2016 — Critical Essay

Xenofeminism: Let a hundred sexes bloom!

Katarzyna Piasecka

Cafe Babel

Xenofeminism is also anti-naturalist in the sense that it contests the determinism of nature in the political context. Helen expands: “Anyone who’s been deemed ‘unnatural’ in the face of reigning biological norms, anyone who’s experienced injustices wrought in the name of natural order, will realise that the glorification of ‘nature’ has nothing to offer us.” Xenofeminists affirm that biology is not destiny.

Similarly, the gender into which we are born does not define our destiny either. Xenofeminists don’t just argue for gender equality; they go as far as being “gender-abolitionist”. This doesn’t mean that they want to abolish gender altogether, they rather fight against those limitations imposed by gender. “Instead of eliminating differences between genders, we want them to proliferate. Let a hundred sexes bloom!” calls Helen.