Gabriella’s Lestrap

okay how are we feeling episode 1?? i couldn't be happier

the weaponization and warping of the concept of gendered socialization may be the strongest tool in the terf toolkit right now because it bypasses the bioessentialism many people have learned to smell, but it takes all those same beliefs about "males" and "females" that are typically rooted in bioessentialism and plugs them superficially into a social framework instead

there's an observable grain of truth that helps it pass a sniff test for the untrained, because gendered socialization is a real phenomenon with a lot of history in feminist theory, so you can look progressive even while pushing a simplified and exaggerated version of the theory that papers over other areas of feminist theory, even to the extent that it makes feminism as a whole seem hopeless

what we need to do, imo, is:

- educate on other areas of feminist theory to show the actual sources of male privilege under patriarchy, and why it is not granted to trans women

- expand people's understandings of how socialization works so they can understand both its complexities as they impact the lives of trans people, racialized people, and people outside the west, as well as the limitations of the forces of socialization. we are not eternally stuck in the traits patriarchy attempts to force us into, that's half the point of feminism in the first place! not to mention, gendered socialization, like all other forms of socialization, does not end at some point in your life. transition causes people to react to you differently, and this in turn will inform how you navigate the world

1.