What counts as woman

Our discussion today in class reminded me of a few articles that I read recently. First, here’s this article about the standards for admittance into the US Marine Corps. It’s an interesting look at the things we require and don’t require and the skills that we value and don’t value so much. Female members of the military are held to different standards on and off the battlefield. They are absolutely the Other and the negative in discussions of the military.

http://jezebel.com/5876787/should-lady-marines-get-a-break

Second, here is an article on Caster Semenya, who is the South African runner that Tim mentioned today. We read this New Yorker article for our Queer Theory class. Semenya identifies as a female but her “biological femaleness” has been consistently called into question as a result not only of her physical appearance but also as a result of her speed and testosterone levels. The article notes the ridiculous number of times that Semenya has undergone tests (both official, by doctors, and unofficial, by other athletes who ask her to prove herself in the restrooms before a meet) that violate her privacy. Semenya was raised as and has always identified as a woman.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/30/091130fa_fact_levy

I guess I was thinking about all of these things in class today because they all point to the difficulties of being a woman, or of being the Other in general, but they all also relate to the Butler reading for Thursday. As de Beavoir famously said, we are not born but become women. Butler uses the idea of performativity, of the “stylized repetition of acts,” to explain our relationship to gender expression. She notes, “Discrete genders are part of what ‘humanizes’ individuals within contemporary culture; indeed those who fail to do their gender are regularly punished” (99). This is certainly true for Semenya, whose failure to “do” her gender correctly (both biologically and culturally) led to an international controversy. It also brought to mind two other examples of punishment for those who, as trans individuals, failed to appropriately express gender. (Sorry for putting so many articles in this; clearly I read too much Jezebel.)

The first article is on the recent controversy over a Colorado Girl Scout troop that admitted a transgendered 7 year old. Finally, there is an article on a Macy’s employee who was fired over her treatment of a trans customer who went into the women’s changing rooms.

http://jezebel.com/5878240/girl-scout-troop-in-louisiana-disbands-to-protest-tardy-ban-on-transgender-children/

http://jezebel.com/5866187/employee-fired-for-harassing-transgender-customer-accuses-macys-of-religious-discrimination

The questions for me, given de Beauvoir and our Butler reading are, can we ever become woman enough? What do we accept as woman and why do we draw the lines where we do? Where does trans identity fit into our understanding of gender?