Growing up in the South and now living in New York, I have been able to gain perspective on the many forms of social constructs of gender and sex. What does it mean to be a woman? That color is “masculine” or “feminine.” “You look like a boy,” and the comments go on, and they continuously push the notion that Gender Identity is to be held within a box. I believe that gender identity is a form of expression, just the same as the choice of clothing we wear. The colors we chose should not and are not connected to any sex or gender.
After listening to the “Edge of Sports” podcast, I learned and expanded my own knowledge of the trans community’s negative effects as athletes. I don’t believe this is talked about enough, specifically cis and trans women athletes. The harsh rhetoric that says that young trans people should be excluded from women’s sports, even to say that it is just for and advocates only for cis women’s safety, is horrible in itself. We should be thinking about all WOMEN’s safety, including trans women; they are women. This is the same problem with restrooms where we are only thinking of the safety of cis women and whether or not they would feel comfortable. We neglect how we force trans men and women to feel uncomfortable and chose not to go because they are fearful because we aren’t protecting them, their lives, and their rights.
So well said Jasmine, I can relate to moving here from the south and facing cultural whiplash compared to the constant barrage of normalized gender expectations from my hometown. What a learning process. You bring up the point of the conversation of bathroom use for trans folk often revolving around safety for cis women, and I know I associate a lot of my southern upbringing with this constant infantilization of women, men preaching they had to keep women safe when really they were the ones most likely to be causing harms to those women. So bonkers!