Anti-trans feminism needs to be called out for being exclusionary, writes Sally Hines, a professor at the University of Leeds

This is part of a two-week discussion on trans issues. Click here to read the other essays in the series.

What is a woman? Who can be a feminist? These questions have been central to feminist theory and activism since the 1970s, proving to be particularly controversial in the relationship between feminist and transgender activism. In recent years, these questions have returned to haunt feminism.

For some feminist theorists the category of “woman” is developed out of the biological characteristics of being female. However, a universal understanding of “woman” (as distinct from “man”) fractured during the 1970s as feminists of colour, working class and disabled feminists challenged the capabilities of a largely white, middle-class, able-bodied movement to articulate and organise around their interests.

I am deeply saddened that in recent years there has been renewed antagonism from a section of feminism towards trans people, and especially towards trans women.

This led to the development of more complex models of feminist analysis. By the 1990s multi-faceted gender identities and experiences were embraced by feminist scholars who wrote against a biologically-determined feminist theory that excluded trans women. Similarly, the development of several queer movements positively acknowledged difference and argued against the understanding of identity categories as fixed.

I am deeply saddened that in recent years there has been renewed antagonism from a section of feminism towards trans people, and especially towards trans women. The small number of feminists loudly opposing changes to the Gender Recognition Act (which would merely make the administrative process of gender recognition less bureaucratic) are using a simplistic reading of biology that negates the natural diversities of physical sex characteristics and disregards the realities of trans people’s lives. While anti-trans viewpoints are a minority position within feminism, they are championed by several high-profile writers, many of whom reinforce the extremely offensive trope of the trans woman as a man in drag who is a danger to women. The refusal to acknowledge trans women as women is fuelling rhetoric of paranoia and hyperbole as trans women’s long-existing access to public toilets, changing rooms, refuges and hospital wards is disputed. As a feminist I am profoundly concerned by anti-trans feminist rhetoric. I find the current volatile temperament of feminist political discourse hugely worrying. Despite strong historic and contemporary links between many sections of feminist and trans communities, the anti-transgender sentiments expressed by some leading journalists and amplified through the use of social media are extremely problematic. While anti-transgender feminists are a minority, they have a high level of social, cultural and economic capital.

The refusal to acknowledge trans women as women is fuelling rhetoric of paranoia and hyperbole...

Within these narratives, trans and feminist rights are being falsely cast in opposition. Feminist principles of bodily autonomy are abandoned as some anti-trans campaigners query other women’s genitals. Reductive models of biology and restrictive understandings of the distinction between sex and gender are used in defence of this position.

For politely disagreeing with their views, I have been harassed by anti-trans campaigners who threw aside feminist principles to bizarrely accuse me of supporting rape by being trans-inclusive, of having an ugly man’s face, and of not really being a woman because I am a professor. As women publicly debated my appearance and my genitals on Twitter, I experienced a small degree of the dehumanisation trans people are daily subjected to.

Bodily autonomy and self-determination of gender are basic civil rights.

These exclusionary practices have a very significant impact. The trans body becomes the body of fear. The separation of bodies in public space is the cornerstone of segregation policy and has long been practised to regulate bodies in relation to race, but also gender, age, class, disability and sexuality. These practices have been vehemently challenged by social-justice movements, including many strands of feminism. Moreover, public scrutiny of the bodies of black women, women athletes and of intersex people through degrading “sex-verification” practices has a long history, which feminist writers and activists have challenged.

Bodily autonomy and self-determination of gender are basic civil rights. As a feminist scholar and activist I oppose the current wave of embodied segregation and sex verification that is in operation as some feminists seek to police the bodies of others. Trans and feminist activists and writers, and their allies, have been countering anti-transgender feminism through public debate, scholarship and policy recommendations for decades. Nevertheless, those currently airing trans-exclusionary discourse repeatedly profess that there has been no debate.

Anti-transgender feminism needs to be explicitly recognised as being in breach of the goals of equality and dignity. Indeed, anti-trans feminism must be held up as a doctrine that runs counter to the ability to fulfill a liveable life or, often, a life at all.

Sally Hines is Professor of Sociology and Gender Identities at the University of Leeds. Her most recent book is “Gender Diversity, Recognition and Citizenship: Towards a Politics of Difference” (Palgrave). Her forthcoming book, “Is Gender Fluid?”, will be published in September by Thames and Hudson.