In the Archives of Resistance series, we dive into the often invisible but important domain of everyday health activism. Research interns Dominique van Dongen and Hanna Blom examine this type of activism related to transition and transgender care. In them, different forms of activism are discussed, such as discussion groups, information brochures, and get-togethers. One of the main intersections between the themes of transition and transgender care is the struggle with biological determinism: the view that human behaviour and traits are entirely determined by genetic factors. Consider, for example, the idea that women are naturally better carers than men.
In the Archives of Resistance series, we dive into the often invisible but important domain of everyday health activism. Research interns Dominique van Dongen and Hanna Blom examine this type of activism related to transition and transgender care. In them, different forms of activism are discussed, such as discussion groups, information brochures, and get-togethers. One of the main intersections between the themes of transition and transgender care is the struggle with biological determinism: the view that human behaviour and traits are entirely determined by genetic factors. Consider, for example, the idea that women are naturally better carers than men.
What exactly biological determinism is, how it shows up in everyday activism for equal care and the consequences for marginalised groups, you can read in this blog.
What is biological determinism?
Much of how contemporary Western society thinks about gender is rooted in biological determinism. This assumes that a male or female identity is determined by nature and that men and women are different and even opposite. Consider, for example, the idea that men would be naturally dominant and women submissive. Everyday activists claim to be constrained by both this determinism itself and the attitudes of medical care and society that stem from this way of thinking.
Critique
Biological determinism originated in the 19th century and has been scientifically debunked many times since then (Butler, 1990). One of the first to criticise biological determinism was philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. She argued in 1949 that femininity is not innate, but learned during childhood (Beauvoir, 2000). Philosopher Judith Butler introduced a queer perspective and argued that male and female gender identity are constructed as opposites because heterosexuality is the norm in the West. Hen calls this the heterosexual matrix. Butler argues that your identity is determined by where you position yourself in this matrix. If you belong to one group, you automatically do not belong to another. Gender identity is thus formed not only by what or who you are, but also by what you are not. For example, men are allowed to be tough and strong, but not show vulnerable emotions. Women, on the other hand, may be empathetic, but not express anger.
Restrictive pigeonholing
In the lived experience of trans persons, the entrapment of this way of thinking becomes clear. Within transgender medical care and society to this day, the idea prevails that, as a trans person, you have to choose between one or the other. There is often no room for androgyny, non-binarity, free gender expression or gender fluidity. Even within the transgender activism of the 1980s itself, which was hugely progressive for the zeitgeist, this limited space is reflected. For example, the 1987 leaflet Man, Woman, What Am I Anyway? states, "Transsexuality is a phenomenon in which a person with the internal and external organs of one sex has the conviction of belonging to the other sex."
Until the 1990s, trans persons were only seen as such if they were passable (looking to outsiders like cis person of the identified gender).
Biological determinism and the transition
Biological determinism places fertility and motherhood at the centre of being a woman. And while these demands can be temporarily met by some, for many, between the ages of forty and sixty, the inescapable end of both factors arrives: children leave home and menopause knocks on the door.
In the 1970s, middle-aged women met to discuss their despair, regarding menopause, the empty nest, and what those two events meant for their womanhood. They wrestled with questions like:
What kind of woman am I when I feel too lame to take care of the house?
What kind of woman am I when my uterus was taken out in an operation?
What kind of woman am I if the doctor describes menopause as my body drying out and bleeding out?
In 1977, the Women's Newspaper published a special edition on menopause. In an article on what the transition means for women's social role, an anonymous editor wrote: "Being a woman in our society still too often means being subordinate to or dependent on men. Being a woman still too often means being less valued, having virtually no identity of your own: you are the daughter of... the wife of... the mother of... At no age does loss of identity come so clearly to the fore as in the age of transition. THAT is what makes transition so dramatic!"
Loss of femininity
Both because of menopause, the way medical care responded to it, and the unclear role women fulfilled in the home and family, women felt a loss of femininity. This was much philosophised about in the discussion groups. The social mould into which a woman was supposed to fit appeared to be made only for a girl in her twenties. In discussing the complicated relationship that middle-aged women had with societal expectations of femininity, the answer was eventually found in a new interpretation of what it means to be a woman. This included making more time for themselves and their own interests outside the household, forming bonds with people outside the family, and becoming more assertive in life.
Consequences of biological determinism
Biological determinism thus disadvantages people in several ways. It determines how others view and what their expectations are. The idea of biological determinism reduces people to nothing but bodies and the bodily functions that people can or cannot perform.
The battle against the limits imposed on the body by the outside world is being fought on several fronts, of which everyday activism in transgender and menopause care are just two. Other important fronts include (everyday) activism by people with physical disabilities, people of colour and people within the lhbti+ community. Archival research on everyday activism can show how biological determinism has hindered the gender equality of these groups.
