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The cotton ceiling is a metaphor for the perceived marginalization or desexualization of trans women in queer erotic communities.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] 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."^[5]

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.^[6]

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.^[7]

Natalie Reed writes that the "cotton ceiling" refers to the way trans women are perceived and represented:^[1]

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".^[8] The workshop attracted controversy from trans-exclusionary lesbians, who petitioned to cancel it.^[9] 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."^[10] 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".^[11] According to attendees, approximately seven attended the workshop.^[9]

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'".^[12]

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."^[13]

References

^ ^a ^b Trier-Bieniek, Adrienne; Householder, April Kalogeropoulos (12 July 2016). Feminist Perspectives on Orange Is the New Black: Thirteen Critical Essays. McFarland. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-4766-2519-5.
^ Banerjea, Niharika; Browne, Kath; Ferreira, Eduarda; Olasik, Marta; Podmore, Julie (2019). Lesbian Feminism: Essays Opposing Global Heteropatriarchies. Zed Books. p. 167. ISBN 978-1-78699-532-2.
^ Beck, Koa (7 September 2021). White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-9821-3442-6.
^ Kaas, Hailey (2016). "Birth of Transfeminism in Brazil: Between Alliances and Backlashes". Transgender Studies Quarterly. 3 (1–2): 146–149. doi:10.1215/23289252-3334307 – via Duke University Press.
^ Brighter, Cassie (2020-10-13). "The Often Misunderstood Premise Of The Cotton Ceiling". CURVE. Archived from the original on 2024-07-15. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
^ Zamantakis, Alithia (2021-12-13). Thinking Cis: Racialized Cissexism, Cis-Heterosexual Men, And Cis-LBQ Women. Georgia State University (Thesis). doi:10.57709/26163765. Archived from the original on 2022-12-28. Retrieved 2023-01-04. 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). (Link to cited article) Archived 2024-04-16 at the Wayback Machine
^ Steinbock, Eliza (2017-08-08). "Representing trans sexualities". In Smith, Clarissa (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality. Routledge Handbooks Online. doi:10.4324/9781315168302. ISBN 978-1-138-77721-7. S2CID 158377654. Archived from the original on 2023-01-04. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
^ Lowbridge, Caroline (2021-10-26). "The lesbians who feel pressured to have sex and relationships with trans women". Archived from the original on 2022-09-26. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
^ ^a ^b "Cotton Ceiling: Uncovering the trans conspiracy to rape lesbians". TransAdvocate. 2013-09-28. Archived from the original on 2024-09-26. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
^ Siddique, Haroon (2022-06-19). "Allison Bailey case is a microcosm of the wider debate about transgender rights". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
^ Lowbridge, Caroline (2021-10-26). "The lesbians who feel pressured to have sex and relationships with trans women". BBC. Archived from the original on 2022-09-26. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
^ Swayne, Rosie (2019). "Unqualified, middle-aged lesbian swerves abruptly out of her lane to talk about trans issues". In Banjerea, Niharika; Browne, Kath; Ferreira, Eduarda; Olasik, Marta; Podmore, Julie (eds.). Lesbian Feminism: Essays Opposing Global Heteropatriarchies. Zed Books. p. 167. ISBN 978-1-78699-532-2. 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). (Link to cited article) Archived 2022-12-24 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Srinivasan, Amia (19 August 2021). The Right to Sex. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-5266-4525-8.