starobserver.com.au – Katherine Cummings
I recently heard from a student who had been given the task of arguing in a debate that transgenders perpetuate gender stereotypes. She wanted arguments to support her case.
When I started thinking this through I realised the complexity of the question, which cannot be dismissed in a few glib phrases. That transgenders are “guilty” of perpetuating stereotypes is a favourite cry from radical feminists, who take their cue from the execrable Janice Raymond, whose book The Transsexual Empire: the making of the she-male asserted that transgender was in some way an extension of the patriarchal conspiracy to remain dominant over women by invading their territory and “colonising” it with pseudo-females.