Jaicee said:
(For those who aren't familiar with the hate term just articulated, "TERF" is online shorthand for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist; a label embraced by exactly zero radical feminists.) Radical feminism is not exclusionary of "trans-women", it is exclusionary of men. The fact that we don't embrace a revisionist definition of womanhood that proclaims men the most oppressed women, gives them the right to define and run our movement for us, access our private spaces, and guilt-trip us for having female bodies does not make us hateful or more exclusionary than a women's movement should be, it makes us cognizant of our interests as a class and of the need to develop our class consciousness on our own terms. The oppression of women began as a quest by men to control our reproductive functions. It has always been about controlling our bodies first and foremost. That's why the discrimination against women has alternatively been referred to as sexism: because it is based on hatred of our sex (perhaps for its exclusive reproductive capacity)! When we reach the point that the female body, in spite of its historical exploitation, objectification, and abuse by men, becomes seen as a form of privilege that we have to apologize for possessing, is that really even feminism anymore? Let me give you a concrete example of what this looks like in action. At the 2017 Women's March, which was essentially a protest of the inauguration of a self-confessed rapist as president, the pussy hat, as it became known, became an iconic symbol of the event. It was an allusion to Trump's "grab 'em by the pussy" remark from the Access Hollywood video that we've all seen by now. At this year's Women's March, however, pussy hats were banned. (Some women wore them anyway, but the ban is the point here.) Why? Because identifying womanhood with the female body was deemed "transphobic". To put that another, perhaps clearer way, we were banned from protesting sexual violence against women by the President of the United States at a women's march because men were offended by the idea. I mean you never know: maybe when Trump said "grab 'em by the pussy" he was referring to "women" with penises. What's more, organizers were obliged to give men platforms at this year's Women's March if they claimed to be women. And how did they use their platforms, you ask? They used them to call for such things as the legalization of pimping and the de-funding and blacklisting of rape crisis centers; proposals that, shockingly, were met with boos from the roughly 85% female audience. Anyway, let me ask you this: What of the women you are denying the womanhood of by implication here? The biological females who have redefined themselves as men, perhaps in order to be socially permitted to retain romantic/sexual interest in other women? Does that make you exclusionary? Of course dysphoria is a real condition. It is, however, a conditioned one, in my observation; one that should be addressed, not just conceded to as a biological inevitability. |
Of course the term itself is not embraced by radical feminists: instead of saying that trans women are not include (i.e., excluded), they are just not considered women in the first place. And I didn't claim that men are the most oppressed women, I'm saying that women who aren't even accepted as women by others are some of the most oppressed women: for one, many women won't accept them and don't consider them women, and also many of their own family cast them off and shame them for it. It's not just some way for a guy to be able to somehow live an easier life by claiming oppression, there are very real consequences of coming out, and that is why the suicide rate for trans people is so high.
I agree that reproductive organs play an essential part in sexism, however most transsexuals, I assume, want to undergo sex re-assignment surgery. However, the costs for that are so astronomical that most cannot even afford it, so that is not a luxury that many poor trans people have. I am not denying women of their womanhood, in fact I'm sure that transsexual men would prefer to be called men, so rather than denying them of their womanhood I'm accepting of their manhood. You are denying transsexuals of their womanhood by refusing to let them be associated with that they themselves are more comfortable with.
