“Womanhood does not reside in documentation”: Queer and feminist student activism for transgender women's inclusion at women's colleges

ABSTRACT

This article considers queer-driven student activism at Smith College, as well as admissions policy shifts at a number of prominent U.S. women's colleges for transgender women's inclusion. The author illustrates how student attempts to dismantle the transmisogyny at Smith as a purportedly feminist “women's” space, as well as some women's colleges' shifts in admissions policy, challenge divisions between transgender and cisgender women. This paradigmatic shift reflects the campuses as comparative havens for gender and sexual exploration, the influence of postmodern gender theory in understanding identity, and the growth of “queer” as an all-encompassing signifier for sexual and gender transgression.

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender women
• women's colleges
• feminism
• transmisogyny
• student activism
• queer
• Seven Sisters

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Erratum

Notes on contributor

Shannon Weber received her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an A.B. in Critical Social Thought from Mount Holyoke College. She is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Wellesley College, where she teaches courses in gender and LGBTQ studies. Her work has been published in Sexualities, Journal of Homosexuality, and assorted anthologies, one of which, Understanding and Teaching U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History by Leila J. Rupp and Susan K. Freeman, was recently awarded a Lambda Literary Award. Shannon is at work on a book manuscript about LGBTQ student cultures at women's colleges based on her dissertation and is also crafting a second project concerning queer femme-ininities, embodiment and visibility politics.

Notes

1. The Seven Sisters historically were comprised of Mount Holyoke, the founding member, as well as Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Smith, Radcliffe, Vassar, and Wellesley, established in the nineteenth century as the female equivalent of the then all-male Ivy League. Radcliffe eventually merged with Harvard University and Vassar became a coeducational institution, thus leaving five of the original seven colleges as women's colleges into the present day.

2. Transmisogyny refers to the particular ways in which misogyny is manifested against transgender women. See Serano 2007.

3. For example, trans woman Kayley Whalen, who attended MichFest in 2010 and 2011, writes that “the Land is indeed my home,” speaking to the myriad of trans-positive experiences she had at MichFest in 2010. At the same time, she adds, “Sadly, it was made very clear to me in 2011 that I would not feel safe returning there” (Whalen 2014). Whalen came to this conclusion after sharing the Land with cisgender women who pinned red badges onto their clothing as an intentional statement of their pro-exclusion beliefs, a tradition she explains formed in response to pro-inclusion attendees wearing white t-shirts from the organization “Trans Womyn Belong Here.”

4. For example, the Smith administration tamped down on a trans male student who used footage of the campus as part of his appearance in the 2005 Sundance Film Channel documentary Trans*Generation, prohibiting him from filming anywhere outside his apartment halfway through filming, despite initially permitting the filmmakers access. In 2011, Smith denied trans male student Jake Pecht from acting as an overnight host for prospective students as part of his Gold Key guide duties. Pecht had proposed to the administration that he explain how he identified to any prospective students ahead of time and to secure the prospective students' consent before having them stay the night in his room, but this proposal was declined (Giovanniello 2012; Pecht 2011).

5. Another meaning ascribed to the Q&A acronym is “Question and Answer,” a reference to the group's Tumblr page, whose header reads, “Question: Trans women at Smith? Answer: Trans women at Smith!” (see http://smith-q-and-a.tumblr.com).

6. While Mount Holyoke's announcement came after Mills' policy change, the Mount Holyoke administration had been planning a change prior to Mills' official news. I thank my colleague Genny Beemyn for providing this information.

7. Student groups at Smith have confirmed that there is at least one student currently on campus who is a trans woman, but who does not feel comfortable having her identity public.