Everyone has a need to belong to a group.

In order to fit into a group, people may behave

in a certain way or another to appeal attractive towards a certain group. Once in a group, people
like to remain in a group by adjusting their behaviors to the norm of the group. This concept
could be applied to the community of Michigan Womyn Music Festival (MWMF) as well.
Andrea Gibson, a stage performer who supported an integration of transgender women to
MWMF would question the characteristics of a community defined by Ann Cvetkovich and
Selena Wahng. In their article, Cvetkovich and Wahng describe that community is built from
one-on-one relationships. They also claim that there is misconception that every member of the
community love each other and perceive each other as sisters (140). If this is the case, Gibson
would argue that transgender women should be welcomed to MWMF to give them an
opportunity to interact with people on a one-on-one level. Just as stated by Cvetkovich and
Wahng, each woman who attend MWMF may or may not find their place at MWMF on this
level. This concept applies to transgender women as well. Transgender women should have an
opportunity to determine for themselves if MWMF is a place for them. Furthermore, MWMFs
ultimate goal is to create a safe environment for women while empowering them. If this is the
case, transgender women, who sexually identifies themselves as women, should fall under this
category as well. Gibson would argue that it is ironic for MWMF to be supporting womens
rights but at the same time denying the rights of different sectors of women.
In oppose to Gibsons proposal, Cvetkovich and Wahng would argue otherwise. They
would respond that MWMF was originally created to enhance the lives of cisgender women and
in no mean do they disrespect transgender women. To put this in a perspective, MWMF is no
different from any other private clubs, groups, and organizations with members that have
common characteristics and interests that bring them together. In case of MWMF, the
qualifications of becoming a part of the community is to be a woman from birth. Because of this,
some transgender men are accepted into this event, even though the community may or may not
have expected this since the time MWMF was established. As a result, Cvekovich and Wahng
would propose that transgender women should create their own events and organizations that
would focus on creating a safe environment and empowering a women. This time, these events
and organizations should include not only transgender women, but other people who identify
themselves as women regardless of their physical differences.
To the arguments made by MWMF, Andrea Smith, an author of Dismantling Hierarchy,
Queering Society, would disagree with the proposal of creating a new organization dedicated for
transgender women. Smith claims that because people do not challenge the sexist hierarchy,
people find social hierarchy natural and inevitable (207). This leads people to underestimate their
ability to make social changes that eradicate the social structure of dominance and hierarchy.
Smith would argue that the members of MWMF may believe that they are challenging the sexist
hierarchy of male dominance by creating an all-women community. However, this only
strengthens the sexist hierarchy. By isolating themselves from the society of men, not only are
they filtering out ideas and concepts created by men, but ideas of other women who are not part
of the community. The members of MWMF recognize that male dominance or sexist hierarchy
exists, but they are not challenging it. They are simply running away from the core problem by
hiding under the shelter of their own community. Because they fail to challenge the hierarchy, the
members assume that social hierarchy is natural and inevitable. In addition, Smith criticizes that
because the community fails to question the existence of social hierarchy, they unintentionally
create another social hierarchy between cisgender women and transgender women by
discriminating transgender women from MWMF.

In order for everyone to belong in a society, people must come to their senses that they
must challenge the social norms embedded by a traditional structure of a society.