Category : Poems

Sub Category : N/A

I've recently learned of the term "handmaiden" after being labelled so for calling out the small mindedness and cruelty of comparing transgender identities with that of inanimate objects or mythical creatures. Apparently it is a slur that denotes my subservience and complicity in my own oppression; Which I supposedly participated in by protesting against and calling out the hypocrisy of the Vagina Keepers.  
I am only in the beginnings of discovering how to be an effective and knowledgeable "Trans Ally".
I'm overwhelmed by the terminology, confused by the science and intrigued by the history but, as a millennial, I am mainly dumbfounded at the attitudes and ill treatment to which the Trans community are being subjected.
I have little surprise when these transgressions come from right wing conservatives or those with strict religious views. 
The number of self described leftists, liberals and feminists who appear to be collaborating with the former to hinder the progression of Trans rights, however, is startling.
Many joined the fight to help secure the rights of the Gay community. They add rainbow filters and LGBT hashtags to declare that they believe in equal rights for all; regardless of sex, gender or sexual orientation. They decry the social straitjacket of gender conformity and savagely defend their right to lead a life that is not bound by what is between their legs.
Yet many of those same people have ignored the "T" or hold it as an abstract, novelty add on to the acronym.
They might well declare a definite opposition to discrimination and abuse of Trans individuals.
However, when it comes down to the nitty gritty of putting into place policies and strategies to ensure their protection from these breaches of Human Rights , they reveal their biases and exclusionary beliefs.
Such as in the Public restroom debate where transgender individuals are seeking to use the designated amenities that align with their identity. This is not only about their psychological comfort but their personal safety.
The main opposition arises from claims that this impedes the rights and safety of cisgender women who are the disproportionate victims of violence by male perpetrators. 
They point to Patriarchal conditioning that leads to aggressive and domineering tendencies in cismen, also known as Toxic masculinity. Then point to a transwoman and tells her that her genital status at birth means she must also share these toxic gender traits and is therefore, not welcome to share our safe spaces!
Trans individuals were clearly not receptive to the social conditioning that tries to neatly divide characteristics based on biology at birth! So to apply this reductive criteria is to impose the kind of sex and gender policing that has oppressed us through the ages!
A person is not soft simply because they were born female and a person is not violent simply because they were born male.
Furthermore, although most people consider genitals to be the biological identifier of male and female, Science has shown it is not so black and white... It's not all zeros and ones!  Gender Verification tests which have been carried out in competitive sporting as early as the 50s has had trouble finding a definitive identifier! When these tests began, female athletes were required to parade naked in front of doctors. 
However, due to non typical development, genitalia can be medically ambiguous. Intersex conditions (an updated term for hermaphrodite) meant they could not make the classification based on sex organs and so too when they introduced chromosome testing based on the XY sex determination system. Only, not all the chromosomes fit into neat little boxes like they expected. 
They discovered that the SRY gene, which is usually located on the Y chromosome and responsible for triggering the differentiation of the foetus to develop as male, can sometimes be located elsewhere or that it doesn't behave as typical.
This can lead to a foetus with the DNA and genetic markers typical of a female, XX, but the physical biology typical of a male or alternatively, a foetus with the markers of a typical male, XY, but with the biology of a typical female.
They finally stopped mandatory testing but currently use testosterone levels to try verify in individual cases that may arise.
Medal winning athlete, Semenya Caster, has gone and thrown a spanner in the works as it was discovered following gender verification that she has differences in sexual development (DSD) which causes her to naturally produce higher levels of testosterone.
With athletes before her having undergone types of Female genital mutilation to allow them to continue competing, Semenya is right to legally oppose the newly introduced testosterone limit that would require her to begin medically unnecessary treatment to continue in her profession.
Paula Radcliffe and others are "worried" that this will facilitate the death of female sport by allowing MTF Trans individuals to compete without lowering their testosterone.
And they call ME a handmaiden!?
By not supporting Semenya and other female athletes like her, they are rewrapping the arms of that unfurling straitjacket. They wish to enforce the rule that will either ban her from competing or ask that the body of Semenya, a cis gender woman, be made weaker and slower, as though this makes her more of a woman! 
Paula Radcliffe asserts that even "not having to deal with periods, not having to worry about managing with your menstrual cycle around competitions" are unfair advantages. As true as this might be, if we start to police that too, what would it mean for women who have had to induce menopause or experienced the onset of menopause out of medical necessity?
They are more concerned about the fairness of winning a medal than the injustices being dealt to their female peers in the interests of excluding trans athletes.
Paula also spoke of her worry as a mum for her children growing up. Well as a mum myself, I think we should be very worried; Not because we're discovering that there are many types of people still climbing out of that rainbow closet... Or that there exists neurotypical closets... But that there are people still waiting with checklists and straitjackets and nails at the closet doors, the hospital doors, the school doors and work doors and they're checking us all!

Social Reconstruction

Let's teach our children how to be humans above all,
As opposed to lessons depicting what a "real" man or woman entails,
Let's not confine them to rigid boxes,
That when they don't fit their assigned quarters,
The damage caused may be irreparable,
Boxes make splinters and stakes, you know.

Let's teach them to be brave and scared,
To fail and succeed, 
To handle disappointment and channel anger,
To be resilient, to help, to persevere, to accept, to be kind, to FEEL.

Let's not stick labels of attributes on the sides of boxes...
Tailor made for only but a few:

"Check your genitals, get in the box,
Memorize your characteristics.
Keep fingers and toes inside the gender mould at all times;
Lest the world should snip them off!"

Don't let this be their instruction!

Let's teach them to be humans by renewing our humanity,
We created a macabre production line; mincing out marred and mutilated souls... 
Instead, let's create a revolutionary new line!
It will produce characters that do not desire to hurt themselves or eachother,
The new line will not adhere to "one size fits all" labels;
A fallacy, designed to eradicate diversity!
Instead, the characters will be encouraged to step out!
We should not be confined to live in boxes...
For too soon we'll be buried in them!