I am not sure how to say this without it coming across possibly harsh - please correct me if I am all over with fail. But, transgender is real. Transracial or transethnic is NOT real (I am not debating biracial or multi-racial or multi ethnic identies) - it seems to me that there are many who would like transition from one ethnicity or culture to the next; who claim 'why are you claiming xyz as exclusively yours, you should share it all'.
So while Amina could be real in a transgender sense, the need to play out a different nationality, ethnicity and the racial politics identity that comes along with that seems PURE PRIVILEGE. And I am not sure how someone could imagine themselves in fantasy as the gender they feel they really are, but need to 'dress it up' with a nationality and ethnicity not their own. At that point, I get to thinking Amina might as well have been a female ELF, because non white culture and the politics that come with it are being used then as 'dress up' and 'fantastical' and 'as not really real, only adding flavour'. And that's not even getting into the lived experience he was manufacturing; not an imagined experience of 'Amina' a possible female self, but Amina as specifically who Amina was represented to be. Again that in itself seems so very cis, white, male happy oblivious privilege, at so huge a size as to block out other possibilities - that it actually makes me angry that you bring up the possibility, even while admitting it was done wrong, even if role play for transindividuals discovering themselves is a valid point.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
malionette
no subject
Date: 2011-06-13 04:31 am (UTC)So while Amina could be real in a transgender sense, the need to play out a different nationality, ethnicity and the racial politics identity that comes along with that seems PURE PRIVILEGE. And I am not sure how someone could imagine themselves in fantasy as the gender they feel they really are, but need to 'dress it up' with a nationality and ethnicity not their own. At that point, I get to thinking Amina might as well have been a female ELF, because non white culture and the politics that come with it are being used then as 'dress up' and 'fantastical' and 'as not really real, only adding flavour'. And that's not even getting into the lived experience he was manufacturing; not an imagined experience of 'Amina' a possible female self, but Amina as specifically who Amina was represented to be. Again that in itself seems so very cis, white, male happy oblivious privilege, at so huge a size as to block out other possibilities - that it actually makes me angry that you bring up the possibility, even while admitting it was done wrong, even if role play for transindividuals discovering themselves is a valid point.