Cotton ceiling

Last updated

Cotton ceiling is the purported marginalization of trans women in queer sexual spaces. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [ excessive citations ] The term has been the subject of criticism, with some arguing that the idea of the cotton ceiling is coercive.

Contents

History

The term was coined in 2012 by transgender porn performer Drew DeVeaux, referring to the feeling of being invisible as a trans woman in queer sexual spaces. [9] The term gained wider use after a 2012 workshop at Planned Parenthood Toronto called, "Overcoming the Cotton Ceiling: Breaking Down Sexual Barriers for Queer Trans Women". [10] [11]

Criticism

British barrister Allison Bailey tweeted a criticism of the cotton ceiling with regards to the 2012 Planned Parenthood workshop. She wrote, "Stonewall recently hired Morgan Page, a male-bodied person who ran workshops with the sole aim of coaching heterosexual men who identify as lesbians on how they can coerce young lesbians into having sex with them. Page called [the workshop] ‘overcoming the cotton ceiling’ and it is popular." [12] She was asked by her employer, Garden Court Chambers, to delete the tweet and one other, the tweets, Bailey's gender-critical beliefs, and her treatment by her employers were subsequently the subject a discrimination action case. [13]

Rosie Swayne condemns accusations of the cotton ceiling being coercive, writing that the sexuality of trans women is so "policed" that entering into a discussion of the cotton ceiling will inevitably result in accusations "of being ‘rapey’". [14]

In her 2021 BBC article, "The lesbians who feel pressured to have sex and relationships with trans women" (initially titled, "We're being pressured into sex by some trans women"),Caroline Lowbridge wrote that the term cotton ceiling is "controversial." [15] In her article, Lowbridge spoke to lesbians who experienced internalized pressure into including trans women in their sexuality and, in at least one case, who's experiences of such pressure resulted in having unwanted sex with a trans woman. [10] [Note 1]

Notes

  1. ↑ The article itself was controversial. [16] The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit later ruled that the piece did not meet their expected standards because of its use of an unscientific survey, its failure to identify Get the L Out as an activist group with a specific agenda, and its misleading headline. The article was subsequently amended to address those concerns. However, the Unit also deemed that the article was a legitimate piece of journalism. [17]

Related Research Articles

Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.

The word cisgender describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth, i.e., someone who is not transgender. The prefix cis- is Latin and means on this side of. The term cisgender was coined in 1994 as an antonym to transgender, and entered into dictionaries starting in 2015 as a result of changes in social discourse about gender. The term has been and continues to be controversial and subject to critique.

LGBT slang, LGBT speak, queer slang, or gay slang is a set of English slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBTQ+ people. It has been used in various languages since the early 20th century as a means by which members of the LGBTQ+ community identify themselves and speak in code with brevity and speed to others. The acronym LGBT was popularized in the 1990s and stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, LGBTQ, adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transfeminism</span> Branch of feminism

Transfeminism, or trans feminism, is a branch of feminism focused on transgender women and informed by transgender studies. Transfeminism focuses on the effects of transmisogyny and patriarchy on trans women. It is related to the broader field of queer theory. The term was popularized by Emi Koyama in The Transfeminist Manifesto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attraction to transgender people</span> Romantic or sexual attraction to transgender people

Sexual attraction to transgender people has been the subject of scientific study and social commentary. Psychologists have researched sexual attraction toward trans women, trans men, cross dressers, non-binary people, and a combination of these. Publications in the field of transgender studies have investigated the attraction transgender individuals can feel for each other. The people who feel this attraction to transgender people name their attraction in different ways.

Sheila Jeffreys is a former professor of political science at the University of Melbourne, born in England. A lesbian feminist scholar, she analyses the history and politics of human sexuality.

The feminist sex wars, also known as the lesbian sex wars, sex wars or porn wars, are collective debates amongst feminists regarding a number of issues broadly relating to sexuality and sexual activity. Differences of opinion on matters of sexuality deeply polarized the feminist movement, particularly leading feminist thinkers, in the late 1970s and early 1980s and continue to influence debate amongst feminists to this day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender sexuality</span> Sexuality of transgender people

Sexuality in transgender individuals encompasses all the issues of sexuality of other groups, including establishing a sexual identity, learning to deal with one's sexual needs, and finding a partner, but may be complicated by issues of gender dysphoria, side effects of surgery, physiological and emotional effects of hormone replacement therapy, psychological aspects of expressing sexuality after medical transition, or social aspects of expressing their gender.

This article focuses on Japanese definitions of gender and sexuality, Japanese reactions to queer life, the clash between traditional and contemporary ideas, and the cultural restraints of being queer in Japan. The Western term “queer,” an umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) represents a change in thought pertaining to gender and sexuality in contemporary Japan.

Del LaGrace Volcano is an American artist, performer, and activist from California. A formally trained photographer, Volcano's work includes installation, performance and film and interrogates the performance of gender on several levels, especially the performance of masculinity and femininity.

Feminist views on transgender topics vary widely.

Transgender studies, also called trans studies or trans* studies, is an interdisciplinary field of academic research dedicated to the study of gender identity, gender expression, and gender embodiment, as well as to the study of various issues of relevance to transgender and gender variant populations. Interdisciplinary subfields of transgender studies include applied transgender studies, transgender history, transgender literature, transgender media studies, transgender anthropology and archaeology, transgender psychology, and transgender health. The research theories within transgender studies focus on cultural presentations, political movements, social organizations and the lived experience of various forms of gender nonconformity. The discipline emerged in the early 1990s in close connection to queer theory. Non-transgender-identified peoples are often also included under the "trans" umbrella for transgender studies, such as intersex people, crossdressers, drag artists, third gender individuals, and genderqueer people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of LGBT topics</span> Overview of and topical guide to LGBT topics

The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBT topics:

In feminist theory, heteropatriarchy or cisheteropatriarchy, is a socio-political system where (primarily) cisgender and heterosexual males have authority over other cisgender males, females, and people with other sexual orientations and gender identities. It is a term that emphasizes that discrimination against women and LGBT people is derived from the same sexist social principle.

Queer erasure refers to the tendency to intentionally or unintentionally remove LGBT groups or people from record, or downplay their significance, which includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. This erasure can be found in a number of written and oral texts, including popular and scholarly texts.

Lesbian erasure is a form of lesbophobia that involves the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of lesbian women or relationships in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources. Lesbian erasure also refers to instances wherein lesbian issues, activism, and identity is deemphasized or ignored within feminist groups or the LGBT community.

"'We're being pressured into sex by some trans women'" is the original title of a BBC News article written by Caroline Lowbridge and published on 26 October 2021. Produced by the BBC's regional service in Nottingham, the article reports that lesbians are being pressured into sex by a small number of transgender women and non-transgender 'activists'. The article received widespread criticism among the LGBT community as transphobic. It drew particular attention for the inclusion of comments from American pornographic actress Lily Cade, who wrote a blog post after the article's publication calling for the "lynching" of high-profile trans women. Cade's comments were subsequently removed from the article.

Gender-critical feminism, also known as trans-exclusionary radical feminism or TERFism, is an ideology or movement that opposes what it refers to as "gender ideology": the concept of gender identity and transgender rights, especially gender self-identification. Gender-critical feminists believe that sex is biological and immutable, while believing gender, including both gender identity and gender roles, to be inherently oppressive. They reject the concept of transgender identities.

Cisnormativity or cissexual assumption is the assumption that everyone is, or ought to be, cisgender. The term can further refer to a wider range of presumptions about gender assignment, such as the presumption of a gender binary, or expectations of conformity to gender roles even when transgender identities are otherwise acknowledged. Cisnormativity is a form of cisgenderism, an ideology which promotes various normative ideas about gender, to the invalidation of individuals' own gender identities, analogous to heterosexism or ableism.

References

  1. ↑ Trier-Bieniek, Adrienne; Householder, April Kalogeropoulos (12 July 2016). Feminist Perspectives on Orange Is the New Black: Thirteen Critical Essays. McFarland. p. 103. ISBN   978-1-4766-2519-5.
  2. ↑ Srinivasan, Amia (19 August 2021). The Right to Sex: Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2022. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1-5266-4525-8.
  3. ↑ Banerjea, Niharika; Browne, Kath; Ferreira, Eduarda; Olasik, Marta; Podmore, Julie (2019). Lesbian Feminism: Essays Opposing Global Heteropatriarchies. Zed Books. p. 167. ISBN   978-1-78699-532-2.
  4. ↑ Beck, Koa (7 September 2021). White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-9821-3442-6.
  5. ↑ Rossiter, Hannah (2016). The Cotton Ceiling and the Ghost Penis: Sex, Sexual Orientation and a Transwoman's Body. Conference of the Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealand.
  6. ↑ Steinbock, Eliza (2014). "Pornography". Transgender Studies Quarterly. 1 (1–2): 156–158. doi: 10.1215/23289252-2399893 – via Duke University Press.
  7. ↑ Kaas, Hailey (2016). "Birth of Transfeminism in Brazil: Between Alliances and Backlashes". Transgender Studies Quarterly. 3 (1–2): 146–149. doi:10.1215/23289252-3334307 – via Duke University Press.
  8. ↑ Zamantakis, Alithia (2021-12-13). Thinking Cis: Racialized Cissexism, Cis-Heterosexual Men, And Cis-LBQ Women. Georgia State University (Thesis). doi:10.57709/26163765.
  9. ↑ Steinbock, Eliza (2017-08-08). "Representing trans sexualities". In Smith, Clarissa (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality. Routledge Handbooks Online. doi:10.4324/9781315168302. ISBN   978-1-138-77721-7. S2CID   158377654.
  10. 1 2 Lowbridge, Caroline (2021-10-26). "The lesbians who feel pressured to have sex and relationships with trans women" . Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  11. ↑ Sodha, Sonia (2022-05-29). "If a lesbian only desires same-sex dates that's not bigotry, it's her right". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  12. ↑ Siddique, Haroon (2022-06-19). "Allison Bailey case is a microcosm of the wider debate about transgender rights". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  13. ↑ "Allison Bailey: Barrister awarded £22,000 in discrimination case". BBC London. 2022-07-27. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  14. ↑ Swayne, Rosie (2019). "Unqualified, middle-aged lesbian swerves abruptly out of her lane to talk about trans issues". In Banjerea, Niharika; Browne, Kath; Ferreira, Eduarda; Olasik, Marta; Podmore, Julie (eds.). Lesbian Feminism: Essays Opposing Global Heteropatriarchies. Zed Books. p. 167. ISBN   978-1-78699-532-2. I'd like to think it would not be necessary for me to utterly condemn any form of sexual coercion between individuals based on any form of ideology whatsoever, but hey, this might be on the internet – and where the 'cotton ceiling' is concerned, woe betide anyone who enters the conversation who doesn't want to be accused of being 'rapey'. But if you want to read some clarification on the issue, The Transadvocate offers some perspective with "Cotton Ceiling: Uncovering the Trans Conspiracy to Rape Lesbians" (Williams, 2013). (Link to cited article).
  15. ↑ Lowbridge, Caroline (2021-10-26). "The lesbians who feel pressured to have sex and relationships with trans women". BBC. Retrieved 2024-07-16. The term "cotton ceiling" is sometimes used when discussing these issues, but it is controversial.
  16. ↑ Parsons, Vic (2021-10-27). "BBC defends anti-trans article blisteringly condemned by thousands as 'fake news'". PinkNews. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  17. ↑ Waterson, Jim (2022-06-01). "BBC says article on trans women did not meet accuracy standards". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-07-16.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.