Women's colleges should reinvent themselves as havens for trans women
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Version 0 of 1. Top US women’s colleges like Smith, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke and Wellesley are finally accepting applications from transgender women in the wake of public complaints and media attention. But that’s not enough. Women’s colleges should prioritize our applications – and seek to become havens for trans women, both for our benefit and theirs. At a time when young trans women face numerous administrative obstacles – from name and gender marker changes to fighting with insurance companies for gender-related healthcare, or even advocating just to use the right bathroom – those of us in the socioeconomic position to pursue higher education have more difficulties than other applicants, especially those of us who are also women of color. Before we even apply to college, we often need to have expensive surgery to receive formal recognition of our gender identities in many states. These hurdles stymied Calliope Wong when she tried to apply to Smith College in 2013, as her financial aid forms did not identify her as female – causing the university to make the ill-advised decision to return her application on the basis of her gender. Advocacy around the inclusion of trans women in women’s colleges gained momentum after Wong chose to make her story public, after which several women’s colleges changed their policy to allow applications from trans women this school year, starting with Mills and Mount Holyoke, then finally Smith earlier this month. However, many women’s colleges, including top schools like Barnard and Spelman, still have not clarified their policies regarding the inclusion of trans women. Apart from administrative problems, young trans women also face huge emotional obstacles in their lives before college. Whether through rampant bullying in schools, the persistent threat of both street and intimate partner violence, or the risk of parental abandonment, trans women bear burdens unlike other applicants. The generally more visible nature of trans identity means that trans women are much more likely to be exposed to overt prejudice and are likely to have been the victim of discrimination from individuals and institutions. All of this should be taken into account by college administrators considering our applications, especially when most schools trumpet their diversity as a selling point for potential students. More importantly, women’s colleges are uniquely positioned to inspire other institutions to break down barriers facing trans women, at a time when social prejudice still makes it hard for us to be in the consistent company of other women and “women’s only” spaces often still exclude us. When we apply to Smith and other women’s colleges next year, we should not only be judged without prejudice compared to cisgender (or non-trans) women, but our potential to make great contributions to life in those colleges must be considered. Rather than distracting from the mission of women’s colleges, welcoming trans women extends that mission. Trans women offer a perspective into how gender perceptions work that cis women don’t have. Many of us have a history of having been assumed male and heterosexual, regardless of our true gender and sexuality. This allows those of us with that background to understand differently how these identities are perceived in ways that cis women do not. Many of us know what it’s like to be judged for our intelligence rather than (or in spite of) our appearances, to be praised rather than reprimanded for speaking up, and to be more valued simply because of our gender. We also know the price of giving up those privileges to be who we are, and experience this unfairness in a way that can bring great insight to other women – if we’re given the chance. At the same time, the harmful policing of gender expression is an experience both trans and cis women share. Just as cis women have historically sought women’s colleges to be able to express themselves without default assumptions about how women should behave, trans women also have a history of feeling burdened by the expectations of a male gender many of us are fundamentally alienated from. Thus, trans women have great potential not just to provide insight into male privilege in a women’s college setting, but also the ways in which default gender expectations themselves – whether male or female – can be limiting at best and severely destructive at worst. So when journalists like Monica Potts from The New Republic or other women’s college graduates and advocates talk about how trans women’s challenges are “different” from those of cis women in order to justify our exclusion from women-only spaces, they fail to recognize that the root cause of our difficulties is the same policing of gender expression and sexual identity that makes it so hard for all women. That’s why it’s time for cisgender women to see trans women not just as allies but as prime collaborators – and there’s no better place to start than women’s colleges, the very institutions designed to empower all women. |