(A really interesting thing happened to me, twice, while I was writing this post: I completely talked myself out of my original opinion. The opinion I first intended to express isn't the one I wound up believing, so this is a very different post than the one I intended to make when I hit "reply," and also a very different one than I thought it would be when that changed once. I'll be happy to explain what I would have said and why it changed, if you think it would be useful to you in further discussions, with friends and/or with BMC itself.)
Firstly, I think everything you've said above and below is very well thought-out, and I have no words to describe how awesome I think it is that you're doing this. I do have another set of points to make that don't necessarily agree or disagree with yours, and I'm sure they're things you've thought of, but they haven't been said outright in this post as of yet and I think they're useful to get out there: namely, the purely educational concerns of a women's college admitting trans men and trans women.
After arguing myself in circles on other points of view, therefore, I have to disagree with what's been said here. I think BMC should admit both trans men and trans women.
Bryn Mawr's primary commitment is and has always been to women's education. The reasons for this are educational in nature, as well as political, and the basic educational concern is this: women and men are treated differently. The educational world has become much more equal than previously in its treatment of men and women, but we're not there yet. People who have been raised as women and educated as women have some very specific cultural and cognitive handicaps and disadvantages passed to them through scholastic culture, which Bryn Mawr seeks to overcome. Also, women face very specific (though different) handicaps and disadvantages when they proceed forward from college, into their various careers in or out of academia and education.Bryn Mawr seeks to overcome those well.
I don't think BMC's mission is just about "people who face disadvantages because of the cultural patriarchy of the modern world." Frankly, everyone faces some disadvangages as a result of The Patriarchal System, which is most of why it needs to change. It's about "people who face very specific disadvantages from education-based and career-based patriarchy."
MTF individuals who go the long haul and fully present themselves to the world as women will, as a result of that change, face the career-based disadvantages women will face. FTM individuals who go the long haul have already faced the education-based disadvantages that girls face. (All of these, of course, in addition to the disadvantages they will face from being a tremendous gender minority through being trans in the first place.)
Bryn Mawr, by its own mission, has an educational responsibility to women's education. This includes both reparation of the cultural damage done to girls in our educational system, and setting students up to protect and promote themselves as women in their future careers. Both of those responsibilities are equal.
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17/4/11 04:02 (UTC)Firstly, I think everything you've said above and below is very well thought-out, and I have no words to describe how awesome I think it is that you're doing this. I do have another set of points to make that don't necessarily agree or disagree with yours, and I'm sure they're things you've thought of, but they haven't been said outright in this post as of yet and I think they're useful to get out there: namely, the purely educational concerns of a women's college admitting trans men and trans women.
After arguing myself in circles on other points of view, therefore, I have to disagree with what's been said here. I think BMC should admit both trans men and trans women.
Bryn Mawr's primary commitment is and has always been to women's education. The reasons for this are educational in nature, as well as political, and the basic educational concern is this: women and men are treated differently. The educational world has become much more equal than previously in its treatment of men and women, but we're not there yet. People who have been raised as women and educated as women have some very specific cultural and cognitive handicaps and disadvantages passed to them through scholastic culture, which Bryn Mawr seeks to overcome. Also, women face very specific (though different) handicaps and disadvantages when they proceed forward from college, into their various careers in or out of academia and education.Bryn Mawr seeks to overcome those well.
I don't think BMC's mission is just about "people who face disadvantages because of the cultural patriarchy of the modern world." Frankly, everyone faces some disadvangages as a result of The Patriarchal System, which is most of why it needs to change. It's about "people who face very specific disadvantages from education-based and career-based patriarchy."
MTF individuals who go the long haul and fully present themselves to the world as women will, as a result of that change, face the career-based disadvantages women will face. FTM individuals who go the long haul have already faced the education-based disadvantages that girls face. (All of these, of course, in addition to the disadvantages they will face from being a tremendous gender minority through being trans in the first place.)
Bryn Mawr, by its own mission, has an educational responsibility to women's education. This includes both reparation of the cultural damage done to girls in our educational system, and setting students up to protect and promote themselves as women in their future careers. Both of those responsibilities are equal.