By Abi Watkinson
As a slightly peculiar thespian, I am no stranger to gender bending lunacy. Want me to wear a beard? Cool. Want me to hide my hair? Also cool. Want me to stuff a pillow up my shirt, paint my face green, and perform as an overweight toad-man? Lovely. Beneath all of this, obviously, I am still a woman: thank you intersectional feminism. The same presumption, however, is not made for the trans community. I spoke to Charlotte Archer, a trans woman, about her transitioning experience and the pressure to conform to antiquated female stereotypes.
There is an obvious pressure that trans women should stay closeted and live as men, but has there been any pressure to gender conformity after you began your transition?
C: There is a strange expectation surrounding female gender stereotypes, largely from transphobes, as there is this weird idea that you need to ‘prove’ that you’re woman through showing how ‘womanly’ you are by conforming to these. Just as cis women are told to be feminine, trans women are too. I’m currently trying this androgynous 70s/80s inspired style and that is what I’m happy doing, and I can have short hair, or not wear makeup, and still be a woman. At this point, I don’t care that I’m not this society accepted idea of ‘feminine’, I can be whatever I want and still be a woman, just as cis woman can be whatever they want and still be a woman.
If you feel like you don’t need to conform to gender stereotypes to ‘be a woman’, I think we can both agree about that, what were the pointers which made you realise that you were trans?
C: Ok, so when it comes to knowing whether I was trans or not, that’s a really interesting question. I feel how I knew is a combination of lots of things which sort of built overall. The first thing was physical, like it was the gender dysphoria at my own male body. Then as time went on it spiralled into the more social and personal side of things like concrete forms of identity directly linked to how people think of you and address you and respond to you. This doesn’t necessarily mean responding to gender stereotypes but just ways in which there are different ways in which people in society interact with the different genders, in a very subtle way. Often for me the idea that someone simply thought of me as a woman was weirdly all I needed in terms of the interpersonal side of things, just that knowledge in my heard is what they think: a form of validation I guess. I also have felt pressure from gender stereotypes before now in my plans for the future, I used to really want to wear feminine clothing but now I don’t really care, but it definitely used to be a big driving force for me in knowing I was transgender. The main things however were more subtle physical and interpersonal matters as I have said, rather than actions or traditionally feminine attributes. Of course a trans woman can conform to female stereotypes as much or as little as they please, so long as it is a free choice.
Do you think, then, that trans culture breaks down or solidifies gender stereotypes?
C: That’s an interesting question. I think it does, but not directly. There has been an unfortunate enforcement of cis gender stereotypes in trans culture which in turn is what transphobes latch onto to criticise trans culture. Trans people are as susceptible to the set gender-stereotypes, just as any cis person is.
Those who consciously rebel against stereotyping, e.g. a cis man dressing in a conventionally female way, probably break down the stereotypes more because of the binary contrast, but trans culture does not, as many transphobes claim, harm the fight against gender stereotypes, it just equally can be as complicit in it as cis culture, it depends on the individual. I personally don’t conform to gender stereotypes, although it used to affect me much more. Trans culture can inspire the breakdown of gender stereotypes because it encourages cis people to examine their gender identity, without necessarily changing. Similarly, non-binary culture, which I am not a part of, helps break down gender stereotypes through the breakdown of the gender binary in general.
How we choose to identify ourselves, is an individual choice. Do what makes you happy, and may the rigid constrictions of gender schema be forever broken.