Vagina Schmagina

The Fetishisation of the Vagina

by Clare Cahill

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This Talking Point arose as part of a discussion on an Internet list concerning itself with transgender theory, and arose from a discussion of the criteria for a legal change of sex. I thought the topic was of sufficient importance to make it a Talking Point for Polare and obtained permission from Clare Cahill to reprint her basic argument. Other viewpoints have not been quoted but have been paraphrased. Clare's viewpoint was expressed after a long exchange of views centered around the necessity (or not) for a penis to exist in order for a person to be a man and for a vagina to exist if a person were to claim to be female. Clare takes the view that it is not the presence or absence of specific anatomical organs (or neo-organs) which create gender. Clare said:

This is something that has been bothering me ... the potential for fetishisation of the vagina ...

My initial reaction [to an earlier post] was to ask whether some women really do come from Venus! Separatism in any form really sucks, but when it is based on some quasi-mystical semi-metaphysical statement with no real experience of the full horrors, unpleasantnesses, mess and joy of being a woman capable of becoming pregnant, or having the expectation of being capable of becoming pregnant, then it becomes ludicrous.

My "tribe" is the tribe of all people living as women, whether they have vaginas or not. I would actually like to be part of a bigger tribe, of people living as people whether they have vaginas, penises, or some combination of both, but through my dear F.T.M. friends I have come to realise that there are some fundamental differences between female energy and male energy. All of my F.T.M. friends exude male energy - there is no doubt that they are men, and many of them still have vaginas.

But I digress slightly - back to vaginas ...

Most women I have talked to don't feel any such thing as the sacredness of the vagina ... those sentiments seem to be a consequence of having acquired a vagina, or having been taught that maybe one should learn to feel some sort of sacredness, through consciousness-raising type activities.

The sacredness (and the bother) of womanhood comes from having the potential and/or inclination and/or equipment for producing and bearing new life.

A woman is so much more than a vagina, and to continue reducing women to a category of people possessing vaginas offends me deeply, because it suggests that women are chiefly defined by one part of our bodies - a fairly small and insignificant part at that, to the effective exclusion of all else.

Just because a person has a vagina does not automatically make that person a woman. Given that I am unlikely to check between your legs, I am more likely to assess your woman-ness from other signs, such as voice, facial expressions, clothing, language and, most of all, manner.

The only time I am going to worry about whether anyone else has a vagina is if I am going to want to have sex with them, or if I am assisting at a birth, as I did with my ex-girlfriend. The rest of the time I exercise the natural modesty of most woman, by putting that part of the anatomy into its proper perspective.

Woman to me refers to the type of role a person plays in social groupings of people - the role of the person who would rather take a more direct role in female nurturing behaviours ... the ability and/or desire to grow and produce life at its most basic level, the ability to multi-task, the ability to read signs that many men do not.

Female nurturing does not necessarily limit people to warm and fuzzy behaviours; nurturing is often proud and fierce. But the energy is different from the nurturing of men.

There are some people who claim to have vaginas, yet I find it difficult to read them as woman, because their language and fetishisation of genitals is not something that is in my experience of woman. However I accept the validity of these people's identity as woman, notwithstanding my difficulties.

Then there are others who openly say they have not had S.R.S. but are living as women, and that is the thing - they are living as women and it is easier for me to read them as woman. The genitals are unimportant, as unimportant as they are for most women, when they are not having sex, menstruating or giving birth.

You want to use essentialism as a basis for womanhood? Then you don't make it. Me, I prefer to accept people according to the gender they present at any given time, regardless of how well, or how badly, they present it.

When it comes to the law and legal attribution of sex, then I think the real-life test is sufficient, and there are sufficient mechanisms available to make provision for the courts to approve a legal change in sex.

I don't see what is wrong with having a system whereby a person who has been living full-time in their proper gender for a minimum of say two years, applies to the court, undergoes a psychological and medical assessment by court-approved specialists, swears various affidavits and is granted a court order allowing for the change of legal sex, without having S.R.S. as a prerequisite. Needless to say, a person should be able to change their legal sex only once.

There are all sorts of legitimate reasons why S.R.S. is not appropriate or available for all people. The test should be about whether the person is living and presenting as a gender that is at variance to their legal sex.

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