Privilege is often a form of ignorance. Ignorance towards how hard some other people have it.
Last week, some trans students at the University of Sydney held a “teach-in” rally, designed to peacefully raise awareness around the small struggles they face on campus daily.
When you like the name you were born with, and the gender you were assigned, you don’t give a second thought to filling out a form, ticking the ‘M’ or ‘F’ box, and designating yourself as ‘Ms.’ or ‘Mr.’
Things get a whole lot trickier for just about everything if this isn’t your experience. Overt instances of bureaucratic transphobia – like the coming out process, getting access to hormones, the hoops you have to jump through for official name and gender change documents – aside, the little things you have to go through every day are what, for some of the students who spoke at the teach-in, really burn.
Turning up to class, not knowing if your teacher is going to read out the roll with your old name on it. Emailing your tutor, unable to change the name the email is sent from. On a more substantial level, facing the possibility of graduating and receiving a testamur with a name that isn’t yours.
These are the kinds of things that trans students experience daily, and trans people outside of the university setting experience in different, but similar ways.
I teach at university. In my first class, I asked my students to tell me their name, and their pronoun. I explained that it wasn’t up to me to make a judgement on their gender based on the way they look. I told them they had the right to tell me whether they preferred ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘they’. When they told me their names, I marked them off the roll. If any names didn’t match up, I asked their surname too.
This was all very easy, and a very simple way to show to trans students that they dictate their identity to me. It’s a simple way to make all students feel welcomed on their own terms. I removed the gender marker from the roll (why does a student’s gender matter to the way I teach them?) and I changed any names I was told to.
From being a part of a queer community for a few years now, I had the basic awareness to do such things. The value of the teach-in was to highlight the privileges of those who are ignorant to these kinds of perhaps small yet daily instances of transphobia, to point out what these students suffer, and to offer some really simple solutions – from beginning with what individual teachers can do for individual students, like what I’ve done with my classes, to bigger structural changes within university admin and infrastructure creation, like gender-neutral toilets.
Being privileged doesn’t mean you need to be ignorant. Having an awareness of how much easier you have it can make you that much more inclusive of those who have it difficult.
Asking for someone’s pronouns doesn’t take much, but it might make their day.
The Week…
On Wednesday September 23, GetUp! is hosting a street party to jolt Malcolm Turnbull into action on marriage equality. Taking place at Taylor Square from 5:30pm, no DJs have been announced at the time of writing, but what’s a party without music, right?
The Shift Bar has just launched its new burger bar, and now every Friday, Saturday and Sunday you can order burgers from their Bun Boy waiters – who, I’ve heard, are mostly naked and wholly attractive.
After last week’s launch of Love Club’s new late nights, this Friday September 25, Girlthing is teaming up with Love Club to bring you an all-night love-in, featuring Girlthing DJs and Love Club DJs.
Poof Doof is back in Sydney! This Saturday September 26 is the monthly event at The Shift Bar, featuring tunes from Sunshine, Dan Slater andJimJam.
The Queer Screen Film Festival is happening all this week. Freeheld, starring babes Ellen Page and Julianne Moore, is the closing night film this Sunday September 27 at Event Cinemas George Street.
[Above image courtesy Kate Ausburn/Flickrflickr.com/photos/treslola/]
