An apology to an old classmate
What feminism means to me
Feminism is intersectional. If your feminism does not include trans and nonbinary people, then it is not feminism. I remember when I was a junior in high school in Batangas, we had a transfer student in our class, Jonnel. Jonnel was the first person I met that was flamboyantly gay, and I would consider her now to be a trans feminine person. She wore eyeliner to school, she would proudly declare that she wore women’s underwear, and she would pack a pair of stilettos in her backpack, which made everyone in school bully her fervently. She was so severely harassed that she ended up having to quit school only a few months after transferring. I haven’t heard from her since.
So here we are, two months into the new year, although, I must admit, it still doesn’t feel like a ‘new’ year for me. I’m still sifting through issues and obstacles within myself and in the world around me.
It is true that I am very blessed, sitting in my apartment in New York City as an openly transgender person, surrounded by my art, acknowledging some of the things that I achieved last year. Last year alone, I graced billboards all around the world for a Marc Jacobs campaign, was a face for Maybelline ads, and most recently shot for the brand Victoria’s Secret. But what I learned from my experience is that with visibility comes polarization. We are currently living in an increasing climate of hatred and confusion, especially between radical feminists and Trans and Non-Binary people (people who do not identify as male or female). This mutual antagonism has given rise to the term TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists), who are people that reject the fact that trans women are Widow.
I consider myself a feminist as I believe in equal rights for all women, but being a trans woman of experience, I find myself in this gray area wherein my existence is being pitted against sex-based rights for “real” women. There is a response of hate speech and silencing, policing of our bodies down to what bathrooms we should and shouldn’t use, and opposition to our transgender rights in legislations such as the Anti-Discrimination Bill formerly known as the SOGIE bill.
Recently the rise of TERFs have amassed a great following after JK Rowling published tweets and blogs expressing her thoughts against our community. Here, in our own country, I constantly hear local Pinays agreeing when Tito Sotto on the senate hearing of the SOGIE bill after he mentioned that a trans woman will never become a real woman because we cannot give birth. This sentiment is anti-feminist, as it paints a picture that only women who can bear children are “real” women, and women who have decided not to have children are therefore also not “real” women. A woman is not defined by her ability to bear children, nor is her womanhood defined by the choices she makes.
Feminism should be intersectional, and must be a prism for seeing the way in which other forms of inequality often operate together to pit all sexes against each other.
We have to remember that this push back isn’t a contradiction against the existence of just trans people. It is about expropriating the rights of all women to control their own bodies.
What we are ultimately fighting for in this movement is actually selfdetermination and autonomy of our bodies and identities, and the reason we are experiencing so much pushback is because we live in a society that teaches us to conform to social standards. When we stand up against this, we challenge the authority of the state and the government to categorize and control our bodies. There is a lot of work to be done, but let this be a reminder that this is not just a fight for our community, but also the freedom and right of every single Filipino’s autonomy to their own bodies and choices.
Now, I would like to address my former classmate Jonnel. If you are reading this, I am truly sorry for not standing up for you. If I only knew what I know now, I would have fought harder to remind you that your strong sense of identity is valid and perfectly normal. There has been an age-old cultural narrative that wants to deny us trans people access to the public as a way to naturalize the myth that there’s only two genders. Let us use this narrative to remind ourselves of the larger cultural zeitgeist, which is an attempted erasure of our existence.
Growing up and not having a trans role model to look up to, I feel a strong desire today to change the narrative. I want the younger generation of strong, incredible women to be able to stand up and support trans and nonbinary people when they are being bullied and attacked—to help us have a rightful place in this world too. Learn how and where to help us achieve equality and equity for everyone in our community. Help us grant access to transgender health assistance (especially to trans youth), address homelessness of trans and nonbinary people, protection and rights especially for sex workers and passing of trans rights legislations like the SOGIE / Anti- Discrimination Bill.
This movement is for all of us, it is for every single woman, because the liberation of all oppressed people is the liberation of us all.