The US Politics |OT|

[tsogud]

vivster said:

tsogud said:

You bring up good points and I can understand where you're coming from but ultimately we were born into a sexist, patriarchal society, at least in the states. What feminism does is to specifically look at the effects that sex and gender play with inequality and injust treatment of individuals. There are many different sects of feminism most recognize that gender is a social construct, just like race, but these social constructs have very real effects in the real world. To just flat out deny their importance and the role they play on the sole basis of them being socially constructed helps no one and furthers the problems people face because of them. A lot of sects feel that feminism will inevitably lead to an abolishment of the gender construct, which I'm in favor of.

I believe Jaicee's lesbian feminism is an offshoot of white feminism which is very problematic in and of itself. White feminism only focuses on cis white women particularly in the western world, thankfully it's on the decline. White feminism tends to lead to racist, sexist, xenophobic, and/or transphobic observations and conclusions. In contrast, intersectional feminism takes into account class, race, gender, age, disability, religion and creed and how they relate to one another when establishing and achieving political, social, and economical equality between the sexes.

As a trans person, I find that last paragraph extremely problematic. We are the ones who defy gender stereotypes and the traditional gender roles of society and bring into question what it actually means to be a certain gender. So I don't see how that leads to more traditionalist genderism.

I will disagree with the statement about transgender. In my opinion it's not a bold stance against gender stereotypes, but pretty much the opposite. It is very much defeatist in nature. Instead of trying to fight for the recognition of being themselves as the person they're born as, they try desperately to affirm gender stereotypes by changing their categorization to fit the boxes society has deemed them to be in. Transgender people basically say that it is impossible for a man to display female characteristics unless he changes his gender. That is extremely detrimental to the gender they were born with because it gives power to people who strongly adhere to gender stereotypes and affirm their believes that genders should be treated inherently different.

Since you seem to be a reasonable transgender person I will ask you the question that always burns on my mind when thinking about this topic. How do you define the gender that you are transitioning to? And why do you believe that that definition is impossible to apply to your original gender?

Modern humans have evolved beyond their physical limitations. Yes, society is still inherently sexist, but that doesn't mean it has to stay that way. I struggle to find a single positive aspect about that strict separation of genders, All I see is plenty of negative aspects, that you as a transgender person should be very much familiar with. It is a self imposed hard limit on humans to live to their full potential. Women should also be very much familiar with that hard limit. I myself find myself very much limited as a man. While I do reap the benefits of the male stereotype I am also very much boxed into that stereotype since I absolutely do not fit into it. I am limited in my freedom of expression and very much looked down upon by the majority of males for my expression of traditionally non-masculine interests. Now you tell me what's so great and beneficial about keeping us boxed in.

It seems you have some misconceptions about what it means to be transgender. To put it simply transgender individuals have a gender identity or expression that differs from their assigned sex at birth. You don't have to transition to be trans, some people can't transition due to medical or economical reasons and others just don't wish to transition. Transitioning itself also has various levels, for example, a trans man might just go through hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and not wish to go through top or bottom gender reassignment surgery and he can be perfectly fine with it. Likewise another might go through HRT and top surgery but not go through with bottom surgery. It's up to the individual to determine to what degree they feel comfortable and authentic with their external appearance. Even without medically transitioning a trans person can change various things about themselves like hair, clothes, pronouns and name to be more authentic to themselves.

There are many different identities under the trans umbrella, the ones we hear about most often is transitioned transwomen and transmen but there are others such as non-binary, genderfluid, agender, demigender, etc.

I'm a non-binary trans person my gender is neither male nor female. My gender expression is a mixture of masculine and feminine or straight up androgynous. So being who I am I can't really answer your questions because I haven't medically transitioned. The gender binary is pretty much bullshit to me but I do recognize that for other trans people it treats their gender dysphoria to medically transition to a male or female and look more traditionally masculine or feminine.

Feminism ultimately wishes to free individuals from the shackles societal gender roles and stereotypes has given us. Men and women can be liberated to be there authentic selves. Men can show emotions without looking weak and women can hold a positions of power etc. In feminism sex and gender shouldn't matter and it shouldn't be something that holds someone back from being who they are or want to be.

So hopefully you can see that neither "transgenderism" nor feminism puts people in boxes such as you say. We're striving for something better than what we were born into.

I kinda rambled on a little there so let me know if you need me to clear anything up.

Last edited by tsogud - on 15 August 2019