------------------------------------------------------------------- DIBS: The anti-feminist ideology afflicting feminists and feminisms ------------------------------------------------------------------- In identifying the problem of transphobia and intersex marginalization within feminism, we are often tempted to name a type of feminist or feminism. However, it's better to name the problem as an ideological syndrome, rather than a type of feminist woman or movement. To some degree, we're all afflicted with this syndrome, namely DIBS: Dimorphic Immutable Binarism Syndrome Now that we've named this anti-feminist ideology, let's look at its four aspects: --------------------------------------------------------- (1) D is for Dimorphic -- mainly relating to physical sex --------------------------------------------------------- According to the (D)imorphic viewpoint, the first letter in DIBS, humans manifest dimorphism in physical sex: either male or female. The grain of truth in this viewpoint is that humans and other mammals have gametes -- large (eggs or ova) and small (sperm) -- that are for the most part clearly dimorphic. But bodies are a very different matter! In fact, sex is a continuum, as radical feminist Andrea Dworkin emphasized in _Woman Hating_ (1974), where she speaks of "multisexuality." Further, while variations in genitals and bodies are a biological reality, sorting out that continuum into polarized "male/female" categories is a process of social construction. Ruth Herschberger discussed how "Society Writes Biology" in her feminist classic _Adam's Rib_ (1948). More recently, Anne Fausto-Sterling in _Sexing the Body_ (2000), and Joan Roughgarden in _Evolution's Rainbow_ (2004), document intersexuality as a natural aspect of the sex continuum in humans and other animals. By insisting on sex dimorphism, DIBS marginalizes not only trans people but intersex people. Intersex organizations such as the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), as well as advocates such as Fausto-Sterling, have fought the violent medical practice of Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM), which like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is inflicted on infants or children who are in a position neither to consent nor resist. Part of this struggle has been affirming that intersex bodies represent "Differences of Sex Development" (DSD) that are a natural part of being human -- as opposed to the "Disorders of Sex Development" (also DSD) seen by some heteronormatively-minded doctors and other professionals. When advocates with DIBS are forced for the sake of their dimorphic argument likewise to marginalize intersexuality as a "disorder," we get the message that feminism points in a different direction. Recognizing that sex is a continuum, not a crude dimorphic division, gives feminism a sound basis to support both intersex and trans rights. In contrast, DIBS is based on misinformation: a kind of biology which, like Aristotelian or Ptolemaic astronomy, cannot cope with the full range of natural and human reality. Andrea Dworkin's courageous recognition of human "multisexuality" serves us well 40 years later as a feminist path to the future. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. I is for Immutable -- relating to physical sex and socialization ------------------------------------------------------------------- The (I)mmutable viewpoint, the second letter in DIBS, stands for two assumptions, both in reality anti-feminist and reactionary. The first assumption holds that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and surgery "cannot change sex," so that trans women who use them are "really still men," and likewise that trans men who medically transition are "really still women." The second assumption holds that "male socialization" so shapes the identity and behavior of trans women that they "can never really be women," and likewise that trans men with their "female socialization" are so shaped that they "can never really be men." As to the supposed immutability of sex, the truth is that hormone therapy and surgery can and do change primary and secondary sex characteristics. It remains true also that medically transitioning with HRT and/or surgery does not currently result in a body medically indistinguishable from a "standard" male or female body; nor does it change chromosomes. However, just as the intermediate bodies of those born intersex are legitimate, so are the intermediate bodies of those who choose with informed consent to undergo medical transition in order to arrive at a more agreeable or concordant fit between personal identity or sense of body image and physical sex. The relevant feminist rule is: "My body, my identity, my choice." Here it's very important to affirm and understand that intersex oppression is unique, and includes the vulnerability of being born with an intermediate body in a patriarchal society. Society imposes decisions, ranging from the physical violence of IGM (now becoming rarer due to decades of struggle) to the social coercion of an almost invariably binary gender assignment with little recognition at best for nonbinary options, without room for informed choice, consent, or resistance during the fateful years of infancy and early childhood. However, the intersex and trans movements are natural allies, since both challenge the sex/gender binaries. Further, some intersex people such as educator Cary Gabriel Costello of the "Intersex Roadshow" blog, who also identifies as a trans man and authors the blog "TransFusion," may belong to both communities and experience both types of oppression. The myth of social immutability, which relates to gender identity, claims that childhood socialization is everything. Here the grain of truth is that, for example, people who are Male Assigned At Birth (MAAB) and recognize themselves as trans women do, for some period in their lives, experience male socialization and a degree of male privilege. Likewise, people who are Female Assigned At Birth (FAAB) and later come out as trans men may be affected in various ways by the experience of female socialization. However, with gender transition as with immigration and naturalization, socialization and behavioral change are lifelong processes, with room for personal choice and also for relearning! In a group of FAAB women and trans women who share feminist values, the presence or absence of past male privilege will be one of many intersections -- including race, class, ableism, and colonialism or neocolonialism and "First World" privilege -- to be dealt with through feminist process. Feminist process and techniques of active listening developed in small consciousness-raising groups of the late 1960's and early 1970's to encourage less privileged women to participate equally and be heard. Past male privilege is sometimes relevant, but hardly an incurable case of cooties. As Virginia Mollenkott, who identifies both as Lesbian and "as a masculine woman and therefore transgender," observes: "And if perchance some attitudes of special privilege happened to cling to a small minority of transwomen, what better place for them to be than with their lesbian sisters, where almost everyone has `ovaries' big enough to teach them a new way of relating!" ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3. B is for Binarism -- relating to sex/gender oversimplification ----------------------------------------------------------------- For those afflicted with DIBS, the (B)inarism represented by the third letter means that the divisions woman/man or female/male are taken as simple, straightforward, and unquestionable. Going by the patriarchal sex binary based on perceptions of genitals at birth is a tempting solution -- for those content to follow and reinforce patriarchal distinctions in the name of feminism. Here B might stand not only for Binarism, but for a new kind of Birtherism: you are what you were at birth. In contrast, feminism recognizes the importance of adult learning and resocialization, without which FAAB women subjected to conventional female socialization would presumably be trapped in patriarchal roles without any hope of escape and revolution! Just as "naturalized citizens are citizens," so, from a feminist perspective, trans women are women, trans men are men, and trans people with nonbinary identities are nonbinary, each in her/his/hir own unique way. While trans liberation is in part a question of individual identity, the implications for feminism go far beyond this: being a woman is not only an identity, but a matter of lived experience and shared affinity or solidarity, known as sisterhood. As Eve Ensler, creator of the _Vagina Monologues_, puts it very powerfully in the movie _Beautiful Daughters_: I don't think I saw how many profound connections women across all these lines -- trans, straight, bi, gay women -- have with each other, and I think that's how patriarchy triumphs. And I think the way we're going to get liberated is when we start going, "Oh, I'll show up for you and you show up for me," and that's when we're going to win. And the world's going to change. So I'm privileged to be in the sisterhood, I'm honored, I'm honored. Binarism, in contrast to Ensler's inclusive sisterhood, weakens and undermines feminism by diverting the energies of the movement into destructive gender policing. Not only trans women suffer, but other gender variant women or those who simply happen to have a certain body profile or proportions associated with "transness," and thus become collateral targets of DIBS-inspired policing also. "Divide and conquer" is the strategy of the patriarchy, not our road as women to emancipation and the building of a more just world. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. S is for Syndrome -- It's an affliction, not a woman or a movement! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Last but not least, the fourth letter in DIBS tells us that this is a (S)yndrome or affliction that besets feminists and feminisms, as opposed to some form of "radical feminism" or type of feminist woman. Above all, we must recognize the problem without personally attacking our sisters who may be afflicted with DIBS -- including ourselves, whether FAAB or trans women, if we take a close enough look in the mirror and recognize our own internalized binarist or antitrans attitudes. A bit of constructive self-criticism can be very healthy; dehumanizing other women, on the social media or elsewhere, is not. Feminists afflicted with DIBS may nevertheless make valuable contributions to areas ranging from reproductive rights and the struggle against FGM to antiracist work and marriage equality. A sister with DIBS remains a sister, not a mutant radioactive nemesis to be hunted down in some post-apocalyptic computer game. A good way to sum up the situation is to say that "getting your dibs" in the traditional sense means to enjoy some small privilege on a given occasion such as your favorite seat in an automobile, or a convenient parking space after a snowstorm. But in a feminist context, "getting your DIBS" is bad news, because DIBS spreads division where diversity and solidarity between sisters should prevail. In fighting DIBS as a patriarchal obstacle to feminist liberation, we should keep in mind an adage that Andrea Dworkin borrowed from Aldous Huxley: "Nothing short of everything will really do." That means we need to challenge the sex binary, the gender binary, and limitations on gender presentation and expression as well as sexual orientation -- without in any way losing the traditional feminist focus on the unevenness of the playing field for women, FAAB or trans. Overcoming DIBS as it affects and afflicts our sisters and ourselves is one facet of the larger feminist struggle for sex/gender equity. Margo Schulter 1 December 2014