Julia Serano

A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

Whipping Girl

In this manifesto, biologist and transsexual woman Julia Serano reveals the ways that fear, contempt, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape societal attitudes about trans women, gender, and sexuality as a whole.

While many feminist and queer movements are designed to challenge sexism, they often simultaneously police gender and sexuality—sometimes just as fiercely as the straight, male-centric mainstream does. Among LGBTQ activists, there is a long history of lesbians and gay men dismissing bisexuals, transgender people, and other gender and sexual minorities. In each case, exclusion is based on the premise that certain ways of being gendered or sexual are more legitimate, natural, or righteous than others. As a trans woman, bisexual, and femme activist, Julia Serano has spent much of the last ten years challenging various forms of exclusion within feminist and queer/LGBTQ movements. In Excluded, she chronicles many of these instances of exclusion and argues that marginalizing others often stems from a handful of assumptions that are routinely made about gender and sexuality. These false assumptions infect theories, activism, organizations, and communities—and worse, they enable people to vigorously protest certain forms of sexism while simultaneously ignoring and even perpetuating others. Serano advocates for a new approach to fighting sexism that avoids these pitfalls and offers new ways of thinking about gender, sexuality, and sexism that foster inclusivity rather than exclusivity.

Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive

Excluded

The author of landmark manifesto Whipping Girl exposes the violent ways we are all sexualized-then offers a bold path for resistance Feminists have long challenged the ways in which men tend to sexualize women. But pioneering activist, biologist, and trans woman Julia Serano argues that sexualization is a far more pervasive problem, as it's something that we all do to other people, often without being aware of it. Why do we perceive men as sexual predators and women as sexual objects? Why are LGBTQ+ people stereotyped as being sexually indiscriminate and deceptive? Why are people of color still being hypersexualized? These stereotypes push minorities farther into the margins, and even the privileged are policed from transgressing, lest they also become targets. Many view sexualization as a mere component of sexism, racism, or queerphobia, but Serano argues that liberation from sexual violence comes through collectively confronting sexualization itself.

How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back

Sexed Up

Morty Diamond

Shawna Virago

Exploring the crossroads of gender and sexuality, Trans/Love offers unusually engaging narratives that create a raw and honest depiction of dating, sex, love and relationships among members of the gender variant community. FTM, MTF, third gender, genderqueer, and other non-traditional identities beyond the gender binary of traditional male and female are included in this often heartwarming, occasionally heartbreaking, always heartfelt groundbreaking anthology.

Radical Sex, Love and Relationships Beyond the Gender Binary

Trans/Love

Manifeste d'une femme trans et autres textes

Julia Serano (author of Whipping Girl and Excluded) combines elements of memoir, historical account, gender theory, and activist philosophy in her third book, Outspoken. This collection provides an insightful overview of where transgender activism has been, and compelling analysis of where it should head in the future.

A Decade of Transgender Activism & Trans Feminism

Outspoken

Whipping Girl by Julia Serano

The author of landmark manifesto Whipping Girl exposes the violent ways we are all sexualized–then offers a bold path for resistance Feminists have long challenged the ways in which men tend to sexualize women. But pioneering activist, biologist, and trans woman Julia Serano argues that sexualization is a far more pervasive problem, as it’s something that we all do to other people, often without being aware of it. Why do we perceive men as sexual predators and women as sexual objects? Why are LGBTQ+ people stereotyped as being sexually indiscriminate and deceptive? Why are people of color still being hypersexualized? These stereotypes push minorities farther into the margins, and even the privileged are policed from transgressing, lest they also become targets. Many view sexualization as a mere component of sexism, racism, or queerphobia, but Serano argues that liberation from sexual violence comes through collectively confronting sexualization itself.

Kat Cataclysm is quite a character: absurdist short fiction writer, aspiring novelist, failed linguist, recovering slam poet, wannabe stand-up comedian, and (for the time being) lead listicle writer at a San Francisco-based tech-slash-media start-up. 99 Erics is a humorous account of Kat's experiences writing a book called 99 Erics, which is about her experiences dating ninety-nine different people named Eric. It is more surreal than slutty. Not that there is anything wrong with slutty.

Julia Serano

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