Otherwise intelligent
Oh good lord.
At Pink News one Josh Jackman explains what women are.
There seems to be an epidemic of otherwise intelligent, respectful, feminist people suddenly blurting out that trans women “aren’t real women.”
*grits teeth*
One, he mentions two people (and things Germaine Greer said years ago); two is not an epidemic. Two, it’s neither stupid nor disrespectful nor unfeminist to say that trans women are not women in every sense of the word. Three, nobody “blurted out” anything; two women made reasoned arguments.
After that, Josh Jackman (I don’t dare say “he” lest I be accused of misgendering…them) gets down to the hard work of explaining why it’s wrong to say that trans women are not women in every sense of the word.
It’s really very simple.
No-one switches gender.
Being misgendered and living in the wrong body is not a privilege.
Trans women are women. Trans women are women.
That’s it. That’s the substance, from start to finish. All that’s left is a smartass list of things that aren’t women, illustrated with photos. A can of paint, a guitar, Corsica – hahaha laydeez, do you feel stupid enough yet?
And in conclusion, and in big letters:
Also, anyone who self-defines as a woman. Got it?
No, I don’t got it, because I consider it bullshit. I consider it magical thinking and eyes-tight-shut denial. It doesn’t apply across the board, so why should it apply to “a woman”? It’s not true that anyone who self-defines as a crocodile is a crocodile. It’s not true that anyone who self-defines as a Russian is a Russian. It’s not true that anyone who self-defines as Shakespeare is Shakespeare. Making a simple-minded simplistic crude claim like that a matter of mandatory belief on pain of noisy social media bullying and shunning is a ridiculous way to carry on. It shouldn’t be treated as a crime to say that starting out male makes a difference and that there are some differences between the experiences of trans women and those of women. There shouldn’t be a mandatory dogma on the subject.
Glosswitch as always summed it up beautifully:
https://twitter.com/glosswitch/status/841365727181459456
https://twitter.com/glosswitch/status/841365934342320128
https://twitter.com/glosswitch/status/841366249829474304
Stop ignoring the conscripts.
So, does that mean if I choose to self-identify as Corsica, I am magically an island in the Mediterranean? Because I think I would like that.
Can I identify as Corsica? Corsican :-)
Being on an island in the Mediterranean is one thing. Being the island…sounds boring. You just lie there.
I think I’ve cracked a molar. Can’t seem to identify my way out of that.
….and one still gets walked on!
The Facebook page Black Freethinkers posted an article from The Root titled “Transwomen are women. This is not a debate.” Huh. Why isn’t it a debate? It was, as expected, slamming Adichie. I wouldn’t think her comment “transwomen are transwomen” is a debate, but they haven’t posted anything from that point of view. I’m disappointed. I really like that page and the broad spectrum of topics and viewpoints they cover, but they’ve fallen down this time.
I must go buy a book by Adichie.
In Genderspeak I guess anything that identifies as an explanation is an explanation.
I smell thoughtcrime…
I’m betting if you live in a country where maternal death is common, HIV prevention is hindered by lack of women’s choices (like not being able to insist your husband stays faithful or at least uses a condom), and teenage girls are kidnapped and raped for the crime of getting educated, the idea of “cis privilege” seems somewhat different than it does in the West.
Ok that’s a winner – “anything that identifies as an explanation is an explanation.”
How corrupt can a culture be, that such breathtaking sexism, such grotesque essentialism, can be announced with a straight face?
What about all the people who only identify as trans after decades of struggling with pre-set roles that they don’t fit? What about those who’ve made transitions, with or without surgical alteration, only to find that they WEREN’T ‘really’ the gender that they thought they should be?
Rachel Dolezal isn’t black. The vast array of African Americans who ‘passed’ over the years were not ‘really’ white either.
The notion that ‘saying makes it so’ is what gets us phenomena like Trump.