Media.www.SpectatorNews.com – Ruth Lane
Encourages student in identifying, coping during changes
A rare event has occurred in the area of gender studies – the publication of “The Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman On Sexism and The Scapegoating of Femininity” by Julia Serano. Not often do readers have the luxury of reading a thorough, fairly objective yet personal appraisal of misogyny from a transsexual woman. In this segment, I will simultaneously present a review of “The Whipping Girl” while tying what Serano writes into some of my personal experiences with gender.
Serano’s book courageously presents situations in which femininity is treated with sincere disdain. The book’s main focus is to show how transgender phobia is not based on dislike of persons who are transgender solely for those persons being transgender. Rather, transphobia is described as being based on the hatred of femininity. What is most striking in the book is how Serano sheds light on the ways in which femininity in particular is frowned upon within the queer community and explores how masculinity is often most applauded. When femininity is accepted in the queer community, it is within the drag show setting where femininity becomes a show, an act to please an audience. Serano repeatedly illustrates how society as a whole carries the perception that femininity is a farce created to please those who witness it.