Is there such a thing as legible identity privilege?
This thought was tumbling around a lot in my mind for a while, particularly in discussions of what it means to be femme and presumed as female, but also when cis folks would ask me about assuming pronouns when you’re “pretty sure you know” someone’s gender versus when it’s unclear.
As a starter, I’ll say that if there is a legible identity privilege, it’s certainly not anything like as strong as other privileges such as being white. As a white non-binary person, I am less vulnerable to violence and harassment than any black or brown person, full stop. I explicitly reject any arguments that white non-binary people make around “binarism” putting them in a riskier place than a black trans woman, for example. See b. binaohan for why that’s fucked up.
But considering this as its own possible thing, I have a few thoughts. One is that, like “passing privilege,” this has a lot to do with specific cultural context and how other people perceive you. The two are also related. A trans man who is presumed to be a cis man might experience “passing privilege” alongside legible identity privilege, because he “passes” for a cis man and also “man” is a legible identity. Conversely, a trans woman who doesn’t conform to particular beauty standards and expectations might not “pass” for a cis woman, but could have a legible identity in cultural context–it is clear to most people around her that she intends to be read as a woman, and she is a woman.
My own experience is that I do experience “passing privilege,” because in most situations the people around me think that I’m a cis woman and thus aren’t going to be violent towards me or otherwise mess with me because of my gender, but I don’t experience legible identity privilege, because I have a non-binary identity that does not “match up with” any particular outward expression. There’s nothing I can wear that makes people think “oh, of course! squishy pink queer non-binary robot femme from an unknown planet, duh.”
If this is a thing though, I think it’s both a matter of degree, and probably results in fewer external consequences on its own than other kinds of privilege. The main consequence I’ve noticed is emotional, the frustration of what Melissa Harris-Perry calls misrecognition. It’s frustrating that I can’t communicate my identity to others through my dress or mannerisms, but no one’s going to deck me because my identity is illegible. Those who do experience violence because their gender expression “doesn’t make sense” to cis folks are suffering from the consequences of not “passing” as a legible gender, I think, rather than directly from having an illegible identity. Folks whose identity is illegible might be less likely to dress in a way that leads to “passing,” certainly, but not necessarily.
I also imagine that a whole range of folks could suffer from not having full legible identity privilege, though degree may vary. Femme queer women aren’t often read as queer, for example, by those outside the queer community. Butch women might be incorrectly read as men, or as non-binary. Straight femme men are often read as gay. But I’m not sure this is quite the same–there’s probably a difference between having an identity that can’t be communicated in our culture’s language of signs and symbols and having one that could be communicated but the person doesn’t feel comfortable expressing with the signs and symbols society deems to “match” the identity.
Thoughts? Leave a comment!
I’m not sure if I agree with the concept of ‘legible identity privilege’ but it’s an interesting starting point for exploration. I’ve written two things in the past that seem relevant here.
First:
There is a tyranny in the obligation to define yourself. But like most forms of tyranny is only reveals itself when someone breaks the rules. When someone is clearly outside the norm, yet refuses to define their sexuality, refuses to define what race they are, refuses to define what gender, it rears it’’s ugly head.
Does a person who does not define their gender experience male privilege? Do they experience misogyny? Do they experience either of these things dependent on who encounters them and when?
MRA’s and feminists alike erupt in rage when they do not know how to label us, when we do not name our privileges and our sides. This tyranny is often enforced as ruthlessly by those who made the norms as by those who resist them. There has always been special punishments reserved for combatants who do not wear a uniform or list a rank and number.
A lot of people feel a strong tendency to group people into predictable categories of ‘people I hate’, ‘ people I date’, ‘people who are my community’ etc. Not being easily read within those terms has results and so does not having a clear answer when asked to define yourself in those terms.
Sometimes the result is exclusion, at other times it is not getting support, sometimes it is an escalation of the level of violence.
Second:
As Taylor would declare their identity, start using different pronouns, take hormones, etc, more and more people would start recognizing him as male. Some would be decent human beings who recognize that identifying as a man makes Taylor a man, others would be transphobes who do not know Taylor and judge him by his appearance only. Taylor would get more and more male privilege, for longer uninterrupted periods. But it would be a precarious privilege. At any point, a transphobe could take a look at their ID, decide that the little ‘F’ on that plastic card means this is not a ‘real man’ and started treating Taylor the same way they treat women. (or much worse, because transphobia)
A lot of transgender people do not ‘pass’ all the time. This is especially true of people without a clearly legible identity.
When your passing privilege is precarious that provides a constant factor of uncertainty, stress, exhaustion. Precarious privileges also bring a lot less social power than constant privileges because you can not build on precarious privileges, you can never assume that they’re there because at any time they might not be there. When your passing privilege is precarious, it’s like you are constantly walking on thin ice full of cracks. This is a highly stressful experience that some people find worse than just not passing at all.
Neither of these things is really a comment on your post, just related thoughts.
QueerAnarchism 