Week Six: Reading Response

In Bliss’ article, I was fascinated by women’s use of the mirrored ideas of sacrifice as an inherently female and revolutionary act, in terms of gender roles and the business of prostitution. In previous readings we’ve done, where often women subverted gender roles (or were victims of sexual abuse and assault) during the process of revolution, the primary sources tended to not see those actions as radically redefining the social status of women, but as traditional acts of sacrifice that women — as the mothers of families and therefore the nation itself — take to ensure the success of the revolution. Seeing that contemporary women also used the argument of sacrifice in explaining a more individualized and perhaps morally dubious act is very interesting. Whether it is an act of savvy to connect these two via language conventions, or it was purely their explanations from the heart, framing their choices as an action to save not only their own families, but the families of the men who seek prostitutes, was thought-provoking.

As I was reading Cano’s article, many comparisons came to mind regarding the life of Amelio Robles and current trans issues and rhetoric really struck me. Cano states that the acceptance of Robles’ identity was largely to due to Robles enforcing gendered stereotypes of war and masculinity (I use the term acceptance very broadly here, as we know that in private, many of his compatriots and colleagues referred to him using his old female name and pronouns). This made me think of the proliferation of violence against trans women, particularly trans women of color. While the trans community as whole suffers from violence, the rate is much higher for women. ‘Embracing’ masculinity is still largely seen as more acceptable or palatable, even though trans-identity is more than a simple embrace, than vice versa. I don’t know if any clean conclusions can be made from this, but as I was reading Cano’s piece, I just kept on thinking about the extreme violence and abuse that trans women of color endure and the ingrained stereotypes that continue to factor into the discrimination, even if it some of it has become more implicit, against trans community.