#women feminism reproductive health or lesbianism

[madtomedgar]

It's sure something that every post about violence, civilians, human rights, pacifism, war, or activism strategies is now assumed to be a post about IP and proof of the poster's secret evil beliefs. Especially if the Op is Jewish or has Jewish mutuals. Definitely this won't have negative ripple effects.

[female-malice]

can you explain post-natalism?

Well, some of the ideas that come from anti-natalist feminism are useful. But I find certain anti-natalist feminist discourse unproductive.

It's true that in our current socioeconomic system, reproduction is used as a tool of women's oppression. Right now, reproduction does not benefit women at all. And anti-natalism is the idea that women should stop reproducing because it's not helping us. And I don't disagree with that idea. I just don't think ending reproduction would give us total female liberation. Female liberation would come from a brand new socioeconomic system specifically designed to concentrate power with women. And in human society, power comes from reproduction. We would need a new cultural perspective on reproduction that primarily benefits women. And that new cultural perspective would come with new cultural norms. Maybe those new cultural norms would look something like this:

-Choosing not to have children at all would have no taboo

-Abortion and birth control would have no taboo

-Children would have matrilineal surnames

-Female embryo selection would have no taboo and would be made accessible to all women

-Male embryo selection would be extremely taboo and illegal. If you want a son, you have to leave it to chance

-It would be taboo to have more than two sons. If you actually want a large family, that family should be mostly daughters. And no one should be trying to have more than 5 kids

-No more old sperm. Men should be sterilized at 40. Or if a man is the biological father to 5 kids, he should be sterilized

-Sperm banks should be more regulated, logical, and accessible

-Lesbian families should be celebrated by society in some way

-Straight women should have the option to coparent with other women if they want. Straight women could use the title "aunt" for the friend they're coparenting with. Only lesbian families would actually have two moms

-Women's reproductive health research would be prioritized by society and this research would be led by women

These are just things I imagine would become norms if reproductive culture was specifically designed to benefit women. This wouldn't radically change much for the straight nuclear families who represent our current status quo. The average family with a mom, dad, and two kids would be exactly the same on the surface. But the family name would belong to the mother.

Post-natalism is basically imaging how women would change reproduction if we actually did control it

[1yyyyyy1]

is anybody actually surprised to see more and more radfems fall into the tradfem pipeline 😶 feels like it's getting worse though

I've kind of known that "feminism" was not about female emancipation for a while, or, at the very least, that it did not comprise of people who acted out of genuine compassion and were socially adept enough to enact a tangible change. The latter is a critical flaw because people who identify as feminists are notorious for their inability to properly assess levels of marginalization, so one is left to wonder as to how anyone can pledge themselves to liberation when they lack the tools to perceive hierarchies in the first place. During my time on feminist resources, one subject that was consistently absent from discourse were women with disabilities and major health concerns, and how many of them were active participants in these conversations. It goes without saying that these are the states no one really ever consents to, and that they are a major dent in one's ability to partake in society and subsequently advocate for themselves (or render them null straight away). On the other hand, a consensual pregnancy implies a degree of social and psychological viability. It was a particularly jarring thing to know whenever motherhood would get positioned as the ultimate liability as if the element of choice does not signify its underlying privilege. I want you to understand the way I see it — women with a voluntary lifestyle will knowingly or unknowingly address a considerably more vulnerable demographic and necessitate that resources are allocated to them. How cruel is that? (proof that it happens and is endorsed) I am surprised that child-free women tend to take these things personally instead of calling out the narrative for what it actually says and does. Besides, it is hard not to notice that anyone who is critical of reproduction gets dismissed for being "insane" or "crazy" as if these terms haven't been weaponized against women for millennia, and are the very same thing the proponents of motherhood will then proceed to speak out against. They should just call the women they disagree with hysterical at this point... I am not against having a civil debate, but the fact is that whenever childbirth is brought up, it turns into a contradictory match of tug-of-war. Pregnancy is undeniably harmful and damaging, which makes for a good case in support of mothers-to-be; however, I am above nodding to the criticisms of kink or make up practices only to get lectured on the fact that some harm in fact can be consented to. That is, if we at all establish that pregnancy is indeed daunting, because its perils easily turn into a "normal" and a "natural" thing. Most pregnancies will become both coerced and consensual based on whether a woman wants to call out a man or a woman whose views she dislikes. There's also Schrödinger's lesbian mother who is both relevant and irrelevant depending on who's feeling the least or the most homophobic at the time. Women with children are whatever suits the narrative and it muddies up the discussion.

Radical feminism's disparaging attitude is also reflected in its reading list and its treatment of the writing of Valerie Solanas. Solanas's message, despite being frequently quoted and praised, gets constantly misrepresented — read this. I think the selective limelight speaks for itself.

[blacksapphicguide]

The Bold Type (TV series).

2010s TV show | 5 seasons (Cancelled) Fashion, Drama, Comedy, Romance, Politics, Social Commentary.

Plot points:

Career women and challenges they may face

Fashion industry

Dating within the workplace

Ethnic and gender diversity

Feminism

Identity: social and political

Politics

Friendship

Loyalty

Ups and down of life and love

Gun politics

Conversations about abortion, miscarriages, reproductive health and breast cancer

Reconnecting with absent parents

Relationships and conversations about monetary, class and career positional differences

Marriage and divorce

Coming out, discovering sexuality

Conversations about being racially profiled

New York City (NYC)

Multiple queer relationships

Sapphic relationships (joint main)

Black sapphic characters:

Kat Edison [bisexual] (Aisha Dee) Tia Clayton [lesbian] (Alexis Floyd) Chloe Blair [transwoman] (Ianne Fields Stewart) Daniella [lesbian] (Gabrielle Graham)

Connections:

Kat x Adena (interracial sapphic: mixed [black x white] x middle eastern) x Tia (black sapphic) x Ava (interracial sapphic: mixed x white) x Ellie (interracial sapphic: mixed x white) x Daniella (black sapphic) x Gina (interracial sapphics: mixed x white) x Michelle (interracial sapphics: mixed x white)

Sex & Nudity - Moderate

Characters make out: fully clothed and in underwear

Suggestive scenes , preluding offscreen sex

Both heterosexual and homosexual partially explicit sex scenes

Moaning, movements

Heavily implied oral sex

Hookups

Sexts

Sex toy usage

Conversations about sexual health and freedom

Conversations about climbing the corporate ladder through sex

Violence & Gore - None

Profanity - Moderate

Use of the word ‘fuck, shit, crap, hell, etc’.

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking - Moderate

Scenes in bars.

Social drinking at both social and networking events

Character gets visibly drunk

Use of a cigarette.

Mentions of being drugged

Frightening & Intense Scenes - None

[gaia-prime]

Radfem/💇‍♀️: Are you a radfem, just radfem-adjacent, or just gender critical?

radical feminism is the form of feminism to actually aims to improve to material reality of women. choice-y lib-y pomo-y “feminism” is just decorating the cage, radical feminism is getting out of it 🐅

Peak/🌄: What was the first thing that peaked you, and when did you peak (not just specifically “peak trans,” but anything “peak patriarchy”)?

peak trans was the rape rhetoric towards lesbians

Everest/🏔️: What has been your worst subsequent peak?

when nobody who supported the gender movement was pushing back against the rape rhetoric towards lesbians.

one time i did see someone say “don’t say that” not because it was, you know, rape, but because it’s quote: “bad optics”

Separate/🚷: Are you a female separatist or a lesbian separatist, and to what extent?

GNC/🥾: Are you GNC, and to what extent?

no one would describe me as gnc, and i’ve got shiny long hair and pretty privilege (lol) to thank for that. i mostly only leave the house for work (in scrubs) or or the pottery studio (in a tshirt and overalls or sweatpants.) but when i’m wearing something in my style it’s usually pretty feminine, albeit practical. i refuse to wear anything debilitating or uncomfortable. i straight up lose respect for anyone who has those long false nails 🤮

Orientation/🩲: Are you a lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual?

lesbian 🌈 lucky me ☺️

Bi/🔺: If you’re bisexual, are you a febfem?

Hetero/👫: If you’re heterosexual, are you choosing to be celibate?

Picrew/👤: No more identifying information, make a picrew icon of yourself that doesn’t look like you.

what about some of my photomode snaps from horizon zero dawn and forbidden west?

Leg/🦵: Where does your leg hair start getting darker (above the knee, mid thigh, dark from the moment hip ends and thigh begins)?

at my knees

Body/🔍: Do you have more/darker body hair on your left side, right side, or about equal on both sides?

equal i think?

Carnivora/🦊: Are you more of a cat person or a dog person?

I’m bipetsual.also i think hating dogs or hating cats is embarrassing and demonstrates poor character and you shouldn’t admit that in public…

Baby/👶: How do you feel about the baby plane (funny answers only)?

i’m zooted out on benzos seroquel and complimentary drinks when i’m flying so i am OUT snork mimimimimi on planes…

Natal/🤰: Pronatalism, antinatalism, or natalism neutral?

natalism agnostic i guess? natalism skeptic? i cannot relate to wanting to give birth,but i get that not every woman desires the same thing. and i have no interest in denying women the opportunities and resources to be mothers. however, i believe in the importance of empowering women worldwide with access to education autonomy over their reproductive health. when women are empowered, birth rates go down. this is a good thing. woman choosing when to be mothers , or not, is a good thing. i believe in humanity (despite everything) and would like to see us continue to survive as a species. however unending population growth only serves a few very powerful people because capitalism demands endless growth. it’s not a sustainable future and it’s not the future women want.

-Fem/💻: Do you identify as a member of any of the -fem titles (factfem, nicefem, rudefem, etc)?

not really. however the only posts and comments i have made that seem to get any attention are snarky comments and jokes, so i guess i come off as a rudefem more than anything else. which is not how i conceptualize myself and not exactly the energy i want to put out there to lesbians and gnc people who go along with gender nonsense. or especially to ones that are really struggling, feel pressured, or have existing trauma or mental illness exacerbated by gender propaganda. above all else i just want lesbians and gnc people and kids to be safe and healthy. i just don’t know if there’s much i, using a tumblr blog, can do about that.

Animal/🦕: If you had to pick an animal to represent your blog, what would it be (catfems, you don’t have to answer cat)?

a wolf 🐺 because i want my mate . AwoooOooo

Labrys/🪓: If you’re a lesbian, how do you feel about the labrys (both the flag and the icon)?

uhhhhmm..

Interest/😍: If you weren’t a radblr user, what would your blog be about?

i wouldn’t be me if i weren’t a feminist and weren’t true to myself and my interests. if you can’t be a feminist in a low stakes forum like tumblr, where Can you be a feminist?

Gender/💩: Here’s the link to get a random Wikipedia page. You now have a neogender based off of the page that was pulled up–what is it?

Man on the Moon (soundtrack) oh?

Feminist/🦸‍♀️: Are there any particular feminists or feminist groups you look up to?

i look up to every lesbian who is being true to herself and not taking male bullshit

Woman/🧑: For $0, name a woman.

Azealia Banks

Man/🧔: If you could kill one man (excluding politicians, billionaires, and those responsible for world tragedies), who would it be?

kAm

[marrowdaughter]

user profile: i’m uncomfortable with sharing my name on social media, but you can call me “marrow” or “mar” if you’d like. i’m a white febfem in my midtwenties. safe for cryptos and the questioning. you can find tags under the cut, but this blog exists almost exclusively on mobile, so they may not be updated with any regularity (note: last updated on february fourth, 2023).

a: ableism, abortion rights, anti-pornography, anti-prostitution, anti-surrogacy, articles and studies, autogynephilia (information about and instances of)

b: beauty culture, bisexual history, bisexual positivity, black history, black positivity, bodily autonomy

c: capitalism and consumerism, child safeguarding (from marriage, medical malpractice, pedophilia, etc.), community (actions and words from the radical feminist community), cosmetic surgery

d: desisting and detransitioning, domestic violence, dysphoria and dysmorphia

e: environmentalism

f: female excellence, female exclusive spaces, female separatism, female socialization, female solidarity, femicide, feminist action, feminist art, femininity

g: gender ideology

h: homophobia

i: indigenous history, indigenous issues (land rights, racism, violence, etc.), intersex conditions (the health of and issues surrounding)

k: kink culture

l: lesbian history, lesbian positivity, lgb history, liberal feminism (criticisms of and information about)

m: male violence, menstruation, misogynistic language, misogynistic media, misogynoir

o: objectification and sexualization

p: peaking (from both gender ideology and liberal feminism), pedophilia (instances of and intersections with)

q: quotes (excerpts from published works)

r: racism, radical feminism (basics of and introduction to), recommendations (listening, reading, and watching), references and resources, reproductive rights

s: sex positivity (concerns and criticisms), sex segregation, sexual assault

t: testimonials (posts by women documenting their experiences)

v: violence against women

w: women’s health, women’s history, women’s sports

[variousqueerthings]

there's something about Big Politics discussions that outs that we (and I include myself in that, I have also done this in the past and may do so again!) can get very exclusionary when we're trying to make big changes, for example when feminism was attempting to (and in places still does attempt to) exclude lesbians and black women and working class women and immigrants and trans people, etc. that's all very well documented, I don't think it's a hot take

or trans people being excluded from LGBT-acceptance laws both in the past and today (again, well documented), although I note that LGB people really stepped up in England and the UK to point out the double-standard of parliament and the prime minister trying to make conversion therapy illegal for everyone except trans people (and excepting religious conversion therapy, which, bleurgh, I see you government)

and the simplified argument for this is "well, now you're muddying the conversation, now you're making this Big Picture Thing too niche, too minority -- feminism isn't about issues that Black women face it's about issues that all women face," for example

if we acknowledge that there are minority groups within minority groups and marginalisation within marginalisation, then the risk is (one thinks) that nobody ends up getting anything, but we pinky promise that we'll get to you eventually, we've just got to get the Big Picture sorted first

and of course that never happens. marginalised people stay marginalised. the Big Picture doesn't include them

and so I think we have to be very careful when we talk about reproductive healthcare rights to include trans people and intersex people, because I'm seeing the same arguments again -- those groups are too niche, they're too minority, they're muddying the conversation, and I know exactly where it's coming from because it's happened before many times and it was never a thing then either

trans people and intersex people need just as much access to reproductive health and have far, far less, everywhere in the world

now that a Big Picture horrifying event has just gone down in America, it's important to not be so afraid for ones own and other cis perisex women's futures so as to not extend grace to others who are also heavily affected and often not allowed to talk about it at all, including in feminist spaces and other reproductive health political spaces

extending that grace does not take away your ability to fight for your rights. it gives you another set of allies, and a broader/more inclusive set of goals for the future

some sources: eat fire: my life as a lesbian avenger (kelly cogswell), trans history (susan stryker), rebel dykes (documentary, harri shanahan and sian williams), also google lavender menace lesbian group + the east london suffragettes (which there is also a book about that I haven't read yet), and this leslie feinberg speech and this angela davies speech

[womenfrommars]

I definitely don't think radical feminists want women to work long hours for little pay, if anything, it's liberal feminists that idealize hustle culture. And also, the tradwife movement has no idea what being a homemaker actually entails lmao you can't just sit at home making cutesy tiktoks all day. I think "feminine" work has been largely devalued, so ppl really don't realize just how much effort is put into these things

I think both radical and liberal feminists claim to be critical of capitalism. Whether they actually are depends on personal interpretation as well as the specific individuals you look at. Radical feminism borrows some of its analysis from Marxist feminism when it comes to issues like prostitution, surrogacy, and even the nuclear family. Liberal feminism created this #GirlBoss #SHEO culture but even the liberal feminists now are regretting this a little bit. Historically speaking at least fighting for equal pay as well as the very opportunity to work outside the home has been part of the liberal feminist agenda. Women's domestic labour and reproductive labour was and is not paid work, which even liberal feminists recognised. A liberal feminist answer to this problem would be allowing women to work outside of the home. A Marxist answer would be to have the State pay stay at home mothers a living wage. A more radical answer is to abolish the nuclear family as an institution altogether in favour of a community based approach to child raising. I think the liberal answer is the most palatable one but it didn't solve the issue of working women still doing the majority of the childcare also, so now they have a "double shift". And that's where radical feminism comes in and says, hey we need to stop pretending being female automatically makes you a better parent than a male. I think the Marxist answer is also quite interesting although another option would be to offer affordable or even free child care so both parents can work outside the home. I don't agree with abolishing the nuclear family altogether since I believe pair bonding comes natural to most people. I just don't like the idea of gendered labour. I think a family with a stay at home father can also work, or a family with gay or lesbian parents. Community based raising is something not really found in Western cultures today so it feels foreign to us Westerners. Even living in a home with more (distant) male relatives also statistically speaking increases the chances of facing child (sexual) abuse, which is one of the reasons this is more common in cultures that don't have the nuclear family model. Raising a child on your own also comes with a bunch of issues, both practically as well as more fundamentally. Children from a single parent household are more likely to have mental health issues for instance

Do I think feminine work is devalued? Sounds more like a cultural feminist analysis to me. I think in a capitalistic society all work is devalued if it doesn't create products to be sold on the market. The reason why women are supposed to do this very work is to ensure their economic dependence on men

[getoheaven]

some information on TERF dogwhistles — TW: transmisogyny, transphobia, s*xual abuse mentions and s*icide/baiting mentions

i’m going to use this short and concise guide on spotting TERF ideology as a jumping off point. from Cambridge university’s women campaign:

HOW DO WE SPOT IT?

Terf ideology uses a lot of the same phrases and tropes, which often seem innocuous on the surface but are actually being used as dogwhistles for transphobia and transmisogyny. Overall, terf ideology hides itself in feminist language, often claiming to support trans rights while actually working to undermine them.

“Gender critical”, discussed above; terfs also often dub themselves “biological women” or “adult human females”, and frequently highlight biological and anatomical signifiers such as “XX” (denoting chromosomes) and parts of reproductive anatomy.

“RadFem”; terf ideology calls itself “radical feminism” after its origins in parts of the feminist ‘second wave’ and its opposition to what it sees as “liberal feminist” positions of trans inclusion, although in reality there’s nothing “radical” about biological essentialism.

Certain waves of terf ideology have attempted to separate trans people out from the rest of the LGBT+ community, so you might see references to the “LGB community” or “drop the T”.

Terfs often dub trans people and their allies the “transgender lobby” or “cult of transgenderism”.

They tend to dislike the term “cis” (non-trans), and often argue that the term ‘terf’ itself is “hate speech”, or a “misogynistic/lesbophobic slur”.

Current terf discourse places a lot of focus on trans children, perpetuating myths that children are being given surgery and hormones (“transing children is child abuse!”).

Another terf trope is painting trans women as predators who want access to women’s spaces so that they can harass and sexually assault cis women.

i’ve also compiled a list of a some other dogwhistles you might want to take into account:

on tumblr or twitter look out for URLs with heavy allusions to genitalia/uteruses/wombs/xx chromosomes

concern trolling - statements such as “we just have concerns” used to filibuster and put roadblocks in the way of genuine conversations about trans people. they are not concerns that will ever be appeased, they also divert the topic away from the issue at hand to purposely muddy the waters of the trans “debate”.

following on from the last point, referring to the issue of trans rights as a “debate” or “discourse”. it both delegitimises the urgency of trans liberation, reducing it down to a debate on a level playing field as well as dehumanising trans people.

“genital preferences are transphobic” - this is a phrase that supposedly originated within the trans community itself. it’s often used in TERF circles as an example of how unreasonable trans people are. it’s also been used to smear the trans community and say that this belief is a very common one amongst trans people, when in reality most of us take a much more nuanced position. to illustrate my point, these stickers were put up by TERFs who then claimed that trans people had made them:

“lost lesbian sisters” - usually in reference to trans-masculine people. the implication being that trans men are not really men but are actually lesbians “brainwashed” by the “trans agenda”

TRA(s) - stands for Trans Rights Activists. obviously there’s nothing wrong with being an activist for trans rights, this is just a specific abbreviation created by TERFs. this also goes beyond simply being an ally, it implies that trans activists are part of a well-funded and organised conspiracy.

41% - this one is really horrible. the National Centre for Transgender Equality surveyed 6,450 trans people and found that 41% of them had attempt s*icide, often due to being harassed and bullied because of their gender identity. TERFs will often weaponise this statistic to suggest that “choosing” to live as a gender other than the one you were assigned is bad for a person’s mental health. in more extreme cases, TERFs will use it as a blunt instrument against trans people suffering with mental illness and egg them on to “join the 41%”. source

TIM /TIF - TIM stands for Trans Identified Male, referring to trans-feminine people. TIF stands for Trans Identified Female and refers to trans-masculine people. i feel this doesn’t need much explanation, it’s simply misgendering.

i think i’ve exhausted most of the big ones, if anyone wants to add on to this it would be much appreciated. lastly i’d like to link to Katy Montgomerie’s youtube channel- she’s a trans woman who regularly talks about and debunks TERF rhetoric, particularly on twitter. her videos have been extremely helpful in compiling this list and getting to understand the ways in which the ideology perpetuates itself.

i highly recommend her series “TERF wars”, which is where she goes through all the transphobic nonsense she’s seen on twitter in the past week. also check out The XX factor, a podcast/stream where she and Christa Peterson discuss the rise of the gender critical “movement” in the UK. i especially recommend this to anyone who is confused about how the conversation around trans rights became so deeply toxic over the past 5 or so years.

thank you for reading, i hope this was as informative as i intended it to be.

[toongrrl-blog]

Fashion Analysis: Nancy’s Purple work dress and Others Part 2

We’re back! We examine how Nancy’s dress stands as a beacon of great (admittedly mostly white) feminist hope, Karen Wheeler passes the torch in a consciousness-raising session, and we explore how purple has been used in other period pieces.

Nancy has been no stranger to purple before, wearing it as a symbol of her passion, youthful innocence, and heightened emotion. She wore it in the library when she thought she saw Barb (despite the knowledge that her best friend died) and she wore it the day that Steve invited her for a get-together at his mansion (with a pool!) and it’s something that she promptly changes out of before getting in the deep v-necked, chevron striped sweater to look a little more sexier. 

Now the purple is no longer pastel, it’s a saturated lilac that is updated for the times and reflects how she is no longer the naive girl in a ballet slipper necklace. After she talks about her struggles in a misogynistic office with her mother, her mother begins to open up, in colors that look subdued but symbolic (except for the makeup).

First check the colors: lavender tones and yellow. Purple on her eyelids. Put a pin those colors (I want to note that a bold red lip remains timeless) and that necklace. We are going to explore the mystique of Karen Wheeler: Model 1980s Housewife and peel some layers with the help of some other ladies in period pieces and her exposition. 

We learn that it was likely Karen Wheeler had her own dreams aside from the conventional and traditional life she leads as a bored housewife (who got close to adultery) until casual misogyny led her to abandon those dreams presumably because she “wasn’t smart enough” or “good enough” and stopped trying. Some other ladies (also with incredible hair) would relate outside of the series.

A savvy bombshell who had to negotiate sexism to get what she wanted, until she left men behind for now. 

A young woman in her own bold shadow giving the news to her (unappreciative) boss that she is leaving for better things.

A conventional wife and mother who always relied on her own beauty to get the attention and praise she needed and made the radical choice to go back for a Master’s degree. 

A disappointed young girl in sensible (and feminine) cardigan and button up shirt listens to whatever a male relative is trying to tell her. 

Two secretaries are reminded vividly of how disposable they are in a white male patriarchy but cannot confront the men themselves.

A sheltered proud homemaker questions her life choices as she is surrounded by women who insist on making bolder moves for their lives and change society for all women. She also finds she is very naive to how life works.

A woman who is renowned for her beauty and glamour fights to be recognized for her skills and intellect, tries to bring different people together, and is willing to confront authority figures on their wrongdoing. She also questions why a woman can’t be considered both beautiful and intelligent. 

A hardworking wife and mother tries to use her influence to improve the status of women and manages to fight anti-feminists while enjoying tea time with her daughters and their friends. She is also challenged with expectations for how wives were “supposed” to behave.

A woman, with a impenetrable veneer of perfection, attempts to negotiate her way to patriarchy by exploiting the image of traditional feminine perfection and keeping women's’ status, well, static. She loses out when she sees that no matter how many bodies she shoves under the bus, the men above her do not appreciate her efforts on their behalf. 

A young and beautiful princess grapples with issues of being a trophy wife, mother, her own roving eye after a marriage to a much older (and unappreciative) patriarchy, and her yearning to be her own person. 

A princess goes bold with her makeup, hair, and clothes to gain the attention she has been socialized to expecting. Trying to be a bombshell and “with it” while dealing with a crumbling marriage, feeling overshadowed by others, and no positive outlet for her intelligence.

A vivacious and stylish housewife grappling with the painful realities that men can be fickle and that gender roles don’t offer women any outlet for their ambitions or a safety net for when things get really bad, she learns she will have to make bold choices to better her circumstances.

All these women, like Karen, have made choices to survive the patriarchy and live life on their own terms. Some succumbing to the patriarchy, others revolting against it, and one who would betray others to win her seat in the boardroom. Many of these women are/were noted for their beauty only to find that other people (men) didn’t expect them to be insightful or smart; some of these women were wives and mothers who loved those roles but chafed at the idea that they’d give up their autonomy and individuality to be excellent at those jobs; a few came into motherhood and marriage rather young, before getting to experiment and mature their way through girl’s trips, work, and messy experiences. And many of them chose a different path for themselves aside from being a domestic and maternal figure, probably swearing off it for their own reasons. That was (and still the reality) of many women in Karen’s generation especially. Those were the options open to her and she chose the option that seemed to reap the most benefits. 

Now about Karen’s sartorial choices? First the necklace.

As noted in Seventeen magazine, many fans on the internet noticed the shape her necklace took, looking similar to a vaginal opening with the pearl as a clitoris. Given how heavy the male gaze was in the 1980s, this was a impressive expression of female sexuality. Given the look and symbolism (given added weight from the feminist pep talk she gives Nancy), it’s quite impressive for the conventional PTA mom whose front lawn held a Reagan/Bush ‘84 sign (just look up their policies on reproductive health and sex education, I recommend Gloria Feldt’s The War on Choice: The Right-wing Attack on Women's Rights and how to Fight Back). Then we go from Second Wave Feminism of the prior decade all the way back to First Wave Feminism’s use of White, Purple, and Yellow. 

White dresses stood out against men in their dark suits and were cheaper to maintain (laundry practices at the time caused colors to run) and reflect how white mainstream figures of the movement really were, after all Nancy and Karen are upper-middle class, white, cishet, conventionally attractive preppy suburbanites in Indiana and their experiences wouldn’t 100% match those of transgender women, working-class women (Joyce), women in abusive households (Max), traumatized women (El), women of color (Erica), larger or “outlier” attractive (Barb), or lesbians (Robin). 

Gold/Yellow stood for “Hope”, Purple for “Loyalty”, and White for “purity” (given that name “Karen” means “Purity” from Nordic origins, it’s pitch perfect). 

Hope and Loyalty embody the Party of Stranger Things, as to why Purity isn’t mentioned here, we will go in the 3rd part (all the racial implications can be looked up) and see the group get intersectional. 

[smartbutuncertified]

So. Today I read J.K. Rowling’s essay on trans people.

I could spend hours finding sources to debunk what she said. I could yell until my fingers are tired that trans women are women, trans men are men, and nonbinary people are valid. I could cry. I could leave it to others. It’s been a long few months. I’m tired.

But I’m a trans man. I can see how she’s weaponizing our existence against our trans sisters. I can’t let that pass.

A lot of the discussion around TERFs revolves around trans women, and for good reason. TERF’s hatefulness is primarily directed at AMAB trans people, especially transfem ones, because of the mistaken belief that they are men invading women’s spaces. All that they are doing is striving to be treated as who they are instead of who others say that they are.

Because of this, much of the pushback against TERFs comes from a place of support of and defense for trans women. This has led to the TERFs developing a tactic that I’m going to name “Dysphoric ‘women’ in distress.”

Persistently attacking a group without clearly defending someone is a great way to get panned for being unreasonable. TERFs don’t want to be seen as a hate movement, so they focus their vitriol on trans women, and attempt to sweep trans men and AFAB nonbinary people under their banner. They’re protecting all “females”, see? No bigotry here.

Here’s a few passages from Rowling’s essay about trans men, and about biological sex, in the order that they appear. The bolding is mine.

“Ironically, radical feminists aren’t even trans-exclusionary – they include trans men in their feminism, because they were born women.”

“The fourth is where things start to get truly personal. I’m concerned about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning (returning to their original sex), because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility.“

“The UK has experienced a 4400% increase in girls being referred for transitioning treatment. Autistic girls are hugely overrepresented in their numbers.“

“The writings of young trans men reveal a group of notably sensitive and clever people.  The more of their accounts of gender dysphoria I’ve read, with their insightful descriptions of anxiety, dissociation, eating disorders, self-harm and self-hatred, the more I’ve wondered whether, if I’d been born 30 years later, I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge. “

“I’ve read all the arguments about femaleness not residing in the sexed body, and the assertions that biological women don’t have common experiences, and I find them, too, deeply misogynistic and regressive. It’s also clear that one of the objectives of denying the importance of sex is to erode what some seem to see as the cruelly segregationist idea of women having their own biological realities or – just as threatening – unifying realities that make them a cohesive political class. “

Trans men are not women. We are not girls. We are mostly AFAB, with some intersex and CAFAB men as well.

As an autistic trans man, autistic people may be more likely to transition, but that doesn’t mean that our transitions are less valid or more suspect. To say otherwise is both ableism and infantalization.

Lastly, the idea of womanhood being biological is as deeply offensive to us as it is to trans women. We share a lot of the health risks and need for reproductive rights and justice that cis women do, but this does not make us women. Trans women are women, not us.

Trans men are not delusional women to be protected from ourselves. We are not part of any “class” of women. This sickly sweet “compassion” because we “were born women” is not something that we support or want any part of. We are not and never will be women. The only people we’re in danger from are transphobes like Rowling.

This is not to say that trans men face the same things as trans women.

Trans women face a whole section of transphobia that transmasc people are exempt from, transmisogny. They are disproportionately targeted by TERFs and other transphobes.

Compare what she says about trans women to the statements about trans men. Again, the bolding is mine.

“Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing. However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased.“

“Examples of so-called TERFs range from the mother of a gay child who was afraid their child wanted to transition to escape homophobic bullying, to a hitherto totally unfeminist older lady who’s vowed never to visit Marks & Spencer again because they’re allowing any man who says they identify as a woman into the women’s changing rooms. “

“I happen to know a self-described transsexual woman who’s older than I am and wonderful. Although she’s open about her past as a gay man, I’ve always found it hard to think of her as anything other than a woman, and I believe (and certainly hope) she’s completely happy to have transitioned. Being older, though, she went through a long and rigorous process of evaluation, psychotherapy and staged transformation. The current explosion of trans activism is urging a removal of almost all the robust systems through which candidates for sex reassignment were once required to pass. A man who intends to have no surgery and take no hormones may now secure himself a Gender Recognition Certificate and be a woman in the sight of the law.”

“But, as many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head.”

“So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe. When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside.”

“On Saturday morning, I read that the Scottish government is proceeding with its controversial gender recognition plans, which will in effect mean that all a man needs to ‘become a woman’ is to say he’s one. To use a very contemporary word, I was ‘triggered’. Ground down by the relentless attacks from trans activists on social media, when I was only there to give children feedback about pictures they’d drawn for my book under lockdown, I spent much of Saturday in a very dark place inside my head, as memories of a serious sexual assault I suffered in my twenties recurred on a loop. That assault happened at a time and in a space where I was vulnerable, and a man capitalised on an opportunity.  I couldn’t shut out those memories and I was finding it hard to contain my anger and disappointment about the way I believe my government is playing fast and loose with womens and girls’ safety.“

Things to note:

She was concerned about trans men undergoing voluntary hormones and surgeries because they “have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility.”, but is repeatedly horrified by the idea that trans women could be considered women without them.

She is consistently pitching the narrative that trans women’s interests are men’s interests and in conflict with women’s interests.

The misgendering is about equal in both sections, but in this one, the misgendering is intentionally framed as trans women being deceitful men, whereas trans men are framed as women and “girls” in distress. Notice that the trans women are always “men”, never “boys”, for maximum implicit threat.

“’woman’ is not a costume” is a huge red flag. Trans women aren’t wearing costumes, they’re living their lives as women.

The narrative she’s weaving is that trans men are misled women who need help and protection, and trans women are potentially predatory men. She leaves caveats, such as the “self-described transsexual woman”, but even she is referred to as a former man, and we don’t know how that trans woman feels about that. She’s being used as a prop, framed as an exception.

This is all transphobia, and heavily leans towards transmisogyny.

In short:

Trans men aren’t interested in you persecuting our sisters to “defend” us. Fuck off, Rowling.

[my-zen-space]

Sex Education season 2 review

(Warning: spoilers ahead)

I was worried season 2 would not be as great as season 1 (cz it is a teen high school show, after all), but i was wrong! It continues to be amazing and tackling so many important issues!

It talks about asexuality (probably the only show i’ve ever watched that mentions it)!

There’s great bi-pan solidarity!

It tackles toxic masculinity and how it is okay for men to cry.

It has both a straight love triangle and a gay love triangle.

It highlights that sex is not only for reproduction but that it can be just for pleasure, such as lesbian/gay sex.

It explains that female pleasure should not be a taboo!

It deals with sexual assault and the shame and guilt that some women feel when they go to report it.

Anxiety and mental health!

Drug addiction!

Feminism and female solidarity!

This show keeps giving and giving!

[runwiththenight-catchthedawn]

Hi! I'm very feminist myself but all my interactions with feminism, I now realise, have been entirely including of the LGBT community. I haven't really heard from someone who was anti-LGBT before (which, from your posts, I gather you are) and was just wondering how you developed your feminism if that makes sense. How did you come into your beliefs? Did you have a negative experience with LGBT community? Very curious.

Hello! Thanks for reaching out. I am not at all anti LGB. I support LGB rights and people, wholeheartedly. I do not support trans activism, specifically trans “women.”

I find it offensive for men to claim they know what it’s like to be a woman because they dress or act feminine. I find it offensive that they claim to be more oppressed than “cis” women. I believe that trans women are appropriating women and that they trivialize our experiences. Science has determined that there is no “male brain” or “female brain.” So what does is mean to feel like a woman? Which women? Women are human beings with differing thoughts, desires, and experiences. To be a woman just is.

Radical feminists (vs liberal feminists) demand that we acknowledge biological sex because our oppression is sex based. We are oppressed because of our sex. Our reproductive health is constantly being threatened. Women and girls all over the world face genital mutilation, die in “period huts”, are raped and murdered. Do you think if they had “identified” as men that would have saved them?

Trans women have been socialized as men, seeing as they are men. They threaten a lot of radfems or terfs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) with rape and death. Many of them hate lesbians because they don’t want to be anywhere near a dick. They call that transphobic! So many women are penis repulsed because of rape or sexual assault and trans women say we should just try to get over it because it’s not fair to exclude them from sex. “You might like dick if you try it!” Sound familiar? Lesbians have heard that for a long time, but to hear it from people who consider themselves progressive is just outrageous.

Men have always known which sex to rape, to kill, to oppress. That is the reality of women. We are not people with uteruses, we are not “bleeders”, we are women. We have worked hard for our private spaces, such as female only bathrooms, locker rooms, shelters, and jails. We will not let men into those spaces just because they say they identify as women. That will risk women’s lives and it cannot be allowed.

I hope this clears things up for you. There is a lot more to radical feminism than just our disagreement with the trans movement that I would to talk about!

Thanks for reaching out ❤️

[nix-that-rad-lass]

A Bunch of Links, Receipts, and Sources for my fellow Terves

A Girls Place In The World by William Buckner About the reality of women and girls around the world https://quillette.com/2019/05/09/a-girls-place-in-the-world/

I Was A Lesbian Tomboy Allowed To Be Female; I Fear Young Girls Today No Longer Have That Choice by Tonje Gjevjon About the transing of gender nonconforming girls that would likely grow up to be lesbians if not for being transitioned before they are even old enough to understand what transition is. https://www.feministcurrent.com/2019/06/11/i-was-a-lesbian-tomboy-allowed-to-be-female-i-fear-young-girls-today-no-longer-have-that-choice/

Dagny on Social Media, Gender Dysphoria, Trans Youth, and Detransitioning. A transcript of a talk given by Dagny, a detransitioned young woman and member of the pique resilience project https://www.feministcurrent.com/2019/06/04/dagny-on-social-media-gender-dysphoria-trans-youth-and-detransitioning/

Ross Douthat Revealed the Hypocrisy in Liberal Feminist Ideology, and They’re Pissed by Meghan Murphy Self explanatory title https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/05/04/ross-douthat-revealed-hypocrisy-liberal-feminist-ideology-theyre-pissed/

A Neo-Liberal Concept of Freedom has Allowed Gender Ideology to Take Hold by Heather Brunskell Evans https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/12/02/neoliberalism-patriarchy-gender-identity/

Inauthentic Selves: The Modern [LGB(TQ+)] Movement is Run By Philanthropic Astroturf and Based on Junk Science https://medium.com/@sue.donym1984/inauthentic-selves-the-modern-lgbtq-movement-is-run-by-philanthropic-astroturf-and-based-on-junk-d08eb6aa1a4b

Politicians are Betraying Women in the Rush To Support Trans Rights by Jenni Russell Self explanatory https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/politicians-are-betraying-women-in-the-rush-to-support-trans-rights-xzvhcf7m8

“Don’t Forget”, a compilation of sources, receipts, and other resources on male violence, compiled by @astro-didacted on tumblr https://nixtheoneandsecond.tumblr.com/post/188876269165/dont-forget?is_related_post=1

Pretty much a masterpost of RadFem beliefs and resources, compiled by @unleashtherage on tumblr https://nixtheoneandsecond.tumblr.com/post/188804771810/radical-feminism-is-a-political-movement-in

PDF of Lundy Bancroft’s “Why Does He Do That” https://www.docdroid.net/py03/why-does-he-do-that.pdf

The Wikipedia Page for the one and only TERF Icon, Magdalen Berns. She deserved better! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalen_Berns

A bunch of Andrea Dworkins works in a google drive PDF https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1i3r-gSizLC6UbyvM1ZJyCYMHtYvdss-S

Sex Before Kissing: How 15 year old girls are dealing with porn obsessed boys by Melinda Tankard Reist Self explanatory https://fightthenewdrug.org/sex-before-kissing-15-year-old-girls-dealing-with-boys/

Some tea on the tumblr porn ban from 2018. https://fightthenewdrug.org/tumblr-banned-porn-from-its-platform-one-year-ago-how-is-the-site-doing-now/

Why Victims Freeze Up During Sexual Assaults by Jackie Hong Tells about experiences, and the fight, flight, and freeze response. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wd7945/i-froze-up-when-i-was-sexually-assaulted-and-we-should-stop-dismissing-that-response

Why Women Have Higher Rates of PTSD Than Men by Melanie Greenberg (spoiler: its because of sexual violence and misogyny)https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201809/why-women-have-higher-rates-ptsd-men

The Difference Between Toxic Masculinity and Being A Man by Harris O’Malley Finally, a small handful of men are actually attempting to be better and make a difference! Took em long enough! https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-difference-between-toxic-masculinity-and-being-a-man-dg/

Criminal Justice System: The Actual Amount of Sexual Assault Perps, Pimps, Johns, Rapists, and Pedophiles that Get Away With It https://rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system

The First Legal Abortion Providers Tell Their Stories by Alex Ronan https://www.thecut.com/2015/10/first-legal-abortionists-tell-their-stories.html?mid=twitter-share-thecut#

How Much Does An Abortion Cost? by Charlotte Cowles Not only covers the price, but also types of abortion, prevention, and more on reproductive health https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/how-much-does-an-abortion-cost.html

8 Signs Your Partner Is Being Sexually Coercive by Suzannah Weiss https://www.bustle.com/articles/155328-8-signs-your-partner-is-being-sexually-coercive-because-you-can-always-say-no

Why Conservative Women are Okay With Harassment by Jennifer Wright This is regarding not only the general societal expectations which conservative women help uphold and enforce, but also why they are surprisingly okay with electing sexual predators to the government https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a23453699/conservative-women-response-brett-kavanaugh-allegations-sexual-assault/

Archaeologists Find New Way To Determine Sex of Cremated Individuals by Katherine J Wu Because we all run into those TRA’s that say its impossible to know someones ‘gender’ or ‘sex’ by just looking at them, or their remains in the case of those already passed. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/archaeologists-find-new-way-determine-sex-cremated-individuals/

Analysing the Bones: What Can A Skeleton Tell You? by Hayley Dunning Again, because TRAs love to say that skeletons are ambiguous when, in fact, they are not https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/analysing-the-bones-what-can-a-skeleton-tell-you.html

Sex Determination in Skeletal Remains from the Medieval Adriatic Coast - Discriminant Function Analysis of Humeri Hmm, wonder what this is about. You guessed it! More differences in the bone and skeletal structures of male and female humans https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3692335/

Sex Determination from the Talus of South African Whites by Discriminant Function Analysis Woah, more information on telling skeletons apart by sex! Almost like human skeletons differ between the sexes https://journals.lww.com/amjforensicmedicine/Abstract/2003/12000/Sex_Determination_From_the_Talus_of_South_African.3.aspx

The Reliability of Sex Determination of Skeletons from Forensic Context in the Balkans Oh my god, whats this?? More factual evidence of differences in physiology between the *gasp* TWO human sexes?? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15567621/

Mandibular Ramus Flexure: A New Morphologic Indicator of Sexual Dimorphism in the Human Skeleton Okay, okay, I think thats all the skeleton stuff for now https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199603)99:3%3C473::AID-AJPA8%3E3.0.CO;2-X

Further Evidence to Show Population Specificity of Discriminant Function Equations for Sex Determination Using the Talus of South African Blacks Partner to a previously aforementioned article https://www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/JOURNALS/FORENSIC/PAGES/JFS2003431.htm

Why Talking About Bowie’s Sexual Misconduct Matters by Angelina Chapin Article about David Bowie and his misconduct. pretty much, you shouldnt always separate the art from the artist. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-talking-about-bowies-sexual-misconduct-matters_b_9009230

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English http://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Barbara-Ehrenreich-and-Deirdre-English-Witches-Midwives-and-Nurses-A-History-of-Women-Healers.-Introduction..pdf

This entire blog is gold. To quote them: Saying No To Penis is NOT Hate Speech [ffs] http://thenewbacklash.blogspot.com/?

Steven Hassan’s BITE Model about what constitutes a cult. You know, like the gender cult. https://freedomofmind.com/bite-model/

What Is Darvo? by Jennifer J Freyd DARVO is the reaction that many sexual offenders display in response to being faced with the consequences of their actions. https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/defineDARVO.html

Sick Woman Theory by Johanna Hedva Genuinely just read this, its too good to summarise http://www.maskmagazine.com/not-again/struggle/sick-woman-theory?fbclid=IwAR2cQyCRT5olIzkBGfO_F5HvES28bhdIcbUyc9g1W_p0L6o7U8gopDp5Kxw

Taking Back Your Mind: A Radical Feminist Approach to Recovering from Porn Use by Kitty at medium com https://medium.com/@kittyit/taking-back-your-mind-a-radical-feminist-approach-to-recovering-from-porn-use-8ae9347c3d8f

About Female Infanticide http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/infanticide_1.shtml

About Female Genital Mutilation https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation

About Child Marriage https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/about-child-marriage/

Who Cooked the Last Supper? from @aeroposter

https://aeroposter.tumblr.com/post/166368772300/who-cooked-the-last-supper-by-rosalind-miles

Breast ironing: Abhorrent Practice Becoming Endemic In UK by Alexandra Sims

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/breast-ironing-abhorrent-practice-becoming-endemic-in-uk-a6950521.html

About Forced Pregnancy

http://www.stopvaw.org/harmful_practices_forced_pregnancy

Did Sissy Porn Make Me Trans or Was I Trans All Along? As if we needed any more proof that it is, indeed, a fetish

https://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/2mn8au/did_sissy_porn_make_me_trans_or_was_i_trans_all_a/

Did Porn Make Me Transgender? Who coulda thunk it

https://forum.nofap.com/index.php?threads/did-porn-make-me-transgender.61492/

Jealous of Lesbians? Yep, thats right folks. Transbians really are just rapey straight guys with a lesbian fetish. https://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/55zkbs/jealous_of_lesbians/

Just when you thought men couldnt get much worse... https://metro.co.uk/2013/07/09/peeping-tom-arrested-after-hiding-in-septic-tank-and-staring-at-people-using-the-toilet-3874756/

Houston Man Posed as a Doctor to Rape a Student

https://abc13.com/5730127/

Rape In War: Challenging the Tradition of Impunity

https://www.hrw.org/legacy/women/docs/rapeinwar.htm

Doctors & Sex Abuse: Patients Sexually Abused While Sedated

http://doctors.ajc.com/doctor_sex_abuse_sedated/

Man pretended to be gay in order to get close to a woman and ultimately rape her

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-convicted-of-raping-woman-who-he-allegedly-befriended-by-pretending-to-be-gay/

Complete collection of Andrea Dworkins work

http://radfem.org/dworkin/

[musicbasedsubculture]

Why are u weird about transwomen? I’m a cis lesbian and I don’t feel the need to defend terfs? It’s not that hard to talk about discrimination towards Vaginal health and reproductive rights and acknowledge that transwomen are women??? Anyways I hope you are having a good day

oh I think you have the wrong idea about me! I don’t just defend “TERFs”, I “am one” as far as getting called that goes. (edit: TERF is a misnomer, too. you can see from my posts that I wholeheartedly include transmen in ~my feminism~ and am on the ftm/butch cusp myself.)

I don’t believe that transwomen are women because I recognize that they are male, were raised to become men, and are often really antifeminist/sexist and homophobic as a result. (that doesn’t mean that I won’t defend them against conservative homo/transphobes, and I have a healthy respect for the transwomen who acknowledge their sex and are allies to radical feminism.)

thank you for the well wishes! I did have a nice day. I fixed something that’s been wrong with my car for a while and I got to see my sister (at a safe distance) for the first time since she tested positive for COVID. I hope this clears up any misconceptions you had about me or this blog :)

[trans-advice]

Hey, for the past 5 or so years I have privately identified as nonbinary or not conforming to any gender, and even recently requested that my boss and coworkers use they/them pronouns. About a month ago I stumbled across a "gender critical" blog and started reading it. I know it's a bad idea to engage with trolls, especially when it will impact your sense of self, but I felt restless that my existence was being debated and wanted to hear the other side. Now I am feeling confused (1 o 2 asks)

I’m feeling confused and gross, wondering if all this time I have been actually working against my own feminist beliefs, or if I’m just being naive and getting indoctrinated. Like,I worry about me being a female who simply didn’t subscribe to gender stereotypes, tricking myself into thinking I"wasn’t like the other girls". I have also been wondering about what it means to identify into an oppressed group, and why we can’t talk about it without being dismissed as a dumb TERF. (1 o 2 asks) Thx

— Eve: CW: long post, possibly rambley, could’ve used better editing, transphobia, “gender critical”, recuperation, discussion of “terf” politics, recuperation of liberation movements, politics, oppression, rape culture, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist,

So basically I have tried for almost 4 weeks to write a response detailing this stuff. however it’s gotten too unwieldy. i tried to condense it, but this was as close as i got. it’s practically like 3 drafts back to back. I couldn’t figure out the differences & when i saw similarities it seemed significantly different enough. so I’m not editing any further. here’s a mindvomit. i wish i had this more polished but I can’t do that & i didn’t get a response.

however I’m going to make a history book recommendation, a referral to gendercensus2020, and i need to emphasize that these are much more like personal beliefs & not generally the tone of this blog which aims to give advice & positivity, while this is inherently political, the good bad & ugly. and there are trans people of various persuasions so I don’t want alienate them. i dissecting some ideologies that are transphobic, how they became that, how they got recuperated, and how you can find the same concerns being addressed. I’m answering this because it totally makes sense to me that this is asked in good faith & I want to respect your concerns & show that there are better methods of liberation activism that are trans affirmative, or at least must become & develop into such.

So I’m going to recommend the book “Transgender History (Second Edition)” by Susan Stryker, which I have put on our blog’s google drive account, so hence a link. It goes into the historic common ground between the feminists & LGBT+ peoples. It also gets into historic movements. And on top of that, the first chapter is literally a list of terminology deconstructing gender, which is also helpful for analyzing topics feminism analyzes..

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IvCwNvCJ_EiDmOer4zS8SbFGz4m-WDJ1

another thing you need to know regarding the label lesbian back in the day is that it was a catchall for any woman who didn’t have sex with men. now granted, this was a cisnormative understanding, but basically lesbians included celibate women, asexual women, and of course bisexual women in addition to gay women.

basically the normal advice of wait til you have your own money to have sex, wait til your mid 20s, don’t rely on a man to pay your bills etc, all of this comes from political lesbianism, which was like be celibate or else have sex that doesn’t involve sperm. (granted, communities cannot be monoliths if they want to be ecosystems, like any movement label there are different interpretations made by members of it, and therefore there are some strands that uphold a homonormative appreciation for conversion therapy. perhaps a middle ground for understanding how that happened is that joke about macho sexuality purity “if a man masturbates with his hand, he’s using a man’s hand to get off, then it’s gay.” granted, there was of course a political/economic reason to this, but still, it seems in terms of history that this joke was considered actually legitimate.)

“lesbian” was a catchall for women who didn’t have sex with men. this included ace, celibate & gynephiliac women. part of the reason these communities were conflated again had to do with the economic pressures to get married which I’ll detail a few paragraphs from now. (while this next thought could be incorrect because I did just learn about ��compulsory heterosexuality" a month ago, I think the vestiges of those economic pressures are basically the gist of “comphet”.) the goal of political lesbian as well as lesbian separatism was to build an economy/get money that didn’t require submission to patriarchy, via marriage, pregnancy etc. so basically in an effort to build like support networks, “men” were shunned as much as possible.

however these networks ended up replicating capitalism, (partly due to oppression against communes & other anti-capitalist activities) which then replicated the oppressions of capitalism. it makes sense that transphobia had formed of assimilation/respectability politics for such feminists. To quote from the criticism section of the Wikipedia article on the women’s liberation movement.

> The philosophy practised by liberationists assumed a global sisterhood of support working to eliminate inequality without acknowledging that women were not united; other factors, such as age, class, ethnicity, and opportunity (or lack thereof) created spheres wherein women’s interests diverged, and some women felt underrepresented by the WLM.[208] While many women gained an awareness of how sexism permeated their lives, they did not become radicalized and were uninterested in overthrowing society. They made changes in their lives to address their individual needs and social arrangements, but were unwilling to take action on issues that might threaten their socio-economic status.[209] Liberationist theory also failed to recognize a fundamental difference in fighting oppression. Combating sexism had an internal component, whereby one could change the basic power structures within family units and personal spheres to eliminate the inequality. Class struggle and the fight against racism are solely external challenges, requiring public action to eradicate inequality.[210] >

birth control helped to liberate women & that accommodation/handicap for reproductive health disabilities (disability is merely inability to do something that’s Normative. so if having a uterus, pregnancy/menstruation/having breasts etc aren’t considered normal, which is especially common in a patriarchal society for these examples, then it’s disability.) It should be said that due to the desire for bodily autonomy to regulate our own body parts, as well as a desire to manage our fertility & sterilization, the transgender movement has a lot in common with feminism’s female-as-disability movement.)

it should also be noted that before the medical transitioning became accessible that us trans people relied a lot more on social transitioning than medical transitioning. it should also be mentioned that the medical procedures are available & used by cisgender people too.

that being said, since both cis females & transgender women were denied birth control etc, there was a very intense fear of impregnation happening & trans women going back in the closet not only to get money under patriarchy but also because life raising a kid is hard. like if you’ve ever seen “the stepford wives” & look at how the ally husband betrays his feminist wife, then that should clue us into how a lack of birth control scared us.

the problem with the school of feminism that emphasizes physiological sex over gender identity (in order to deny the existence of trans people with female-organs or not) is that it doesn’t account for birth control & how that’s affected the landscape, the economy etc, the revolutionary impact of birth control basically. it also ignores that trans people & cis women feminists have the same goals when it comes to getting freedoms about reproductive rights & bodily autonomy. therefore it ends up being transphobic & wanting to run back into the times when we didn’t have abortion access because they want to hurt us.

That being said though, we need to have birth control & more in order to help liberate trans people too, so if somewhere doesn’t have birth control, then we’re not doing well either because it’d pay a lot more to be transphobic (which of course it doesn’t now when we have birth control & various medical & other technologies). i think what I’m trying to say is that similar to disability accomodations clashing with each other, if we of the women’s liberation, the trans liberation, and the gay & lesbian liberation, and the bisexual & ace liberation get stranded then we’re all doomed. granted we might be doing that due to defensiveness with hostility similar to how in the 1980s feminism got very conservative in USA & how some transgender people get spared in systems with strict gender conformity & anticolonialist values, it’d be wrong to say that all our liberations are in conflict with each other. they can be mishandled, but ultimately, safety still tends to favor cisheteropatriarchal people. internalized patriarchal thinking is like internalized queerphobia, and so forth.

I want to emphasize that it is relatively easy for transgender people especially nonbinary people to find gender critical discourse somewhat appealing. Here’s why: TERFs & Gender Critical discourse is agender-normative disability discourse regarding reproductive health & other AFAB organs. (a disability is being unable to do things that society considers normative. so if you can’t drive & your locale de facto requires it, then that’s a disability. also in usa you’ll find that pregnancy & disability are the main things welfare programs prioritize. a pregnancy can be harmful, but can be easier with the right monitoring etc. which again is the same with disability.)

the problem though is that they then insist on misgendering you as one of the binary genders based on objectification of your body (specifically, “morphology”). point being, because you feel dysphoric over being misgendered as something nonbinary as being mislabeled as cisgender, this implies that you are indeed transgender.

https://gendercensus.com/post/612238605773111296/the-gender-census-2020-is-now-open

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Now to be clear, there are historical economic considerations that made the decisions to specialize on the intersectionality of cisgender AFABs, but the economy & technology has changed. Basically marriage back in the day was economically necessary because there was effectively no birth control available. Therefore, to get child support etc, required getting the father to pay the consequences. However, marriage was very much a chattel property institution, marital rape was still legal, and women couldn’t get credit etc in our own names.

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At the same time, similar to birth control being unavailable, hormones & other procedures for medically transitioning trans people were unavailable as well, which meant social transitioning & wardrobe etc were the main methods of affirming our gender. however, we sometimes got lucky & had a doctor write us a note affirming our gender & sometimes we got even luckier & govts accepted this. this however required getting labelled sick & begging doctors to give us treatment & getting money for this since insurance companies etc still discriminated against transgender people even when we agreed to have our gender identity situation labelled as sick & medically necessary. (similarly insurance companies still refuse to cover abortions & so do some doctors & hospitals.)

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So this meant that AFABs were concerned about getting hijacked via impregnation. Because of the patriarchal economics of the whole thing, people were afraid of “the stepford wives” repeating itself in their own lives, where the mind can only handle what the ass can stand would mean trans women would go back into the closet.

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Granted, that’s a bit misrepresentative of trans women & trans people because trans people & cis women who can get pregnant do have a lot more in common. we take the same meds, go to the same clinics, menopause etc gets taken due to distress over how our bodies work, etc. then again, how would trans AMAB people have gotten the money for child support?

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historically & still to this day we basically had to beg doctors for the ability to get hormones to get a surgery to get a gender marker change & so on, which granted, what we trans people had available to us varied from locale to locale because it required collaborations of trans people, doctors, and the local govts & especially their police stations. again, before roe v wade abortion providers were super underground & secretive & there were specialized units at police stations for hunting down patients & providers under the charge of “murder”. it’s the same dynamics.

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seriously trans people & people with bodies that can get pregnant, menstruate, menopause, etc, we go to the same clinics! women’s health clinics take trans patients, planned parenthood takes trans patients, do i need to go any further on how trans people & feminists have the same interests regarding reproductive health?

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as for political lesbianism:

basically the normal advice of wait til you have your own money before having sex, wait til your mid 20s, don’t rely on a man to pay your bills etc, all of this comes from political lesbianism, which was like be celibate or else have sex that doesn’t involve sperm. (i’m not sure what the conditions were like surrounding not piv sex among the straights, and therefore what the likelihood of avoiding piv sex was. I do know that rape culture was much more heavily normalized than it is now.)

“Lesbian” was a catchall for women who didn’t have sex with men. this included: - ace, - celibate - bisexual - gay women. Part of the reason these communities were conflated again had to do with the economic pressures to get married, (while this next statement could be incorrect because i did just learn about ‘compulsory heterosexuality" a month ago, i think the vestiges of those economic pressures such as weddings are basically the gist of “comphet”.)

The goal of Political Lesbianism as well as Lesbian Separatism was to build an economy that didn’t require submission to patriarchy, such as that of marriage, pregnancy etc. In efforts to build like support networks, “men” were shunned as much as possible.

However these networks, (partly due to lacking radicalization) ended up replicating capitalism, (partly due to oppression against communes & other anti-capitalist activities) which then replicated the oppressions of capitalism. It makes sense that transphobia had formed of assimilation/respectability politics for such feminists. To quote from the criticism section of the Wikipedia article on the women’s liberation movement.

> “The philosophy practised by liberationists assumed a global sisterhood of support working to eliminate inequality without acknowledging that women were not united; other factors, such as age, class, ethnicity, and opportunity (or lack thereof) created spheres wherein women’s interests diverged, and some women felt underrepresented by the WLM.[208] While many women gained an awareness of how sexism permeated their lives, they did not become radicalized and were uninterested in overthrowing society. They made changes in their lives to address their individual needs and social arrangements, but were unwilling to take action on issues that might threaten their socio-economic status.[209] Liberationist theory also failed to recognize a fundamental difference in fighting oppression. Combating sexism had an internal component, whereby one could change the basic power structures within family units and personal spheres to eliminate the inequality. Class struggle and the fight against racism are solely external challenges, requiring public action to eradicate inequality.[210]”