TRANSPHOBIA!

Transphobia, does it exist? Sure. However in most cases it looks like good old misogyny and homophobia to me. But trans-activists want their own special word, so, fine.

Transphobia may manifest in individuals, who may seek to harass or harm trans people due to a deep hatred or fear of them. It may manifest in society whereby trans people are systematically prevented from accessing health care, employment, shelter etc. These things are reprehensible.

Here are some things that are not necessarily transphobic:

• Someone having a definition of Woman or Man which is different from that of trans-activists.

• Someone not accepting the trans-activist definitions of Woman or Man.

• Women considering themselves distinct from transwomen on the basis of class politics or physiology, and

• establishing services for themselves.

• Feminists analyzing the political implications of transgenderism and how it may effect women as a class.

• Lesbians defining their identity in such a way as to include FAB women only.

• Lesbians analyzing the phenomenon of  “butch flight”, and the pressure to transition.

• Someone choosing not to date or sleep with trans people.

Such things can be transphobic of course, but only circumstantially, they are not inherently transphobic.

But all these things are routinely shouted down as transphobic in the feminist community. To the point where “transphobia” has come to mean “anything that a trans person doesn’t like”.

And with their trigger-happy accusations of TRANSPHOBIA! (as distinct from actual transphobia) trans-activists have shot themselves in the foot. At best, TRANSPHOBIA! has become an empty charge, and at worst, a silencing tactic. And among feminists who are not so easily silenced, it is a running joke.

Words are funny old things. Overextend their use too far, and eventually you’re left with nothing but a collection of syllables.

This story may be of interest to trans-activists.

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Trans-activism is incompatible with feminism

Whittle feminism down to its core and you are left with a basic framework, which includes the idea that -

Female people are oppressed because we are recognized and treated AS WOMEN instead of HUMAN BEINGS.

Pretty simple. Except trans-activists believe the opposite.

They think this is a privilege!

Straight from the horse’s mouth:

Rebecca Crouter, commenting on a post at femonade

I wish I could understand where you are coming from, but I don’t think I ever will. I never had the privilege of growing up as a girl, with people automatically calling me she, her, girl, woman, etc. without having to think about it … I say this will [sic] all respect that is due to you: from where I sit, you are the one with the privilege.

This is a standard example of the way trans-activists apply their own fanciful definitions to concepts like privilege, as Factcheckme explains in her response:

… i think your desription here of what you are interpreting as “privilege” is telling. so thank you for that, for real. it helps me understand what you mean when you say “privilege” and i dont think it matches up with my definition, or with any accepted definition of it frankly. because i think what you are essentially saying here is that “i have something you want.” it would be more accurate to say “i have something you *think* you want” because theres no way you could really know if you wanted to grow up like a girl, because as a boy/man, you dont know what it was like
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but heres the problem with “i have something you want” = “i have privilege”. if i had a candy bar, and you wanted it, i would not have “candy-bar privilege”. if i had a nice dog and you wanted a nice dog like mine, i would not have “dog privilege.” you cant just say that any old goddamn thing i have that you want is a privlege. privilege means that there is POWER there, and girls and women dont possess any kind of gender-based power. exactly the opposite.

Clear as day. But no matter how many times this is explained, the trans activists keep insisting that we are privileged. Which is fine. People can believe whatever they like.

But if you believe that females are privileged for being recognized and treated AS WOMEN, then you are not a feminist.

You are the same as MRAs who insist that women are privileged over men because we win most custody disputes. You are the same as college boys who insist that women are privileged over men because we can “get sex whenever we want”. You are the same as men who insist that we are privileged over them because they feel like they have to open doors for us and pay for dinner.

And you do not even have a grasp of feminism 101.

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Factcheckme has further expounded on her analogy here.

The transabled.

The transabled are able-bodied people who have a burning desire to be disabled. Some of them want limbs removed. Some of them want to be deaf or blind. Some of them want to be paralyzed.

It is impossible to ignore the parallels with transsexualism. The personal narratives of transabled individuals are remarkably similar to those of transsexuals – Ever since I can remember, my body always felt wrong. As a child, I envied disabled people, and wished I could be like them. I’ve always known that I was meant to be disabled. etc

So far the medical establishment rarely treats transabled people by bestowing them with their preferred disability, but some transabled people do it themselves, through self-injury.

The phenomenon does seem to be gaining wider recognition within the medical community, however. And it is not inconceivable that surgery may become acceptable treatment for BIID (body integrity identity disorder) in the future.

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Well, what I want to know is if transabled people will expect disability activists to welcome them with open arms.

And if transabled people will demand that disability activists open all their volunteer and specialty services to them.

And if transabled people will insist there is such thing as an innate “ability identity”, and that the brains of transabled and disabled people are wired differently from able-bodied people.

And if transabled people will insist that disabled people are privileged over them, because society takes their disability seriously, but treats theirs like a joke.

And if transabled people will deny that they ever experienced able-bodied privilege, because they have always “felt disabled”.

And if transabled people will deny that they have ever oppressed disabled people, because they always empathized with them, and wanted to be like them.

And if transabled people will insist that people who have been disabled from birth are privileged, because at least society has always treated them as disabled.

And if transabled people will expect disability activists to devote their time and energy in addressing the specific needs of the transabled.

And if transabled people will insist that their desire to be disabled has nothing to do with sexuality, and is not a fetish. Ever.

And if transabled people will expect disabled people to recognize that they have always been disabled “inside”, even when they were living in an able body.

And if transabled people will insist that disabled people must not differentiate themselves from them in any way, unless it is to acknowledge their privilege over transabled people.

And if transabled people will insist that disability activists must not critique or analyze transableism, because to do so invalidates their lived experiences, and is TRANSPHOBIC!

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Because these are all things that transwomen have demanded from women and feminism.

Disability activists – you have been warned.

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the hypocrisy of trans self-identification

In this wonderful postmodern age of individualism and “anything goes” feminism, self-identification is king.

Do you feel like a woman?

Cool! Then you’re a woman. Oh, you want to keep your penis? No problem! Welcome to the sisterhood (you can pick up your stripper shoes and fake nails at the door).

Those of us who maintain that being a member of Class Woman requires more than mere self-identification are sometimes accused of being “gatekeepers to womanhood” (as if members of an oppressed class have the power to gatekeep anything).

But I don’t want to talk about who belongs to Class Woman and who doesn’t at the moment. I want to talk about hypocrisy.

For the sake of this post, I’ll pretend that self-identification really is as almighty and meaningful as trans activists and their pomo allies claim it is.

So – any male person who identifies as a woman is a woman. No arguments. And anyone who says otherwise is a bigot.

Fine.

But now we’ve established the right of trans individuals to self-identify themselves into a subset of humanity, we must accept that everyone else has the right to self-identify themselves into a subset of humanity too.

Which means if some women self-identify into a group based on certain criteria – like, for instance, the experience of being assigned female at birth and being raised as a girl – there should be no issue with that.

And these FAB women should then have the right to establish things that serve the needs of this group, like womyn-born-womyn music festivals or female-only pharmacies, or whatever else …

Right?

No! Such things are unacceptable and TRANSPHOBIC!

Transwomen routinely complain about any and all attempts by FAB women to establish services for themselves, because they don’t think FAB women have the right to self-identify as FAB women anyway. According to them, FAB women don’t have the right to differentiate themselves from transwomen in any way whatsoever (unless it’s for the purpose of owning one’s “cis privilege”).

The hypocrisy of this is so blunt and so obvious that it could be summed up in a simple picture.

So – what the hell – I made a simple picture:

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So there you have it – transwomen have the right to self-identification, but women don’t. The trans activists get to define not only themselves, but everyone else too.

And the reason why they get away with such hypocrisy in the feminist community can only be due to … (drum roll, please) … male privilege.

Naturally.

A couple of new links …

Factcheckme over at femonade has a new  post up which has ruffled the feathers of a lot of people – Sorry, Sex-Positive Transwomen: I’m Not Buying What You’re Selling. At All.

And Julie Bindel has written an article for Standpoint magazine – The Operation That Can Ruin Your Life.

The fallacy of “cis privilege”

These days all good feminists who are not transgendered are expected to acknowledge their “cis privilege”. Indeed, I have it on good authority that a failure to do so is one of the first symptoms of TRANSPHOBIA!

And while many a good feminist has dutifully claimed her cis privilege, one cannot help noticing the subtle aroma of doublethink that permeates such acknowledgments.

Consider the following comment I skimmed off an old trans 101 post over at feministe:

I’m cisgendered (which I’m sure is obvious), and maybe as a result of the privilege that comes with that, I’ve always felt that my femaleness is only a very very tiny part of who I am. And I hate it so much when someone treats me as female instead of just as a person.

She acknowledges that she is privileged for being “cis”. But in the next breath she says she hates being treated as a female instead of a person. And who could blame her? For being treated “as a female” means being treated oppressively and unfavorably.

So the very source of the oppression – being recognized and treated as a female, a woman, as less than human – is apparently a “privilege” now. All I can say is that I wish Orwell was still alive. He would have loved this.

Women do not have “cisgender privilege” because we do not have gender privilege to begin with. The feminine gender role is subordinate to the masculine gender role. Gender is a hierarchy with masculinity and men at the top, and femininity and women on the bottom.

It is true however that people are rewarded or punished under the heteropatriarchy depending on how well they conform to their assigned role, so it might make more sense to speak of “gender-conformity privilege” instead (which means that a transwoman who “passes” and adopts feminine trappings and behavior may be granted far more benefits out in the world than a butch woman).

But the point remains – any benefits a woman may gain for being gender-conforming are based on her capacity to subordinate herself to the masculine gender role. The only people who have access to the kind of unfettered gender privilege implied by the “cis/trans” dichotomy are hetero men.
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Polly Styrene (in a comment over at mAndrea’s) puts it thusly:

Yes the good ol cisgender privilege argument is based on a misunderstanding of privilege and the way it operates.

Privilege – in a political sense – means an unfair advantage conferred by society as a whole for an irrelevant reason. To have privilege a group must somehow benefit from that advantage.

So called ‘cis women’ are not privileged in respect to transwomen because they are already part of the disadvantaged group that transwomen wish to be included in. They are not the ones discriminating against transwomen – patriarchy discriminates against transwomen AND women born women. ‘Cis’ women do not benefit in any way from society discriminating against transwomen. Whereas white people for instance benefit hugely from racism.

The group that DOES have ‘cisgender privilege’ over transwomen is ‘cis’ men. Not women born women who are just as oppressed by patriarchy. And don’t even get male privilege for the first bit of their lives, unlike transwomen.

And redmegaera’s take:

Another problem with the cis/trans binary is that it invisibilizes the heirarchical nature of gender roles whereby femininity is assigned a subordinate position and masculinity a dominant one. This is notable because the term “cisgender” is typically used in the context of acknowledging one’s “cis privilege”. The idea of “cis privilege” is problematic because it doesn’t take into consideration other variables such as the considerable privileges accrued by MTFs who undergo sex-ressassignment surgery lin later life. It’s main problem, however is that it creates the illusion of parity between male and female sex-roles.

And Margaret Jamison has an incredibly detailed analysis of privilege and transgenderism up at AROOO which should be read it its entirety, along with the comments.

And I’ll leave it at that for now, before the trans activists haul my proletarian ass into room 101.

What makes a woman?

I do not accept transwomen as women.

The transwomen say they are women because they have always felt like women.

This means nothing to me.

Because I only ever feel like a woman when someone is making me feel like a woman. By catcalling me from across the street or holding a door open and saying “Ladies first” or by treating me like a child because I have a vagina. The rest of the time, when I’m not being coerced into feeling like a woman by the heteropatriarchy, I feel like a human being.

Womanhood is not something I feel. Or identify with. Or define myself into.
Womanhood is something that happened to me. Womanhood is something that happens to me.
Womanhood is something that has been beaten into me ever since I was born.

The transwomen say they are women because they define themselves as women, and demand to be treated accordingly.

But I am a woman because society defined me as a woman, and will treat me accordingly even though I would rather be treated like a human being.

This puts the transwomen in a fundamentally different class from me, and never the twain shall meet. You can call me an essentialist, if you like. A political essentialist.

Much is made of lived experience these days. I am often told that if I simply listened to transwomen describe their lived experiences I could understand, and accept them as the women they truly are and we could all be friends.

But did it ever cross their minds that I too have a lived experience?

Lets talk about that for a moment. My experience.

My experience of growing up in a society that made it abundantly clear my body, my femaleness, was a source of shame. My experience of growing up in a society that uses the threat of rape to keep my population compliant. My experience of being raped and then told what I experienced wasn’t rape. My experience of growing up in a society that gave me two options: Madonna or Whore. My experience of growing up in a society that told me my purpose in life was to be a fucktoy for men. Bear children for men. Take care of men. Be subservient to men. A society that told me I could never be as good as men. That I could never be human like men.

Experiencing these and a 1001 other things is what makes me a woman instead of a man. I am a woman because I have experienced these things. This is my lived experience. I can go anywhere in the world and recognize half the population as members of Class Woman, because they share this lived experience even if the details are different.

But then the transwomen come along and tell me I have it all wrong. Because anyone who identifies as a woman is a woman now. Their lived experience tells them so.

But this erases my lived experience. Renders it incidental. Strips it of meaning. As if it were a footnote instead of the main text.

The transwomen and I, our lived experiences of womanhood are incompatible. What can be done about that?

Nothing. At best we can agree to disagree and move on. But that is not good enough for the transwomen. They insist that I forfeit my definition of Woman and the lived experience it is based on, in favor of theirs.

What makes them think they are entitled to this, my compliance?

It is privilege of the oldest, blandest kind: the male experience will always trump the female experience, even if the male thinks he is female, or wishes he was.

That the transwomen demand so vehemently, so arrogantly that I accept them as belonging to my class, betrays the fact they do not belong to my class, and never will.

I do not accept transwomen as women.

Introduction

Hello,

My name is Miska.

I have been a member of the feminist blogosphere for several years as an enthusiastic reader and occasional commenter. Being part of the community has enriched my understanding of feminism and for that I am grateful.

Over time I have seen a greater inclusion of trans people and discussion of trans issues within the community.

But it soon became clear to me that it was at the expense of everyone else. In general feminist circles trans people are given the last word on gender, womanhood and deciding who should be allowed into women-only spaces. Any opposing views are silenced by accusations of bigotry.

But all women have a stake in these concepts.

Being trans does not entitle anyone to define these things for everyone else.

I have created this blog with several intentions in mind.

Firstly, I intend to compile a list of links to relevant discussions, papers and posts which provide alternative views on transgenderism compared to the general feminist community.

I also intend to defend and advocate women’s right to create women-only or lesbian spaces which may exclude transwomen.

Above all, I want this to be a safe space where feminists are free to discuss these and related matters without being silenced by trans activists and their allies.