The University of Exeter Trans and Non-Binary Cafe and LGBTQ+ Staff Network, (with support from the Provost Commission) are delighted to welcome biologist, performer, and leading transfeminist thinker Julia Serano for an online talk and Q+A. 

The event will focus on 'transmisogyny', that is, the complex interplay and intersection of transphobia and misogyny (yet distinct from either in isolation) that trans women and other transfeminine people are faced with. 

This term, now popular in transfeminist thinking and scholarship, was first coined in Julia Serano's book Whipping Girl, where she outlines that transmisogyny hinges on two other concepts: traditional sexism and oppositional sexism. The former is the idea that "maleness and masculinity are superior to femaleness and femininity", while the latter holds male and female as "rigid, mutually exclusive categories". Transmisogyny, Serano posits, stems from both these concepts in combination, and the existence of trans women is seen as a threat to a "male-centered gender hierarchy". 

In this talk, which will be introduced by Linda Peka (Deputy Registrar and Chief College Operations Officer), Julia will discuss some personal history that lead her to write about transmisogyny in Whipping Girl, then address different manifestations of transmisogyny, and some common questions and issues that arise when discussing it. She will then move into a brief Q+A. Questions can be submitted to the Mentimeter at any point in the presentation and will be selected by LGBTQ+ Staff Network Co-Chair, Lena Worwood, who will ask some of these questions to Julia in the time that remains. 

We are delighted to be able to host an event that moves beyond the basic tenants of trans inclusion, and engages critically with the structures of power that shape trans lives, and trans women and trans feminine lives in particular. We are seeing increasing hostility, in a myriad of ways, towards those who are affected by transmisogyny, and we hope that whether you yourself are transmisogyny affected, or wish to be a better ally to those who are, and whether this is your first time hearing the term, or whether you are already familiar with the concept and (some of) its articulations, that this talk will be a chance to learn from the insights of a leading transfeminist thinker on how transmisogyny functions, and how we can challenge it.

Event Security and Accessibility: The event will be held online via Zoom. Registered Attendees will be sent the link no more than 24 hours before the event,and only registered attendees will be admitted into the event. 

Attendees will not be able to turn on their mics or cameras for the event, or use the Zoom chat directly. There will be a Mentimeter link provided (at the same time as the event link) where attendees can submit comments and/or questions for the Q+A. 

The event will be open to non-Exeter affiliated Zoom accounts, so attendee names may be visible to external attendees. 

Questions and comments may be submitted at any point during the event and will be filtered for anything expressly hateful before being copied into the Zoom for everyone to see. Questions asked to Julia will be selected from these filtered questions. As we do not have a huge amount of time for the Q+A, we may not get to every question but will do our best. We will filter the questions with an appreciation that for some, this may be a new topic. We do not expect audiences to already know everything, but reserve the right to elect to not post any question for everyone (including Julia and all attendees) to see that we feel is overtly discriminatory.

Discriminatory behaviour of any kind will result in perpetrators being removed from the event, and follow up disciplinary action may be taken. If you are removed from the event, you will be unable to re-enter it.

We will try and enable live captioning for the event, dependent on the Zoom settings for University accounts. Should this be unavailable, we will ensure that the video recording is captioned before it becomes available. 

If there are any specific access requirements you have in order to make the event accessible to you, please let us know in the relevant question on the sign up form, or email transcafe@exeter.ac.uk as soon as possible and we will do our best to support these.

Any other questions or concerns, please email transcafe@exeter.ac.uk. Though it is a shared mailbox, it is only accessed by a team of two trans people, and emails can be handled confidentially.

Event Recording: The event will be recorded, but the recording will only be available to Exeter University staff and students.

Attendees are welcome if desired to change their display name on Zoom if desired, and/or to include their pronouns if desired. There is no pressure to do so, but we know that some people's Zoom accounts do not by default show the name they wish to use. 

We plan for all attendees to have their cameras and mics off by default, and turned off throughout the event, so we do not expect attendees to be visible or audible in the recording. However, in case of technical mishap, please be aware that there is a slight chance of this happening, and this being observable in the recording. Attendee names, as they appear on Zoom, will be visible in the recording. These can be edited through individual Zoom settings if required. Comments and questions posted to the Mentimeter will be copied into the Zoom chat once filtered. These will also be visible in the recording. However, they will be anonymised, unless a name is included in the submitted text.

If there is a technical error and an attendee who does not consent to being visible/audible on the recording becomes so, we will edit this moment out of the recording before making it available.