Taking over
Divvi De Vendre, a candidate running in the federal election, says an article about her in the Daily Telegraph was inaccurate and a “put down” of her and her party.
The Daily Telegraph published an article on Thursday claiming a Sydney lawyer and writer named Anna Kerr had been “silenced” when a paragraph of a column she wrote for women’s media website Women’s Agenda, which detailed De Vendre’s identity as a “transgender woman”, was cut.
This is confusing stuff. What’s interesting about it is that Australia has a new party, called the Women’s Party, that was registered in February 2019. The punchline is that it was set up by this person Divvi De Vendre, who is a trans woman.
It’s my view that trans women should not do things like this. Ever. They should not put themselves forward to run things that are for women – parties, campaigns, lists, contests, you name it. It’s domineering and intrusive and just rude, for male people who Identify As women to take over women’s organizations and parties and movements.
Meanwhile De Vendre doesn’t like being called a trans woman.
But De Vendre said she “objects” to being called a transgender woman as “it implies someone who is still transitioning to female”.
“I am a woman physically and mentally,” she said. “The taxation department says I’m a woman, my passport says that I’m a woman, my doctors say that I am a woman.”
Because the system has been rigged to force them to “say” that, but that doesn’t make it true.
“I’ve been fully transitioned for three years now,” De Vendre said. “I am a woman physically, mentally and my hormone base is estrogen.”
So move over, bitches, he’s taking the reins.
De Vendre said it wasn’t just a “put down” of her but of her micro-party, which is running candidates in two seats this election.
“This is a put down of the Women’s Party and the Women’s Party is not about me, it’s about women,” she said.
Right, so go away and leave women alone.
About Women’s Agenda removing the paragraph that said De Vendre is trans –
Women’s Agenda publisher Tarla Lambert said she made the call to take out the paragraph.
“I was worried about the implications of it and how it could be construed as insensitive to the trans community,” Lambert told BuzzFeed News.
“I acknowledge that it is a complex debate but as a publication we err on the side of sensitivity toward minorities and we are not apologetic about that.”
Minorities? At the expense of women? So they err on the side of sensitivity toward a tiny number of men at the expense of women, ignoring the power imbalance between men and women? They should be apologetic about that.
“I love being a bloody woman for God’s sake,” [De Vendre] said. “The most important thing you can be in your life is who you are authentically.”
“Authentically,” which apparently means the opposite of “literally.” There are the dull this-world facts, and then there is Authentically, which is whatever we enjoy thinking about ourselves. I’m Authentically 10 feet tall and swift as a cheetah and fierce as an eagle. Aren’t we all.
I’m quite happy to stop calling him a trans woman. I’ll refer to him as a man.
That is a fucking weird thing to say, if we are to believe De Vendre is a woman. Women, as a whole, do not argue that their “enjoyment” of being a woman is an underpinning of why they need sex based rights. In fact you could argue that it’s the exact opposite. My great-grandmother did not protest for the right to vote because being a woman was so fucking awesome.
What he loves is cosplaying as a woman, because he gets to indulge himself in all the stereotypes without any of the actual drawbacks, like endometriosis. He’ll never get that, or any other period-related problems. Hip trouble? Nope, not that, either. His hips are evolved for an upright stance, not a compromise between bipedalism and being able to give birth. Everyone will immediately clock him as a fella, so he won’t be subjected to routine misogyny. In fact, he’ll be treated with extra deference, since people will immediately recognise him as an unstable and probably dangerous fella.
Referring to him as a trans woman was a kindness. He no more looks like a woman than I look like a kangaroo.
Claire, it sort of reminds me of that old song, I Enjoy Being a Girl, written by a man. Men think about women differently than women think about women, which comes from the fact that we were raised in a different relationship to women, and we were raised with certain gender expectations. We may not achieve those gender expectations, or even try to achieve them. We may disagree with them and fight against them…like your great-great grandmother and my grandmother. But we are aware of them, internalize them, and cope with them constantly. Men also know the gender expectations, but for some reason don’t realize that the expectations on men are actually usually better than those for women. I do think the macho expectations are almost as bad for men as they are for the women who know men, but things like thinking they are more rational, more competent, more skilled, more more…those are a perk of being a man.
I have a young male colleague who tried to convince me it was better being a woman because women have a wider variety of colors and styles we can wear. My question to him was, who decided that? Why can’t you wear pink if you want? I told him I had no problem at all if men wanted to wear a tutu…these norms center around other men, who will beat the shit out of you if they think you are “girly”. So-called TERFs are not enforcing those gender roles; we want to smash them. For that, we are labeled as bigots who want to enforce a gender binary and force people into boxes – and this label comes from people who want to enforce a gender binary and force people into boxes, but with the option of changing boxes.
I wish transwomen could experience the real life experience of women…especially women who undergo the crap that women in Saudi Arabia or India or any other country without a veneer of equality undergo. (And we do only have a veneer of equality; if you scratch the surface, it is plain who really runs things, and it is not “Karens” or “radical feminists” or women at all).
I found this on Facebook. Sorry, TRAs; most people do not accept your wild assertions that men can change sex.
@3 Tigger, judging by the picture I see displayed for you, definitely more kangarooish. ;)
Authentically – I like that word, it actually means something. So I’m thinking whoever is authenticating him must not be very good at it. You’d think his doctors at least would know the difference.
OK, twiliter, I admit that I look more like a kangaroo than he does a woman. Now I’ve outed myself, haven’t I? What gave it away? It’s the bouncing, isn’t it?
The appearance of bipedalism helps too. Another one of the wonderful things. ;)
Tigger, I couldn’t read the article at the link you posted; is there another way to get to it? (It’s probably because i’m not on Facebook)
I can’t get at it either, and I am on Facebook. I can see other posts on that page, which appears to be a lovefest for Cardinal Pell and forced pregnancy, aka right-wing Catholic talking points.
Since I am in a looking-people-up-mood today, I ran an image search on this guy……………and he is about as far from passing as being far from passing can go. AGP all the way is my personal take.
But De Vendre said she “objects” to being called a transgender woman as “it implies someone who is still transitioning to female”.
Then he’d better get to Wikipedia post haste since his own party’s wiki entry refers to it as “founded by transgender woman Divvi de Vendre,”.
Oh really? What happens if he stops taking testosterone blockers / oestrogen supplements? And “mentally female” is just a slap in the face to feminism, blatantly buying into the idea that male and female personalities are necessarily distinct.
Cool. If I, a white person, started an “Indigenous Party”, can I demand all references to me being white be quashed? After all, white people claiming to be black are a real but very small portion of the population. Being smaller, that makes us an even more vulnerable minority than the indigenous 3.3% of Australia, right? Protect us!
Oh wow, that reminds me of an argument I saw from a vegan about why veganism is superior: quitting animal products opened up a whole slew of dishes and ingredients to him, and so is an expansion of the choices, rather than a limitation. Apparently no one told him that he had the ability to eat those things all along, and did not require that he forswear animal products first.
So transness is now all about transitioning? Talk about moving the goal posts.
Well, ‘she’s’ had three whole years to figure out being a woman. That should be plenty of time…right?
I’m amused by his first name. Where I grew up, ‘divvy’ is a slang term for stupid.
@AoS Yes, me too. I thought that as soon as I saw the name. The funniest part is that being trans, he chose that name!