women. I was chatting to a transgender friend about this today of how men think putting on anything belonging to female will make them female. As someone who is in the process of transitioning she knows there is more to gender than putting on clothing. Julia Serano argues there is a deep psychic gender identity within us the outward transition only confirming what was known to an individual all along. When cisgender men react with disgust and fear of putting on female clothes and makeup they reduce a transgender persons identity to an issue of fashion. That disgust is also degrading to cisgender women who are taught they are not worthy of respect. To quote Madonna

Girls can wear jeans

And cut their hair short

Wear shirts and boots

'Cause it's OK to be a boy

But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading

‘Cause you think that being a girl is degrading’- What It Feels Like For A Girl

Male insecurity is a massive problem as it transcends into patriarchal hegemony. Gender and sexuality are constructed to pander around these insecurities. Patriarchal powers reside in each one of us irrespective of gender and sexuality. Patriarchy is enacted in how we react to gender transgressions, through conformity. A particular quote by Gloria Gloria E. Anzaldúa springs to mind. 

Culture forms out beliefs. We perceive the version of reality that it communicates. Dominant paradigms, predefined concepts that exist as unquestionable, unchallengeable, are transmitted to us through the culture. Culture is made by those in power- man. Males make the rules and laws; women transmit them. How many times have I heard mothers and mothers-in-law tell their sons to beat their wives for not obeying them, for being hocicomas (big mouths), for being callajeras (going to visit and gossip with neighbours, for expecting their husbands to help with the rearing of children and the housework, for wanting to be something other than housewives?   

Anzaldúa’s example is familiar to all, sums up how power and fear collude and feed off each other.  Notice how she explains how patriarchy operates through both men and women. It is easy to see power operating in an obvious example such as that however as Foucault would argue power is most dangerous when it is not operated by a single individual but by the errant subjects on themselves. Women who want to look thin for their men are part of that politic whereby the power is wielded by an invisible authority figure. So while patriarchy is not all men it is still powerful enough to police our behaviour. It is the little voice that tells us how to think and how to behave.

Think of all the times you have seen examples you have encountered of manliness chances are it is based on insecurity, a false bravado and nationalism. Look at its victims it they are women, LGBT people, disabled people and anyone else who does conform.  

The Polical Technology Free Speech has become.

I saw this tweet on my wall and it got me thinking about recent events and how free speech has indeed become a technology. It is LGBT history month and I have heard several talks on how we are now in a better place than we were. Invariably when someone complains they are told at least we are not the 3^rd world they still criminalise homosexuality there. I admit the 3^rd world isn’t perfect but neither is the first world. This comparison does have an element of truth in it however it is dismissive tactic. It is the same tactic parents use to get their children to eat ‘don’t you know there are children in Africa who have no food?’ The 3^rd world is used as the dumping ground of the world’s problems.

What comes out in a lot of talks about LGBT history in the UK is how race can be used to valourise ones achievements. Race and sexuality seem to be two identities that are used to drive home a message of superiority. In India I have heard about how superior we are as a heterosexual nation protecting ourselves from the western invention of homosexuality. In the west I have met white LGBT people who have insisted I am homophobic simply by existing in brown skin. I have heard lots of nasty arguments used by both groups to prove their superiority. I have witnessed divisions amongst the LGBT community which is engaged in the politics of respectability. This politic is a convenient way of seeking favour from a more powerful majority by discarding perceived embarrassments within the community. Being a persecuted minority does not exclude the possibility or being a persecutor of another community.

An example that struck me recently was the way race and sexuality collided in the film Pricilla Queen of the Desert. It is a small scene but a vital one. The film is wonderful in the way it portrays the dangers of being transgender in Australia yet when it comes to portraying race the film fails. A Filipino woman in the film is shown in a negative sexualised manner. While gaining audience sympathy for one group the film demonises another. Artistic licence allows one to make a film as one wants however it is interesting how that was the choice the writers made. LGBT rights have come to signify a benchmark of liberal progressive society, societies that do not agree with this are automatically labelled backward. Non-conformists in the LGBT community are labelled as troublemakers. Recently a white gay man was discussing the issue of sexuality with me and said ‘transgender people must have some disorder when you think about it’. While his words are deeply offensive think about his privilege he is white, male and gay he is the cream of LGBT society. It was amusing when I pointed out how only a few decades ago he would have been locked away and chemically castrated on those same grounds.

The freedom to call other people names from one position of marginalisation does not make it freedom at all. To call transgender people shouty troublemakers, or to use derogatory language around race is a means of controlling people. It is then only a political technology and not a transformative one. 

Transgender women of colour and LGBT rights

Riots in Cromptons Cafe - how the west was won. 

It is LGBT history month and often the history presented to us fails to acknowledge the contributions of the less respectable members of the LGBT community - Transgender people. Coupled with racism the movement today is largely seen as a hallmark of white progressive, liberal society. People of colour are largely forgotten or labelled as homophobic. Easy essentialisms has meant some histories have been forgotten or deliberately ignored. This documentary is about the precursor to the Stonewall riots, started by transgender women of colour it presents an history that has been deliberately ignored. 

Transgender etiquette 101

I am more oppressed.... no I am more oppressed

The politics of oppression when intersectionality isn’t your thing.

A little while ago my friend showed me a video of two feminist groups fighting over who was more oppressed. One group was cisgender another transgender. While we did laugh at the futility of the debate we did feel sad for those stuck in this cycle of never ending persecution. I have heard people say oppressed people turn out worse then their oppressors when given their freedom. I wouldn’t want to support that argument as it only plays into the hands of oppressors.

I am seeing a trend and a very disturbing one – one group feeling more oppressed than another. Recently a male friend said to me you women complain about sexism all you feminists get it wrong men are attacked violently too. I have never denied male on male violence neither has feminism. Similarly I have been to seminars on various subjects or charity events where people have pointed out but they only look after this group and not this one….. I am seeing a very strong drive amongst historically oppressed groups to feel liberated by punching another oppressed group.

Pink news  recently carried an article about stopping aid to certain African countries that are still homophobic. I was deeply troubled by comments at the end of the article and more so by the high handedness that came with this decision.  Comments ranged from name calling to subtle sophisticated racism. This gesture  to stop aid seem like a threat and not an act of reaching to end homophobia. What hides behind the triumph of LGBT rights is racism, the ‘lets show em’ attitude which says to me this aid was never unconditional or genuine.  This aid is meant for the poorest people on the African continent who lets face it have it bad and are exploited like poor people across the world are.  Governments of those nations have made anti lgbt laws that oppress another group of people, throw in some well meaning white people and you have an incoherent group of people shouting for rights each one trying to outdo the other.

I don’t think cutting of aid will help change homophobic attitudes, if anything it will pander to the worst fears people have about the LGBT community in these nations. A similar incident happened in India last year (just after we recriminalised homosexuality). An Indian diplomat got into trouble in USA the story was in the news for days, the first reaction of the government and opposition was – lets seek out LGBT Americans and target them for their racism.

While the liberal west has become a tolerant place for LGBT people the rest of the world has not. However when race and sexuality collide they produce an ugly divide. That an individual can inhabit two spaces does not occur to anyone. Targeting another oppressed group does not make for liberation of another community or provide any liberation for that matter. There are individuals and groups on the African continent fighting for LGBT rights despite the way the issue is presented. Should poor people starve because certain liberal ideas have not caught up fast enough?  I have been accused of being homophobic by existing as a woman of colour, as if being white equals being accepting of LGBT people. Similarly being LGBT and white does not mean one is automatically anti racist or anti other prejudice. 

Passing the respectability test

There are very few occasions I have encountered vile angry hate speech in Manchester. Last week was one of those occasions. I was invited out to a party on an open invitation so I took my friend along. What was seemed like a lovely evening was spoilt by some very nasty comments by a different friend who was angry with me the next day. I will tell you why you see my first friend is transgender. A fact I neglected to mention to my second friend who was most upset that I brought in someone she was not used to seeing. So while my transgender friend is white and British, she fails in another aspect of social respectability. 

My friend (the one who invited me) was angry because she could not understand why a man would dress like a woman – clearly a disorder she says. She went on to tell me her employers (the restaurant where we ate) would ‘think badly’ of her. This lady said other nasty things about my transgender friend which I have no intention of repeating. What struck me was how her hatred of my transgender friend was not just based on her prejudices and ignorance but also on looking disreputable. My transgender friend found it strange that one should think less of an LGBT person in Manchester of all places. My transphobic friend went onto tell me she thinks everyone is equal and thinks everyone must be respected equally ... wait for it she doesn't want to look like a nasty person. 

I have heard these words before 'I am not a (insert prejudice here )but ......' 'I don't want to look  .......' I wish people would acknowledge their inner prejudices rather than falsely reassure themselves of their neutrality. I also wish people would acknowledge that these prejudices are their own and not acquired for the sake of society (which is quite oblivious of them). In the wake of Leelah Alcorn's death we should not use society as an excuse to justify our own prejudices.  In India where I come from I have heard this excuse being made several times, for example parents force their children into taking certain courses at university to look good in the eyes of society. This is the same society that turns around and mocks them when their children go on to take their lives. My transphobic friend did engage with this politic being a non-British white person she would like to be accepted in British society but being heterosexual and cisgender she wants to distance herself from another kind of minority. However by making statements about another persons appearance and being nasty about it she was not being very polite or well mannered (a perception she wants others to have of her). The politics of respectability is a very convenient one, it allows the perpetrator of any kind of prejudice to deny their agency.  For example is it okay to say I am rude to you as a woman because society demands misogyny? If that statement seems ridiculous it is meant to be, it is meant to show how ridiculous some of our prejudices seem when we use the politics of respectability.

My friend hid behind her nationality, job, heterosexuality and cisgenderness to justify her prejudice and also her reaction. ‘How would that look to her employers’ was my transgender friend’s comment on the issue. That is a question that does need asking what will her employers think of her nasty reaction. Does defending an invisible uncaring society make them love us more? Do we pass if we point out the failings of another person? Twenty years ago it would have been me who would have been attacked for being the wrong skin colour. It is a fact I am always aware of, when I start passing in white society and my friends don't I am wary of this easy acceptance. I am aware it could all turn against me just as easily. I might be respectable as a cisgender woman of colour when compared with a transgender woman but if the transgender person wasn’t around I would be an outsider, this is not true equality. In another situation those same characteristics have been used against me to show solidarity with my transgender friend to include her into white respectable society. I have heard similar arguments by different immigrant groups at different points of their citizenship. Some pass the test by being good workers, some by becoming more British, but always at the cost of outing another immigrant.  My acceptance into respectable society is not a real one it is only test in which I have scored more respectable points than another person. I do not want to be accepted by people who decide what is passes as based on whims. To gain the approval of our oppressors does not make us any better than them, it only makes us become like them. My transgender friend has a good analogy for this situation – pulling up the ladder behind you she says. Unfortunately this is all too true of the politics of respectability we pull ladders up when we reach a certain stage in our lives.

I will not apologise for my friend’s appearance (which is almost always appreciated by those who meet her). I will not apologise for her not being transgender enough as all these excuses pander to our oppressors.  I will not apologise for taking her out for dinner. I will not apologise for being different.




PS: this comedy sketch explains this point well.