Thursday, October 27, 2011

Trans Womyn are Born Womyn

by Marja Erwin, fully updated

Since the 1970s, the term "born womyn" has been used to exclude trans womyn, or to include other womyn and sometimes certain men, on the grounds of biology, socialization and originality. However, if we consider this more closely, I think it is clear that we are also born womyn on all of these grounds.

1. Womon.

I call myself womon because I understand my female existence in relation  to myself and my sisters, not in relation to male normativity.

A misogynistic society centers the male sex-class, reserving the unmarked term, man, to the male sex-class and applying the marked term, woman, to the female sex-class. A feminist response should decenter the male sex-class.