NYTimes, When Women Become Men at Wellesley
Or, transgenders taking advantage of women's colleges?
What's your view?
And what is the appropriate role, if any, of the Federal Government when two minorities (feminists and transgenders) each claim that the other is practising discrimination?
Uno
Feminists discriminating against transgenders?... argument was simple: Of all the people at a multiethnic women’s college who could hold the school’s “diversity” seat, the least fitting one was a white man.
...it just felt inappropriate to have a white man there. It’s not just about that position either. Having men in elected leadership positions undermines the idea of this being a place where women are the leaders.”
...she found herself in a difficult spot: How could she maintain that women’s colleges would lose something precious by including men, but at the same time argue that women’s colleges should accommodate students who identify as men?
...And yet many trans students feel that more needs to be done...
Rose Layton, a lesbian who said she views trans students as competitors in the campus dating scene. “They flirt with them, hook up with them. And it’s not just the hetero women, but even people in the queer community. The trans men are always getting this extra bit of acknowledgment. Even though we’re in a women’s college, the fact is men and masculinity get more attention and more value in this social dynamic than women do.”
Kaden Mohamed said he felt downright objectified when he returned from summer break last year, after five months of testosterone had lowered his voice, defined his arm muscles and reshaped his torso. It was attention that he had never experienced before he transitioned. But as his body changed, students he didn’t even know would run their hands over his biceps. Once at the school pub, an intoxicated Wellesley woman even grabbed his crotch and that of another trans man.
“It’s this very bizarre reversal of what happens in the real world,” Kaden said. “In the real world, it’s women who get fetishized, catcalled, sexually harassed, grabbed.
Or, transgenders taking advantage of women's colleges?
What's your view?
And what is the appropriate role, if any, of the Federal Government when two minorities (feminists and transgenders) each claim that the other is practising discrimination?
Uno