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Excavating trans identities: who gets to decide who is woman enough
Once you start down the route of defining any identity you immediately run into the issue of who has the power to define what that identity actually is. Caster Semenya’s recent interviews have sparked a fierce backlash against her, with many exclusionary feminists erasing her gender identity and caller her “him” and claims that she is a cheat due to her chromosomal biology. Those attacking her feel empowered in their Tweets and social media posts due to the group think and echo chamber they have created, thinking that their voices actually have weight. The truth is that their comments and Tweets are toothless in this echo chamber, a dopamine hit that is amplified by likes and shares.
This reinforcement of anti-trans comments serves to excavate trans identities in a way that entrenches hate and toxic thought processes. They amplify the worst of womanhood, seeing woman as an artefact of their own belief systems rather than a universal concept that is as unique as each female lived experience. Trans identities are also as unique as each trans person, with no one singular way of viewing the world, the only unifying identifier being some form of gender incongruence.
Those who bully trans folk fixate on white middle-aged male crossdressers as the apotheosis of trans identities never consider the broader…
