The radar has not yet been invented that can detect
I can’t tell. It seems very Poe-like, but then so do a lot of things that are all too sincere.
Every time you talk about trans men in social justice activism or discussions, you’re taking up time that could be spent talking about trans women. Activism that helps trans womyn by centering them will also help trans men, probably even faster and better than it helps trans womyn. Don’t allow blood on your hands by centering men.
…
There is virtually no need to talk about trans mens issues. Their issues are mix of AFAB issues and trans women issues, which are addressed by movements already. Talking about trans men is a redundant waste of time because there’s no special issues they face unlike trans women, cis women, and non-binary people.
Stay. The. Fuck. Out. Of. Womyn’s. Shelters.
Womyn go there to ESCAPE from men. The last thing they need is a creepy dude lying about being a chick amongst them. Go to a co-ed shelter or find another way to work out your problem, but stay. away. from. womyn’s. shelters.
Every time one of you enters a womyn’s shelter you’re taking up a space that could go to a trans womyn in need who CAN’T because you’re reinforcing the very much wrong idea that female = presence of a natal front hole. It sucks men don’t have shelters, but that isn’t my problem. You T bros make more money than trans womyn ever will. Figure something out. If you can stick together to oppress trans women then you can stick together to keep each other housed.
TERFS need to stay out of womyn’s shelters too IMO. Most of them are “dysphoric lesbians” (AKA straight men) now a days it seems, but even if they aren’t they’re a danger to womyn, especially the rare trans womyn who might be let in because they blend as cis well enough. All trans women deserve to be in womyn’s shelters. That includes pretransition trans women as well. Doesn’t matter if she’s 6 feet tall with linebacker shoulders and a beard. She’s a womyn, and cis womyn have no reason to be uncomfortable with another womyn’s presence except for violent transmisogyny.
Poe? Serious? I really don’t know.
Scrolling down a fairly long way reveals entry after entry of this shit, so I’m thinking this person is sincere. He or she truly seems to consider anti-trans bigotry to be genocide, and quoted this gem approvingly:
“White people CANNOT DIE. Death is loss of life + prejudice ÷ √oppression × institutionalised power ÷ racism. White people can experience LOSS OF LIFE, but not death.”
You have stumbled down the rabbit hole of truly irrational trans activism.
A “TERF” is a dysphoric lesbian… so “TERFs” are trans too? As in they are really men because they want to have sex with women? Despite how they identify? But isn’t personal identity the only arbiter of gender? Which means that no one can turn round to someone else and tell anything about their gender until that person says it? And, JFC, that’s a seriously homophobic statement.
Translation: Feminists are all dirty lesbos and should be kept away from real women. Real women are whatever this particular individual decides. If an adult female doesn’t fit their exacting standards of womanhood then they are really a man. So… Trans are the only people who are allowed to misgender other people. If non-trans people do it, it’s violence (and that habit of using violence as a synonym for being insulted really pisses me off. I was a nurse for a long time and I’ve seen violence – fists on flesh, blood, mucous, tears, broken teeth and torn flesh. Sorry, words don’t do that.)
Quite frankly listening to some trans women is indistinguishable from listening to a MRA group just with an added layer of crazy.
“Don’t want to fuck a trans womyn solely because of the shape of her cunt? Twef.”
(source: http://rad-trans-womyn.tumblr.com/post/136787134172/i-consider-any-afab-person-who-isnt-completely)
That’s a sentiment I’ve heard before from trans-activists (though, indeed, I’m not sure whether any/all of them were Poes). How is this not rape-advocacy? Are they serious about denying someone the right to say “no” to sex if the reason supplied doesn’t pass muster?
That is a… depressing and all to familiar sentiment on Tumblr. And if you want to see rape-advocacy, google “cotton ceiling”.
I’m strongly considering trying to reclaim the word “TERF” as, far from being an insult, it seems to indicate someone who actually has some grasp of reality.
I have no issues with trans men or women personally. I don’t give a monkeys what gender role someone is more comfortable performing. If you’re an XY chromosome, penis bearing person and you’re happier and more satisfied with living in a way stereotypically associated with a XX chromosome, vagina possessing person then I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you at the barricades as you fight for the right to live your life as you want. I’ll fight for hormones and surgery to be provided by insurance companies or health services. I’ll call you your chosen name without considering it strange or odd. Your body, your life, your choice.
BUT…
When you start denying that biology exists you’ve lost me. Humans are sexually dimorphic. Over 98.8% of people fit biologically into two sexes. Biologically male and biologically female are scientific facts. Man and woman are socially imposed roles that mostly map onto physical sex. It is perfectly possible for a biological male to be happier in the social role that is imposed on women (if biological sex doesn’t exist, then exactly what occurs during transition? I’ve yet to see a trans person address this question). Being a trans man or trans woman is a perfectly legitimate thing to be and should be fully accepted by society.
BUT…
Trans women (mostly) do not have the right to dictate what biological females say or the language they use to describe their experience. When feminists criticised men, we said, “You may not treat us like this.” We never said, “You must not talk about your lived experience. You must not use your own vocabulary for your own body. You must use the vocabulary we give you.”
The scientific facts are that taking sex hormones like oestrogen only gives you a superficial similarity to a biological female’s hormone balance. In fact it gives you a superficial similarity to the hormone balance of a biological female who is taking hormonal birth control. Normal hormones rise and fall cyclically between the ages of c. 15 and c. 50. Prior to that hormone levels are pretty much the same in males and females as, indeed, they are after the menopause. There are other hormones very active in females of fertile age, too. Oxytocin, for instance, which also falls to typical male levels at the menopause.
Again, if the effects of those hormones make you feel more comfortable in your skin then you should have them. (Though I’d be interested to see the results of placebo comparisons in non-dysphoric trans people).
I’ve mentioned before I have a 18 year old daughter who is a young feminist and a lot more “post-modernist” in her interpretation of things. We do talk and sometimes I am surprised when there are things she doesn’t now that I take for granted. Like how recently it is that women have gained any ability to talk about out biology and sexuality. She knows things aren’t perfect now but she never understood how much worse things were. She was surprised when I said misgendering as an act of verbal aggression was historically something that happened to women – if you weren’t a woman in the right way you would be called a man, so it wasn’t something that is exclusive to trans women. She has (to my everlasting joy) no experience of sexual harassment or abuse so she has no real understanding of how much women who have need a safe space away from anyone who is or ever was a man.
That is why Tumblr and other po-mo modern young feminism is the way it is. We, the old guard, did our job so well that they don’t understand the danger to women’s social and political rights and why we resist the erosion of those rights by the loonier fringe of the trans movement. They don’t understand why we need to resist the erasure of the word “woman” in relation to reproductive rights, they don’t get that women need safe female only spaces. They only see and hear about the genuinely tragic stories told by other young people who are, or believe they are, trans gender and they want to reach out and support them. Because that is still what women are brought up to do.
I’ve seen this person around Tumblr before. Mostly it seems like everyone has decided this person is a troll (the viciously transphobic South Park character avatar seems a dead giveaway) but one person claims to have dated them: http://bofa-gender.tumblr.com/post/136824528166/terf-fantasy (TW graphic rape fantasy)
http://bofa-gender.tumblr.com/post/136888886361/hey-guys-i-said-that-rtw-was-a-real-person-but
http://bofa-gender.tumblr.com/post/136569383231/on-rad-trans-womyn
I don’t know if it really is this person’s ex trying to troll/harass them or if they themselves are a troll. Maybe even the same person. It’s weird and ugly.
I’m leaning towards this being parody (especially with that South Park-looking image at the top), but I have noticed that trans activism generally seems disinterested in or even hostile towards trans men. If it’s parody or trolling, it’s the accurate kind rather than the strawman kind.
Steamshovelmama @ 4 – hear hear to all of that.
I should note that I think one giveaway is the term “womyn,” which seems like an unintentional overstep. The only people I’ve seen use that term unironically are second-wave lesbians of the sort who are now reviled as “TERFs” (e.g. the no-trans-allowed Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival). The term seems to have fallen out of favor to such a degree that I don’t think I’ve ever seen today’s young “intersectional” trans-friendly feminists use it.
Good point, that is bizarre. It was never much in favor – I for one never ever used it, and rolled my eyes at the sight of it.
Ah, I haven;t watched South Park for 15+ years, it seems I missed an indicator there.