Feminizm jako źródło cierpień. Doświadczenie niemożliwości trans/feministycznej solidarności w literaturze trans

Abstract

If one is to trust the declarations made by numerous leading thinkers in intersectional feminism, such as Sara Ahmed, solidarity between feminism and trans people should be a given. Transfeminism, as a slogan assuming that a new form of feminist thought can be built on the basis of this solidarity, is a slogan that enjoys enduring popularity, even in the face of the apparent rise of transphobic forms of feminism. At the same time, despite the activist success of such perspectives, a careful reading of contemporary trans literature – literature that seeks to serve as a form of recording and expressing the lived experiences of trans people – indicates that the relationship of “trans” to “feminism” is much more complicated. In the work of authors such as Torrey Peters and Alison Rumfitt, feminism, rather than a movement that can support trans people, appears just as often as a source of their suffering. This article attempts to consider these literary representations of the relationship between feminism and transgender (and especially trans femininity). It leads to the question of what barriers stand in the way of the – so seemingly obvious – trans/feminist solidarity, and whether such solidarity is even possible in a situation that recognizes the irreducibility of the differences and tensions that divide the spaces of transgender and feminism. Keywords: trans femininity, transgender, transphobia, feminism, <i>Detransition, Baby. A Novel</i>, <i>Tell Me I’m Worthless</i>