Gender Abolitionist Movement

In my ideal world, what we currently call trans people would be much more common and highly visible. Adults would wear all sorts of clothes and have all sorts of mannerisms that would go with all sorts of bodies and all sorts of genitals. I’m not sure if all English-speaking humans would have the same pronoun or if there would be a wide diversity of different, self-chosen pronouns for different people, but in any event, pronouns would not at all be linked to the sorts of gender categories that exist today. People would not be socialized to be anything other than free-spirited human beings who cooperate with others in their community out of love and solidarity. As a result of this, no one would have a leg up over anyone else for any type of work or career, and people would be able to pursue work in line with their natural and evolving interests and talents. This freedom would extend to “domestic” work such as cooking and cleaning as well as sex work. Anyone would be able choose to give birth (or not) and anyone would be able to choose to be involved in caring for the children of the community (or not), but these two things would NOT be linked. People would not be nonconsensually sexually objectified because there would not be an assumption that you could look at someone and assume what type of genitals they had or what type of partners or sexual activities they preferred. Rape would not exist because there would be no depictions of rape in the media, no cultural narratives that justify rape, and no community patterns of protecting or shielding rapists.

This vision will certainly not appeal to everyone, but to me it sounds pretty utopian. Of course, I have no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue as to how to get there! But I think clarifying my vision in my own head and expressing it to others and seeing what feedback they give me is an important initial step. I do know that the answer does NOT lie in treating women like ♥♥♥♥ or blaming us for our struggles, and it DEFINITELY does not lie in treating trans women like ♥♥♥♥ or blaming US for our struggles. Men’s gender identities may exist to facilitate their status as patriarchal oppressors but women’s—and especially trans women’s—gender identities mainly exist to help us SURVIVE patriarchal oppression. So being a trans woman will always be important to me because I want to honor the struggle I’ve endured in my life and the identity that ties me to others who have had similar struggles. But I dream of the day when people like me will never have to withstand the oppression, the othering, the exclusion, and the dysphoria that caused us to view ourselves as trans women in the first place. We will simply be human beings who will be free to do and be whatever we want to do and be, both in terms of our social role and our physical body.