Man explains harassment to women
Brave and stunning Charlotte Clymer, who as Charles Clymer was notorious for being a domineering “I’m a good guy!” male feminist who liked to talk over women, has a piece in USA Today explaining to JK Rowling how unsafe and vulnerable trans women are…in all-too-typical oblivion of or indifference to the ways women are unsafe and vulnerable.
The rights and dignity of transgender people are constantly under attack, not only legally but physically, as we see with continuing violence against trans people, and culturally, as evidenced by the controversy J.K. Rowling stirred up last week.
You know who else is constantly under attack physically? Women. The statistics say so. Culturally we’re under attack from misogynists and pussy-grabbers and guys like Charlotte Clymer.
Her transphobic remarks attempted to deny the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus affirming trans people and peddled dangerous and hurtful myths about our community.
There is no such overwhelming consensus, and what consensus there is is all of about ten years old. We’re not talking about gravity here.
He then says it’s hard to believe Rowling knows any trans people, because HEY WE’RE IN DANGER. He gives examples.
I haven’t been to the gym since I came out. Most cisgender women would be completely fine with a trans woman using the showers after a workout, but do I want to risk ticking off some random transphobe? No. Do I want to risk having someone take photos of me without my consent? No.
See what I mean? What if some of those pesky “cisgender women” are not completely fine with having Charlotte, recently Charles, Clymer getting naked next to them? He doesn’t even pause to think about it that way – because of course he doesn’t. It’s not for him to take our needs into account, it’s for us to take his. New boss just like the old boss.
If I’m out in another city, either for business or pleasure, I watch how much I eat and drink. I don’t want to be in a position where I’ll need to use a public restroom and feel uncertain whether it’s safe.
Women who might feel unsafe when he comes in? Again, pffffff, who cares.
I have a membership to a women-only workspace. It’s quite trans-inclusive and make a point of being affirming. I’m still not going to use its shower facility. Too risky. Some random transphobe makes a fuss, and it becomes a whole thing. Not worth it.
He has a membership to a women-only workspace, which he feels perfectly happy to render not-women-only by his presence, and then he whines about a potential “transphobe” by which he means a woman who wants a women-only workspace to be actually for women, not women plus men who say they feel like women.
There is not a week that has gone by since I came out that I wasn’t street harassed in some way. It’s just something I don’t even talk about anymore. I expect it and move on with my day. Put my headphones in and walk, so I can avoid hearing it.
Again – has he ever spoken to a woman in his life? If so has he listened?
That’s enough. I’m too sick of this oblivious egotistical BUT MY NEEDS crap to read any more of it. But it’s why we won’t just roll over.
In sort of related news, I was reading about a university guide to students who were doing video conferencing for classes or other reasons. Make sure your decorations aren’t signaling microaggressions. The example? Don’t have any wedding pictures visible, because that is signalling that you think marriage should be between a man and a woman. Seriously? For most people, their wedding pictures are a memento of a day that was special to them, not a political statement.
Well now wait a second what if your wedding pictures are from your same-sex marriage? Or your marriage to your cat? Or your friends’ marriages to all their cats?
Think harder, people.
But didn’t J K Rowling post images screaming “Die in a grease fire, TRA’s”? And pose for a photo with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and go out trans* hunting with it? I am sure I saw somewhere that Rowling knocked out a couple of trans people and boasted about breaking the skull of one of them. And I just *KNOW* she she told Shakina “Suck my dick”.
Oh, hang on, that wasn’t Rowling, that was the peaceful, loving, all inclusive TRA’s.
Or maybe your wedding picture is your polyamorous same-sex marriage to the entire Denver Bronchos football team…and their mascot.
“Some random transphobe makes a fuss, and it becomes a whole thing. Not worth it.”
Sounds an awful lot like “I’d sneak into the locker room to catch a peek, but one of them might slap a sexual harassment complaint against me. Not worth it.”
Use the right restroom and you’ll get at most a funny look… In any case you can take off the dress any time you like to claim full male privilege.
I wonder if women have ever encountered anyone taking pictures of them without their knowledge or consent in a gym changing room or whatever. I wonder if you ladies have ever heard of that happening?
” It’s just something I don’t even talk about anymore.”
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT. Except when you’re writing about it in USA Today. Or tweeting.
As far as I can tell, Clymer’s entire existence revolves around being trans.
Imagine wanting to be a woman so badly while not knowing street harassment is a daily occurrence for most women. I’m a straight male and I know how prevalent street harassment against woman is because I listened the woman in my life. Same can’t be said of Charlotte apparently.
iknklast@4,
So you’ve seen my wedding pictures?
Screechy, I think Clymer’s entire existence revolves around himself. Being trans-identified just gives him a handy way to ensure everyone else has to think about him, too.
By the way, I’ve just seen a tweet of Clymer’s in which he says,
So this:
–strikes me as just a tad disingenuous.
Lady M, you’re forgetting that all the combat training in the world is useless when the opponent has words in their armoury. Do you not realise just how lethal a concentrated volley of words such as I think you might be in the wrong locker room can be? Not to mention the positively thermo-nuclear devastation caused by deploying a single Excuse me, sir.