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I don’t want sex-segregated bathrooms because they somehow “oppress” trans people, I want them because the women’s bathroom was created for OUR SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE. Up until the 19th century THERE WERE NO WORKPLACE BATHROOMS FOR WOMEN. bathrooms are NOT validation stations. they serve a purpose.

I use to rock with queer theory, especially since some African, black women were/are attempting to decolonise it but I personally don’t think this is possible. Brenda Cossman does a great job in meeting queer theory with feminism & de-colonial discourse but I don’t think queer theory can be saved. Queer theory comes out of the centre of European academia. And you know what? I happily engage in robust debate around these issues, with my peers.

As far as queer theory, I see knowledge & opinion still flowing from the West & North to the East & South (see ‘cis privilege’). Queer theory originated in Western, Euro-American discourse. It is uplifted by all people, regardless of race, because we are all still mistaken that Westerners are the arbiters of revolutionary knowledge. West goes beyond white skin, it is also specific epistemologies (knowledge systems) & ontologies (nature of being).

Third gender identities, which is how it has for centuries been described & understood in many societies outside of European societies & the European continent, is not simply a synonym for transgender or transsexual. Transgender & transsexual are contemporary cultural understandings, ‘cis’ as an idea as far as gender, is a European (male), cultural perspective. Two spirit, Hijra, Third gender=/=transgender or transsexual, don’t Euro-wash other cultures & understandings.

Women in the Global South can’t opt out or identify out of our oppressions, our oppressions are based on our materiality - brown skin, female bodies - & we sit on the labour & raw material side of the international division of labour. Women in the East & South represent some of the most oppressed groups & sit at the bottom of the barrel. The idea that women benefit from being women, that there is some benefit because we don’t ‘identify outside of our sex’ is the biggest load of white, male-centric nonsense I have ever heard. That there are African feminist women who agree with this, constantly astounds me.

The idea of some sort of privilege women have because we don’t ‘identify outside of our sex’ was obviously created by someone who has zero clue of the vast struggles women face because of our sex, sexual orientation, race, class, mental health issues, disabilities et cetera & who has a very narrow understanding & view of gender. You have to be incredibly naive of or just not care about the struggles faced by those of us born into the humxn, female sex, to think there is ‘cis privilege’ in not ‘identifying outside of’ being a girl or woman as in, some privilege in being marked as a second-class humxn from birth, because you are female.

Whoever first thought that gender inherently positions trans male people (transwomen) across the board as more oppressed on the basis of sex & gender, has in no way understood nor considered how gender hurts humxn, female people. Note that female is materiality, like skin colour & genetics is materiality & gendered & racial heirarchies are social constructs - my perspective.

I’ve read many examples of ‘cis privilege’ articles - you have to be purposefully naive & coming from a middle-class, non-immigrant, Eurocentric pov, to think those issues don’t affect women, & are something we identify into as a class.

You’re going tell me African lesbian women as a class, have ‘cis privilege’ over European-American trans male people (transwoman) as a class - get. out. Furthermore, ‘cis’ used within gender discourse (a European idea) is used within a specific framework of understanding & viewing gender - it is one cultural & epistemological pov, an idea, an ideology. No, I do not agree with your views regarding sex & gender.

I desire no allyship to your sexist erasure & positioning of women as privileged within this system of oppression that is gender. I don’t identify with the same side of the construction of woman in a genderered system which is to be feminine (femininity is far more than aesthetic, it is the expectation of women to be submissive to men), compulsory heterosexuality, to be the sexual property of men et cetera. I don’t have a gender, gender is imposed on me.

Since gender is a construct, there can be no natural or ‘normal’ gendered ways of being, just repetitions made into social law. ‘Cis’ is not a problem because it others people in relation to how trans people are othered; I’m a homosexual African woman, I’m already othered in multiple ways. ‘Cisgender’ is a problem because it discards the vast debates feminist women have BEEN having regarding sex & gender. It is a problem because it displaces gender & it’s heirarchies as a system of oppression & solely locates it as a mode of (self) identification. ‘Cis’ naturalises & upholds heterosexual-patriarchal views of gender yet gender oppresses women. ‘Cis’ requires some ‘aligning with gender’ in order to make any sense, but for humxn female people to align with gender, is to maintain the system which oppresses us as a class. Gender essentialism is required in order to be able to construct a cis-trans binary view of gender. Femininity=/=womanhood.

Black women are inherently denied womanhood because of our race, lesbians because of our sexual orientation. Systems of gender position ‘woman’ as heterosexualy tied in a submissive relationship to ‘man’. Ideal womahood denies blackness, declares the ideal woman is more aesthetically based in Northern, European ideals of beauty & constructs black women as hyper-sexual.

As far as trans people’s pain & oppressions, who is being horrifically murdered? Black & Latina trans people. Yet there’s white, male phallocentrism at the centre of transgender discourse, I’m supposed to act like I don’t see it? If trans means not conforming to sex stereotypes, there are so many ways to understand & unpack this as far as gender. There are spiritual experiences & points of view regarding being third gender. If trans means someone who is dysphoric, there is much to be discussed as far as the European, medical model. Given the history of how European ‘medical’ (cultural) points of view have pathologised everyone who is not white, male, & heterosexual & doesn’t in some way align with sex stereotypes, the European medical model leaves much to be desired.

White male trans people (transwomen) weaponise deaths of black & Latina trans people. Black trans people, I’m not aligning with this homophobic, sexist, anti-female person, Eurocentric mess.

If I didn’t have a black trans female friend (transman) & intersex trans friend who I’d seen debate & disagree with American queer theorists upon my 1st experience of “lesbian is not female-female vulva sexed materiality,” (before penises are female took over) I likely would not have had one of my first “this is bs” moments. If I didn’t come across trans people who reject dominant, trans discourse, it might have taken me longer to reject this discourse. I’m not rejecting the people who are characterised through this discourse, whose vast modes of being subvert expectations of gender based on one’s sex & who suffer from dysphoria.

No African woman (no woman) has 'cis privilege’ you cannot opt into & out of oppressions based on materiality - sex is materiality. Oppression is not a opt into & out of. Gender oppresses African women from birth, it is a system of heterosexual-patriarchal dominance. It imposes restrictive (Northern & European ideals of ) femininity onto girls & women, a femininity designed to service heterosexual, male desires, limit women & position us as submissive & subordinate to men’s masculinity.

Gender is a hierarchy, hegemonic masculinity & femininity heirarchies are constructed via gender. Gender is founded on a patriarchal male>female system of oppression. Yes, power’s also situational & relational (hence hegemonic masculinity & femininity) but this doesn’t disappear superstructures & you can’t just identify out of privileges & oppressions.

To say that male anatomy is female (a penis is female) is just another act of patriarchy which denies & obscures how we are oppressed, oppressed because we do NOT have penises (not because we are feminine), because we are not male. Femininity is used TO construct women’s subordination.

There are issues globally & in different societal contexts affecting people born into the humxn, female sex class (intersex girls & women too) in *specific ways, because of our materiality. No ID will spare all humxn, female people unwanted pregnancy & being denied access to abortions. A male person within a particular societal context, will not be kicked out of their home every time they menstruate.

Also, don’t appropriate intersex people!

Of course male people face gross oppressions too.

However, there are very specific, female oppressions we face because of our materiality. You don’t get to erase centuries of our lives, experiences, stories, love, pain & oppressions because you feel a certain way & suffer in a certain way.

Are you even going to factor in feminists like Oyewumi saying Gender is a Western invension (I agree & disagree with her, life & history of North meets South is not so black & white)? Feminists like Bakare-Yusuf who critique her work & map out various perspectives regarding African feminisms, sex & gender? You can’t impose LGBTQ across different contexts.

There are complex, diverse debates & layered views of feminist women across the world’s second largest continent, alone. How you can declare there’s no debate is beyond me! African feminist women have been debating gender for a long time & we are just getting started, you don’t get to declare your knowledge as the most valid & reliable. African feminist women have been debating the idea of 'woman’ & 'womahood’ for a long time, you don’t get to declare a boundary on points of view, world sense & opinions.

It is queer theory & this type of gender discourse which is actually deeply embedded in Western, Euro-American discourse. I’m sick & tired of having to accept Western discourse because reasons, this isn’t the 1800s, I don’t have to accept nor agree with sh.

The vast majority of these crimes have been anti-Chinese and anti-Chinese violence has been rising in some areas since 2015, but as usual Sinophobia is hurting everyone who could be mistaken for Chinese.

AAAJ (Asian Americans Advancing Justice) has created a website here where you can report anti-Asian hate crimes.