Women are women; transwomen are transwomen
I’ve been seeing some posts/debate recently about where various feminists stand on whether transwomen are women, so here is my opinion:
When Simone de Beauvoir observed that, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” she was talking about the process of socialization that girls go through for twenty years to become women. Surgery, hormones and fantasies are how you become a transwoman. Even in the realm of gender, transwomen are only like women in the sense that they are human beings. The socialization of both groups doesn’t even touch when it comes to life experience, except again as regards to being human. And yes, there are girlhood experiences that are universal. Lower status based on sex is one of them. Even aside from oppression, girls are born with the expectation that they will or may become mothers one day. That changes life experience in a profound way. You have to be extremely deluded not to see this.
Of course, transwomen are male, biologically, and I call them transwomen, not men, since they want to be different from men. I also refer to them by female pronouns. My views on this are evolving. I spend much more time than I would like learning about trans issues. I really don’t care very much; I just want them to stop oppressing me by demanding entry into women-only spaces and into feminist politics, which they are actively trying to sabotage to make themselves the center of things. But given the transgressions of transwomen toward women’s rights, I have had to become versed in their issues, their language, their reality. This is further proof, if any were needed, that they are my oppressors. In that sense, they are men.
The amount of work you have to do in order to keep oppressing someone is not, in fact, a form of oppression, even if it is positively exhausting.
pogoniptrail, you are the VERY reason people hate all things called “Feminist.” You are a anti-woman, woman. Women are women are women. The “Trans*” in front of that word does NOT negate the “Woman” part. To be a feminist is to be FOR women, period. You are NOT for women. You are FOR women that LOOK LIKE YOU, talk like YOU, walk like YOU, have similar finances to YOU, you are NOT for women. You are FOR YOU. You are not only NOT a feminist, you aren’t a very good woman either. Anti-women, women are the downfall of all womankind.
Before you ask, I am a cis straight women. Perhaps that will make this reply hold more weight for and your ilk. YOU ARE NO FEMINIST.
Actually, racismschool, the reason why people “hate all things called “Feminist”” is because they are products of the patriarchy which does not want to see women liberated. Feminism is hated because it challenges the status quo. The hatred and opposition to feminism is not because feminists acknowledge the difference between sex and gender, but because feminists refuse to allow womanhood and femaleness to be denigrated.
You know, denigration like you thinking that telling pogoniptrail that she “isn’t a very good woman.” Rather hypocritical in the middle of a post where you try to tell her that she’s wrong for making a distinction between different types of women, isn’t it?
Trans women are different from non-trans women. If they weren’t, there would be no need for them to transition. I don’t see how recognizing this difference, acknowledging that they have had to make a choice and struggle to be women, is a negative thing. Shouldn’t we be willing to acknowledge and honor the different experiences that women have?
Well, I wouldn’t ask anyone to “honor” anything they don’t want to… apart from everything else, it seems like cart-before-the-horse territory when we’re fighting for rights and recognition.
But okay, I’ll bite.
What, to you, is an appropriate way to honor the experiences of women who are trans*?
