Cotton ceiling
{{Short description|LGBTQ+ slang}}
The cotton ceiling is a metaphor for the perceived marginalization or desexualization of trans women in queer erotic communities.{{cite book |last1=Trier-Bieniek |first1=Adrienne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SnKQDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Cotton+ceiling%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA103 |title=Feminist Perspectives on Orange Is the New Black: Thirteen Critical Essays |last2=Householder |first2=April Kalogeropoulos |date= 12 July 2016|publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-2519-5 |pages=103}}{{cite book |last1=Banerjea |first1=Niharika |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rf80EAAAQBAJ |title=Lesbian Feminism: Essays Opposing Global Heteropatriarchies |last2=Browne |first2=Kath |last3=Ferreira |first3=Eduarda |last4=Olasik |first4=Marta |last5=Podmore |first5=Julie |date=2019 |publisher=Zed Books |isbn=978-1-78699-532-2 |pages=167}}{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Koa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rb88EAAAQBAJ |title=White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind |date= 7 September 2021|publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-9821-3442-6 |pages= |author1-link=}}{{Cite journal |last=Kaas |first=Hailey |date=2016 |title=Birth of Transfeminism in Brazil: Between Alliances and Backlashes |url=https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3334307 |journal=Transgender Studies Quarterly |volume=3 |issue=1–2 |pages=146–149 |doi=10.1215/23289252-3334307 |via=Duke University Press|url-access=subscription }} It has been used to describe a "tendency by cisgender lesbians to outwardly include and support trans women, but draw the line at considering ever having sex with them."{{Cite web |last=Brighter |first=Cassie |date=2020-10-13 |title=The Often Misunderstood Premise Of The Cotton Ceiling |url=https://www.curvemag.com/blog/transgender/the-often-misunderstood-premise-of-the-cotton-ceiling/ |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=CURVE |language=en-US |archive-date=2024-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715231334/https://www.curvemag.com/blog/transgender/the-often-misunderstood-premise-of-the-cotton-ceiling/ |url-status=live }} The phrase is derived from the term glass ceiling, a description of how women can advance to a certain level in business but are often held back from any further promotion or true seniority by sexism.
The term is controversial. Some lesbians and gender-critical commentators interpret the term as connoting an obligation to have sex with trans women, which LGBTQ+ academics dispute.{{Cite thesis |last=Zamantakis |first=Alithia |date=2021-12-13 |title=Thinking Cis: Racialized Cissexism, Cis-Heterosexual Men, And Cis-LBQ Women |url=https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_diss/124 |journal=Georgia State University |doi=10.57709/26163765 |quote=The cotton ceiling, though, is not a demand for cisgender lesbians to sleep with trans women. Rather, it is the articulation of the manifestation of cissexism within lesbian spaces in which cisgender, lesbian women may refuse to see trans women as women and/or lesbian. In the heated debate surrounding the “cotton ceiling,” cisgender lesbians reframe trans women as "[men] whose idea of 'woman' clearly is nothing other than a sexual object" (Yardley 2018). |access-date=2023-01-04 |archive-date=2022-12-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228100254/https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_diss/124/ |url-status=live }} [https://afterellen.com/girl-dick-the-cotton-ceiling-and-the-cultural-war-on-lesbians-girls-and-women/ (Link to cited article)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240416080840/https://afterellen.com/girl-dick-the-cotton-ceiling-and-the-cultural-war-on-lesbians-girls-and-women/ |date=2024-04-16 }}
Definition
The term "cotton ceiling" (an analogy with the glass ceiling and cotton underwear) was coined in 2012 by transgender porn actress Drew DeVeaux, referring to the feeling of being invisible as a trans woman in queer sexual spaces.{{Cite book |last=Steinbock |first=Eliza |editor-first1=Clarissa |editor-last1=Smith |url=https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315168302.ch3 |title=The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality |date=2017-08-08 |publisher=Routledge Handbooks Online |isbn=978-1-138-77721-7 |language=en |chapter=Representing trans sexualities |doi=10.4324/9781315168302 |s2cid=158377654 |access-date=2023-01-04 |archive-date=2023-01-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104074552/https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315168302.ch3 |url-status=live }}
Natalie Reed writes that the "cotton ceiling" refers to the way trans women are perceived and represented:{{R|Trier-Bieniek}} {{blockquote|For example, trans men are often openly regarded as being sexy and hot within queer communities, being the subject of things like calendars and pin-ups and erotica. Trans women, on the other hand, are almost never permitted acknowledgment or representation in such communities as sexual beings. We carry a sort of image of being stuffy, boring, slightly icky, and ultimately eunuch-like things. We're allowed into the parties, but we sit quiet and lonely in the corner. This ends up being a problem not in that we're desperately eager to be sexually objectified (we get enough of that from the straight cis male world), but that this act of conceptualizing us as de-sexed and unfuckable is directly attached to larger systems of oppression, dehumanization and invalidation we face.}}
Criticism
The term gained wider attention in March 2012, when Planned Parenthood Toronto (PPT) hosted a workshop called, "Overcoming the Cotton Ceiling: Breaking Down Sexual Barriers for Queer Trans Women".{{Cite news |last=Lowbridge |first=Caroline |date=2021-10-26 |title=The lesbians who feel pressured to have sex and relationships with trans women |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-57853385 |access-date=2024-07-16 |language=en-GB |archive-date=2022-09-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926125149/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-57853385 |url-status=live }} The workshop attracted controversy from trans-exclusionary lesbians, who petitioned to cancel it.{{R|TransAdvocate}} LGB Alliance co-founder Allison Bailey tweeted accusing the workshop's host of "coaching heterosexual men who identify as lesbians on how they can coerce young lesbians into having sex with them."{{Cite news |last=Siddique |first=Haroon |date=2022-06-19 |title=Allison Bailey case is a microcosm of the wider debate about transgender rights |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/19/allison-bailey-barrister-case-wider-debate-transgender-rights |access-date=2024-07-16 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} PPT director Sarah Hobbs said that the workshop did not advocate for sexual coercion, and instead explored "the ways in which ideologies of transphobia and transmisogyny impact sexual desire".{{Cite news |last=Lowbridge |first=Caroline |date=2021-10-26 |title=The lesbians who feel pressured to have sex and relationships with trans women |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-57853385 |access-date=2024-07-16 |work=BBC |language=en-GB |archive-date=2022-09-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926125149/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-57853385 |url-status=live }} According to attendees, approximately seven attended the workshop.{{Cite web |date=2013-09-28 |title=Cotton Ceiling: Uncovering the trans conspiracy to rape lesbians |url=https://www.transadvocate.com/cotton-ceiling-uncovering-the-trans-conspiracy-to-rape-lesbians_n_10251.htm |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=TransAdvocate |language=en |archive-date=2024-09-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240926001455/https://www.transadvocate.com/cotton-ceiling-uncovering-the-trans-conspiracy-to-rape-lesbians_n_10251.htm |url-status=live }}
Essayist Rosie Swayne condemns accusations of the cotton ceiling being coercive, writing that the sexuality of trans women is so "policed" that entering into a discussion of the cotton ceiling will inevitably result in accusations "of being 'rapey'".{{cite book |last1=Swayne |first1=Rosie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rf80EAAAQBAJ |title=Lesbian Feminism: Essays Opposing Global Heteropatriarchies |date=2019 |publisher=Zed Books |isbn=978-1-78699-532-2 |editor-last=Banjerea |editor-first=Niharika |pages=167 |chapter=Unqualified, middle-aged lesbian swerves abruptly out of her lane to talk about trans issues |quote=I'd like to think it would not be necessary for me to utterly condemn any form of sexual coercion between individuals based on any form of ideology whatsoever, but hey, this might be on the internet – and where the 'cotton ceiling' is concerned, woe betide anyone who enters the conversation who doesn't want to be accused of being 'rapey'. But if you want to read some clarification on the issue, The Transadvocate offers some perspective with "Cotton Ceiling: Uncovering the Trans Conspiracy to Rape Lesbians" (Williams, 2013). |editor-last2=Browne |editor-first2=Kath |editor-last3=Ferreira |editor-first3=Eduarda |editor-last4=Olasik |editor-first4=Marta |editor-last5=Podmore |editor-first5=Julie }} [https://www.transadvocate.com/cotton-ceiling-uncovering-the-trans-conspiracy-to-rape-lesbians_n_10251.htm (Link to cited article)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224021003/https://www.transadvocate.com/cotton-ceiling-uncovering-the-trans-conspiracy-to-rape-lesbians_n_10251.htm |date=2022-12-24 }}.
Philosopher Amia Srinivasan describes the phrase—analogizing access to sex with workplace equality—as "deeply unfortunate". "Yet", she writes, "simply to say to a trans woman, or a disabled woman, or an Asian man, 'No one is required to have sex with you,' is to skate over something crucial. There is no entitlement to sex, and everyone is entitled to want what they want, but personal preferences [...] are rarely just personal."{{cite book |last1=Srinivasan |first1=Amia |title=The Right to Sex |date= 19 August 2021|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-5266-4525-8 |pages=88 |author1-link=Amia Srinivasan}}
See also
- Attraction to transgender people
- Transgender sexuality
- "We're being pressured into sex by some trans women" – controversial 2021 BBC News article