Masculine of Center -- the term

[Martina]

This controversy came up around the Butch Voices conference in 2010 (I think). I wasn't there and did not participate. I just read about it afterwards. I read some of the talk about it here, but did not find the thread.

Anyway, a defense of the term was recently quoted in the Race and Racism thread. I responded for a couple of reasons, but one was that there was no mention of the butch women who have taken issue with the term.

I will point out that I do not know the people from Butch Voices or the people who have criticized the term.

I do not like the term -- MoC. I hope it is not gaining currency. I do think there are some advantages to it. One that was mentioned in the article posted in the Race thread is that it includes men, cis-men, and therefore is a way of building alliances with them.

Here is an article from one of the critics of the term -- part of the BV controversy -- http://butchenough.wordpress.com/201...pe-not-a-line/

A quote from that

Beyond that, I think “masculine of center” as an umbrella is loaded and problematic. I realize it’s gaining popularity as a term used by individuals to describe themselves, and while I would love for people to really examine the term critically if they haven’t already, people are going to use whatever feels comfortable to them. But I am worried about the institutionalization of the term, its canonization if you will, as the broader description of these various gender identities.

While it may not be the intention of anyone who uses the term, “masculine of center” reduces gender expression down to a simple gradation, with pure femininity on one end and pure masculinity on the other. It is a somewhat antiquated way to think of gender. It basically replicates the current binary gender system but with the concession that your biological sex does not determine which side of the gender line you are allowed to occupy.

And the criticism that the blog article quoted in the Race thread was responding to --

Q: What do you think about the term “masculine of center”?

Halberstam: I think it presumes a center, I’m not sure about that. It presumes a scale that we all know and recognize. I don’t always know that I know what another queer person’s masculinity means anymore. I used to think I knew, but I realized I didn’t. For a lot of young masculine female bodied people who decide to transition, they’re doing so not because they’re so invested in masculinity but because they’re invested in forms of maleness that are then going to be in relation to other forms of maleness. They want to be gay men! In that scenario, masculinity isn’t the most important vector for them, it’s male embodiment or perceived male embodiment. My orientation is very much to feminine women, so butch still seems to have some sort of signifying power, given my set of desires and orientations. But masculine of center presumes that there’s an ideal, and that ideal presumes all kinds of things about race and class, and that we all know an ideal form when we see it. I can’t get into that kind of normative classification system that has a center and has margins. It’s a kind of colonial way of thinking about things, that there is a center and there are margins, and everyone’s aspiring to be center.

The very smart defense of it on terms relating to race -- is here -- http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/foru...040#post730040

My response is the next post. I am sure there are a number of other articles out and about.

Anyway, those who know, is MoC becoming a more used term? Who is adopting it? Do you like it? Would you adopt it? Is the term just more inclusive -- like queer -- or meant/experienced as a rejection or replacement of other terms? If the latter, why?

If you are femme or otherwise don't ID as someone who might be included in MoC, what are your thoughts?

I do not want this thread to privilege the response of any person, regardless of gender or other ID. That might seem wrong too those whose ID is MoC or butch, trans or ? but that's the way I'd prefer this thread to go.