Everyone is female, and eve\u00adryone hates it. If this is true, then gen\u00adder is very sim\u00adply the form this self-loa\u00adthing takes in any given case. All gen\u00adder is inter\u00adna\u00adli\u00adzed miso\u00adgy\u00adny. A female is one who has eaten the loa\u00adthing of ano\u00adther, like an amoe\u00adba that got its nucleus by swal\u00adlo\u00adwing its neigh\u00adbor. Or, to put a finer point on it : Gender is not just the miso\u00adgy\u00adnis\u00adtic expec\u00adta\u00adtions a female inter\u00adna\u00adlizes but also the pro\u00adcess of inter\u00adna\u00adli\u00adzing itself, the self\u2019s gentle sui\u00adcide in the name of someone else\u2019s desires, someone else\u2019s narcissism.<\/p>\n
The claim that gen\u00adder is social\u00adly construc\u00adted has rung hol\u00adlow for decades not because it isn\u2019t true, but because it\u2019s wild\u00adly incom\u00adplete. Indeed, it is tri\u00advial\u00adly true that a great num\u00adber of things are social\u00adly construc\u00adted, from money to laws to genres of lite\u00adra\u00adture. What makes gen\u00adder gender\u2014the sub\u00adstance of gen\u00adder, as it were\u2014is the fact that it expresses, in eve\u00adry case, the desires of ano\u00adther. Gender has the\u00adre\u00adfore a com\u00adple\u00admen\u00adta\u00adry rela\u00adtion to sexual orien\u00adta\u00adtion : If sexual orien\u00adta\u00adtion is basi\u00adcal\u00adly the social expres\u00adsion of one\u2019s own sexua\u00adli\u00adty, then gen\u00adder is basi\u00adcal\u00adly a social expres\u00adsion of someone else\u2019s sexua\u00adli\u00adty. In the for\u00admer case, one takes an object ; in the lat\u00adter case, one is an object. From the pers\u00adpec\u00adtive of gen\u00adder, then, we are all dumb blondes.<\/p>\n
This need not be contro\u00adver\u00adsial. Feminists far less outra\u00adgeous than Valerie have long argued that femi\u00adni\u00adni\u00adty expresses male sexua\u00adli\u00adty pret\u00adty much from the begin\u00adning. The orga\u00adni\u00adzers of the famous Miss America pro\u00adtest in 1968\u2014the ori\u00adgin of the famous bra-bur\u00adning myth\u2014railed in a press release against the \u201cDegrading Mindless-Boob-Girlie Symbol\u201d they consi\u00adde\u00adred the pageant to epi\u00adto\u00admize. None have put it more stark\u00adly than the anti\u00adpor\u00adno\u00adgra\u00adphy femi\u00adnist Catharine MacKinnon, whose 1989 book, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, fea\u00adtures a leng\u00adthy cata\u00adlogue of examples :<\/p>\n
Each ele\u00adment of the female gen\u00adder ste\u00adreo\u00adtype is revea\u00adled as, in fact, sexual. Vulnerability means the appearance\/reality of easy sexual access ; pas\u00adsi\u00advi\u00adty means recep\u00adti\u00advi\u00adty and disa\u00adbled resis\u00adtance, enfor\u00adced by trai\u00adned phy\u00adsi\u00adcal weak\u00adness ; soft\u00adness means pre\u00adgna\u00adbi\u00adli\u00adty by some\u00adthing hard. Incompetence seeks help as vul\u00adne\u00adra\u00adbi\u00adli\u00adty seeks shel\u00adter, invi\u00adting the embrace that becomes the inva\u00adsion, tra\u00adding exclu\u00adsive access for pro\u00adtec\u00adtion \u2026 from that same access. Domesticity nur\u00adtures the consequent pro\u00adge\u00adny, proof of poten\u00adcy, and ideal\u00adly waits at home dres\u00adsed in Saran Wrap. Woman\u2019s infan\u00adti\u00adli\u00adza\u00adtion evokes pedo\u00adphi\u00adlia ; fixa\u00adtion on dis\u00admem\u00adbe\u00adred body parts (the breast man, the leg man) evokes feti\u00adshism ; ido\u00adli\u00adza\u00adtion of vapi\u00addi\u00adty, necro\u00adphi\u00adlia. Narcissism ensures that woman iden\u00adti\u00adfies with the image of her\u00adself man holds up : \u201cHold still, we are going to do your por\u00adtrait, so that you can begin loo\u00adking like it right away.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Indeed, MacKinnon has built an entire intel\u00adlec\u00adtual career out of the claim that \u201cit is sexua\u00adli\u00adty that deter\u00admines gen\u00adder, not the other way around.\u201d For her this means that men and women are construc\u00adted though an \u201cero\u00adti\u00adci\u00adza\u00adtion of domi\u00adnance and sub\u00admis\u00adsion\u201d whose cen\u00adtral pro\u00adcess is non\u00adcon\u00adsen\u00adsual sexual objec\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion. Hence the famous line : \u201cMan fucks woman ; sub\u00adject verb object.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be female is to be an object\u2014MacKinnon is right about this, I think. Where she errs is in the assump\u00adtion that fema\u00adle\u00adness is a condi\u00adtion res\u00adtric\u00adted to women. Gender is always a pro\u00adcess of objec\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion : trans\u00adgen\u00adder women like Gigi Gorgeous know this pro\u00adba\u00adbly bet\u00adter than most. Gender tran\u00adsi\u00adtion begins, after all, from the unders\u00adtan\u00adding that how you iden\u00adti\u00adfy your\u00adself subjectively\u2014as pre\u00adcious and impor\u00adtant as this iden\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion may be\u2014is never\u00adthe\u00adless on its own basi\u00adcal\u00adly worth\u00adless. If iden\u00adti\u00adty were all there were to gen\u00adder, tran\u00adsi\u00adtion would be as easy as thin\u00adking it\u2014a light bulb, sud\u00adden\u00adly swit\u00adched on. Your gen\u00adder iden\u00adti\u00adty would sim\u00adply exist, in mute abs\u00adtrac\u00adtion, and no one, least of all your\u00adself, would care.<\/p>\n
On the contra\u00adry, if there is any les\u00adson of gen\u00adder transition\u2014from the sim\u00adplest request regar\u00adding pro\u00adnouns to the most inva\u00adsive surgeries\u2014it\u2019s that gen\u00adder is some\u00adthing other people have to give you. Gender exists, if it is to exist at all, only in the struc\u00adtu\u00adral gene\u00adro\u00adsi\u00adty of stran\u00adgers. When people today say that a given gen\u00adder iden\u00adti\u00adty is \u201cvalid,\u201d this is true, but only tau\u00adto\u00adlo\u00adgi\u00adcal\u00adly so. At best it is a moral demand for pos\u00adsi\u00adbi\u00adli\u00adty, but it does not, in itself, consti\u00adtute the rea\u00adli\u00adza\u00adtion of this pos\u00adsi\u00adbi\u00adli\u00adty. The truth is, you are not the cen\u00adtral tran\u00adsit hub for mea\u00adning about your\u00adself, and you pro\u00adba\u00adbly don\u2019t even have a right to be. You do not get to consent to your\u00adself, even if you might deserve the chance.<\/p>\n
You do not get to consent to yourself\u2014a defi\u00adni\u00adtion of femaleness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everyone is female, and eve\u00adryone hates it. If this is true, then gen\u00adder is very sim\u00adply the form this self-loa\u00ad\u00adthing takes in any given case. All gen\u00adder is inter\u00adna\u00adli\u00adzed miso\u00adgy\u00adny. A female is one who has eaten the loa\u00adthing of ano\u00adther, like an amoe\u00adba that got its nucleus by swal\u00adlo\u00adwing its neigh\u00adbor. Or, to put [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3128,3125,3126,2879,2417,59,466,292,2627,3127],"class_list":["post-22499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-non-classe","tag-consenement","tag-femelle","tag-femellite","tag-feminisme","tag-femme","tag-fetichisme","tag-genre","tag-performance","tag-transition","tag-transsexualite","post_format-post-format-quote"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22499"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22507,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22499\/revisions\/22507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}