Can a TransWoman be a spokesperson for women?

[repoman]

Not just transwomen, but all women. If the transwoman says "As a woman...", I think "you are NOT a woman."

I find this just kind of quizzical. It is not terribly important, but whatever.

this is also assuming that any person should be able to a spokesperson for any group they are a part of. Or not a part of.

 

[krypton iodine sulfur]

No single person can be a spokesperson for all women, but if you run with the assumption that a person could be in the manner described, yes and no depending on context.

Yes. "Speaking as a woman, I find the lineups for women's restrooms at events are always too long." Trans or cis, that's an experience a person could have which pertains to women. "Speaking as a woman, the thought of being pressured to wear a facial covering to appease religious zealots is appalling." That's something where cis or transgender doesn't really factor into it.

No. "Speaking as a woman, pregnancy has a lot of hassles, but the overall experience is totally worth it." That's something where only someone who has been a pregnant woman can really comment, which excludes a lot of cis women, and categorically excludes trans women.

If you met a person who identified at a very young age and began transitioning before puberty, in all likelihood you wouldn't know she had been born male (or assigned male at birth as some prefer to say). Her life's experiences as a female would be pretty thorough, so I'd wager in the overwhelming majority of contexts, her saying 'Speaking as a woman..." would be as authoritative from her perspective as that of any other woman. Even for things which biology precludes, it still applies. "Speaking as a woman, not even having a choice whether or not to get pregnant can be depressing." That is part of the overall experiences being a woman. I'm not saying this is exclusive to people who identify young, but it represents more of an extreme where the experience of living openly as a female is (almost) lifelong.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, I know there are a lot of politics associated with gender identity, but this thread is not political.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

It is a problem when anybody claims to speak for an entire group, especially one as huge as a gender or race, but saying "As an X, I find that...." isn't really doing that. It is just saying what they think and that they think it has some relation to their membership in that group.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

It is a problem when anybody claims to speak for an entire group, especially one as huge as a gender or race, but saying "As an X, I find that...." isn't really doing that. It is just saying what they think and that they think it has some relation to their membership in that group.

As a human, I speak for the whole group of us when I say that you're correct and nobody should be speaking for the whole group of us.

 

[Keith&Co.]

It is a problem when anybody claims to speak for an entire group, especially one as huge as a gender or race, but saying "As an X, I find that...." isn't really doing that. It is just saying what they think and that they think it has some relation to their membership in that group.

As a human, I speak for the whole group of us when I say that you're correct and nobody should be speaking for the whole group of us.

What he said.

 

[dismal]

Anybody can attempt to be a spokesperson for anything, and anyone can refuse to be a listenedsperson to those attempts.

 

[credoconsolans]

As someone else said, it depends on the topic.

I don't believe a transgender woman can speak for women on menstruation, body changes at puberty, PMS, pregnancy, sex and finding jeans that fit.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

As someone else said, it depends on the topic.

I don't believe a transgender woman can speak for women on menstruation, body changes at puberty, PMS, pregnancy, sex and finding jeans that fit.

Why not? I can speak for women about those things, so a transgender woman would be at least as capable as me.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Not just transwomen, but all women. If the transwoman says "As a woman...", I think "you are NOT a woman."

But that's in your head, and only if you know she's transgender.

So you reject her 'as a woman, i find...' statements, not because you have any idea if she does or doesn't know what she's talking about, but because you judge her womaninity.

Wouldn't it be better if you concentrated on his/her/their claim in and of itself, rather than judge the fitness of the messenger? That way, it doesn't matter if the speaker is female, formerly male, lesbian, straight, an android or Dame Edna. They just might have a point.

 

[credoconsolans]

As someone else said, it depends on the topic.

I don't believe a transgender woman can speak for women on menstruation, body changes at puberty, PMS, pregnancy, sex and finding jeans that fit.

Why not? I can speak for women about those things, so a transgender woman would be at least as capable as me.

She'd be as capable as you. I agree.

 

[krypton iodine sulfur]

Why not? I can speak for women about those things, so a transgender woman would be at least as capable as me.

She'd be as capable as you. I agree.

Not all of the examples are good. There is a lot of grey area.

 

[Trausti]

As a proud transracial voluptuous plus-size black woman, of course I can speak for other voluptuous plus-size black women. So much transphobia here.

 

[Togo]

I don't think any one person is qualified to speak on behalf of an entire gender, or even of an entire gender within a single society.

However, if you must have identity spokespeople, I don't see why a transgendered person would be any better or worse than a woman. After all, they may have more experience of the difference between the two genders than a woman does. And it's not like a woman, when speaking about the experience of woman, has a useful point of comparison.

As a (cis) man I can share my experiences about being a man, but they're also experiences about being me. I don't know what it's like to be a woman, so, by extension, I don't know what it's like to be a man either. I have nothing on which to base the difference. Either I can understand enough about woman to get an idea of what it would like to be one, or I can't. If I can't, then I don't know what it's like to not be a man either, and thus I can't tell you much about what difference being a man makes. I can work out an idea, sure, but so can anyone.

So if you're going to have a spokesperson, they might as well be transgender. They've probably thought longer and harder about gender issues than anyone, they have some experience of both sides of the fence on some issues, and in practice they'll be using the same third party stats and reported experience that anyone else would in the same position.