28/03/2021 | Writer: Damla Umut Uzun
In the last session of the 9th Feminist Forum, moderated by Sema Semih, Emi Koyama talked about rethinking transfeminism.
The Feminist Forum, organized by the Kaos GL Association in March every year, started on Sunday, March 28 with the theme "From the Domination of Darkness to the Horizons of Transfeminist Criticism".
The Feminist Forum was opened by Aylime Aslı Demir, Kaos GL Association Academy and Cultural Studies Program coordinator. In the first session of the Forum, the speech of Prof. Dr. Susan Stryker was held in the moderation of Evren Savcı. Strkyer talked about trans exclusionary feminist ideology. In the last session of the Forum, Emi Koyama talked about “Rethinking transfeminism” in the moderation of Sema Semih.
Sema Semih, who opened the session, said "It is a great pleasure to listen to the author of the Transfeminist Manifesto translated by Aligül Arıkan into Turkish" and introduced Koyama. Emi Koyama started her speech with two current developments on trans rights and described the period when she wrote the Transfeminist Manifesto: “I wrote this text in 99 years, Matrix and MySpace were just released in those years, Britney Spears was singing Baby One More Time. A lot of time passed over those years and there were not many texts on transgender activism in those years. Again, in those years, it was discussed over the bodies of trans people. Again, in those years, it was discussed over the bodies of trans people that how feminine and masculine these bodies were or who were more realistic, etc."
"The existence of trans women and trans men is not open to discussion"
Explaining the background of the trans and feminist movement while they were writing the text, Koyama said, "I wanted to write to understand how feminism can support trans women and how feminism can be improved."
“Trans people exist. The existence of trans women and trans men is not open to discussion. The Transfeminist Manifesto is unfortunately still considered a contemporary text. I have to say unfortunately, because the binary gender system is still being imposed on us ” said Koyama and touched on the present day of the struggle.
The session ended with the Q&A session.
Tags: women
