Whipping Girl
A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
by Julia Serano · first published 2007
89% recommend11% critical
Why HN recommends it
Written by a trans woman who is also a biologist, it explains transgender experience through sexism and the treatment of femininity, and is cited for clear arguments about gender, biology, and social critique.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A provocative manifesto, Whipping Girl tells the powerful story of Julia Serano, a transsexual woman whose supremely intelligent writing reflects her diverse background as a lesbian transgender activist and professional biologist. Serano shares her experiences and observations—both pre- and post-transition—to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole. Serano's well-honed arguments stem from her ability to bridge the gap between the often-disparate biological and s
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…culture sees them as trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps from a position of inferiority to a position of power. (That must be it right?!?) If you’re interested I’d highly recommend the book “Whipping Girl” by Julia Serano. [0]http://gids.nhs.uk/number-referrals
on “The islands with a flourishing 'third gender'” ↗…note that this is a contingent fact about Homo sapiens—it is possible that a different species with our level of intelligence doesn't have anything called a gender identity. But humans do. Please read Whipping Girl. It goes into all this in quite some detail.
…the subject, I'd recommend the works of Julia Serano. She's written extensively about how feminine women are mistreated in academia, even by other feminists and queer women; her most prominent book is Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, but she also has a number of other books and essays on the subject. She's also coined the term "femmephobia" to refer to the phenomenon.
on “Emily Riehl is rewriting the foundations of higher category theory” ↗I'd recommend reading Julia Serano's Whipping Girl to start. I'm also happy to explain transness in detail to the cis people I know and trust in real life. Perhaps get to know a trans person among your friends, family or coworkers, and build enough of…
…this ends up playing out as bills banning trans women from playing in a league in accordance their gender, bathroom bills, etc. [1] There's a fantastic book about this written by Julia Serrano called 'Whipping Girl' [2] that goes over these things and more and describes these phenomena as 'Transmisogyny' - trans individuals being subject to both misogyny and misandry depending on the situation, and sometimes both…
…decade. If you're genuinely interested in an introduction to the idea of femininity / the female as a social construction actually within the main leftist/feminist discourse I recommend Julia Serrano's Whipping Girl, or if you really want something controversial Andrea Long Chu's Females: A Concern. And yes, in those case you will find xyzzy21's and AndrewKemendo's claims are strawmen.
on “Dating Sites Are Not Built for Men” ↗…on biology. The concept that pink is for girls and blue is for boys is social and cultural, not biological. Gender having a biological component is more complicated. A good book that explains this is Whipping Girl by biologist and trans woman Julia Serano: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipping_Girl The first tenet of this model, the model's core that everything that follows is built upon, is the fact that…
on “Estrogen: A Trip Report” ↗I'm a trans woman, and I can talk about this a little bit, but for more, I'd highly recommend you read [Whipping Girl by Julia Serano][]. Serano is a trans woman and biologist that has studied and written about transsexuality extensively. So first off, what if you applied the same question to sexuality? We could easily…
on “United States of Paranoia: A growing tribe of troubled minds” ↗What is this doing on HN? Blanchard's research and theories about transsexualism and "autogynephilia" have been widely discredited. I recommend reading "Whipping Girl" for a solid takedown of his ideas. In my personal and clinical experience, transgender identity has little to do with sexual fetish, although it may occasionally present in this way for a variety of…
…trying to include themselves in female-only spaces. Manipulating the language of oppression and exclusion to paint everyone who objects to their incursions as bigots. Have a read of Julia Serano's book Whipping Girl, where he coined the term "transmisogyny", for examples of the creepy behavior that many of these men get up to. He devotes pages and pages to whining about women rejecting his claims of being female,…
on “No Place for Transphobia in Anthropology: Session Pulled from Annual Meeting” ↗