#Rjalker reads Whipping Girl

[rjalker]

"trans men are priveledged for being seen as women"

"trans men are priveledged for being seen as men"

so which is it. which is it? it literally cannot be both. Either you think trans men are priveledged for being seen as women, or you think they're priveledged for always passing. You have to pick one. You cannot just tell two lies at the same time and act like you know what you're talking about.

according to Julia Serano, trans men facing transphobia and being seen as women is a privilege, somehow. Even though her whole argument is that feminine people are more oppressed by virtue of being feminine.

Which is also why she says absurd shit like butch women are looked on more favorably by our society than feminine women. Because I guess she's never spoken to a gender nonconforming cis woman or AFAB person once in her whole life.

[rjalker]

[ID: The "was anyone going to tell me" meme, edited to say, with linebreaks added for accessability:

"Okay, was anyone going to tell me that Julia Serrano is exorsexist as fuck and thinks nonbinary people are just binary trans people who won't admit it so that they can feel superior to trans women

(Because she identified as nonbinary before she identified as a trans woman and apparently thought she was superior to trans women)

And thinks gay people aren't oppressed for their same gender attraction

And insists that brains are inherently gendered as either male or female

And says that the white western gender binary wouldn't exist if it weren't the most natural and right system, ignoring the historical and continuing destruction of the genders of other cultures

And pretends that trans men being seen as women is a privileged while also claiming that they always pass as men with no problem ever???

Or was I just supposed to find that out by reading Whipping Girl myself???"

End ID.]

I'm so fucking infuriated.

[rjalker]

Oh I just fucjubg r3alized that Julia Serano's whole fucking thing about feminine people being more oppressed is an attempt yo just completely separate sex based oppression from misogyny because acknowledging that "traditional misogyny" as she calls it is in fact sex based and not just about being feminine or not doesn't fit her narrative of trans men and butch women being privileged over trans women and feminine women so instead of just saying "yeah most misogyny is based on sex but that's not its full scope because it also impacts MTF people" she just goes "masculine people are always privileged over feminine people no matter what all the time every time" even though this makes literally zero fucking sense when you look at the way Literally Any nonfeminine woman or person assumed to be a woman is treated.

Like she explicitly includes butch women in her "priveleged over feminine people" category as though women who aren't properly feminine aren't punished for it every step of the way.

I couldn't figure out why the absolute fuck she was choosing to make this fucking absurd argument instead of literally any other argument that actually makes sense, but no I just realized it's literally because she is trying to separate the sex part from misogyny completely and just pretend like that doesn't exist.

Because if she acknowledges the sex-based part of ""traditional misogyny"" then that means her argument that trans men are nothing but privileged immediately falls apart because they literally still suffer from systemic misogyny no matter what their gender identity or how well they pass or don't, and they suffer in ways that perisex trans women explicitly do not and never will. And that does not fit her narrative that trans women are the most oppressed people ever to exist. The conclusion that she can literally only arrive at by literally lying about what other trans people face and saying that non-binary people aren't actually non-binary we just want to feel superior to trans women in particular.

So that was a mystery that wasn't actually all that much of a fucking mystery. Wow.

Have i mentioned I regret every second I wasted reading that fucking book.

[rjalker]

one thing I cannot comprehend is Julia Serano rightfully criticizing and going into detail about all the medical hoops trans women have to go to in order to transition and all this stuff about it being treated like a mental disorder and how this is harmful and dehumanizing (and I am morally obligated to point out that while she's talking about how this is all so bad for trans women, she downplays and dismisses what this same system puts trans men through)...but then she also argues that being trans should /not/ be demedicalized, and trans people /should/ have to go to therapy to get hormones and transition, and it's like.........what are you even trying to say at this point.

I read the first half of that book before I had to stop because the bigotry was just too fucking infuriating, and I don't think she made a single argument or statement that she didn't then immediately contradict without a single shred of irony.

Like I get that the book is literally just a collection of essays she wrote at different times, all shoved together and sold, but it feels like she didn't even read through the finished product to make sure everything lined up. She contradicts almost everything she says.

Like. She literally explains why treating being trans like a mental disorder is bad (but only if you're a trans woman, trans men face no problems from this system according to her). But then says it should continue being treated like a mental disorder???

I am baffled. There's no other word for it. It's just baffling.

[rjalker]

really funny (and by funny I mean I loathe it) how Julia Serano thinks nonbinary people are privileged because I guess she fucking thinks if you're nonbinary you can't be misgendered, when I've been misgendered today and yesterday, by being called both "girl" and "man" in different instances.

Wow. It's almost like she has no fucking idea what she's talking about in regards to what nonbinary people experience and should have not pretended like she's the authority on all trans people in the book you have to pay money to read before you even learn about her being bigoted like this because literally no one except one singular solitary other fucking person besides you gives enough shits to even bring it up!!!!!!!!!

Oh but she did put a single sentence in the beginning and end of the book that says "I don't speak for all trans people" so that totally makes up for the entire rest of the book that you have to pay to read where she pretends her experiences are universal and her opinion is fact and literally says nonbinary people are actually just binary trans people who don't want to admit it because they want to feel superior to trans women in particular because she thinks her experiences are universal and she identified as nonbinary before she identified as a trans woman and apparently had a superiority complex and since she thinks her experiences are universal she states as an undisputable fact that nonbinary people don't actually exist, we're actually all just special snowflakes who want to feel special and superior to trans women -.-

[rjalker]

zygs she literally says gay people aren't oppressed for their same-gender attraction, they're oppressed for being gender nonconforming. NO, I AM NOT JOKING.

[rjalker]

[ID: The "was anyone going to tell me" meme, now edited to read:

"Okay, was anybody going to tell me that Julia Serrano is exorsexist as hell, or was I just supposed to find that out while reading Whipping Girl myself?"

End ID.]

Well. Consider this me telling you all so you don't have to only find out when you read her book where she's exorsexist as hell and says brains are inherently either male or female and that the white western gender binary wouldn't exist if it weren't the most natural and right system ever????

[rjalker]

It's a very specific form of bigotry when binary trans women declare that they are the ultimate experts on all things regarding being trans and bigotry against trans people and as these self-proclaimed experts declare that nonbinary people either straight up don't exist

(which is not only exorsexist but in many cases blatantly and explicitly racist when they're erasing the non-white-western-binary genders of oppressed cultures who have suffered genocides)

or claim that if we do exist, well we are not oppressed in any specific or exclusive ways, and if you even use the word exorsexism or talk about exorsexism or even hint that binary trans people have any privilege over nonbinary people in any way you are a transmisogynist because apparently nonbinary people talking about how we're oppressed....means we're silencing trans women somehow. Anikd makes us misogynists.

And a lot of (but not all of) the ones who do this are white. Middle class, went to collage and haven't spent the rest of their life in debt for it.

Like, blogs like "transmisogynyexplained" explicitly fucking declare that trans women are the ultimate experts on all forms of transmisia and gender-based oppression and therefore exorsexism isn't real and nonbinary people have no specific oppression.

Julia Serano's whole entire fucking theory of trans women being The Most Oppressed™ literally required that she straight up fucking lie about what trans men experience, and declaire that nonbinary people aren't real and the ONLY reason the white western gender binary is so prevalent these days is because it's the only REAL system of gender that's natural.

Because apparently white people comitting multiple ongoing genocides against indiginous peoples and their cultures including violently suppressing their cultural non-white-western-binary genders, never happened. It's just simply that everyone's brain is either hardwired male or female from birth, and anyone who claims otherwise is a transmisogynist who wants to feel superior to trans women in particular.

But no one ever fucking talks about this shit because if you do you are immediately labeled a transmisogynist because criticizing any trans women, no matter how blatantly transmisic, exorsexist, or white supremacist she's being, means you're a transmisogynist now and criticizing her is the exact same thing as committing a hate crime -.-

Just because you're a woman doesn't make you the ultimate expert on oppression. You do not get to speak over or erase other people and pretend you are the expert on oppression you literally do not experience.

No, trans women, especially binary trans women, are not the ultimate experts on all forms of transmisia. They are not the fucking authority on whether or not trans men are oppressed or if nonbinary people even fucking exist.

If you think being trans or being a woman means you're the ultimate authority on who is and is not oppressed in what ways, you're just a fucking bigot who's just as bad as all the other so-called "feminists" who throw everyone else under the bus to get what they want.

No one is immune to being a bigot, no, not even trans women. Being oppressed in one way does not mean you can never be a bigot. And if you're gonna pretend I'm "making up trans women to be mad about" you can personally pay me the fucking $40 I spent on Julia Serano's books because no one bothered to warn me how unapologetically and explicitly racist, exorsexist, and transandromisic they are.

If you aren't willing to call out bigoted trans women when they're being blatantly racist, exorsexist, and transandromisic, you're not a fucking ally to any trans people. No one is above fucking reproach, and don't you motherfuckers dare act like criticizing a trans woman for any reason is a fucking hatecrime. You are fucking pathetic and bigoted and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

[rjalker]

I'm half way through Whipping Girl and she has some good things to say, but she also just. >.>

says the (white western, but she doesn't admit that) gender binary exists because it's right - arguing that if it were wrong, it wouldn't exist.

says brains are gendered as either masculine or feminine

says gender is not a social construct. Because she very clearly does not actually understand what "gender is a social construct" means.

does acknowledge, for like a single sentence, that other cultures have more than two genders, but then quickly dismisses them as just being "exceptional" and therefore not to be counted against the idea that the white western gender binary is in fact natural and the normal state of things inherent to people :|

[rjalker]

When you finally read one of the books you bought a few months ago instead of spending that money on food because you were expecting them be something you'd be keeping for the rest of your life and reading multiple times and therefore worth the $40 you spent to buy them online, only to find out that the first one is unabashedly exorsexist and homophobic and transphobic and racist and is literally just the author setting herself up as the ultimate authority on the oppression trans people do and do not face, but no one has ever fucking criticized this that you can find except for one (1) fucking person besides you, because either A) no one can be bothered to call out or gives a single shit about bigotry if it's a famous trans woman doing it, or B) literally no one who's touting her ideology as holy gospel has *actually* bothered to read anything she's written and are just repeating what she says without actually looking for the rest of what she says to realize oh shit she's literally just fucking lying.

[ID: A stick figure drawing of a red-eyed werewolf on all fours, glaring at the camera with its mouth open, revealing sharp bloody teeth. On the ground in front of it is the cover of the book Whipping Girl, by Julia Serano, made to look like it has bite marks taken out of it. End ID.]

[rjalker]

julia serrano in the preface for the book: I'm only speaking from my singular perspective, so keep that in mind.

also her in the book: yeah the white western gender binary only exists because it's right. yes some other cultures do have other genders but they're outliers and not to be counted. the white western gender binary is 100% correct and natural and real and inherent to people because otherwise it wouldn't exist. anyone who says otherwise is invalidating my identity and wrong. the white western gender binary of masculine and feminine wouldn't exist if most people didn't fit into it, and since most people do, that means its right and natural and no it's not a social construct, it's real. our brains are either male or female. nonbinary people don't count. other culture's genders don't count. I will not aknowledge literally any of the literally on-going cultural genocides that white people have committted for hundreds of years explicitly to wipe out other culture's non-binary genders. No I have not spoken to a single person from any of these cultures. all cultural ""third"" genders are actually just binary trans women. If you disagree you are a transmisogynist.

[rjalker]

she even says she read and admires Lesie Feinberg's works but then has the gall to state as a fact that butch women are treated better by our society than feminine women 😭😭😭 (three emojis of a loudly crying face)

this is Martha Wells saying she was inspired to write The Murderbot Diaires by the Imperial Radch series but literally exponentially worse because they're actually fucking talking about real people I cannot believe I paid money for this book 😭😭😭 😭😭😭 😭😭😭 (nine loudly crying emojis)

[rjalker]

One of the exorsexist exerpts from Julia Serano's Whipping Girl.

Extra line breaks added by me because otherwise it's just a fucking massive block of text.

Another point that is often overlooked in discussions about transgenderism is that many individuals who fall under the transgender umbrella choose not to identify with the term. For example, many intersex people reject the term because their condition is about physical sex (not gender) and the primary issues they face (e.g., nonconsensual “normalizing” medical procedures during infancy or childhood) differ greatly from those of the greater transgender community. Similarly, many transsexuals disavow the term because of its anti-transsexual roots or because they feel that the transgender movement tends to privilege those identities, actions, and appearances that most visibly “transgress” gender norms. This tendency renders invisible the fact that many of us struggle more with issues related to our physical femaleness or maleness than we do with our expressions of femininity or masculinity. Throughout this book, I will use the word trans to refer to people who (to varying degrees) struggle with a subconscious understanding or intuition that there is something “wrong” with the sex they were assigned at birth and/or who feel that they should have been born as or wish they could be the other sex. (It should be noted that some people use the word “trans” differently, as a synonym or abbreviation for the word transgender). For many trans people, the fact that their appearances or behaviors may fall outside of societal gender norms is a very real issue, but one that is often seen as secondary to the cognitive dissonance that arises from the fact that their subconscious sex does not match their physical sex. This gender dissonance is usually experienced as a kind of emotional pain or sadness that grows more intense over time, sometimes reaching a point where it can become debilitating. There are many different strategies that trans people may use to ease their gender dissonance. Perhaps the most common one is trying to suppress or deny one’s subconscious sex. Others may allow their subconscious sex to come to the surface occasionally, for example through either crossdressing or role-playing. Still others may come to see themselves as bigendered (having a mixture of both femininity and masculinity and/or femaleness and maleness), genderfluid (moving freely between genders), or genderqueer (identifyingoutside of the male/female gender binary). And those of us who make the choice to live as the sex other than the one we were assigned at birth are commonly called transsexuals

She also argues that brains are inherently gendered as either male or female:

Line breaks added so it is once again not just a massive block of text.

Perhaps the best way to describe how my subconscious sex feels to me is to say that it seems as if, on some level, my brain expects my body to be female. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that our brains have an intrinsic understanding of what sex our bodies should be. For example, there have been numerous instances in which male infants have been surgically reassigned as female shortly after birth due to botched circumcisions or cloacal exstrophy (a non-intersex medical condition). Despite being raised female and appearing to have female genitals, the majority of such children eventually come to identify as male, demonstrating that brain sex may override both socialization and genital sex. There have also been studies that have examined a small, sexually dimorphic region of the brain known as the BSTc. Researchers found that the structure of the BSTc region in trans women more closely resembles that of most women, while in trans men it resembles that of most men. Like all brain research, such studies have certain limitations and caveats, but they do suggest that our brains may be hardwired to expect our bodies to be female or male, independent of our socialization or the appearance of our bodies.

She's literally arguing that nonbinary people aren't actually nonbinary, we're actually either binary trans men or women who just don't want to admit it so that we can feel special.

and here's another quote:

In fact, as a trans person, having spent most of my life battling gender dissonance, I don’t have the privilege that others have of being able to presume that the femaleness or maleness of my body or mind is entirely meaningless, superficial, or unimportant. I have found that my physical sex, and how it relates to my subconscious sex, is incommensurably important to me.

Just. She has no fucking clue what she's talking about when she talks about nonbinary people.

I can't even find all the other quotes where she says shit like because this isn't even an issue of language evolving -- she /specifically went out of her way/ to use terms in ways they weren't even being used normally back then, and makes up a bunch of new ones, and uses a bunch of different euphemisms when talking about nonbinary people -.-

[rjalker]

Yeah, this is the fucking lip service I'm talking about.

While I often exploit the fact that I can "pass" in order to bring into question the way that people project gender stereotypes onto other people's behaviors and bodies, I am also aware that this can be a double-edged sword, one that could inadvertently lead to the perspectives of trans people who "pass" trumping or drowning out the views of those who do not. Similarly, the fact that other priveledges that I experience (e.g-, that I am white, middle-class, able-bodied, ect.) remain largely unmarked in this book could lead others to mistakenly assume that my rather specific perspective is somehow representative of the entire trans community. That would be a grave error. All trans people have different insights into gender, insights that arise out of the unique combination of privileges and life histories that we each bring to the table. Each of us has a somewhat different take on being trans, and all of our voices need to be heard before we can even begin to develop any kind of overarching understanding of what it means to be transsexual. Therefore, I hope that people who read this book will not see it as the "definitive statement" on transsexuality or trans womanhood, but rather as simply one peice of a much larger project that involves many other people

She puts this in the back of the book despite the fact in her essays she went out of the way to state her experience and perspective as undeniable facts -.- She spends as much time actually taking about her personal experiences as she does shitting on, dismissing, and pretending she's the authority on what other trans people think and experience and face.

Newsflash, asshole, if you actually thought other trans people's experiences are just as important as yours, you wouldn't have spent half your time saying they aren't and pretending like other trans people aren't actually oppressed. Holy shit. This is the most hippocritical and fucking "oh shit don't get mad at me" bullshit I've ever fucking seen. She is literally just trying to cover her ass with this pretty little fucking paragraph like she didn't just spend half her time stating as universal fact that other trans people aren't oppressed enough because she, as a trans woman, has decided she knows what oppression they do and do not face and she says they don't face a lot at all -.-

And once again I cannot fucking stress enough that she claims gay people aren't oppressed for their same-gender attraction, and that butch women are treated better than traditionally feminine ones, and that nonbinary people aren't actually nonbinary, we just don't want to admit to our true "unconcious sex" so that we can feel superior to trans women in particular, because she identified as nonbinary before she identified as a trans women, so now she thinks she's the fucking authority on nonbinary identities because she had a fucking superiority complex over other trans women.

[rjalker]

Yeah that is NOT what "gender is a social construct" means at all.

[rjalker]

At least the Ace Venturas and South Parks of the world don’t even bother to pretend that they know what they’re talking about when they create transsexual characters. Anderson, on the other hand, did just enough homework about transsexuality to make her film dangerous. She poached and pilfered the transsexual experience without any sense of respect or responsibility for the very people she exploited in the process.

really ironic that she says this when this is the exact thing she does to nonbinary people and transmasculine people and so many more in this whole book.