Another Complicated Mourning of Adrienne Rich
Poet Adrienne Rich died yesterday. When I heard the news I felt nausea, and then told myself that I could not mourn a voice who took part in the violent vilification and erasure of trans women that was Janice Raymond’s The Transsexual Empire. Raymond’s book legitimized systemic transmisogyny for the feminists who wanted to hate us; Empire made that hatred academic, and elevated the voices of those who engaged in it to mantra. As Adrienne Rich was one of those voices, I could not mourn her.
Janice Raymond cited Rich in the acknowledgments section of her 1979 book The Transsexual Empire, writing “Adrienne Rich has been a very special friend and critic. She has read the manuscript through all its stages and provided resources, creative criticism, and constant encouragement.” In the chapter “Sappho by Surgery” of The Transsexual Empire, Raymond cites a conversation with Rich in which Rich described trans women as “men who have given up the supposed ultimate possession of manhood in a patriarchal society by self-castration.”
From her Wikipedia page.
Not mourning isn’t the same as celebrating or diminishing her death, however. I feel nothing positive in her death, no smug dismissal of her. What I feel is sadness. The sadness I feel when I hear of any human being dying. But also the sadness that someone otherwise so talented and insightful could hold the position that who I am is not valid or real, and worthy of such scorn and derision. The belief that I am delusional and an assault on women’s space merely by my presence. Even if someone contributed 95% of their work to positive, affirming efforts, that last 5% is still pretty much impossible to shake if you’re the one in the sights.
Still, as I thought on it further, I realized I am mourning Adrienne Rich. It is a sickly, melancholy mourning. Like the passing of a relative who inexplicably hated you, their disapproval sealed by death. If someone came to me with a document or transcription of a conversation or pretty much anything showing that she explicitly disavowed her transmisogyny I wouldn’t feel like I lost the argument, I would be glad. I get to have precious few women in Feminism I can embrace fully, without the expectation for the other shoe to drop. But I can’t look up to someone who thought I shouldn’t exist – you have no idea how much I wish I could – and that makes me sad about Adrienne Rich.
(I seem to have inadvertently named my post quite similarly to this excellent piece by Rafe Posey. Consider mine another complicated mourning.)
Thank you for writing this. Just as you were posting this, I have been looking around on the internet, looking over different sources and trying to find a way to put my thoughts on the subject into words. I remember being moved by Rich’s writings in both high school and college, yet when I found out later how she viewed women like us I felt a great distance, not only from Rich herself or my own emotional response to her poems, but also a distance from the women around me who were able to celebrate her poetry without qualification. Thank you for putting that into words.
Thanks so much for this. I have been thinking about writing something since her death has been all over facebook. Very glad you did.
You’re both welcome. I find it is an interesting contrast to the passing of Mary Daly, another famous feminist with connections to The Transsexual Empire, in both the response of trans women and the often extremely defensive pushback by cissexual feminists. With Daly the pervasive sense I got was anger, anger that the cis feminist community had erased us yet again by either being ignorant of our history and the damage done to trans women by Daly, or by equivocating it away. With Adrienne Rich it has felt more about the sadness that our essential inequality in queer, women’s, and feminist communities still exists.
I see growth in that where I felt a distinct and angry backlash by cis women at trans women for challenging of Daly’s legacy, I saw much more acceptance and compassion towards the position of trans women by cis women this time. It is a sad acceptance, realizing someone you admired had some despicable ideas and sad some horrible things, and not easy to do, so to see so many not resort to “I know, but…” This may just be a function of the people and communities I take part in now, but I am hopeful it was part of a much wider phenomenon.
Still, I was sad to see Feministe‘s post on Adrienne Rich had no reference to her connection to Raymond’s book. I have written for Feministe, and so have other trans women, so I would hope they will take a wider perspective next time someone with a complex history of transmisogyny passes.