Deconstructing Transphobia

I’m a trans woman so apparently I experience gendered oppression. Which defined by the people using it in comparison to sex based oppression means that I am oppressed because I do not conform to the gender roles assigned to men. According to them regardless of what my genitals look like I do not experience “sex based” oppression.

Now then we’re going to play a brief guessing game before I move on:

When my breasts were groped from behind in middle school by a boy a year older than me was that gender based or sex based?

When my teachers paid less attention to me than boys in the class was that gender based or sex based?

When bros online tell me that I’m being a bitch and need to get off my period is that gender based or sex based?

When a male therapist made inappropriate comments about my the suppleness of my body was that gender based or sex based?

When a 70+ year old man asked my gf and I if he could sit on our laps, while we were waiting at the DMV, was that gender or sex based?

I mean according to the people who say that trans women don’t experience “sex based” oppression I sure do seem to run into a lot of the same shit that people who experience “sex based” oppression run into. The fact is most people don’t actually give a shit about what is in my pants. In fact up until the old man each one of those people had good reason to believe that I did not have a vagina in my pants though for varying reasons.

My genitals don’t stop men from giving me honks and waving while they drive past me, or stopping on the sidewalk to look me up and down and give my male friend a visual thumbs up. They don’t stop me from looking over my shoulder to see who’s there when I hear foot steps behind me at night. They don’t really stop anything at all. Because among strangers I am seen as female, and among those who know me I am still classed as female but often seen as more vulnerable because I am trans.

Here goes: 1) According to trans-critical theory transsexuality is conservative and upholds gender. There is no privilege in being cis, and cis women cannot oppress trans women.

2) Because the only way trans people are oppressed is by patriarchy for being gender non-conforming.

3) It is harmful to cis women that trans women equate femininity with being female and embrace the ways patriarchy oppresses women.

4) But butch trans women are inherently a joke and men appropriating from lesbians.

5) And all queer and/or feminist trans women are just trying to invade cis women’s spaces and movements.

6) Trans-critical theory is radical and seeks to overthrow gender.

7) Even though their agenda against transsexuality has been shared by most of western patriarchy since medical transition became available, and even Sheila Jeffreys admits she has more more in common on trans issues with politicians on the right than the left.

8) But it is still feminist and not at all transphobic to exclude trans women from female-only spaces and seek to eliminate medical transition.

9) It’s just a coincidence that transphobic anti-feminists seek to accomplish the same goals.

Every single one of these I commonly see written by trans-critical feminists.

[...] But Bruce’s “feminine” face is at striking odds with his body language. There is nothing remotely feminine about his speech or behavior - not even compared to an autistic female outlier like Temple Grandin! Seriously!! Actually, his body language, speech patterns, vocal inflections, and thought patterns are 100% man! Gender feels or not, he’s completely gender-conforming in every male sex role stereotype, except perhaps his grooming habits. So really Bruce, you want to say you’re “mentally a woman”? Cause I’m not fucking seeing it!

This is a very obvious attempt at baiting me with TERF logic.  I’ll answer it anyway.

it’s you and your ilk that drive us closer and closer to death with your violent and rampant misogyny

there’s fucking blood on your hands.

realmofvikings (via witch-hag)

Amazing how trans womyn actually experience a lot of this and how realmofvikings and the-uncensored-she are trash.

(via baeddelpherneliatakesthesquare)

I know, right? And a lot of it starts before transition for many of us. 

It’s funny how the realities of our lived experiences are meaningless. I have put up with a ton of sexism, misogyny, catcalling, sexual harassment, victim blaming, ridiculous beauty expectations, fat shaming, body shaming, and threats in the 27 years since I began transition. None of it was anything I wanted or asked for (and that entire quote is one gigantic swath of victim-blaming BS of exactly the variety the author wants us to believe she’s against). 

But, I think this actually illustrates how trans women are not doing this on a lark. We risk all these things, risk violence, risk discrimination, risk everything not just because we’re female but also because we’re trans. 

This isn’t a fetishization or romanticization. This is real life. Daily life. This is preferable to the alternative of not transitioning. Not because we want these things any more than any other woman. But because transition is necessary for each and every one of us to take care of ourselves and our needs.

So go to hell if you think I set out to transition with the intention of having employers offer me ~private auditions~ as an exotic dancer or offer to exchange a blow job for a ride home (and losing said job for turning down said boss). Go to hell if you think any trans woman sets out to be treated like shit like it’s a goddamned lark. And go to hell for trying to reduce womanhood to a “feeling” and then trivializing that feeling.

I’ll tell you what womanhood feels like for me: It means not wanting to kill myself every single day. It means not being ashamed of who I am. It means not hiding who I am. It means knowing who I am. And it means living a genuine, honest, straightforward life in which I know who I am.

I don’t have time for self-centered cis women whose politics apparently extend exactly far enough to complain that trans women exist and in some inexplicable way are stealing something that doesn’t even exist from cis women. If you find yourself making trans women’s existence about you and how you’re being erased maybe you need to stop and think for two globdamned seconds about the possibility that the universe doesn’t revolve around you any more than it does anyone else. 

And if you’re taking that personal sense of offense at all these things you’ve invented about trans women to the point to argue that trans women are dangerous predators who must be stopped, and join in with such ~wonderful~ fucking organizations and people like Focus on the Family, the Pacific Justice Institute, Peter LaBarbera, and other right wing fundamentalist anti-LGBTQIA individuals and groups to assault trans women’s rights, then you’ve basically crossed the line into actual fascism and your so-called “feminism” is harming cis and trans women alike. And you need to check yourself and stop being an asshole.

Let us know when you’ve decided to join the rest of us in the 21st century. Until you’ve made that critical step and stopped aligning yourself with misogynist right wing bastards, you shut your fucking mouth about trans women.