Radical Feminism on Transgenderism [View all]

Hi Annalee,

Many years ago I read your essay "Gender Slumming" on Carnegie Mellon University's gopher. I'm a MtF transsexual, but at that time I read your essay I would never have said that. I felt so much self-hate and confusion. I was looking for information everywhere. Your essay was one of the first works of feminism I read. After reading it I was extremely upset.

My search for information had only led me further away from self-acceptance. Some psychologist say we're mentally ill. Some theologians say we're enemies of God. And some feminists say we're agents of patriarchy. There was a time when I was so angry at all the people who define us. But now transsexuals/transgenders have begun to define ourselves and we can read things (like the writings of Leslie Feinberg and Kate Bornstein) that don't begin with biases against us. I no longer spend much time thinking about how other people think about me.

Today I found out you wrote a "reconsideration" to your essay. It seemed so unbelievable. Most people who take a public stand on an issue won't ever reconsider. Sometimes just saying a firm belief makes people close-minded no matter how much evidence mounts against their view. Reconsidering your original essay is an incredibly impressive act of open-mindedness. Thank you! I'm also pursuing a Ph.D. and I'm so happy to see another graduate student express so much intellectual integrity. I wish you the best of luck with your future academic career!

Madeline

When I told my closest friend that I wrote the above letter, she was completely astonished. My friend knows just how much the negative stereotypes of some feminists have influenced my self-concept and my life. She also knows that "Gender Slumming" hurt me much more than I really express in my autobiography (on this site). To paraphrase my friend: "Why shouldn't you continue to be angry at Annalee? If there wasn't information back in 1993, doesn't that just make her hateful writing worse?" She's right. Ignorance is not an excuse for hate. But it also didn't occur to me that I should hate Annalee.

http://www.genderpsychology.org/gender_queer/gender_slumming.html