I feel like I continually have a problem communicating this point, because I keep seeing replies from others where we just don't seem to see the same basic facts, never mind interpretation of those facts. In particular: "I do not think it can be up to a few students who are now living their lives more completely as themselves as male beings to change the school for the very many more who are women" -- well, we never decided to change the school. The admissions office decided to admit us. If you think that admitting men "changes the school", then that has to be taken up with the admissions office. Perhaps they could do extensive psychological assessments on incoming students to ferret out closeted trans men. If you think it doesn't, then we're having a different conversation from the one we seem to be.
What I'm taking issue with is the administration saying "we only admit women" while admitting men. Assuming honesty on their part, the only possible interpretation is that they believe trans men aren't men. I think that admitting reality is more important than preserving someone's (inaccurate) view of how they see the college. If Wellesley wants to define itself as a college for people who were assigned female at birth or identify as female, that would at least be consistent and wouldn't involve erasing anybody's identity. That sounds awkward, which suggests that they would need to think carefully about why they were defining themselves that way.
As for why a trans man would choose to attend a women's college while already knowing he was trans, probably because a trans man who most people subconsciously perceive as female experiences all the same negative consequences that women do in college (e.g. being ignored by instructors), and just as cis women might, he might want to make all of that a non-issue. I've never said that women's colleges should admit people who know themselves to be men at the time of applying to college, though, just that they need to be honest about how not every 18-year-old knows their gender and how if you don't know your own gender, no one else can either.
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Date: 2011-05-11 07:25 pm (UTC)What I'm taking issue with is the administration saying "we only admit women" while admitting men. Assuming honesty on their part, the only possible interpretation is that they believe trans men aren't men. I think that admitting reality is more important than preserving someone's (inaccurate) view of how they see the college. If Wellesley wants to define itself as a college for people who were assigned female at birth or identify as female, that would at least be consistent and wouldn't involve erasing anybody's identity. That sounds awkward, which suggests that they would need to think carefully about why they were defining themselves that way.
As for why a trans man would choose to attend a women's college while already knowing he was trans, probably because a trans man who most people subconsciously perceive as female experiences all the same negative consequences that women do in college (e.g. being ignored by instructors), and just as cis women might, he might want to make all of that a non-issue. I've never said that women's colleges should admit people who know themselves to be men at the time of applying to college, though, just that they need to be honest about how not every 18-year-old knows their gender and how if you don't know your own gender, no one else can either.