#feminism is not feminism if trans woman aren’t included

[lowkxytears]

RUPI KAUR IS STATING FACTS 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

#rupi kaur #home body #trans women are women #trans women are amazing #feminism is not feminism if trans woman aren’t included #transwomenmatter #trans women #poetry

[autolenaphilia]

Why anti-kink puritanism is transmisogynistic

Anti-kink puritanism almost inevitably turns into transmisogyny. I’m talking here about the moral outrage, not about actual abuse, but directed towards expressions of “problematic“ kinks, i.e fictions, fantasies, or sexual roleplay between consenting adults such as fauxcest or consensual non-consent. I’m talking about the “kink-critical” people, the antishippers, self-proclaimed anti-pedophile crusaders, people who are largely TME.

Of course, the individuals driving this, at least when they aren’t being open terfy, deny any transmisogyny, and claim to not hate trans women. They also deny being conservatives and often claim feminist/progressive ideals. Yet the callout culture that they use to enforce their morality upon people inevitably almost target mainly transfems. It’s effectively transmisogynist, and the purpose of a system is what it does.

So why are anti-kink puritanism so transmisogynist? I think there are several reasons for this. Of course the most fundamental is that transmisogyny is extremely prevalent in our society, but that applies to pretty much everything humans do. There are additional reasons I think “kink-critical” people often turn out to be extremely transmisogynist in practice, even if they say “trans women are women.”

1. Their morality is driven by disgust. Kink-critical people often don’t have rational arguments, just moralistic outrage. And that’s in part because it’s hard to construct a rational ethical argument against consensual roleplay between adults, or fiction/fantasies, unless you start arguing for thought crimes or reject bodily autonomy and the fiction/reality distinction. And rational arguments aren’t the source of anti-kink people’s outrage anyway. It’s a feeling of disgust. They think people fetishizing fictional incest is disgusting, so it must be as bad as actual incest, because actual incest is disgusting.

And this leads them naturally to transmisogyny. Our transmisogynistic society conditions us to view trans women as disgusting, and specifically sexually disgusting. Trans women are simultaneously sexually fetishized and condemned as the ultimate perverts. The concept of autogynephilia exists to condemn transfemininity as inherently fetishistic, and especially to condemn sapphic trans women.

Kink-critical people aren’t exempt from this transmisogynistic conditioning. And when your entire system of morality is based around disgust at kinky perverts, it’s natural your ire will be drawn towards the people most easily viewed as disgusting perverts. Like even if you get disgusted by tme kinksters too, you will be biased towards targeting transfems, even if it’s not conscious. When your system of morality is primarily driven by disgust, your reactions will naturally be biased.

This process is possibly even accelerated by “trans women are women” queer and feminist communities. These groups may loudly proclaim that they accept trans women as women, but are dominated by tme people. And the only trans woman they really celebrate is a fictional idealized image of perfection, devoid of any opinions, feelings or sexuality that might offend them. This turns into a problem when actual flesh-and-blood transfems show up, with opinions that challenge them on their transmisogyny and dares to be sexual in ways they don’t approve of with weird kinks, and you know actual flaws because they are humans. And she is consequently exiled for not meeting their standards of perfection.

2. Their ideological taproots are 70s-era radical feminism. The ostensibly progressive/feminist movement against various kinks is not something that orginated on tumblr in the 2010s, but among US-american radfems in the 1970s. They are basically re-hashing arguments from the 1970s feminist sex wars, taken from feminists arguing bdsm (including lesbian kinksters) and porn was inherently misogynistic. Modern kink-critical people who are aware of this will literally quote Andrea Dworkin at you, and be consistent and condemn all forms of bdsm as fetishizing abuse, and not just cnc.

And as you are hopefully well-aware, radical feminism was and is extremely transmisogynistic. Dworkin wrote a blurb for The Transsexual Empire. And these radfems were basically recuperating conservatism with a feminist coat of paint in general, as I’ve discussed before. Janice Raymond and Mary Daly were basically spreading conservative catholic viewpoints as feminism.

Their transmisogyny and anti-kink views can’t really be divorced from each other, they were the product of the same feminist ideology that viewed misogyny as “sex-based oppression.”

And the evils of kink and the transsexual woman were explicitly conflated years before Ray Blanchard invented autogynephilia. Raymond’s The Transsexual Empire explicitly analyzes trans women as having pathological sado-masochistic traits. And if you read the other ur-terf Robin Morgan writing about masochistic and feminine men in her 1977 essay "The Politics of sado-masochism" as "woman-identified" and mimicing and mocking for fun real women's oppression, the transmisogyny is obvious. Radfems ever since have been very explicit about analysing transfemininity as a form of perverted misogynistic fetish, induced by pornography.

All this lingers in modern anti-kink puritan thinking, and their open disavowals of the transmisogyny that is deeply rooted in their arguments ring hollow. And they fall back on terf arguments once challenged. For example, whenever a transfem fights back against a callout and points out how its transmisogynistic, we are accused of “using our transfem identity as a shield against criticism.” This is a ludicrous argument, as in reality being transfem attracts criticism rather than shields us against it, and it especially attracts criticism of being a dangerous sexually perverted predator. It only makes sense if you accept the terf belief that transmisogyny isn’t real, and transfems have male privilege, and a privileged status in the community. Their denials of transmisogyny reveal their transmisogyny.

Let’s not forget the deeper roots in anti-sex conservatism. And whenever anti-kink people try to justify why reading the wrong kind of porn stories is bad, they often justify with a fascist-esque narrative of sexual degeneracy. By what I mean by that is that in such narratives rape and sexual abuse doesn’t happen of because systemic inequality in our society, it happens because of individual pathology, individual perverts, often queer. And doing evil kink roleplay and reading the bad kind of porn will twist your mind into becoming a pedophile or something.

3: They will inevitably end up making alliances with, or become, anti-sex conservatives.

The 70s era radfems ended up making alliances with conservatives to fight things they both agreed were evil, like porn and trans women. And it was the inevitable conclusion, because that’s how politics works in the real world. It was the easiest way to achieve their goals. If you decide porn or trans women are worse evils than actual misogyny, you will end up allying with actual misogynist conservatives, because misogynists have power in our patriarchal society. They have influence over the state. It’s the best and quickest way to support them using that power to make things worse for trans women, or censoring porn, and you’ll feel that your activism has meaning. It makes misogyny worse by empowering misogynistic conservatives, but it’s a matter of priorities and actually fighting misogyny is hard, while siding with the establishment is easy.

Modern day progressive anti-kink crusaders will inevitably make that same decision, for pretty much the same reason. It is inevitably on the side of the conservative crusade to remove “porn” from the internet and make vulnerable sex workers (many of which are transfem) lives harder, because that’s the easiest way for their politics to have an influence. They are inevitably on the side of the porn ban here on tumblr, even if it’s just using its automated moderation in their harassment campaigns.

They will create and join in on harassment campaigns to drive individual transfems from the internet for having weird kinks, and even if they openly disavow terfs, it will end up serving the goals of actual terfs. We have come full circle here. And this lead me to the final reason anti-kink people will turn into transmisogynists:

4: Transfems are some of the people callout culture can most easily hurt. The reason actual abuse is so prevalent in our society is because our society is unequal, and abuse is the inevitable result of a person having power over another person. It’s because women are subjugated in the patriarchy and men have power of them that the rape of women happens so frequently. The rape of children happens because children are so powerless, actual incestous sex abuse happens the family is an unequal institution. And there is little you can do to punish the individual perpetrators, because they have power. They are frequently men which lots of privilege.

If you were to set out as a kind of feminist vigilante and try to punish actual perpetrators of sexual abuse, it will almost certainly backfire on you, as they have the power to retaliate. So practically nobody actually does this.

What you can do instead is punish the most vulnerable people for minor or imaginary transgressions. And transfems are some of the most vulnerable people in our society. They are often ostracized by transmisogyny from mainstream society, and consequently often rely on queer/feminist meatspace meetings and the internet to have some form of human contact. The purpose of callout campaigns is to exile transfems from these spaces as well, leaving them utterly alone and isolated, a condition that often leads to them committing suicide. And it’s easy to create an image of them as sexually abusive, because people are primed to view transfems as sexual predators.

These callouts doesn’t actually fight abuse, but are a form of abuse, and are often to provide cover for actual abusers who have too much power to be affected by it. As porpentine put it in hot allostatic load, a text that describes how transmisogynistic callout culture operates. “Punishment is not something that happens to bad people. It happens to those who cannot stop it from happening.”

Crusaders against evil kinks and fiction will thus inevitably turn towards doing callout witchhunts against random transfems. To quote porpentine again, in these communities “your status as a good feminist is dependent on constantly rooting out evil.” And Transfems are the people they can most easily root out. Painting a transfem as an abuser and driving them out of their communities is easy, especially compared to doing the hard work of actually fighting abusive systems. Destroying a trans woman is an easy way to feel you are doing the good work.

#my writings #transmisogyny

[sexisdisgusting]

Soz idk where else to say this so I’m saying it to you: I just realized, I think the reason TRAs in particular are so dismissive of feminism and oppressive sexism, instead only focusing on choice feminism, is bc if we actually acknowledged how oppressed females are, then they’d be forced to realize how fucked up it is to “identify” as us.

Example: They know transracial is bad, they know it’s bad to identify as a race you aren’t, because you can’t identify into a marginalized group like that when you’re not part of it! Obviously!

But if that’s true, what about women? Sexism is just as bad as racism, just as systemic and violent. Why is it ok for the oppressor group to not only identify as a marginalized sex group they’re not a part of, but then go on to speak over said marginalized group and destroy their spaces and wish death and rape on them for being upset by their oppressors “identifying” as them? Racial dysphoria is a thing too, I know people who have racial dysphoria, yet they know clearly that it’s offensive to “transition” into a group they don’t belong to, they work through their dysphoria in other ways instead.

so what’s the difference? Like really? What is the difference? The answer is there isn’t one. No one can think of a solid reason why one is ok and the other isn’t. Race and gender are both social constructs, but are based on biological and genetic traits. Race and gender both come with inherent trauma, including generational trauma. Race and gender both have history and family ties attached to them. Both are connected to lineage. What’s the difference?!

since no one can answer this, libfems will either get completely stuck and just ignore it, or they will end up at one of 2 stops. Those being that either “transracial” is valid, or that women aren’t really THAT oppressed. Usually these yt folk know better than to go for the former, so that leaves the latter. The reality of systemic sex based oppression defeats their entire ideology. I should know, I’m 20, I was trans identified for 10 years, grew up in the community, and just thinking about this critically for 3 fucking seconds made me do a complete 180 in a week. A. Week.

(I’m poc though, I get yt trans don’t really gaf bout us unless we’re useful as o mystical kweer savages who had 3000 genders. For those of you who don’t understand racism, think about transabled or something like dat. It’s not quite the same, but you get it. Disability is really just a social construct assigned to a real phenomena! Now imagine a group of “transautistic” people getting an autism support centre defunded, spraypainting “kill all trans-autistic exclusionary disabled rights activists” on the windows, and nailing dead rats to the doors, because they weren’t assisting “trans-autistic” people. You get it?)

Leaving yall on this. If you support dylan mulvaney then u should also support oli london, because they’re the same.

my fucking god anonita

you neednt EVER apologize for blessing my askbox like this holy shit

i dont think i have anything to add except that you are so fucking right, you summed it up PERFECTLY

i started reading this ask while laying down and found myself sitting up by the end of it

im so happy knowing an intelligent woman like you is following me, and im so fucking proud of you

#asks #anon asks

[liketolaugh-writes]

Care to explain what in this letter was bad in your opinion.

I hope you're not looking for a fight, because you're getting one response and one response only. If you're curious, I'm sure the letter has been broken down by dozens of writers at this point.

Above everything else, 'J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues' is harmful because of the legislation she pushes. Because she wants 'a philosophical belief that sex is determined by biology' to be protected by law, meaning you can't get fired for transphobia. She talks about how trans activism seeks to 'erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender,' and she wants it to stop. She pushes for more barriers to legal transition - you must meet certain requirements, or else you might, I guess, fake it? (I can't stress enough that this has never happened.) More recently, and outside of this letter, she donated money in support of an effort to force the definition of 'woman' to remain strictly biological, excluding trans women from many legal protections.

And then there are the assumptions she's attached to all of... this.

She's clearly decided that trans activists are a violent group, as if Twitter doesn't bring the worst out in everyone, as if TERFs don't send death threats and slurs every day. (Dream on, there's monsters of every political stripe on twitter.)

She says, 'Ironically, radical feminists aren’t even trans-exclusionary – they include trans men in their feminism, because they were born women.' (Trans men love being looped in with women, amirite?)

She says, 'Autistic girls are hugely overrepresented in their numbers,' speaking of young trans people. (It's well-known in the autistic community that there's a particularly high percentage of trans folk there. None of them seem to have a problem with it.)

'The more of their accounts of gender dysphoria I’ve read, with their insightful descriptions... I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge.' (I'd have a lot of compassion about this if she wasn't using it to invalidate the experiences of trans men, which she is.)

'But, as many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head.' (We already knew you didn't understand, thanks for making it obvious.)

And finally - because her argument comes down to, ultimately, 'men will pretend to be trans women to attack real women.' This is a tired argument with no basis in reality. It has never happened. We are sick of it. Everyone is sick of it - except TERFs.

I could be compassionate about her fears, which are clearly borne from trauma, if they stayed fears, if she understood that this doesn't happen, if she wasn't so fucking certain that she was right. Her platform here does her more harm than good - the sheer volume of criticism and, yes, violence she has received has made it impossible for her to see through the noise and actually listen. Because she thinks that volume is because of the violence of trans activists, and not because of the unprecedented number of eyes on her.

To Rowling, trans women are men and that is that.

Rowling has lost her way and she's not coming back.

#jk rowling #transphobia #rowling was also quoted by a gop member to oppose the equality act! #isn't that nice

[lexiklecksi]

Happy international women’s day!

I wanted to write an intelligent post for this international women’s day, but frankly, I am exhausted. Exhausted of discussing my rights, freedom, existence and sexuality with strangers online. Exhausted of leaving my social media bubble which consists of cool, queer and feminist people to get hit by reality.

There are still too many people who think women’s rights aren’t human rights. And that is unbelievable to me because whether you identify as a woman or not, we need to care about all people in this society. I’m also exhausted about discussing why we still need feminism and why gender equality benefits all genders. But I’m also inspired.

Inspired by all these magnificent women on here who continue to fight for their rights, empower other women and inspire me to not give up the fight. Inspired by all the nonbinary folks and feminist men out there who show their identity even when they are constantly getting harassed. For all the brave people who have suffered from sexual harassment and abuse but chose to live with their trauma.

I know that I am incredibly privileged and I always considered myself to not be a victim of this patriarchal society. But the more I think about all the comments others made about my body, the way some people keep questioning my skills and competence just because I am a woman ….

The gender pay gap and the gender data gap are real, so please educate yourself. Women are still being discriminated against in all aspects of their lives, from their own home to public spaces to the court room. Even in a workplace environment, whether it is harassment or getting paid less than their male colleagues. And I’m not even in a position to talk about working mothers, who have to juggle being there for their children and working full-time while facing uninvited judgment for it.

Let’s face reality: Nobody wants to be a victim, we want to be empowered, to feel free and live our lives the way we deem right. And I hope that’s possible in the near future, at least where I live, but there’s so much to work on. So let’s work on smashing the patriarchy together!

And even though some feminists might disagree with me on this: patriarchal structures suppress everyone who isn’t rich or in power and that includes most men. So it’s not just the female urge to smash the patriarchy, it’s the human urge to free ourselves from the societal, political and religious suppression that tries to hold us down, keep us small and hush our voices. Feel free to discuss this topic further in the comments, this is a safe space.

If anyone feels the need to write something hateful in my comment section, I will delete it. That’s just to ensure my own mental health and to protect the people reading this post and comments. I am open to discussion, but my rights are not up for a debate.

Let’s smash the patriarchy together!

Noted: When I speak of women, of course that includes trans women.

#happy international women’s day #international women's day #smash the binary #smash the patriarchy #feminism #intersectionalfeminist

[deritosmi]

LMFAO ok

1: no feminism is not only for women

homophobia is literally hating men for ‘acting like women’ by liking other men

and calling women ‘evil’ for not liking men

and transphobia is refusing gender norms that have been set by the patriarchy.

unfortunately, terfs feel oppressed by the fact that trans people…exist, I guess, like it makes their issues less valid. Well, it doesn’t. It just gives you more potential allies.

If you’re queer, then feminism is for you.

People of color suffer because of sexism, because unequal pay doubles over for them, because people of color are ignored when kidnapped and trafficked, because, because, because. Not all people of color are women but if it’s woc’s problem, it’s all of poc’s problem too.

Excluding other oppressed people, or even people who *aren’t* oppressed is and more helpful to the oppressor. The less people you have, you less power you have. There should be solidarity in all marginalized communities. And people who aren’t marginalized should be allowed to help too. To exclude people who aren’t marginalized is just plain stupid. Oh yeah, let me REFUSE to allow people to HELP me because they have the ability to be oppressive. You’d rather let someone stay ignorant or inactive than have them join your fight against oppression? Okay.

Saying that feminism is for everyone is NOT the same as saying all lives matter.

All lives matter was weakly made argument to disregard the fact that black people were (and still are) getting murdered and then ignored and that we should be getting attention.

‘Feminism is for everyone’ means that everyone can and should fight for gender equality, because it IS good for everyone. Seriously, it’s good for men, it’s good for women, it’s good for queer people, it’s good for people of color, and it’s good for disabled people. It’s good for everyone, so everyone should support and be a feminist.

2) Every woman is included in feminism

if a woman is a bigot in anyway she is inherently oppressive to other women because whatever it is (race, disability, class, queerness,) women have it (the oppression) BAD.

doesn’t sound very feminist of you.

3) no man should be able to say what is and isn’t a feminist

I have mixed feelings about this statement, but for the most part, if you’re claiming to be progressive in anyway but you wanna be oppressive to someone else, I don’t think you can call yourself progressive. You can’t cherry pick. If you wanna fight, you have to fight for everyone.

4) that’s pretty much it, everything else is fine.

#Sorry I’m kind of being political here that post was just so stupid to me

[scholarhect]

frustrated because i want to get educated on feminist theory but idk where to start, especially since there’s so much flawed feminism out there (god, you’re saying i have to read it all and form my own opinion? but that’s so much work! just tell me what One feminist work i should read to know everything) but it’s so important because i’m becoming increasingly convinced that our deemphasis on theory is killing feminism.

we’re losing her. we’re doing vibes-based feminism we’re doing “whatever personal opinions i bring to the table without thinking about them are my political views” feminism we’re doing “it’s easy! if you don’t hate women and want them to die you’re a feminist!” feminism we’re doing VANITY feminism we’re doing “common sense” feminism (just a rephrase of “whatever personal opinions…” feminism) and we’re shocked that we’re losing. a political movement & ideology* that has NO thought behind it, JUST vibes. no pillars, no standards. what even is a feminist? when do you ever hear that articulated? unless, again, you’re hearing “a feminist is somebody who believes women are people :)” that’s exactly the problem i’m talking about.

this is why we’re losing ground to “criticizing beauty standards is antifeminist because it feels good to be pretty” feminism we’re losing ground to “you know what group has had it too good for too long? the transgender woman” feminism we’re losing ground to “feminism is for women AND men and the more we include men the more feminist it is” feminism.

frankly the way the transphobic feminism gains followers is it’s the only fucking side that actually gives somebody ARGUMENTS to latch on to. people are alienated by toothless no thoughts feminism and they’re going to people who are offering them some thoughts, and a bad argument beats the shit out of no argument at all. it’s like if you showed up to court with no lawyer? and you were like “everybody knows i’m right, morally. it’s common sense. the strength of that will protect me :)” you are going to prison. we could be doing transfeminist theory we could be explaining the role of gender in society and how it’s constructed and how women both cis & trans are constructed as women but instead we’re saying “i don’t hate trans women because i’m normal :)” that’s nothing!!! am i making myself clear do you see what i’m talking about!

and then the other two things i complained about, the “feminism is anything that makes me feel good, as a woman” and “feminism is for men, actually” are just because when we have zero standards for feminism it can mean anything at all. we could be talking about these things but we aren’t.

i don’t know how to fix this (i could learn more, but what then? well i guess id post about it for my followers. good enough, i guess. so it’s just that i don’t know how to learn more) but i am getting so frustrated with the way things are now. i know there’s people out there doing real things in the feminist space but i don’t know where to look… lot of trans women on my twitter tl talking about feminism (and yes that’s something, but i am hungry for more than twitter threads <3) and they’re fighting an uphill battle over there. like. god

* i feel like it’d be the good feminist thing to do to come down hard with “feminism is a MOVEMENT” but we do kind of need internal ideology before we can have external movement, probably. seems like people who already have feminist ideas are more likely to engage in feminist actions when the time comes. but idk i’m no political movements expert. this post is just me giving you my two cents on a specific concept

#i’ll leave you with an example of what i’m talking about #‘trans women are women’. true! #but gets denigrated as a mantra with nothing behind it by the gender critical side of things #and it DOES have meaning behind it. but frankly. how many of us know what that meaning is? #how many of us know what a woman is and why a trans woman is one #and that’s why their ‘what is a woman?’ line of questioning is so successful. because theres an answer to that question but nobody knows it! #‘um… well i know some trans women and i respect them…’ is a good place to START from but it’s not where you want to end up #post tag #i wrote this whole fucking thing as one paragraph & then slapped in some paragraph breaks & that fucking astrix #(the astrix stuff was just in parentheses before) #so. if it doesn’t read like separate paragraphs. that’s because it’s not. it’s one paragraph with some paragraph breaks thrown in #i wanted it to be a bit less than completely fucking unreadable #that’s why every paragraph ends with a end-of-sentence punctuation mark but the last sentence doesn’t #nervous to post something opinionated like this… if it’s not perfect maybe lmk & we can discuss it! #annnnnd post

[wyvern-of-the-evening]

There is a difference between trans critical, gender critical, and radfem.

Radfems are trans critical, but that’s because they’re gender critical. There are also a lot more beliefs in radical feminism than just gender critique. The liberation of women as a whole. Critique of porn and the sex industry in which women are constantly abused and silences about said abuse, make up and cosmetic surgery instilling insecurities in women and gaining money from it, surrogacy and it’s use of women as human incubators alongside inconsideration for the possibility of a woman’s health through the process that is child bearing, and much more. I’d recommend looking at RadicallyAligned’s post about radfem beliefs.

All radfems are gender critical, but not all gender criticals are radfems. Gender criticals are trans critical because of the gender roles being enforced. Examples of gender roles include “Women are submissive, must be feminine and look pretty, are meant to have and take care of children, be gentle, cook, clean, be friendly and warm” etc etc. Gender criticals seek to abolish gender roles as a whole, they don’t view a soul as gendered or believe in the female/male essence, female/male brains, since gender is a social construct meant to oppress women.

All gender criticals are trans critical, but not all who are trans critical are gender critical. This is usually conservatives. Trans criticals are those who have a problem with gender non-conformity as a whole. Their issues aren’t with the denial of science, or the conversion of gay youths, or conversion of gender non conformity, their issue is they don’t think women should dress in suits or exhibit “masculine” traits, and males should wear dresses or exhibit “feminine” traits.

#radblr #radfem safe #radfem #radfems do interact #radical feminism

[anerdyfeminist]

Ok now that I’ve slept and my brain is in her better thinking mode…I gotta say I feel kinda annoyed Re that last whole @whatbigotspost thing.

If I, as a woman, talk about my experience with a trend in interacting with straight men in my life, that is very different from interacting w/ other women (or queer men or NB folks) and those women understand and validate that experience, and I post about the experience, WHY would a person who is neither a straight man nor someone who knows me and has been a part of my interactions think it’s about them?

If I make precise statements that are about interactions between men and women I know, I am not saying those are 100% of the interactions of all people. I am not saying I believe in a gender binary. I am not saying all women will agree with my assessment. I am definitely not saying trans women are not women as my definition of women inherently always includes all women, too, btw. And yes, I am also not saying ALL straight men even do the damn thing. It’s like y’all really bringing us back to “not all men?” land in 2023?!

Why can’t I just talk about an experience of misogyny I have lived? Why can’t I call out the men who DO the damn thing?

This is what people are talking about in the many new (and deeply fascinating to me) posts that are popping up about reclaiming feminism here again and allowing space to speak about misogyny and men’s, as an oppressor class, behaviors within it. I’ve noticed an uptick in feminist discourse like this and after thinking about that last post, I feel like this is related. As many of those posts have pointed out, in our efforts to excise the festering bullshit that is terf ideology, in our effort to show how sex/gender/gender identity/presentation/etc. are not binary, we lost the thread of the value and truths in actual feminism. We lost basic concepts of understanding misogyny and patriarchy. We threw the baby out with the bath water and trans femmes are among the best to speak on it.

Are we really going to act like there aren’t specific harms that happen to women and girls all the time, at the hands of men, because so many people don’t cleanly fall into the traditional fake binary of men/women?

Like really?

#I don’t agree w/ 100% of that linked piece but it’s got a lottttt of good shit in it #mine #feminism #fuck off terfs

[femsolid]

is there a term for trans neutral radical feminism. like i just don’t care, i think the issues women face are way bigger than defining what women are or aren’t yknow? i’m not including or excluding trans women, i don’t care if they fall under the umbrella of who i’m talking about or not, women need change. i think when we get to a point where women are being attacked we can handle the trans women debate, but for now i think it’s not a defining point. would that be terf?

I don't use the term "terf". It was invented by trans activists and is used in lieu of "feminazi". I don't accept men's rebranding of women. Also it reduces radical feminism to this one single issue. While it is an issue it's definitely not the most important one to me and, depending on where you live, it might not even be on your radar at all. I don't blame you for not caring if it's not a pressing matter in your culture. I can't say it's irrelevant though, as gender ideology and post modern academic nonsense have real consequences for women and especially gender non conforming girls. Appart from the problem of men stealing scholarships, awards, medals and elections from women, speaking on behalf of women, assaulting women in female prisons, telling gnc girls they aren't girls, the promotion of sexist stereotypes and the violent harassment of feminists and lesbians is hard to ignore in certain countries. And it all starts with the post modernised assumption that women are a bunch of stereotypes one has to embrace. That's why many women insist on the actual definition of what a woman is. Which seems like an insane thing to have to do in 2023 but here we are. I would also say that if you are a radical feminist then you don't include men by definition. It's a political movement by and for women. Oppressed people have every right to be "exclusionary" towards their oppressors. Also we believe that women are oppressed because of our sex and that it is a matter of class struggle. That's the basis of feminism as a whole. Trans activists are disputing that. That's why it's a prevalent issue in some countries. That doesn't mean it has to be the central issue for you and I definitely think it's taking too much space especially online. North america tends to dictate what the rest of us should care about. But there's no reason we should be talking about gender ideology more than anything else. You're not required to, as a radical feminist. And you're not required to call yourself a radical feminist at all, if it doesn't fit. Just try to practice feminism. Beats any label.

#ask

[cordycepsfem]

hey, i don’t know why you’re so passionate about being a terf. it’s so sad to waste your mental energy and potential on something as trivial as hatred. women’s lives matter so much and trans women are included in that. they aren’t threats to cis women’s existence, they are another group of women. furthermore, they aren’t men dressing up. can you imagine if someone put in years of effort, hormones, the threat of being murdered (sometimes due to rhetoric like the stuff you reblog) just to invade “women’s spaces.” who has the time??? look, love is easier. it’s so much less pain and anger. consider it. much love, fellow cis woman. i am not afraid. why are you?

I’m not a cis woman.

My feminism is not about being kind and gentle to men who run and perpetuate the patriarchy feminism works so hard to dismantle. They are not “another group of women,” they are full on males.

What I do in my off time with my “mental energy and potential” is none of anyone’s business. Gaslighting women into “being kind” is bullshit.

Literally no one has been murdered due to feminists posting on blogs. This kind of nonsense is also fully bullshit.

If women’s lives matter so much to you, why do you claim that men can just as easily be included? Do you not care about women who want female-only spaces and places? How about disabled women who want female carers? Raped women who want female-only shelters and crisis groups? Women in mental hospitals who want female roommates? Women in prison who are literally being raped and impregnated due to male inmates claiming to be trans? Or do their lives matter just a little less to you than the men-who-claim-to-be-women’s lives?

Can you imagine that women put years of growing up in a society that sexualizes them nearly from day one, ignores rape and sexual assault as if they’re not crimes, treats women as lesser in every way, sees them murdered 3 a day in the US by an intimate partner, and still doesn’t have equal rights to men in any place in the world, and there’s still some absolute throwaway in my inbox telling me that somehow men (many of whom do not take hormones or receive any medical treatment, and the vast majority of whom don’t put a single whiff of “effort” into what they think women look like or act like) deserve feminism’s time and attention? Could you even believe such a woman would exist? And describe herself as “cis”, a term made up by a pedophile?

Oh, wait - here you are.

Why are you scared of saying “no” to men?

[thatsonemorbidcorvid]

Hi! Apologies if you've answered this before, but could I know your opinion about men like Gerard Way who adopt femininity but don't identify as women? Some radfems on this site have objected to his attire on the grounds that it makes him a pervert. Is femininity a perversion in a man? Are such men a threat to women's sex based rights if they're not trans and they don't want to invade women's safe spaces nor sports, like Way doesn't? I looked it up and he identifies as a straight man married to a woman. Thanks for your time!

Hi to you! Thanks for the ask.

I’ve not posted about the band man because I know very little about him and have no interest in that changing, so I can’t comment on him specifically.

As for men in general adopting appearance-related elements of femininity - I don’t feel strongly, as long as they’re not doing so as part of a kink (because that involves onlookers in their sexual behaviour non-consensually) or causing harm in some other way. Many men in the public eye have adopted unusual style choices (including traditionally feminine garb) for media attention. Other men may have done so because they genuinely enjoy the way those fashions look on them. Whether a man chooses to wear a flannel shirt, a sequinned dress, or something else entirely, is his own business - I don’t think it warrants any of my ‘feminist attention’ (it might warrant some of my ‘fashion judgement’ attention but that’s a far smaller pool).

In general, my feminism is about women and girls - as long as men/boys aren’t impacting us directly, I try and minimise the level of attention I devote to them. They can sort themselves out.

[barrelrollgif]

unpopular opinion, but terfs aren’t real feminists. i am a trans inclusionary feminist, and terfs are dirtying the name of real radfems. feminism includes all women and doesn’t reduce women down to their bodies. if you think trans women aren’t real women and that trans men and nonbinary people are “abandoning feminism for more rights”, then you’re very very wrong. trans women are women because they just are. cis women are women because they just are. end of story. also, ftm/ftnb people aren’t “abandoning feminism for more rights”, we actually still get oppressed (big wow) and as a ftnb feminist, im not abandoning feminism. i just am not a woman.

also if you’re a terf because of the “mutilating children” thing, that’s actually really rare. yes sometimes teenagers get surgery but only when they really really need it. mistakes are made, yes, but only when there are bad medical practices and bad parents. also, very very very rare.

anyway yeah feminism = cool, transphobia = not cool.

#trans rights #feminsim #trans #nonbinary

[snarltoothed]

Its pathetic how you're trans exclusionary and also bisexual & agender. Do you think that if transphobia continues they're not coming for you next? You think you're safe from being called a freak or a pedophile or from being accused of invading other people's spaces? From legislation and the dominant social paradigm othering you and making your life hell? You think throwing others under the bus will save you? You're a fucking coward and I hope you get a sense of reality.

i totally forgot that you even sent this ask because guilt-tripping from random strangers really doesn’t faze me — sorry!

anyways, umm, it’s pathetic how you’re sending random feminists hate mail over something that is literally not even true! i fully include trans and nonbinary people within my feminism — just not transwomen and nonbinary males because i believe female people of any gender still face challenges, discrimination, and oppression directly related to the sex we were born as!

…which wait, before you tell me intersex people exist, i know that! but intersex disorders are medically sex-specific and binary, and in the extremely rare case that a chromosomal male was born and grew up with entirely female external genitalia (usually as a result of Sweyer syndrome), i’m fully open to nuance when it comes to their inclusion within the radical feminist movement, especially given that the trans/qu**r movement has repeatedly ignored the requests of both individual intersex people and intersex organizations to stop equating the trans and intersex experience. it’s not like they can turn to you guys for any actual understanding or compassion.

in my LGB advocacy, trans people are also not excluded based on their gender identity! the only people excluded from my LGB advocacy are heterosexuals — which yes, i’m sorry, i do live in the real world where sexuality is based on actual physical sex, so yeah… “transbians” and “gay transmascs” are generally excluded (those open to or exclusively T4T aside) on the basis that they do not experience same sex attraction. but if you’re not straight, congratulations! my LGB advocacy is also for you.

the “agender woman” in my bio is also mostly a joke, “agender” more as in “atheist” — i do not subscribe to the belief system of gender. although, if i did, that’s probably still how i would describe myself because even if i thought that innate gender identity was a thing for other people, i don’t have one. i don’t identify with femininity. i do identify with my lived experience of being female. idk how else i would explain that in your community without being scalped, lol. and it’s poking a little bit of fun at my teenage self for actually genuinely telling the more micro-label oriented of my peers that the best i could describe myself was as a “demibisexual agender girl”.

if anything, though, the people standing in my way of being freely truly agender and living as a woman are BOTH conservatives and the trans/qu**r movement, because i really don’t want to have to have an ideological argument with either of you about what the fuck my leg hair means, i don’t want to be assigned a non-woman for having body hair and not being extremely feminine by EITHER of you! you are both supporting a dominant social paradigm which others me and women like me, it’s only the way in which you shame me and make me feel like a freak that differs.

i’m fully aware how the American political parties have lumped very separate issues into the same bills and are practicing other nefarious political schemes to remove womens’, childrens’, and LBG peoples’ rights by using the decrease in public support of the trans/qu**r movement to pass bills and laws that otherwise wouldn’t be passed… because y’all keep supporting fucking pedophiles? maybe stop doing that or if you personally aren’t, tell your buddies that trans people can be horrific criminals, just like any other subset of people, because all individuals are different, and murderers and rapists and pedophiles don’t deserve public support even if they’re trans. the fact that the most vocal of the trans community keep defending and supporting convincted pedophiles, rapists, and other dangerous violent criminals simply on the basis that they are trans is a large part of WHY many of us “cis” LGB people are publicly separating ourselves from the TQ+, we know how bad that shit looks and have historically condemned the members of our own communities who have been revealed to be pedophiles and rapists. not to mention the fact that the heterosexual TQs are like, wildly homophobic.

pretending outright that trans people cannot be violent criminals is something that can and rightfully should be criticized — i would criticize the assertion that any protected minority class status makes a person immune to any sort of violent criminology, or otherwise not deserving of facing consequences for committing violent crime, especially sexual violence against children, including the minority classes i belong to. i’m certainly not against trans people recieving proper legal defense, and i believe trans people deserve the same presumption of innocence as anyone else until proven guilty in a court of law… and while i do not believe males belong in female prisons (as inmates OR staff, tbh), i do believe that prisons in general are in desperate need of reform and that that reform should be considerate of the needs of vulnerable male populations such as transwomen and gay men for safety from other men while also maintaining female-only prisons.

i don’t know what you expect me, a poor & disabled woman living in a northern democrat-controlled state, to do about the shady shit happening in Florida and elsewhere in the American south. i’m not even in a position to vote on anything that could be considered “throwing other people under the bus”. the biggest things i’ve voted for were keeping the state democratic, legalizing weed, and protecting the right to abortion. i’m sooo politically evil and throwing so many people under the bus and totally perpetuating a genocide… which i guess if you’re a conservative you could say about the fetuses, but, since you’re barking up my tree for siding with conservatives, i’m hoping that you’re at least fucking pro-choice.

I’m not trying to be mean here, but you kinda came up in my inbox being mean first… so frankly I think you’re the coward for not thinking independently and for needing to harass women who do, and I hope YOU gain some sense of reality, as well as empathy and nuance.

#r #asks #tra hatemail #like… dude i really don’t want personal beef with you #i am genuinely sorry for having to get a little harsh… but you came at me with that energy first #if you have any questions or would like to discuss anything i’ve said further i’m fully open to that #however i’d far prefer the tenor of the conversation to be respectful

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

I don't know who else to turn to about this, because I want to ask the question but I don't want to get -cancelled- Can you tell me why so called "terfs"/radfems are wrong? because as far as I can tell they make a lot of sense but I know that makes me a "bigot" I just don't understand why. Men have already taken so much from us, is is so much to ask that they leave us the identity of womanhood? This is a serious question if thats okay.

…

(I’d like to find a gif of a character pouring out a glass of alcohol for something like this. On the other hand, I don’t drink, so it would be distinctly out of character…) 

Okay, let’s see if I can explain this to the best of my ability. 

It’s not men who are coming after you, not in this case. Because Trans women are women, and that’s a full sentence. It’s a fact. And that’s the real point here, but I’ll either persuade you that it’s true, or I won’t. At a certain point, I can’t choose what to believe for you. I can only tell you that on this one, you are wrong. TERFs are some of the most disappointing enemies we face in the fight for LGBT rights, because you are so, so close to getting the point, and yet you still miss it by a mile. The irony is that misogynists and other bigots of a similar caliber are glad you exist. Because intentionally or not, you are doing their dirty work for them. 

Let me try to put it another way. 

Let me ask you a single question - why. Why would men make the choice to “pretend” they’re women? The current social climate doesn’t exactly welcome trans people with open arms. People are being ostracized to the point of suicide. People are being murdered. Coming out as Trans typically involves, at the very least, changed pronouns and possibly a different name. But in the examples that TERFS usually talk about, it involves men “dressing up” as women. It often involves physical transitioning, up to and including sexual reassignment surgery. I repeat my question - why? Why would a cisgender man pretend to be otherwise? What benefit are they going to gain from that? The Patriarchy has done everything in it’s power to reduce womanhood, and with that in mind…why would men ever want to “steal” it from you? So they can go into a girl’s bathroom to assault people? I shouldn’t have to remind you of this, but men have been walking into girl’s bathrooms and assaulting them since the dawn of time, without bothering to use a disguise. They don’t need to do that. Our system is so fucked that they’d get away with it just fine in plain clothes, and that’s a bigger problem. You know what else is a bigger problem? Trans people having their privacy invaded when they try to use the bathroom they’re comfortable with. What does it even matter? It’s a bathroom. They don’t need to be gender-segregated in the first place, and plenty of them aren’t. So I’ll say it one more time - why? What’s the motive here?

While I can understand the instinct that there are certain things only cisgender women experience…that sentiment is true for just about every group you can conceivably name. Trans women likewise have unique experiences, just as Trans men do. And cis men. And nonbinary folk like myself. It’s not a competition. We should all be on the same side if we stand for equal rights. And that’s the main problem with the TERF ideology. You’re not standing for equals rights. I know you think you are, but you’re not. Who are you, who are any of us, to tell a Trans person that their identity is wrong? I assume you’ve heard of dysphoria, but if you’re cisgendered, that’s another experience that you can’t truly know or understand yourself. And speaking honestly, neither can I. But maybe I don’t have to understand it entirely. Maybe I just need to be considerate and look out for other people. Maybe feminism means standing up for the rights of all women, even the ones who don’t fit our perception of what it means to be a woman.

Because that perception is largely built on the back of the gender binary. 

I should put this out there, I am not a psychiatrist. I’m not even claiming to be particularly smart. But this is my interpretation of what’s going on here, and I think there’s some merit to it. I believe transphobia is largely rooted in misogyny. Because the Patriarchy’s power comes from the pecking order that’s been established and entrenched into every aspect of our lives. And you can’t keep women properly subjugated if the definition of a “woman” isn’t clearly defined and based on traits that cannot be negotiated or changed, like the genitals we’re born with. The misogynists at the top depend on this gender binary, and on the two sexes being irrevocably linked to it. What if the people we thought were men yesterday turn out to be women today? How does that calculate in the inherent system we have for men and women? It’s just too confusing, right? Makes it too difficult to keep everyone in their allotted places. 

But it does more than that. It interferes with the way young men are supposed to think and feel, what they’re socialized to think and feel. A boy can’t have feelings for another boy without being “gay” and that’s not supposed to happen, but that’s easy enough to work around. Just don’t date boys. But hold on a second! If the gender binary is thrown out and we accept the premise of trans women (as we should) this completely upends the system. Now they can’t judge people as men or women, with all the preconceived notions they have about both sexes, because just looking at a person no longer tells you what they are. And the misogynists cannot stand that. Because it prevents them from assigning people their designated role, and in doing so, it puts them in a place they fear. Now they can’t tell if the women they pursue are actually “men” or not. This is the infamous concept of the “trap.” Not only has led to trans women getting murdered, but historically, the “trans panic” defense actually held up in court! People committed literal hate crimes and got away with it. 

…Can you see why Trans women are not the real enemies here? You think they represent the demographic that has always preyed on you, but that’s simply not true. They’ve been turned into a scapegoat because the only solution bigotry could think of, to subjugate trans people and stop them from destroying the precious gender binary…was to sexualize their identities and try to paint them as predators. So the people who should be their allies will turn against them. And the TERF movement is proof that it worked. 

Like I said, I can’t make this journey for you. I may not even be able to convince you of anything I’ve written here. But if you’re wondering why TERFs are “canceled” this is why. Because, from where we’re standing, you’re fighting for the wrong side. The LGBT movement includes the “T.” Excluding any letter (and there are more, I’m just using the shorthand) goes against the entire spirit of what the movement is about in the first place. 

#LGBTQ #LGBT #LBGTQ Rights #Terf #Feminism #Gender Binary #Patriarchy #Trans Pride #Trans Women #Trans Community #trans exclusionists #trans exclusionary radical feminist

[violexides]

you know what let me be frank about this too. 

it is extremely fucking telling that when we, as queer people, are faced with the true statement that the queer community has a significant amount of misogyny within it that has existed for years, the response that some people give is “well the community DOES oppress this small percent of the population of women, but the rest of who consider themselves women are not actually women and therefore are complicit and deserving of this oppression.”

because what this rhetoric does is divides the collective group of women into the “good, pure, honest” women and the “bad, sinful, traitorous” women, the very same way that other institutions -- such as, most notably, the patriarchy itself-- has done to women. creating the binary of “this is a good woman” and “this is a bad woman” and deciding that all good women are being corrupted by the bad women until every woman is actually a bad woman, and that’s why misogyny exists.

though there are many reasons for all of these different experiences, this is why white women consider Black women dangerous. this is why women of color are ostracized and viewed as cruel, manly, backwards, whorish, etc. this is why cis women consider trans women to not be women at all. because you have decided that in order to be a woman, you have to act and exist in a certain way, and every other kind of woman defies that. 

you hate women who have body hair, because that makes them masculine so what if they’re actually trans and therefore are faking womanhood? you hate women who dress masculinely, because they must be trying to escape femininity and therefore view it as bad. you hate women whose parents aren’t descendants of some rich Europeans because these goddamn women of color are creating a bad name for women, are showing that women are backwards and dirty and wrong and that’s not what feminism is about! 

and you know what falls in line with this too? misandry. misandry exists, men are oppressed by the patriarchy, people should have been aware of this ever since the first act of violence against a Black man occurred in this country, people should have known every since the first gay boy was bullied in school, we all should have known that the patriarchy is a system of oppression that takes no survivors, that has an idea of a Good Man and will eliminate and oppress any man who isn’t that. the fact that so many people believe that all men are evil exists BECAUSE the patriarchy says that men must act in this way or that way, so they all do their best to try to be what will make them successful and loved, and it makes them insufferable. and so we decide that all men are bad and we never question it any fucking further. 

but let’s go further, for all of the trans-positive queer women who still hate men: how are you going to enter a room and know for certain who is cis or not? how are you going to know? a closeted person doesn’t just mean someone who hasn’t told their parents but overshares on the internet, though many of those exist. a closeted person often includes people who aren’t going to tell anyone, INCLUDING YOU, that they are trans. people who can’t access resources to transition. THIS INCLUDES TRANS WOMEN who you say can’t be part of women’s spaces because “you’re a man and you understand nothing of misogyny” and how are they ever going to come out to you? how? 

and this doesn’t just exist as a hypothetical. read the article “I am a transgender woman. I am in the closet. I am not coming out.” listen to the experiences of trans people around you because i assure you, if my experience in a medium sized not particularly notable town has told me anything, there are SO many queer people who will get shut out of conversations unfairly. just because someone’s supposedly perfect gaydar isn’t functioning. one of my friends, who is a trans woman, was told by another woman upon coming out that she must not be trans because she wasn’t feminine enough. she did not “answer enough questions [about being trans] correctly”. and this other woman would repeatedly reinforce that this friend of mine was a man in every conversation from there. 

so who is the oppressor? who is the victim? who is right and who is wrong? extend your media literacy skills here, because this story withheld one detail that would change some of your stances-- a detail that i won’t tell anyone, even other people with secrets.

and you know what else happens, what i have seen happen? is when these attempts fail, when you target someone who isn’t meant to be targeted, when you say that all gay men are made successful by the patriarchy? you have created people who now think that misogyny is obsolete. people who will perpetuate misogyny, because you never gave them any reason to believe that feminism is anything except the oppression of everyone except white, cis,  feminine, and rich Western women. 

when you start deciding that the way to fix misogyny is to target all men, that the way to fix misogyny is to isolate all trans women, that the way to fix misogyny is to leave the parts of the world behind that aren’t Western enough to your liking-- you are doing nothing. this is not activism. you are not listening to other opinions, you are not introspecting on your own beliefs, you are not uplifting the voices of people around you, you are not ceding space to those who need to speak, you are not understanding the history of a problem, you are not TRYING to understand ANYTHING. this activism, as you call it, is a reactionary way for people to try and end a global problem by naming an enemy and shutting the door. activism is messier than that. change is messier than that. 

i want to see a queer community that acknowledges its misogyny. but you all HAVE to understand what activism is. you have to recognize that your opinion is not absolute. you have to listen. 

at a pep rally back in November, a boy in my class dressed in dollar-store drag for a coordinated dance routine. later, he will talk about how he feels deeply, how he considers himself more of a lover than a fighter. he will say, upfront to a classroom that will laugh at him, that he feels misunderstood because he is a deeply emotional person, but people never care to see that in him. 

do you invite him into a conversation about the patriarchy? do you ask him about his experiences with emotional repression, with loneliness, with masculinity? do you ask him if he liked dressing in drag? if he connects with femininity? do you ask him if he is queer, if he would like to come to a gay-straight alliance meeting with you? or hell, do you not ask him anything- do you just let him speak? let him talk about his experiences, and listen? do you hold back any laughs at his emotional expression and ask him, once the rancor stops, if he would like to talk about it? 

i don’t know if any of you would listen to him. because here’s the thing: back in december, he talked about his last crush on a girl. he puts he/him pronouns in his bios whenever he remembers. one of his friends watches andrew tate. 

“there is no room for people like him in this community. there is no room for people who are not proud enough to open up to you about their sexuality. there is no room for anything except the perfect queer woman.”

dykes, trans dykes of color, have lived and died so you could stand here, today, alive and safe. and somehow i still hear their hearts beating in the graves, and yours still and silent.

#ides.! #ides.txt #you know what? you can reblog this one. #long post #if u do rb though lmk if you notice any typos so i can fix them but i did my best here