Regardless of anatomy
Leila Miller at the LA Times tells us:
Kelly Blackwell longs to escape her life as a transgender woman in a California men’s prison, where she struggles every day to avoid being seen in her bra and panties and says she once faced discipline after fighting back when an inmate in her cell asked for oral sex.
If Blackwell doesn’t want to be seen in his bra and “panties” why does he wear them? Skip the bra and wear underpants with no frills; problem solved.
After more than 30 years, and two decades since Blackwell began hormone therapy, her chance to leave arrived last fall when groundbreaking legislation gave transgender, intersex and nonbinary inmates the right, regardless of anatomy, to choose whether to be housed in a male or female prison.
Oh I see, so now it’s the women in women’s prisons who get to be afraid of the inmates in their cells.
The demand has been high, with 261 requests for transfers since SB 132 took effect Jan. 1, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Yeah no shit. Safer for the men, and lots of rape opportunities. (Do we really think there are that many men who really do identify as women in the California prison system? No we do not.)
“I won’t be around predatory men and I won’t be around staff that frown upon trans women,” Blackwell, 53, said in a phone call from Mule Creek State Prison, east of Sacramento.
But the women I’m around will be around a predatory man! Or at least they won’t be sure they’re not! But that’s cool, this is all about me! I get what I want!
But more than two hours away, at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, there’s fear. Inmates say guards have warned them that “men are coming” and to expect sexual violence.
Oh no, I’m sure it will be all sisterhood all the way.
The Times spoke to more than a dozen inmates in women’s and men’s prisons to understand how the new law is playing out. Although advocates and inmates say the transfers have been received well, several claim that misinformation spread by prison staffers is stirring up transphobia and that more must be done to educate inmates.
I’m sure the new trans cellmates will do all the educating that’s needed.
Jen Orthwein, an attorney who represents transgender inmates and worked on the bill, said that not all inmates want or have access to hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgery, and that “any expression of femininity in a men’s prison places people in danger.”
Therefore they must be transferred to a women’s prison, because women exist to shield men from male violence. It’s nobody’s job to shield women from male violence.
Of course they identify as women, in the sense of “report their identity thus”, in order to get into the women’s prisons. I do not understand what other meaning “identify as women” could possibly mean. (And I think that you and I agree about this.) I suppose the question could be “do they identify as women in other context, or just when they’re trying to get access to women’s spaces (probably in order to harass or rape women)”, but even then, if they identify as women just in this context and not in other contexts, they would still be “gender fluid”, and according to Gender Ideology we would be obligated to respect that.
<blockquote.If Blackwell doesn’t want to be seen in his bra and “panties” why does he wear them? Skip the bra and wear underpants with no frills; problem solved.
Come to think of it, I didn’t know that prisons gave much leeway regarding what prisoners were allowed to wear, since I’ve never been to prison myself. The iconic orange or striped jumpsuits, to mark prisoners if they escape, are what I keep thinking of, but I really have no idea what go on in reality in California.
What an unconscionable thing to say to women. Don’t they even listen to themselves? They KNOW what will happen to women, but they are proceeding anyway. The authors of the legislation and the implementing institutions are accessories before the fact to any crimes these men perpetrate on the women.
If there are 261 transwomen who want this concession, the simple solution would be to put them all together in one place. They could be segregated from the general population so that could even be done at a men’s prison. It would also be an interesting experiment, so see how all these, errr, women behave when thrust together. Who knows, it might be fabulous.
That’s why they can’t be put together! Kelly Blackwell will not be safe if imprisoned with transwomen! Kelly Blackwell will be safe only if imprisoned with ciswomen! Ciswomen will not be strong enough to inflict violence on Kelly Blackwell.
In related news, the incidence of sexual violence in UK women’s prisons is now approaching the level seen in men’s prisons, where historically it was practically unheard of. Equity!
In the past I’ve expressed skepticism that men are declaring themselves to be transgender solely so they can compete in women’s sports (although, regardless of their motives, it is unfair and shouldn’t be allowed).
I have zero skepticism about this.
While there are no doubt some genuinely good people that somehow ended up in prison, on the whole prisoners are, well, criminals. They’ll lie, cheat, and steal for sport. They’re also bored, so, sinister motives aside, getting switched to the women’s prison might sound like hilarious fun to them. An example: I have a friend who accidentally gave himself rhabdomyolysis, a serious medical condition caused by too much exercise, and ended up in the hospital. While being treated there, he was told by the staff that they often treated inmates at a nearby prison for that. They’d get bored so do hundreds of squats until they developed the condition then have a nice stay at the hospital for a change of scenery. How much easier and more interesting for them to just declare themselves to be woman?
As for sinister motives, these are uninhibited heterosexual men so starved for sex that they’ll rape each other. Now they can just say the word and they’ll be housed with women? That’s going to end exactly how anyone with a brain would expect.
As Peter N says, the good news for these men who are truly, actually, and for real women is that there are enough of them that they can have their own ward! They’ll have so much in common that I’m sure they’ll love being housed together instead of with a bunch of intolerant cis women.
(It would actually be interesting to see how much demand for this dropped once it became clear they were going to be housed with other “trans women”. It should drop 0%, but I’d guess it would end up closer to 100%).
The “brain” is a Western colonialist imperialist construct, you TERF!
Yes, but…west is a western colonialist construct, right? Before western colonialism, everything was the same direction, and all roads led to Rome. The west…invented…the west. So if west is a western colonialist construct, is there any such thing as “western”? And maybe the idea of a colonialist construct is also a western colonialist construct. So maybe there really is no such actual thing as a western colonialist construct, and we can all just breathe easier, relax, and have a glass of wine.
I wonder if Blackwell thinks women wear g strings and lacy things even in prison. This entire thing reeks of clothing fetish as part of the fantasy.
Ah yes, it’s our underwear women don’t want random men to see, not our bodies which are almost totally on display when we are in our underwear.
Interesting word choices about the “fighting back” when “asked” for oral sex. Seems like an overreaction, violence in response to a request. Of course, an actual woman would have been in no position to successfully fight back. God help his future cell mates in the women’s prison.
iknklast: Unless we are talking about plum wine or rice wine you are recommending we imbibe in another oppressive western colonialist product. You Nazi, you!
Holms, #10:
He probably thinks the prison porn movies he’s seen were documentaries.