#sansnom

In more general sense, sure, I've seen that, but the specific claim that only straight women are able to make is that being a woman attracted to women is a privilege over women who are only attracted to men. And by privilege, I mean they talk about being SSA as if it's some sort of Get Out Of Jail Free card where we're just born with naturally feminist tendencies and have it easy compared to straight women, who have to work at it.

These women see their heterosexual attraction as some sort of handicap to their feminism, while lesbians get the best of both worlds. (Bisexuals generally don't get hit with this as hard or propagate it as hard, because they have both the "perk" and the "handicap".) And therefore, having so things so easy, we should shut up and not comment on behaviors we consider to be anti-feminist self-harm. Does "what happens in the bedroom is private and it's not your place to criticize it, since it only affects me," sound familiar to anyone? Where have we heard that one?

(Goodnight Sweet Prince)

The forest weeps where woodsy sleeps

Below the pines and underneath,

He tried to seek what others think

And closed his eyes; began to steep.

He fell to his knees at the foot of the trees

As the leaves blew by, a soft subtle breeze,

Where woodsy sews a thousand seeds.

Like, enough to apply for a fancy job I'm wildly unqualified for, but still got an interview anyway

Anytime I doubt myself I always think, if a mediocre man can do it, so can I

Yeah, anon. I have. If you read even a little bit of what I’ve written about my experiences with gender identity, even just my pinned post, you’ll see that I am very open about the fact that I identified as some flavor of trans or nonbinary for nine years.

Gender identity is a coping mechanism that allows women and girls to dissociate themselves from their status under patriarchy—a status that causes suffering on a scale that can’t even begin to be measured. Young girls see and experience that suffering, and they learn that suffering and being disrespected and violated is part of being female in our world.

Gender identity offers an escape. “What if, deep inside, you’re actually somebody who deserves respect? What if you’re an individual with needs and desires and an internal life that has nothing to do with the way women are forced to live?” For many women, that realization is simply that of “Women aren’t all the patriarchy says they are! We’re more!” But for many of those who are exposed to the grooming, petting, sycophantic rhetoric of gender identity, that thought process is interrupted, and molded into “If I’m not what society says a woman is, then I’m not a woman!” And you’re encouraged to never reflect on what that logic might say about how you perceive the women around you. You’re alienated from other women and from yourself, constantly occupied with how others perceive you and the crushing need to be different, bolstered by the doctrine that any woman who stays a woman must like it. You don’t like it.

Gender identity deadens your ability to meaningfully analyze and express your suffering. It takes away your language. It cuts off your connection to the women who came before you and the women who will come after you.

Why can’t you use headphones though? Why are you so dead set on adding noise to the space that you use the tinny whiny speakers on your phone to bless everyone around you with whatever show or video you’re choosing to play? The other customers don’t want to hear it. The restaurant servers and managers, who are already overstimulated by constant music and conversation for hours on end, certainly don’t want to hear it.