Womyn-born womyn (WBW) is a term developed during

second-wave feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains. Wh ...

to designate women who were

assigned female at birth Sex assignment (sometimes known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex at or before birth. A relative, midwife, nurse or physician inspects the external genitalia when the baby is delivered and, in more than 99.95% of bi ...

, were raised as girls, and identify as

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

(or

womyn ''Womyn'' is one of several alternative political spellings of the English word ''women'', used by some feminists. There are other spellings, including ''womban'' (a reference to the womb or uterus) or ''womon'' (singular), and ''wombyn'' or ''w ...

, a deliberately alternative spelling that challenges the centering of

male as norm In feminist theory, the principle of holds that language referring to females, such as the suffix ''-ess'' (as in ''actress''), the use of man to mean "human", and other such devices, strengthens the perceptions that the male category is the norm ...

). The policy is noted for exclusion of

trans women A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

Third-wave feminism Third-wave feminism is an iteration of the feminist movement that began in the early 1990s, prominent in the decades prior to the fourth wave. Grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second wave, Gen X and early Gen Y generations third-wav ...

and

fourth-wave feminism Fourth-wave feminism is a feminist movement that began around 2012 and is characterized by a focus on the empowerment of women, the use of internet tools, and intersectionality. The fourth wave seeks greater gender equality by focusing on gende ...

have generally done away with the idea of WBW. Events and organizations that have womyn-born-womyn-only policies bar access to anyone who was assigned

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

at birth: cis men, trans women, and male children older than a determined age.

Second-wave feminism

The term "womyn-born womyn" gained usage and popularity during the

second wave feminist Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains. W ...

movement. In 1978, the

Lesbian Organization of Toronto The Lesbian Organization of Toronto (L.O.O.T. or LOOT) was a lesbian organization founded in 1976 and disbanded in 1980. The group was Toronto's first openly lesbian feminist group, and its members elected to open Canada's first Lesbian Centre. ...

adopted a womyn-born womyn-only policy in response to a request for admittance by a transgender woman who identified as lesbian. Womyn-born womyn policies held that the nature of the feminine experience over the course of a lifetime could only be experienced by someone who experienced life presenting as a woman. The intent was to create a space for only women, defined not by identity but experience, defined in a way that excluded transgender women. Key anti-trans proponents in the second wave feminist movement included

Janice Raymond Janice G. Raymond (born January 24, 1943) is an American lesbian radical feminist and professor emerita of women's studies and medical ethics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is known for her work against violence, sexual explo ...

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literatu ...

Andrea Dworkin Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 – April 9, 2005) was an American radical feminist writer and activist best known for her analysis of pornography. Her feminist writings, beginning in 1974, span 30 years. They are found in a dozen solo ...

, and

Mary Daly Mary Daly (October 16, 1928–January 3, 2010) was an American radical feminist philosopher and theologian. Daly, who described herself as a "radical lesbian feminist", taught at the Jesuit-run Boston College for 33 years. Once a practicing Rom ...

, who were proponents of womyn-born womyn policies. These policies created controversy and scholarly discussion. Raymond's ''

The Transsexual Empire ''The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male'' is a 1979 book critical of transgender people by American radical feminist author and activist Janice Raymond. The book is derived from Raymond's dissertation, which was produced under the sup ...

'' (1979) is often seen as the characterizing work of this movement;

Julia Serano Julia Michelle Serano (; born 1967) is an American writer, musician, spoken-word performer, trans– bi activist, and biologist. She is known for her transfeminist books ''Whipping Girl'' (2007), ''Excluded'' (2013), and ''Outspoken'' (2016). Sh ...

criticizes it as an "anti-trans screed". It is known for its view of trans women as privileged men who did not previously live in the oppression of the

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...

, stating, "We know who we are. We know that we are women who are born with female chromosomes and anatomy, and that whether or not we were socialised to be so-called normal women, patriarchy has treated and will treat us like women. Transsexuals have not had this same history."

Sheila Jeffreys Sheila Jeffreys (born 13 May 1948) is a former professor of political science at the University of Melbourne, born in England. A lesbian feminist scholar, she analyses the history and politics of human sexuality. Jeffreys' argument that the "se ...

was similarly outspoken in her criticisms of trans women, arguing that the feminine characteristics they were adopting are simply those that women must adopt to avoid punishment from the patriarchy. She believed trans women adopt

stereotypical In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

attributes that are enforced by the patriarchy and were political signifiers of the oppression of women. (See

social construction of gender The social construction of gender is a theory in feminism and sociology about the manifestation of cultural origins, mechanisms, and corollaries of gender perception and expression in the context of interpersonal and group social interaction. Spe ...

Judith Butler Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler ...

(regarded as the "most significant theorist" of

third-wave feminism Third-wave feminism is an iteration of the feminist movement that began in the early 1990s, prominent in the decades prior to the fourth wave. Grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second wave, Gen X and early Gen Y generations third-wav ...

) is opposed to womyn-born-womyn policies, yet is often used as an argument for them by modern second-wave feminists. Butler's 1990 book '' Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity'' contained discussion of

performativity ''Performativity'' is the concept that language can function as a form of social action and have the effect of change. The concept has multiple applications in diverse fields such as anthropology, social and cultural geography, economics, gender st ...

versus performance, which second-wave feminists used to exclude trans women on account of their performativity through repetition of

gender norm A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

s, which is "real only to the extent that it is performed", which was used as a separator from experience.

Third and fourth wave perspectives

Julia Serano, writing in 2007, sharply criticized WBW as

transmisogyny Transmisogyny, otherwise known as trans-misogyny and transphobic misogyny, is the intersection of transphobia and misogyny as experienced by trans women and transfeminine people. The term was coined by Julia Serano in her 2007 book ''Whipping ...

. She points to a double standard: trans men were allowed in WBW spaces, but trans women were not. In effect, this meant that trans men were treated as if they were women. Serano criticizes the WBW idea as inherently sexist against women, which goes against the very idea of feminism. Preventing pre-op trans women, she says, is phallocentric and objectifies trans women, and countered that butches are well tolerated in the feminist community despite their mannishness. If women can transcend their socialization, she argues so too can women assigned male at birth, adding that the idea that trans women, having been socialized as men, have some unique "male energy" is really just making the case that men have abilities women do not, which is anti-feminist. Author Nadia Khayrallah finds the WBW idea at odds with itself. She wonders how one can choose to be labelled a "womyn", but then claim

biological determinism Biological determinism, also known as genetic determinism, is the belief that human behaviour is directly controlled by an individual's genes or some component of their physiology, generally at the expense of the role of the environment, whether i ...

by stating one is born a "womyn".

Women-only spaces

women-only space A women-only space is an area where only women (and in some cases children) are allowed, thus providing a place where they do not have to interact with men. Historically and globally, many cultures had, and many still have, some form of female sec ...

is an area where only women are allowed, thus providing a place where they do not have to interact with men. Historically and globally, many cultures had, and many still have, some form of female seclusion. Organizations and events with womyn-born womyn policies specifically exclude

from these spaces, restricting access to only cisgender women.

Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

Throughout the final quarter of the twentieth century,

women's music Women's music is music by women, for women, and about women. The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement (in the USA) was started by lesbian ...

festivals often enacted womyn-born womyn policies. After the

Michigan Womyn's Music Festival The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, often referred to as MWMF or Michfest, was a feminist women's music festival held annually from 1976 to 2015 in Oceana County, Michigan, on privately owned woodland near Hart Township referred to as "The La ...

(MichFest) was described as a gathering for "women born as women and living as women", these intentions garnered wider attention in response to the exclusion of trans women from such events. In 1977, MichFest's primary owner, Lisa Vogel, issued a letter (co-signed by 21 supporters) to the feminist music collective

Olivia Records Olivia Records is a women's music record label founded in 1973 by lesbian members of the Washington D.C. area. It was founded by Ginny Berson, Cris Williamson, Meg Christian, Judy Dlugacz, and six other women. Olivia Records sold more than one ...

, objecting to the inclusion of production employees at the festival that were not born

female Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gamet ...

, notably Sandy Stone: After 40 years, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival held its last event in 2015. This final gathering followed the withdrawal of support by the

National Center for Lesbian Rights The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a non-profit, public interest law firm in the United States that advocates for equitable public policies affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, provides free legal ...

National LGBTQ Task Force The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports act ...

, and ''The TransAdvocate''

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

website, for a boycott against MichFest and its womyn-born womyn intention.

The RadFem Collective

The RadFem Collective, a UK-based radical feminist

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

, describes its membership as "restricted to 'women born women and living as women'" and promotes womyn-born womyn policies. The statement for the 2015 conference was rephrased in explanatory form to read "RadFems Resist is a women only, feminist event. Our conference is a space for women to share our experiences as women, to politically self organise for women's liberation and to celebrate womanhood in a safe environment. We welcome all women who were raised and socialized as girls to join us...We are gender abolitionists who have been raised and socialized as girls and women *because of our female bodies* in the context of patriarchy."

References

Works cited

* *

External links

Egale Canada Backgrounder on ''Nixon v. Vancouver Rape Relief ''Press For Change briefing paper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Womyn-born womyn Feminist terminology Lesbian culture Lesbian feminism Lesbian history Political lesbianism Radical feminism Sex segregation Women-related neologisms Feminism and transgender Transphobia