Columnist Jaslina Paintal

In a recent post, DarkMatter, a non-binary collaboration between South Asian artists Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian, wrote “Transmisogyny teaches us that femininity is a selfish and individualistic endeavor, not a collective emancipatory project for liberation.”

White feminism buys into this transmisogynistic myth of individualistic femininity. A quintessential example of this phenomenon is the white feminist Hillary Clinton supporter, who places more importance on having a woman for president than the fact that said figurehead has consistently thrown black, working class and women of color directly under the white supremacist neo-imperialist bus through supporting military dictatorships, the ongoing criminalization of black and brown youth and mass incarceration.

Emblematic of this individualistic femininity, mainstream (read: White) feminism insists that the mere presence of a uterus-endowed individual in a position of power is a saving grace and the end-goal, regardless of her politics (which are, in case you missed it, explicitly anti-black, transphobic and damaging particularly to women of color).

This kind of individualistic identity politicking means that you, white feminists, get real busy fighting for a woman president instead of fighting for the rights and bodies of the black women and trans femmes of color who got you that 74 cents to the white man’s dollar in the first place, and who are continuing to make spaces for you to live and thrive, even at the expense of their own labor and blood. DarkMatter writes: “Transfeminine people thriving and resisting in a world that continues to dismiss and demonize our femininity is feminist work that has reverberations for all people (and especially cisgender women).”

From the Stonewall Riots, to suffrage to action against the transphobic and misogynistic House Bill 2, trans and queer women of color have been fighting to get free.