Terf or Transfeminist Avant la Lettre

Bibliographic Data

ID13087261
AuthorsBlase A Provitola (0000-0002-7378-4606, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume9
Issue3
Pages387-406
Publication date2022-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTSQ Transgender Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2328-9252 • E-ISSN: 2328-9260
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/23289252-9836050
OpenAlexW4312371248
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited22

French lesbian author and theorist Monique Wittig's early contestations of woman as the subject of feminism have played an important role in gender studies in both anglophone and francophone spaces. Since the mid-1990s, French lesbian studies scholars and queer theorists alike have looked to her to anchor their contestations of normative sexuality within a French tradition and counter some of the universalizing aspects of Anglocentric queer theory. As a result, polarizing debates have sprung up over interpretations of Wittigian political lesbianism, typically focusing on divergent readings of her theorization of sex and gender between radical lesbians on the one hand and queer theorists on the other. However, far less attention has been paid to the implications of such debates for transgender studies. Since she has been claimed by trans-exclusionary radical feminists as well as by queer and materialist transfeminists in France, her legacy serves as a rich site through which to understand how the ideological conflicts between those groups relate to feminist history. Taking as a point of departure the appropriation of her name by the anti-trans group Résistance Lesbienne (Lesbian Resistance) that took over the 2021 Paris Pride March, this article fleshes out the implications of her work concerning the place of transgender people, and especially transgender women, in feminist spaces. Ultimately, it is her complexity that makes her a crucial figure for transgender studies insofar as she elucidates French “gender-critical” feminism and its transfeminist critics

Appropriation · Bourgeoisie · Epistemology · Feminism · Human sexuality · Ideology · Lesbian · Political science · Politics · Pride · Queer · Queer theory · Sociology · Transgender · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Law · Philosophy

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