Dumb as a stump
How to Empower Birth: say that everyone can give birth.
Full text:
Most people who become pregnant and give birth will identify as women. There are some trans men who get pregnant and give birth, and they are not women. There are also some non-binary people who get pregnant and give birth, and they may not be women. There are some intersex people who get pregnant and give birth, and they may not be women either.
In recent history white people were very worried that a small number of black people might grow in number and influence, and somehow dilute the whiteness of their society. There were academic papers written about the ‘problem’. We now thankfully realise that black people are people and that whiteness is not supreme, and there are movements towards equality and justice.
Today some radical feminists are very worried that a small number of transgender, non-binary and intersex people might grow in number and influence, and somehow dilute the effort towards women’s rights and equality. There are many social media posts about the ‘problem’. We once again need to realise that diminishing the recognition, rights and belonging of one group of people in order to further the status of another is not acceptable.
Unlike whiteness, feminism is a valid agenda, but its success does not lie within the disqualification of birth amongst people who are not women. The fight for women’s rights and equality does not rest on holding transpeople to ransom until they admit a feminine identity and accept being misgendered.
Feminism is more than that. It is more respectful, more loving, more kind. It is more inclusive and more powerful, with a much further reach. Feminism is not defined by the ability to birth, as feminists and women who cannot or chose not to birth will attest. Feminism is not defined by exclusion and will not be diluted by efforts to respect every human, fullstop.
Not all people who give birth are women. And that’s ok.
Yes…they are!
That’s some stupid shit right there.
Also, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: feminism is not “more loving, more kind.” That’s not our job, and it’s not what we are. That’s not to say we’re hatey and cruel, it’s to say being “more loving and kind” is part of the role that has been forced on women forever, and it has nothing to do with the political struggle for our rights. Feminism isn’t here to be nice, to suck up, to suck anything, to make the dinner, to kiss the booboos. Feminism is here to collect what’s owed to us, not to beg. You want loving and kind, get a puppy.
That is a remarkably obtuse characterization of the nature and history of anti-Black racism, just to begin with.
Isn’t it.
Yes, I could accept that ONE man can give birth, or maybe TWO — but any more than that is cause for alarm.
I don’t think they understand the nature of the problem.
As someone who is professionally recognized as someone who actually knows something about human anatomy and physiology, I have a variety of memes at my disposal that would constitute scientifically accurate and appropriate reactions to the “men and intersex people give birth” claim.
None of them would be appealing to the OP of this drivel.
Yeah, that’s what we’ve been saying. Diminishing the hard won rights of women for the sake of men who want to be women is not acceptable.
I’m glad you took on that “kind and loving” shit. That made me see red. I am not nurturing, I am not a kind and loving person (I’m not hateful either. I tend to be somewhat aloof and distant with most people). I am still a woman and a feminist. In fact, my feminism arose when I realized that feminists were fighting, at least in part, for the right to not be kind and loving all the time. I was like, Yes! This is for me!
I’m not by nature violent person, but when I hear or read ” and that’s okay” I want to slap that patronizer with a fish.
I hope that’s okay.
Michael, make it an electric eel! ;-)
What is this “identify as” BS? The sheer arrogance of assuming that people do, or have to, “identify as” anything. I most certainly do not “identify as” a woman. I reject”gender” and “gender identity” out of hand. TAs get to claim what they want about THEMselves (doesn’t make the claims true), but they also arrogate to themselves the right to make claims about others (also doesn’t make the claims true). You have no basis for saying that most women (NOT “people who give birth”) “identify as women. They don’t have to “identify as” women to be women, and many women, like me, don’t”identify as” anything to do with gender roles or stereotypes or inferiority of status that is generally assigned to women. Women simply are women; women are the only class of human beings who give birth.
. Oh, yes they are. “Trans” is a gender claim. “Woman” is a sex. By definition, ONLY women can be “trans men.”
. What rot. Stop telling lies. When it comes to sex, there are only two. When it comes to sexes that can give birth, there is only one: women (and, sadly, girls).
. Don’t be absurd. Of course they are women. So-called “intersex” people are still either male or female. If they get pregnant and give birth, then they must necessarily be women.
The criticisms hurled at others by TAs are pure projection. For all that they demand that everyone else “respect” them, and their absurd claims, and their pronouns, they give no respect to anyone else. “Intersex” is an older term; the correct designation has been DSDs for a number of years. No matter how many times TAs are asked to use proper terminology instead of outmoded language, they still insist on calling people with DSDs, “intersex.” Even worse — much worse — people with DSDs have stayed many times that they do not appreciate their conditions being used as a political football in the TA playbook. TAs contemptuously and arrogantly brush these requests aside. TAs bring up DSDs every single time. Even after the point had been decisively refuted, time and again, the “intersex” gambit is still trotted out, as if it means anything. Pathetic. Insulting. Disrespectful. Dishonest.
Hypocrites.
Using this outdated, rejected terminology, it’s much easier for TAs to claim that sex is a “spectrum.” and that there are more than two. The fact that the overlap of “trans” and DSD people is likely to be microscopic, if it exists at all. They also have a vested interest in retaining the “assigned _____ at birth”, which they have appropriated from the experiences of DSD people. Both of these tactics are intended to give the impression that the concept of sex is much less definite, and useful than it actually is. Even if this were the case, it doesn’t make “gender” a more useful concept; it doesn’t win by default, though many would tell you otherwise.
Well I read that as “kiss the bonobos” and it took me a little while to make sense of it.