Hi. I started a throwaway account JUST to post this.
I fucking hate trans people.
I am a woman, who majored in Women's/Gender Studies. I used to be a very radical feminist and am still somewhat radical in my politics - certainly liberal.
But I grew up in women's prayer circles (Jewish, not Christian), women's Torah study groups, women's spaces. ANd I hate hate hate hate HATE the thought of a trans woman - excuse me, a fucking MAN - coming into OUR space. It is a woman's space. It's fucking sacred. Get out. I don't really care what you feel liek you've done to your body, I think I have as much of a right as you to demand that I feel safe and I don't want you in my bathrooms and I don't want you in my women's groups. Get. The fuck. Out.
It makes me so angry. And it didn't used to make me angry. I went along with all feminist politics for a ridiculously long time, without question, just saying it's all fine, ti's all fine. It's not all fuckng fine.
Women have worked real damn hard for hundreds if not thousands of years for recognition, for the smallest advances. We didn't used to be allowed to wear PANTS. We've made all these strides, beautiful and wnderful, and suddenly "trans women" ccome along, with their uber femiinity, their fucking maeup, fucking Bruce goddamn Jenner who tries to call himself Caitlynn...jesus. And I tried. I looked at her - her, I thought, at the time, I looked at her - and tried. I tried to see her as a womn, I tried to accept, I tried in my cclasses to ask questions that were respectful and patient and kind. And no one fucking answered me. No one fucking answered me. And now the Girl Scouts are letting in these fucking monsters, are you shitting me?! My sister is in there, our daughters, I dont' want them around men, that's why they're in the motherfucking GIRL scouts. YOU. ARE. NOT. A. GIRL.
I hate them infringing on my women's sacred spaces, I hate them infringing on private bathrooms. I hate them taking away feminist victories by insisting that this is what womanhood is, womanhood looks like this, looks like long hair and heels and dresses, do you know how long we fought to be able to be accepted to wear pants and act more like men if we wanted to?! Why are you trying to take all that the fuck away?!
And I HATE how in feminist spaces if you're at all not inclusive towards trans people suddenly you're the scum of the goddamn earth. I worked DAMN hard on my privilege, I'm a white woman and I worked hard on overcoming my intiial defensiveness to check my priileges around race and economics and whatever else, but this is not a priilege issue. I TOOK a class on gender bias in biology and I STILL fucking think this is just a fucking biological fact: women are women and men are men, with about 1% breing intersex peple but most of them pick a gender. Genderqueer is not a fucking goddamn thing. Trans is not a fucking goddamn thing.
and BY THE WAY, I think Rachel Dolezal has as much of a right to "declare" herself suddenly black as she does as someone has to "declare" themselves suddenly a woman and insist they get to be in my space. Either she gets to be black or you don't get to come into my fucking women's prayer groups. Okay?!
/rant. Sorry. I know this isn't as eloquent as it should be. But it makes me so angy and I can't vocalize this anywhere. I genuiney don't think trans peple should be a thing or be accepted or be allowed in ANY bathrooms, or ANY women's spaces, EVER. Ever ever ever. I can't vocalie this and I made a stupid throwaway account just for this. Fuck this bullshit noise. I'm sick of hiding my thoughts in femiist circles - I worked so hrad to check my privilege but if I even ask a QUESTION about trans people - even the way I used to - eeryone JUMPS DOWN MY GODDAMN FUCKING THROAT. Suddenly even though I've doe all thise work on other activist topics I'm a terrible human being, terrible person, terrible feminist, because I have the audactiy to ask more nuanced questions. Not the way I have here, this is me ranting about it. I had a conversation with a trans guy - f to m - he was growing a beard and said he felt like he just felt stronger, just felt more like a man. Okay, but gender is a social construct, yes? Yes. So then the concepts you thnk of as manly - if they are not really manly, if that is a social construct, why do you think you feel like "a man"? And he looked at me shocked and could not say a word.
Fucking questiosn like THAT. If gender is a soccial construct you're destroyign the work that feminists have done; if it isnt then you shouldnt fucking exist. Okay?! God.