I know Ann already pointed out a piece I wrote for The Guardian on the growing trend of women-only spaces as a way to combat harassment, but I just wanted to add a little something.
There was a paragraph that was cut due to space constraints where the amazing Julia Serano weighed in, so I've pasted it below the jump. By the way, more to come on Serano later because her book Whipping Girl is just ridiculously amazing so I'm going to be haunting her for an interview.
But even the more positive aspects of women-only spaces bring up a new set of concerns. Julia Serano, author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, says that “women-only spaces that are meant to empower women — such as schools, support groups, conferences and festivals — came into being to make up for the fact that women experience a regular, ongoing disempowerment in their daily lives.�
“For this reason,� she continues, “I’d prefer women-only spaces to open themselves to all people who experience themselves as women on a daily basis; this would include trans women, as well as those genderqueer/fluid-identified people who have the experience of being treated as a woman day-in & day-out.�
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Shameless self-promotion and an addition.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/5799
Weekly Feministing Newsletter
Feministing RSS Feed
I share your uneasiness, Jessica, but I have to be honest: as someone who's traveled alone and been groped, harassed, and followed around, I'd definitely take advantage of a women's-only floor at a hotel.
And yes, of course transpersons who self-identify as female should be welcomed at these "breathing spaces".
As for the silly stuff--the chenille blankets and pink goodies and so forth--well, that's good old American marketing for you. And as a fortysomething whose hormone profile and body type mean I feel the cold more intensely than my younger colleagues, I'll gladly trade your unwanted blankets for the hand lotions and manicure stuff for which my chewed writer/mother fingernails have no use!