radifemsara - Tumblr blog

[radifemsara]

I was hesitant to write this post, but I want to talk about why so many women and teenage girls are getting double mastectomies.

The justification a lot of trans people use for elective double mastectomies is that "top surgery" helps people feel comfortable in their bodies. Traditionally, this surgery was restricted to transmen. In the recent decade, however, nonbinary identified and even non-trans identified women have been getting mastectomies. I remember clear as day when my coworker (who identified as a "cis" woman) told me that at 18 she was planning on saving for top surgery. I myself got my breasts removed when I identified as nonbinary, having been on testosterone for 2 years.

It's important to remember that no person is born wanting surgery. Society creates conditions that are hostile to women, GNC, and gay people, and this hostility encourages a dissociated state. The body is removed from the mind - instead of the body being an intrinsic part of your personhood, a mechanism through which we experience the world, it instead becomes ornamental. This is perfectly represented by all forms of non-reconstructive cosmetic surgery, which risk people's health for entirely aesthetic reasons.

So, why do teen girls want to remove their breasts? For those of who experienced unwanted sexual advances from a young age, the answer is intuitive. Breasts are inherently sexualized. They are not seen as a vital organ that contributes to bodily function and health, but as a decoration, the only purpose of which is to attract men and feed babies. In this way, a woman's breasts do not even belong to her. When men openly gawk at a woman without a bra, when relatives grope at her as a pubescent girl, when we are exposed to an endless stream of hyper-sexualized images of women with their cleavage out, a message is sent loud and clear: existing in a female body is unsafe.

I want to make it very clear that an elective mastectomy and the practices of breast ironing are very different, but there are commonalities in that attitudes behind both. Breast ironing is done to pubescent girls in order to "prevent" her being sexually assaulted or harassed by men, sometimes including male relatives. When I hear stories of girls in the West starving themselves and binding to hide their chests, I can't help but see similarities. When I was binding and restricting calories as a 15 year old, I would have said I was doing it so that I could pass as a man. But I would have been lying to you. I was lying to myself. I didn't hate my breasts because I was "born in the wrong body." I hated my breasts because they were used to justify my sexualization. From my perspective they put me in danger.

We often hear that women's rights in the West have been secured, but you need only look at the war on women's bodies to see that that is a fantasy. When young girls constantly receive the messaging that your curves and boobs WILL attract men and that you will be objectified for it, many will try to opt out.

Take Liv Hewson, for example.

She says herself that her anorexia was a manifestation of "gender dysphoria," but the question remains - where did this dysphoria come from? Why would anorexia develop as an outlet for it? What makes more sense: a young woman was born hating her body and her breasts because she has a gendered, non-female soul, or that same woman hates her body because she has been conditioned as such by a patriarchal society, the same society that encourages extreme self harm and body modification through a multi-billion dollar cosmetic industry?

Gender dysphoria in young women needs to be demystified. It's not special, it's not unique. It is NOT evidence that she needs invasive surgery or steroids to feel comfortable in her body. It is evidence that she is in pain. In order to address the rising rate of transition in young women, we must first acknowledge the conditions that nurture this form of self-hatred.

Transition IS a feminist issue. It is just as relevant in Western feminism as tackling the beauty industry, female sexualization, and violence perpetrated against women through porn. All of these issues are deeply interconnected. When we approach dysphoric women with compassion and encourage them to perceive their bodies as a part of themselves that deserves to remain intact and whole, rather than as their enemy, we take a necessary step towards female liberation.

[radifemsara]

One of the things that makes arguing with men so much more draining than arguing with women is the unequal distribution of credibility and contribution.

Somehow, whenever I argue with men, it always falls upon me to both prove my own claims, and to disprove his, while he does neither; his only obligation seemingly to dole out whatever ungrounded assertions he conjures up on the spot. Somehow, it is always wordlessly established that anything I say is false until proven true, while anything he says is true until proven false.

This same dynamic happened again over on tiktok, when a man claimed women are just as violent as men. Automatically, almost as if by muscle memory, I offered up the usual statistics on male depravity: men constituting 99% of rapists, 99% of mass shooters, 98% of killers, 95% of serious domestic abusers. And his only response was to say those statistics were wrong. No elaboration; wrong simply because he said so.

I already knew how the entire conversation would pan out: I’d give him my source, he’d find a reason to discredit the source, then I’d scour the internet to find a source that suited his standards, which he’d inevitably find a reason to discredit too.

So instead I simply said, “Prove the statistics are wrong.” And that was the only thing I responded with henceforth: prove it, prove I’m wrong, prove you’re right. Thus reversing the dynamics and positing that anything I said was true unless he demonstrated otherwise; unduly putting all the onus on him while I did nothing other than decide whether he was convincing me of claims thoroughly enough—and if he wasn’t, it just meant I was winning, of course.

He blocked me, and so far so have all the other men I’ve used this approach on. I don’t know whether it’s because they couldn’t actually disprove my claims or because they couldn’t stand to be treated the same way they treat women in debates. But I think more women should do this. Stop wasting energy proving your points to men, and start making them prove theirs to you.

[radifemsara]

Women were never created from men's ribs, not ever. It is HE who emerges from HER womb. Framing the father as the life giver is a patriarchal lie, it's not true.

[radifemsara]

Hey Sara! your blog and many other blogs made me realise a lot of my mistakes and things I had been conditioned to follow. I kinda feel skeptical about doing engineering at the moment as it’s a very male dominated field and I don’t like them but I do like engineering. My family on the other hand is not that supportive saying that I am not determined or ambitious. What’s your opinion on that?

Love you lots btw☺️☺️

I'm glad that you connected with the radfem community here, and I'm very happy knowing you came across my account! Engineering, like most STEM fields, is largely male-dominated, but it is changing, and more and more women are shining! ( Here, the rate of women engineering graduates is among the highest worldwide, and if Moroccan women can do it, then so can you and any other woman. We make better engineers than men).

And yes, while engineering is a hard major at uni, and you'd need to be proficient at physics, maths, computers, if you feel like you can do it, if you like the field, if you see yourself having a future as an engineer, then yes, absolutely! Go for it!

Don't let anyone else dictate your life, even if they're your family or if you love them, especially not your academic life! Education is one of the few ways to escape your family/current situation for many women (myself included) and you being a girl does not change nor influences your chance at graduating with honors AT ALL. It's your hard work as a university student that does!

I think it's YOUR choice and yours only, and if you want my personal opinion, you'll make one hell of an engineer sis!! <3

[radifemsara]

if you blame the "state of modern feminism" on radical feminists methinks youre an idiot who has no real understanding what feminism truly is

more militant (radical) suffragettes (feminists) were also blamed for the way the mainstream thought of feminism over 100. fucking. years. ago.

and guess what? those same women are the ones who helped women gain rights through their *clutches pearls and gasps* RADICAL!!! efforts

if you blame the current state of feminism on "evil terfs" and radfems, youre no better than a meninist circa 2015

radfems arent a new concept, and we won't be your scapegoats anymore

[radifemsara]

Women are angry, and it isn’t hard to figure out why.

We are underpaid and overworked. Too sensitive, or not sensitive enough. Too dowdy or too made-up. Too big or too thin. Sluts or prudes. We are harassed, told we are asking for it, and asked if it would kill us to smile. Yes, yes it would.

Contrary to the rhetoric of popular “self-help” and an entire lifetime of being told otherwise, our rage is one of the most important resources we have, our sharpest tool against both personal and political oppression. We’ve been told for so long to bottle up our anger, letting it corrode our bodies and minds in ways we don’t even realize. Yet our anger is a vital instrument, our radar for injustice and a catalyst for change. On the flip side, the societal and cultural belittlement of our anger is a cunning way of limiting and controlling our power.

We are so often told to resist our rage or punished for justifiably expressing it, yet how many remarkable achievements in this world would never have gotten off the ground without the kernel of anger that fueled them?

— "Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger", by Soraya Chemaly

[radifemsara]

Men always talk about us being "gold diggers" for only wanting to settle with someone who is financially stable and can afford to live comfortably and yet, why aren't we using the same term for them? They're the ones who look for women to do tons of free EMOTIONAL & PHYSICAL labor for them.

[radifemsara]

Women were never created from men's ribs, not ever. It is HE who emerges from HER womb. Framing the father as the life giver is a patriarchal lie, it's not true.

[radifemsara]

How is it that a twelve year old girl is old enough to give birth to a living being when she is required to have parental approval to check out a book from her local library?

[radifemsara]

The trans community is unhealthily obsessed with JK Rowling, comparing a woman whose opinion on the trans stems from radical feminism, a woman who is very loud when it comes to women's rights to H¡tler, a fascist nazi man, responsible for killing millions of innocent people...Your misogyny is very clear and loud.

You are all vile and beyond disgusting.

[radifemsara]

You would be happier if you finally became a boy. You would be a cute boy, you would be loved as a boy, you would be a nice boy. <3

I am an amazing woman, a caring sister, a good daughter, and a student at one of the top five universities in my country. I'm content and happy with my life, I love being a woman, I love my vagina, and I sure as hell love my female genes. I can't ever imagine my life as a male. In fact, I pity my brothers, to have had the misfortune to have been born with a defective chromosome and their reproductive organs being a stick outside their bodies, so sad :( (idgaf)

And perhaps you're right, my life would be easier as a boy, I wouldn't be expected to get married and pop out babies, I wouldn't be judged or shamed for opting to be celibate, I wouldn't have to think of the possibility of being assaulted, raped, kidnapped, trafficked, whenever I decide to go for a run, I would be able to dress as I wish, I wouldn't have to wear a hijab, etc.

But I was born a woman, and I'll always be one, and I'll sure as hell live like one, I love being a girl, and I love my period, I love my womanhood, and I love my feminism. i will do what I can so that my daughter, her girl friends and their daughters, would have a better future than my mother and her mother.

To expect that, I, as a feminist, would ever want or wish to become my gender's oppressor's sex, is just so naive and gullible of you, but what else to expect from a man who couldn't even send a message directly?

Anonymous boy, get lost and leave my inbox alone <3

[radifemsara]

women's sports is one of the loudest and most successful anti-patriarchy campaigns in human history. what women's sports did and does is prove, over and over again, the excellence, the raw power and strength of the human woman. it completely disrupts ideas on gender.

you have big, powerful women in rugby. fast, endurable women runners. impeccably strong gymnasts. women with strong, large bodies that take up space. that are HEALTHY. they are not RESTRICTED or ladylike. they are free of the stillness/deadness that femininity demands. no corsets. no (aesthetic) thinness. no hourglass bodies for gawking. women's sports screams to society "we are fully human, not objects, not small men. we are not domestic dolls. we are hunters and foragers. fighters."

why do you think men are so vitriolic about it? why don't they want women in football? why don't they want it televized? why do they keep harassing female basketball players? why do they insist on dressing women in sexualized uniforms? why do they now make it taboo to exculde men from women's sports?

i firmly believe it's because women's sports tears patriarchal gender ideology apart so effortlessly. it completely spits in the face of patriarchal political propaganda and shows how null it is. it forces all of us to view women as full, as the beginning of human excellence, as central to human history. not as decorative sexual objects, no matter how men want us to be.

that's why there's so much aggression and derision when it comes to women's sports from men. because women's sports destroys the idea of femininity and depicts women as non-derivative. women must be monsters and cannot afford to play into the childlikeness that femininity demands. the arena of sports forces us to focus on women's physical performance rather than appearance. their strength rather than how attractive they are. their skill and strategy. their humanity. it is a form of entertainment where all female roles are agentive and active rather than passive.

women's sports events are also hotbeds for female and lgb solidarity like you have no idea!

y'all need to start watching women's sports. not only because it is exciting, but it deprograms the patriarchal bullshit out of you so fast. you realize how much is possible. how much we can all achieve right now.

[radifemsara]

Recognizing female human beings get oppressed for our sex isn't "being obcessed with genitals" it's just the literal conclusion of not being in blatant denial of reality

[radifemsara]

"Listen to trans folk-"

No, you listen to women, fuckface. We've heard more than enough.

[radifemsara]

The trans community is unhealthily obsessed with JK Rowling, comparing a woman whose opinion on the trans stems from radical feminism, a woman who is very loud when it comes to women's rights to H¡tler, a fascist nazi man, responsible for killing millions of innocent people...Your misogyny is very clear and loud.

You are all vile and beyond disgusting.

[radifemsara]

Referring to JK Rowling, of course. Interesting how these unhinged cultists never conjure up similar, overly detailed rape and torture scenarios about conservative men whose opposition to trans ideology stems from homophobic and misogynistic views (like Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, or Jordan Peterson).

Interesting how these rape and torture scenarios are reserved exclusively for the one woman whose opposition to trans ideology stems from radical feminist and gender abolitionist views.

[radifemsara]

it always irks me when girls say they identify as non-binary or transmasc or whatever because they "don't feel like a woman"

do you really think you need to feel in any particular way to be a woman (or a man)?? 😭 can you even define what this "womanly feeling" is without resorting to stereotypes?

transgender ideology has the biggest loophole right at its core and it seems like everyone just ignores it to pander to their delusion.

i swear if someone is actually able to give me a proper definition of what it means to feel like the opposite sex I'm going to repent and turn into a TRA