The Transgender Issue: Trans Justice Is Justice for All

by Shon Faye

As the philosopher Robin Dembroff neatly explains, patriarchy is based on three key ideas: that ‘male’ and ‘female’ are a natural, immutable and exhaustive binary; that all males should be masculine, and all females should be feminine; that masculinity is incompatible with and superior to femininity. The first belief asserts, says Dembroff, that ‘every person, by virtue of their reproductive features (usually genitalia), decisively is male or female, and this can never be changed’; the second, ‘that males and females should comply with pervasive and strict rules about the sexual attractions, clothing, emotions, work, family roles and behaviours expected of them’; and the third, ‘that anything feminine is anti-masculine, and vice versa, and that masculine traits are more valuable than feminine traits’.20