There is a strong progressive lesbian feminist politic that recognizes that gender fluidity and transgenderism will help bring about changes in the rigid gender rules that restrain us. It also acknowledges that bisexuality and transsexuality touch the heart of our belief that all of us must have control of our bodies—we must own them. That is why we support reproductive choice, work to end sexual assault, and fight for all of us to be able to love and have sex with the person we choose. —Suzanne Pharr, "Afterword: Where We Are Now," Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism (Expanded Edition)
In the post "Is it Safe to Come Out?," I asked "What are we going to do about transphobia among feminist-vegetarians/ecofeminists?"
White ecofeminism and feminist-vegetarianism is heavily influenced by the reactionary and transphobic writings of some dominant radical cultural feminists. Most notably is Mary Daly (a past member of Feminists for Animals Rights' board of advisers) and her book Gyn/Ecology, which is filled with transphobia, cissexism, and trans-misogyny directed at transsexual women. A major influence on, as well as of, Daly's transphobia was Janice Raymond, who wrote the transphobic book The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. Other transphobic influences on feminist-vegetarians/ecofeminists include Robin Morgan and Sheila Jeffreys.
The most famous feminist-vegetarian/ecofeminist writing on the oppression of nonhuman animals is Carol J. Adams and her book The Sexual Politics of Meat, which was first written as a paper for Mary Daly. And in Neither Man Nor Beast, Adams uses the Cambridge-Boston clique of feminists most closely connected with Daly to justify her inclusion of the oppression of nonhuman animals in ecofeminism. Furthermore, Rape of the Wild by Andree Collard, also came directly out of Mary Daly's influence, as well as the influence of Janice Raymond, and was published a year before The Sexual Politics of Meat.
Notably, Rape of the Wild is based on Daly's oppositional sexist concept of the inherent "biophilic" nature of cissexual women and their "gynergy" or female energy. In Daly's transphobic theory, transsexual women are inherently "necrophiliacs who sense the lack of soul/spirit/life-loving principle with themselves and therefore try to invade and kill off all spirit, substituting conglomerates of corpses," and our exclusion from women's space is justified on the basis that we have male energy; Daly refers to trans women as a "necrophilic invasion." While defining ecofeminism as opposing dualisms like men/women, human/animal, nature/culture, by claiming that cissexual women are superior and "biophilic" and transsexual women are inferior and "necrophiliacs" Daly and other transphobic ecofeminists promote a cissexist, and oppositional sexist, dualism of cissexual women/transsexual women.
Definitions for the terms used in this post can be found in Julia Serano's Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, and "a glossary of sorts" on her website.
Re: Challenging Feminist Transphobia
And in my most articulate comment to date:
Ew, total grossness.
(Referring to the transphobia of course.)
Re: Challenging Feminist Transphobia
As a practicing vegetarian (not vegan tho) this makes me want to go out and kill and eat a cow...
Seriously, support ALL women... renounce feminism!
Mary Daly, may your transphobia be buried with you
Mary Daly is dead. Max Planck's famous quote applies equally well to social truths: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
Lots of people (e.g., Carol J. Adams) are celebrating Daly's legacy without acknowledging the real harm that her legacy is continuing to cause. Queen Emily explains the problem over at Questioning Transphobia: The legacies of trans-exclusive feminism (aka why are you angry).
The transphobic politics of Carol J. Adams
Precisely illustrating my point, Carol J. Adams deleted this comment of mine on her Remembering Mary Daly blog post:
Of course, I am not surprised (hence the screen grab):
While Carol J. Adams praised Daly for "open[ing] up the space to have such lively disagreements!" she seems uninterested in creating such a space on her blog.
Yet she did allow another comment critical of Daly to remain, so it would seem that Adams is specifically excluding a discussion of trans women – making visible the exclusion that trans women face from even on-line cissexual feminist spaces.
Mary Daly may be dead, but her legacy will live on unless we actively challenge it and distance ourselves from those unwilling to change. Given this latest incident, past incidents, and the fact that I have privately emailed Adams on this issue and she agreed to disagree, I think that Adams falls squarely in the unwilling to change category.
Consequently, I do not think Adams is an appropriate speaker for vegan events. I hope that allies will question her about her transphobia at her speaking engagements and stop inviting her until she publicly renounces her transphobia.
Remembering Mary Daly
It is definitely important to acknowledge the sort of transphobia, and specifically trans-misogyny, that Mary Daly and her students advocate, as well as how it continues to harm women and other trans people. However, I want to encourage people reading this to not continue the cycle of animosity. I think it would be wonderful if readers would memorialize the death of Daly by making some sort of commitment to change and transform the hate she leaves behind.
For instance, I personally suggest making a donation in the name of Mary Daly to the Audre Lorde Project and designating that the donation be used towards TransJustice. This is just one example of a way we can use our anger and pain to mark Daly's passing in a positive way.