What’s feminist about excluding an extremely vulnerable class of women who disproportionately suffer from violence, rape, body shaming, unemployment, homelessness, and poverty, who are routinely abused and manipulated by the medical establishment, and who are disproportionately involved in sex work and pornography?
That’s what I’d like to know about Raymond-esque “feminists” who see no place in the movement for trans women.
Asher
June 4th, 2011 at 2:10 am
The problem is, they believe that trans women are men, and trans men are women. I know – a crazy backwards idea there – literally!
In their eyes, our transitions make us the victims of patriarchy too, but we (trans women) are men never the less, and so the enemies of feminism. Meanwhile, trans men are misguided lesbians, apparently.
June 4th, 2011 at 6:42 am
You can find some answers to your question here (***Trigger Warning: Some serious trans-phobia if you follow the link***). This post is a response to one of mine where I called her out for being trans-phobic. Note how she moves on from being trans-phobic to being racist in the last paragraph. The comments are also useful for saying how you can’t be a feminist and pro-trans at the same time.
June 5th, 2011 at 8:30 am
That is one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever read.
June 15th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
so, so scary.
October 2nd, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Also, I am FAB. But don’t call me ‘cis’. Ever.
Wow, that’s pretty much the embodiment of cis privilege, isn’t it?
June 4th, 2011 at 10:38 am
Absolutely nothing.
June 4th, 2011 at 6:52 pm
While I’m all for the credibility of lived experience, I would say many feminists simplified it into man=bad, woman=good and went from there, to the point where people are good and bad not based on their political viewpoints and activities, but based on their (fixed in stone) identities, like original sin.
Super. fucked. up. Gets in the way of everyone developing into political maturity—feminists and trans* people alike, recognizing that those aren’t exclusive groups: one group gets fixated at a really basic level of identity politics, and the others group’s energy is diluted in the process of advocating for their inclusion in yet another segment of society.
June 15th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Absolutely. In the blog referenced above by Ethan, the “about” section explicitly states that she does not like men. http://wewillnot.wordpress.com/about/
June 18th, 2011 at 6:23 pm
There is nothing at all feminist about it.
Feminism is liberation for ALL women, not “women I consider acceptable”; “women who meet my specific criteria”; “women who were born a certain way or raised a certain way”; “women who are able to reproduce”, etc.
And, one thing that’s extremely hypocritical are those who say that women’s services should not extend to trans women, or that trans women should be considered inferior to cis women, and on the very same breath say that cis privilege doesn’t exist.
Basically, trans people are a very small minority, and in many places don’t have a lot of legal rights. And, because of the lack of information about them, it’s easy to convince people that they’re a threat, despite making up less than 0.1% of the population, and being far more likely the victims of violence than the perpetrators. If someone really wanted to help end women’s oppression, then they should go for the real threats against gender equality, instead of adding to them by targeting another oppressed group.