So if I'm allowed to choose my gender identity to be whatever I want it to be, and thus I can be trans-gender, can I also be trans-race? I'm clearly white, but could I decide that I am actually trans-racially Asian? Or black? If gender is an arbitrary social construct with no relation to biological realities like chromosomes or body parts, then is race also an arbitrary social construct that has no relations to chromosomes or skin color?
And can I be trans-class? Can I be a poor person who identifies as a wealthy person and thus is entitles to the privileges of the wealthy? Can I sit in first class on an airplane on the grounds that I am trans-class and thus can sit with the upper class passengers?
The reality for me is that I am a middle class white male. Could I actually identify as a wealthy black woman? I would be transgender, transrace, and transclass. I would go to fancy restaurants and hand them Monopoly money and tell them that I am actually wealthy. Since money is a social construct anyway, they would have no grounds for refusing my Monopoly money as long as I asserted that I was a transclass wealthy person.
Here's another question. If you're not a white male, but you want what you believe is white male privilege, couldn't you just re-identify yourself as a white male when it suited your purposes? Could identify as a man in salary negotiations so you'd get paid more money, but identify as a woman for purposes of the military draft so you wouldn't have to sign up? If race, gender, and class are fluid and constantly changing, then couldn't I change my race, gender, and class identities whenever it would give me some kind of advantage in a situation?
And can I be trans-class? Can I be a poor person who identifies as a wealthy person and thus is entitles to the privileges of the wealthy? Can I sit in first class on an airplane on the grounds that I am trans-class and thus can sit with the upper class passengers?
The reality for me is that I am a middle class white male. Could I actually identify as a wealthy black woman? I would be transgender, transrace, and transclass. I would go to fancy restaurants and hand them Monopoly money and tell them that I am actually wealthy. Since money is a social construct anyway, they would have no grounds for refusing my Monopoly money as long as I asserted that I was a transclass wealthy person.
Here's another question. If you're not a white male, but you want what you believe is white male privilege, couldn't you just re-identify yourself as a white male when it suited your purposes? Could identify as a man in salary negotiations so you'd get paid more money, but identify as a woman for purposes of the military draft so you wouldn't have to sign up? If race, gender, and class are fluid and constantly changing, then couldn't I change my race, gender, and class identities whenever it would give me some kind of advantage in a situation?
