Said no woman ever
A new Assigned Male comic, from the series by Sophie Labelle:
Sophie Labelle
Liar liar pants on fire.
Have you ever seen any women saying what the woman in the second panel says? That trans people “deserve to suffer a slow death and be raped in a dark alley”? I don’t recall ever seeing that or anything like it, while I do recall seeing a lot of the inverse – trans women calling down violence on feminist women.
Sophie Labelle – translation: Wisey Thepretty – is doing that thing called PROJECTION.
It’s a funny thing that there’s so much ragey abuse from trans women to women – and so little from trans men to men or women. Why would that be, do you think? Could it possibly have anything to do with socialization? Hmm?
I notice the Facebook post considerately puts a trigger warning for transphobia even though the text of the comic stands out far more than the warning itself.
Should be a trigger warning for invented transphobia.
“It’s a funny thing that there’s so much ragey abuse from trans women to women – and so little from trans men to men or women. Why would that be, do you think? Could it possibly have anything to do with socialization? Hmm?”
I’ve noticed and wondered about this myself. It seems to me that trans women carry their male privilege right with them when they transition.
Quite. That is, the trans women who act like this do. Not all of them act like this! But by god some of them do…which is so ironic. The root of the rage is insufficient recognition of their woman-ness, and they express that rage in such a male privileged way. I don’t see that ever working out well.
“Recognize that I’m a woman or I’ll kill you, you fucking cunt!!” Hmmm.
Funny, that. Except, not funny.
Why is the woman depicted as large and masculine? Why is the trans woman depicted as much smaller and more petite than the (born) woman?
See, e.g., real-life trans woman Rachel McKinnon, whose (post-male-adolescence) body structure towers over her women cycling competitors. That cartoon is … cartoonish.
Also: the actually, literally, dangerous-to-life hostility to trans women (real transphobia) comes from men. The people who kill trans women (and trans men) are very seldom, if ever, women.
The trans woman isn’t a woman, she’s supposed to be a kid – Stephie, age…9? I think 9. As many…er…critics of the strip point out, she’s portrayed as ludicrously precocious, spouting all the latest in trans “activism” dogma like no 9-year-old ever.
As for why a kid, I think you found the answer. Real trans women tend to be larger and more muscular than the women they’re raging at, and that’s not a good look. Making her a kid gives Wisey Thepretty the ability to make her appear vulnerable and touching.
I don’t think that I have ever witnessed an adult talk as abusively as that to a child before. I don’t doubt that it could and does happen, but the ‘holier than thou’ aspect of Stephie would look unhealthy if the card read ‘peace with abusive adult’ instead. Either way, I’d want a fourth panel with social services intervening, for both their sakes.
Swap Stephie for Stefonknee and the emotional leverage of the adult/child power imbalance wouldn’t work quite as well either…
The author presents this comic as being a true representation of their experience with radical feminists. I sincerely would like to know specifically to whom they are referring – if this is what people have said, why not name and shame?
Indeed, and there are nearly 100 comments there and all of them that I saw took it for granted that “TERFs” really had said that to Wisey Thepretty.
Yeah this is misplaced to say the least. SOME transwomen have a grudge against what I can only assume they see as ‘real women’, the cis-gendered. They’re dissatisfied with themselves.
On the other hand, I can recall a certain quote from Robin Morgan dating back to a National Lesbian Conference in’73, or so, in which she severely criticized the presence of transgendered Beth Elliot.
What does something Robin Morgan said in 1973 have to do with anything?
“Here’s my card for you, calling you a slur that people fling about with hate and fury at feminists, for something that my comic claims that you said that no woman has ever said.”
It only just now occurred to me that the author of this comic is putting into the mouth of a feminist the words that Christians say about trans* women – allow me to add, in my personal experience, and from a general knowledge of conservative media.
To make such a twist is, in my first estimation, evil.
I should not have said “trans* women,” but “trans* people,” since I have encountered that language applied to trans* men as well.
clamboy, that’s a good point.
Muddying that distinction is good propaganda, though. The comic is saying, “Don’t bother trying to make peace–or even listen to–those who disagree with you (labelled “TERFS” and “transphobes.”) They’re all irrational, and they all hate trans people.”