Isn’t some of this conflict explained simply with intersectionality? Trans women are women much like cis women are women but sometimes their underlying experience doesn’t land one for one because their experiences in life were most likely drastically different from each other. On one hand I find myself understanding of cis women having a place to speak to one another about their shared experiences. Children and teenage girls are often sexualized in weird ways, they are under very specific pressures from society at a very early age that differ from young males, they have marital pressures from families feeling the need for them to get married young and bare children, etc. I can maybe understand someone who wants to talk about these things feeling uncomfortable to do so with people they feel like haven’t lived the same experience. I am guilty myself of feeling raging jealousy towards cis males who hardly need to try in life but make it out ahead and personally felt insulted when folks like Jenner get labels like “Woman of the Year” after a life of immense white male privilege that was never afforded to her cis (or trans) sisters.

On the flip side, that’s not what JK is getting at at all. She demonizes trans women, she doesn’t respect them as women regardless of the fact that TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN.