On Being Ashamed of Feminism and its Hypocrisy

[clovehitched]

Feeling so very disappointed right now.

Until feminism as a movement stops being mainly an exercise in navel-gazing for middle-class, educated, white cissexual women, until those professing to be feminists stop holding up bigots like Raymond, Greer and Bindel as icons because they're getting damp over some paragraph they once wrote, until the movement at large takes itself seriously enough to apply its supposed principles to cover all women, and all cases where the powerful oppress the powerless, regardless of sex, gender, race, education, class, income, etc., until someone can make a post about trans people having sex on a supposed feminist discussion board without commenters claiming that a trans person (and you know they mean trans woman) having sex without disclosing their medical history is non-consensual sex (i.e. rape) which should be prosecuted, and having half the people in the discussion sharing a similar sentiment...

...until then, I'm going to proclaim loudly and clearly, "I'm not with them."

By the way, did you know that teh tranz is just like an STD? You can probably even catch it from a snog!

(Also, I think that interpreting "the emotional strain caused by the non disclosure is actionable, and so should it be when one hides the fact of them being trans" as "it's OK to kill trans women after fucking them" is probably not that much of a stretch, as you know, that does actually happen quite a lot).

Originally posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/214250.html - you can comment here or there.

Comments

[snakey.livejournal.com]

Operative status does not determine your gender. And what are you considering 'post-op' for trans men, anyway? Chest? Hysto? Oopho? Colpectomy? Meta? Phallo? Scrotoplasty? It's not so simple for us...

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

Second-Wave Lesbian Feminists do not recognise transpeople. We just don't exist for them but especially transmen are seen as deluded butches who are playing the boi role a little too strongly.

Is it possible to feel infuriated at and sorry for people at the very same time?

[cericonversion.livejournal.com]

"Is it possible to feel infuriated at and sorry for people at the very same time?" I hope so, as I seem to be spending a lot of time in that combo these days.

[snakey.livejournal.com]

I thought we were evil collaborators with the patriarchy who betrayed our sisters by having ourselves mutilated?

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

No, you're hot subversive objects of desire. Shut up and be objectified, in a totally revolution-friendly, non-partiarchal way.

[ellyrouge.livejournal.com]

Even for MtF, I find the notion of "post-op"/"pre-op" completely stupid... I mean, like vaginoplasty is the only surgery trans women can ever undergo, right. I have a friend who has had a mammoplasty and her adam apple reduced, yet she officially hasn't "had surgery yet". Well I'm sorry, but if there is a way to get mammoplasty without surgery, I'd like to have the address.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Er, I wasn't meaning to suggest it was. Gender is what you the person involved determine it to me. If you feel you're a woman, you're a woman. If you feel you're a man, you're a man. Likewise asexual, androgynous and any other status. The discussion in question that Sarah linked to seemed to be talking about folk who had transitioned however, so I was following along those lines.

Please to not be jumping on people who are already being supportive? :(

[snakey.livejournal.com]

I don't see how asking a question is jumping on you. Perhaps I'm abrupt today cos of serious work stress.

Also, transition =/= surgery, aisyk.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

A little abrupt maybe, but then again I'm having a fragile day so clearly an earth-shattering KABOOM is to be expected at such junctures :)

It maybe wasn't clear I was only following on from the ludicrous ideas in the original discussion because those were the ones being mentioned, sorry if I seemed to be clueless. Well, I'm sure I'm reasonably clueless on such matters, but not *completely*,or try not to be.

*proffers chocolate brownies*

[snakey.livejournal.com]

...I think I was abrupt again. Sorry. :(