Why does transphobia exist?
The British TERF phenomenon has made abortive attempts to sink roots in Ireland recently. The most recent controversy concerns the decision of the Rape Crisis Network to work with a woman who is vehemently opposed to the idea that trans women are women. While ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminism’ emerged in the 70’s in academic circles, it has now caught on with a section of the British middle-class. I would argue that this is, in part, a result of the separation of feminism from class struggle and from any mass movement such as the Repeal campaign here in Ireland. This gives credence to the idea that feminism consists mainly of ending or ameliorating misogyny in interpersonal interactions rather than tackling a system of oppression.
Far-right groups, like Justin Barrett’s National Party, have also begun to spread transphobic rhetoric, most notably when they were leading a homophobic charge against Roderic O’Gorman. The minister had made a commitment to review the Gender Recognition Act (2015) and this tacit support of trans people prompted a member of a far-right organisation to make a rather vile speech, presenting a caricature of trans women and characterising the whole community as a danger to children, recycling tired homophobic tropes.
Overt bigotry like this gets a hearing as trans visibility increases because of the liberal media’s constant quest for balance — disgraced former comedy writer Graham Linehan was invited to speak about trans rights on Prime Time a few years back despite not being trans and having no expertise on the subject.
Transphobia is often wrapped up in academic feminist language and framed as scepticism — how can we be sure these trans women aren’t paedophilic or perverted men in disguise? How do you know who you are and why should we believe you? Once you come up with a watertight argument for these questions, the goalposts are moved. It’s pure trolling and we mustn’t get drawn in by mistaking it as genuine concern. However, defensiveness doesn’t serve us well in addressing the average cis person, so it’s imperative that we reject bigoted rhetoric on the one hand and show solidarity and present clear answers on the other.
Transphobia is more than harmful rhetoric however; its existence is rooted in the historical development of capitalism and it’s bound up in women’s oppression. Although Marx and Engels made no mention of trans people, Engels’ writing about women’s oppression and the family can provide a path to understanding why transphobia is used to oppress and constrict people. From the outset, the question emerges that if you can’t maintain a strict gender binary, how will you divide men from women and saddle women with the bulk of reproductive labour? That’s not to say that transphobic ideas are mechanistically and deliberately propagated by the ruling class for the material gain, but ideas generally don’t gain traction if they are inconvenient for the ruling class, because of how the media functions and so on.
Here we have to recognise that while Marxists believe that a socialist society can only be brought about through the self-emancipation of the working class, working class people don’t automatically direct their frustration against the ruling class or against the capitalist system. An awful lot of people are alienated from the political and economic system, they feel as though politics is the realm of politicians — some special class of Gonzaga alumni who know better. However, gender is presented as a part of private life that is fixed and natural, one of the few certainties in life under late-stage capitalism. People often respond by clinging to so-called “traditional family values” and they then write off the left as a group trying to destroy these familiar structures. This is particularly true if what is presented as the left doesn’t challenge capitalism — the source of the inequality and alienation faced by the majority.
So, what is this gender binary? It’s not only the non-recognition people other than men and women, it’s the prescriptions that go along with your sex, as presumed at birth from the appearance of your genitals; the roles and behaviours that you’re expected to fulfil, including heterosexuality. Concepts of transgender identity haven’t always existed but there have always been people who don’t fit this framework. The work of transgender biologist, Julia Serano, suggests that this is too common to be a genetic mutation so we can safely assume it is just natural variation.
This framework of gender hasn’t always existed and dominated in the way it does now. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of class society, when advancements in agriculture allowed for the production of a surplus and a certain section of the male population came to control the surplus that the majority produced. In order to ensure that their children would hold on to that surplus, they insisted on monogamy. This was true for women at least, men generally faced much less severe repercussions for transgressions of this kind, as evidenced by the long history of the incarceration of women in institutions in Ireland. Pre-class or non-class societies that remain or cultural fragments that have survived to the present often don’t have strictly gendered expectations or they have ‘third genders’ — defined gender roles other than man and woman. Around the same time, a gendered division of labour emerged because particular kinds of work, like ploughing, was too heavy for pregnant women. The nature of these divisions has changed over time.
There is an attempt from the establishment to say that women’s oppression isn’t a particularly relevant question in today’s society, in the industrialised world at least, because there are some women in powerful positions, not least in the Vice-Presidency of the US. We are led to believe that women now have equality of opportunity but while the capitalist class has begun to promote the appearance of diversity and inclusion around the boardroom, women are still concentrated in low-wage, badly organised industries which creates a large pay gap. If anything, gender inequality is more pronounced at the bottom of society as a result of austerity and worsening exploitation.
This dominant notion that women are innately better at caring, cleaning and multitasking pressures women to do most or all of the reproductive labour in the home and nudges them towards these low-wage jobs. This saves the State an immense amount of money because now they can presume every family is a two-income household for the purposes of rent etc., while also neglecting to provide any public childcare service or any adequate supports for disabled and elderly people. 90% of family carers and 86% of lone parents are women and they are paid pittance for their work. The common thread here is that teachers, nurses, mothers, carers should accept low pay because of the spiritual remuneration they supposedly get from this ‘vocation’. All this requires upholding a strict gender binary where men are viewed as superior.
However, transphobia can also function as a tactic for distraction and division: trans people are scapegoated as part of a rightward turn towards “family values” instead of tackling the root cause of social problems. Having a section of the population experiencing a significant level of social dysfunction — with a recent TENI survey showing 49% unemployment and a high prevalence of mental illness, vulnerability to addiction and homelessness — is clearly of no great concern to the ruling class. Transphobia causes these issues and also justifies not doing anything to fix them.
Healthcare is one of the biggest issues for the Irish trans community. The waiting list to access hormone treatment publicly is nominally 30 months or so, but because of invasive psychiatric evaluations involving highly unethical questioning about what kind of underwear trans people wear and what we think of during sex, it takes 3 years from referral to prescription. There’s a pervading sense of doubt about statements trans people make about their gender, something that isn’t present for cisgender people. Recently, the National Gender Service at Loughlinstown Hospital started demanding that autistic people have their parents present for this even when the person in question was over 18. There is only one NHS Gender Clinic in Northern Ireland and it hasn’t taken any new patients since 2018.
All this forces an often-impoverished section of people to seek private care, relying on charity to pay for it. It is also worth noting that there are no public options for surgery on the island so many transmasculine people travel to Poland. As such, the upsurge in homophobia and transphobia there is doubly concerning. Although this is a very negative picture, it also provides an avenue to forge links with transgender activists in a campaign for an All-Ireland national health service that is patient-centred and operates on the principle of informed consent in all areas.
The history of transphobia is entwined with women’s oppression, homophobia and colonialism, as gender variance in indigenous society was used by imperial powers as evidence for their inferiority. It’s the duty of socialists to recognise this. When issues emerge around reproductive healthcare, for example, ignoring the reality that not everyone needing gynaecological services is a woman may seem unimportant but it allows for a situation whereby trans people face discrimination in healthcare. This can be deadly.
A 2001 documentary called Southern Comfort details the story of Robert Eads, a trans man from the southern US who died in 1997 having been diagnosed with cervical cancer and refused treatment by over 20 doctors. Last year some transphobes kicked up a fuss on Liveline about a HSE website which said ‘women and people with cervixes’ should get screened for cancer. (For what it’s worth, I think the phrase used was clunky and tautological, if they mean anyone with a cervix they should say so.) The easy response to this might be to call on the HSE to change the website so as not to raise the hackles of reactionaries but while inclusive language isn’t the end goal, it’s a necessary first step.
What would liberation look like? Reforming the Gender Recognition Act, including an option for non-binary people and opening it up to under-18s is good but it is just that — a reform. Pulling this whole edifice of oppression apart involves questioning why the State needs to record sex at birth in the first place. What would be so bad about just letting kids grow into their full potential whatever way is most natural for them? We also have to question the more subtle aspects — we only really saw aggressively gendered children’s toys and clothes becoming the norm in the 1990’s and, to paraphrase George Carlin, it’s just another way for capitalists to sell us stuff we don’t want in order to comply with the norm and avoid scrutiny from people we don’t even like.
Trans-only groups and spaces are sometimes presented as the way to liberation but while they are useful to foster community but they can’t bring a solution to our oppression, especially because the trans community is very small and cuts across class divides. Another common suggestion is that improved and increased media representation of trans people will educate the masses and bring an end to transphobia. The recent Netflix documentary ‘Disclosure’ outlines very well how audiences have been trained to respond to trans bodies with disgust and mirth but the commodification of trans identity for film and television is not a viable path to liberation.
Instead, we should be pushing for an end to trans oppression as part of a wider movement towards socialism, where capitalism would be defeated along with all its associated systems of oppression.
