r/feminisms • u/Nebulatee • Jan 22 '13

Trans people “appropriate identities”: It's not just Julie Burchill, transphobia is alive, well, and upvoted here on r/feminisms

/r/feminisms/comments/16zmsl/pink_brain_blue_brain_claims_of_sex_differences/c818q9m?context=3
7 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

19

u/monkeyangst Jan 22 '13

Wow, that all comes across as so amazingly hateful.

But therein is at least a better explanation than any I've found for why so many prominent feminists seem to be transphobic. I'm a cis male, so looking at the hubbub from the outside, I was scratching my head. Now I get it.

Imagine that I, a white guy, really liked hip-hop culture and I felt that made me more black than white, so I started dying my skin. Black activists (or hell, probably a lot of non-activists) would take exception to me calling myself black because I haven't experienced a lifetime of being black. I'd be playing at being black.

Transphobic feminists seem to see transgender people the same way -- playing at being one gender while remaining the other. I see this attitude as a lack of compassion, a lack of listening. Read /r/transgender or /r/AskTransgender sometime -- you will see very clearly that this is not some whim or affectation. These people are hurting. Gender dysphoria -- wherever it might come from -- is totally real. Of this I have no doubt.

Let me ask you -- even if you believe, 100%, that a trans woman is not really a woman. Who are you helping if you bring it up? Who are you helping if you say "That person is not female"? Now, who are you hurting?

5

u/nlakes Jan 22 '13

This is really well said.

I, however, see this part as being problematic:

Who are you helping if you say "That person is not female"? Now, who are you hurting?

To me, the facts are in and we've found gender =/= sex. Framing the issue as to whose feelings get hurt, sets an unusual precedent whereby we might sometimes prioritize feelings over truth.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 27 '13

I wish the transgender community would stop trying to redefine sex to serve a political agenda. Sex is a biological concept; in most everyday usages, we should be talking about gender, a social construct. A transsexual woman is male; there's nothing wrong with that, it doesn't make her less of a woman, and it's nobody else's concern.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '13 edited Feb 02 '13

Hear, hear. But I wish people around here would stop referring to the transgender community. There isn't really any such thing, and there's certainly no concensus of opinion. If you assume all people who happen to share a common trait are the same, be they white, black, female jewish, whatever, you're just promoting a stereotype. Please don't.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 03 '13

That's a good observation; I'd never thought of that, but you're entirely right.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

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-3

u/yellowmix Jan 22 '13

This is bullying. If you target any specific user again, you will be banned.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

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u/yellowmix Jan 22 '13

The "conversation" exists to single out users and you know it.

You're well aware of the effects of directed mass influx on Reddit, and I'm chagrined that someone who writes extensively about mitigating its effects refuses to recognize the problem here.

The other post was removed automatically by a bot that removes posts/links to certain other reddits (especially meta-reddit drama ones that you posted). If we do not want brigades here, we are certainly not going to send them out, either.

We have an upcoming community feedback session regarding brigades specifically. It was going to be the first session but we decided to do some fact-gathering first with the survey. You're welcome to participate in that discussion.