Article What Is a Woman?
Article What Is a Woman?
This article in the New Yorker is 10 years old and remarkably little has changed. But here's something we probably wouldn't see happen today. I bolded text for emphasis:
Quote:(Lierre) Keith had an easier time at Radfems Respond, where she spoke on the differences between radicalism and liberalism. Two gender-bending punk kids who looked as if they might be there to protest left during the long opening session, on prostitution. A men’s-rights activist showed up—he later posted mocking clips from a video that he had secretly made—but said nothing during the sessions. Several trans women arrived and sat at the back, but, in fact, they were there to express solidarity, having decided that the attacks on radical feminists were both out of control and misguided. One of them, a thin, forty-year-old blonde from the Bay Area, who blogs under the name Snowflake Especial, noted that all the violence against trans women that she’s aware of was committed by men. “Why aren’t we dealing with them?” she asked.
Exactly. Why are all the violence and death threats toward "TERFs" and women? You don't see marches and protests and posters and violent tweets and Reddit screeds and all that other stuff directed toward the men who actually assault and kill transgender people. Men have a hall pass to do whatever they want to TIMs and TIFs because only women are targeted or held responsible.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/04/woman-2
This article in the New Yorker is 10 years old and remarkably little has changed. But here's something we probably wouldn't see happen today. I bolded text for emphasis:
Quote:(Lierre) Keith had an easier time at Radfems Respond, where she spoke on the differences between radicalism and liberalism. Two gender-bending punk kids who looked as if they might be there to protest left during the long opening session, on prostitution. A men’s-rights activist showed up—he later posted mocking clips from a video that he had secretly made—but said nothing during the sessions. Several trans women arrived and sat at the back, but, in fact, they were there to express solidarity, having decided that the attacks on radical feminists were both out of control and misguided. One of them, a thin, forty-year-old blonde from the Bay Area, who blogs under the name Snowflake Especial, noted that all the violence against trans women that she’s aware of was committed by men. “Why aren’t we dealing with them?” she asked.
Exactly. Why are all the violence and death threats toward "TERFs" and women? You don't see marches and protests and posters and violent tweets and Reddit screeds and all that other stuff directed toward the men who actually assault and kill transgender people. Men have a hall pass to do whatever they want to TIMs and TIFs because only women are targeted or held responsible.
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Audre Lorde
Quote:Exactly. Why are all the violence and death threats toward "TERFs" and women? You don't see marches and protests and posters and violent tweets and Reddit screeds and all that other stuff directed toward the men who actually assault and kill transgender people.
I am reminded of the first rule of misogyny: women are responsible for what men do. Men may do all the raping, assaulting, and killing, but it's those evil women with their evil exclusive words and thoughts who are the real problem.
Thanks for sharing - old but good article. Perhaps the tide has been turning recently, but in the last five years you wouldn't have seen someone writing about this issue in a mainstream publication so directly, and in such clear language.
Quote:Exactly. Why are all the violence and death threats toward "TERFs" and women? You don't see marches and protests and posters and violent tweets and Reddit screeds and all that other stuff directed toward the men who actually assault and kill transgender people.
I am reminded of the first rule of misogyny: women are responsible for what men do. Men may do all the raping, assaulting, and killing, but it's those evil women with their evil exclusive words and thoughts who are the real problem.
In trans communities, this shifted the goal from "Keep your head down and hide so no-one can tell what you really are" (aka stay closeted) to "Demand equal treatment and write yourself into mainstream ideas on sex and gender". The problem is that trans ideology is fundamentally incompatible with feminism, is delusional and borderline religious in nature, promotes self-destructive drugs and surgeries, and also feeds heavily off of male privilege, which it refuses to challenge so it wouldn't be "dysphoria-inducing" or "invalidaitng" to poor poor TIMs (no-one gives a shit about TIFs and besides, due to power dynamics TIFs and other NotLikeOtherGirls have always been happy to bootlick men in hopes of getting the their approval and the coveted "one of the guys" card). It's simply not possible to modify the wider narrative of human equality, dignity and rationality to accommodate misogyny, self-destructive tendencies, metaphysical gendersouls and "You can't define a chair"-sophistry, so you get either ridiculous pretzels with batshit insane pseudoscientific unethical propositions which ofc favours male socialisation when it comes to aggression, supremacist tendencies and the whole sense of entitlement over women's lives.
Men who in the past had to try to fit in among women and who actually did have many female acquaintances, suddenly developed deep resentment towards these women over them having to do nothing to exist as women other than, gasp, actually be female! How easy those women have it! And this morphed into women paradoxically becoming the only intersectionalist identity that is both a source of oppression (under feminism) and privilege (under trans ideology) for the exact same reasons.
The fact is that TIMs do need to keep their heads down because their whole existence (both being male and their ideas on womanhood) is rooted in male ignorance and privilege due to being male. There is no way to make men speaking over women or in the name of women progressive. Because trans ideology is so fundamentally misogynistic, anything other than trying to keep it subtle and hidden for damage control is going to make it apparent how destructive to women's rights it is. Trans people are in a lose-lose situation not because of any double standards or because everybody's got it out for them, but because there's simply no way to make their delusional, regressive ideology look good.
TIMs in the past knew they were always on thin ice. They had to watch out for how well they pass before using women's spaces, and trying to fit in among women was a goal that could be taken away at a moment's notice. Not that I think this was done out of any respect for women's opinions - I don't think men ever do things for that reason, which is why any "good" TIM's feminist mask quickly peels off the second it clashes with his desire to pass. TIMs generally either wish to pass to attract men, or to scam lesbians as part of wider incel/lesbian-turning male fantasies (but really many straight TIMs are notoriously unconcerned with passing in the first place). Many get off on passing as a male idea of "woman" in a wider patriarchal society where actual women don't factor much.
You can see the same resentment from men over these same women being able to choose which men are allowed in relationship or bed or even just conversation with them. That's why there's so many incels and 4channers who post male supremacist shite while also waxing philosophical about their girlsoul among other incels. Hell, most modern TIMs who grew up on internet porn barely even have women in their lives and they just jerk off to anime schoolgirls. Women are an abstract idea to them, and one that should be in open domain for everyone to make use of and profit from. Why would actual women "own" this idea? Why should they get to have a say in it? Same attitudes are prevalent with men silencing women who criticise porn, relationships, sexism etc. - men insist that women either secretly enjoy the role they've carved out for them, and if they don't, they're just man-hating prudes who shouldn't be listened to anyways.
YesYourNigel
Dec 16 2024, 3:13 PM #3There's been a wider shift lately as minority rights have entered the mainstream to stop trying to prioritise and pander to the dominant group. Women, black people and gay people stopped trying to impress and prove themselves to straight white men because that is a hopeless cause, and instead they decided to prioritise unity and their own ideology. This moved the goals from "prove you're not inferior to people who are irrationally adamant about you being inferior, and won't listen to you anyway" to "gain strength, confidence and voice from your community to fight for equality" and it gave these communities the opportunity to redefine the wide mainstream society in a way that includes them on equal footing.
In trans communities, this shifted the goal from "Keep your head down and hide so no-one can tell what you really are" (aka stay closeted) to "Demand equal treatment and write yourself into mainstream ideas on sex and gender". The problem is that trans ideology is fundamentally incompatible with feminism, is delusional and borderline religious in nature, promotes self-destructive drugs and surgeries, and also feeds heavily off of male privilege, which it refuses to challenge so it wouldn't be "dysphoria-inducing" or "invalidaitng" to poor poor TIMs (no-one gives a shit about TIFs and besides, due to power dynamics TIFs and other NotLikeOtherGirls have always been happy to bootlick men in hopes of getting the their approval and the coveted "one of the guys" card). It's simply not possible to modify the wider narrative of human equality, dignity and rationality to accommodate misogyny, self-destructive tendencies, metaphysical gendersouls and "You can't define a chair"-sophistry, so you get either ridiculous pretzels with batshit insane pseudoscientific unethical propositions which ofc favours male socialisation when it comes to aggression, supremacist tendencies and the whole sense of entitlement over women's lives.
Men who in the past had to try to fit in among women and who actually did have many female acquaintances, suddenly developed deep resentment towards these women over them having to do nothing to exist as women other than, gasp, actually be female! How easy those women have it! And this morphed into women paradoxically becoming the only intersectionalist identity that is both a source of oppression (under feminism) and privilege (under trans ideology) for the exact same reasons.
The fact is that TIMs do need to keep their heads down because their whole existence (both being male and their ideas on womanhood) is rooted in male ignorance and privilege due to being male. There is no way to make men speaking over women or in the name of women progressive. Because trans ideology is so fundamentally misogynistic, anything other than trying to keep it subtle and hidden for damage control is going to make it apparent how destructive to women's rights it is. Trans people are in a lose-lose situation not because of any double standards or because everybody's got it out for them, but because there's simply no way to make their delusional, regressive ideology look good.
TIMs in the past knew they were always on thin ice. They had to watch out for how well they pass before using women's spaces, and trying to fit in among women was a goal that could be taken away at a moment's notice. Not that I think this was done out of any respect for women's opinions - I don't think men ever do things for that reason, which is why any "good" TIM's feminist mask quickly peels off the second it clashes with his desire to pass. TIMs generally either wish to pass to attract men, or to scam lesbians as part of wider incel/lesbian-turning male fantasies (but really many straight TIMs are notoriously unconcerned with passing in the first place). Many get off on passing as a male idea of "woman" in a wider patriarchal society where actual women don't factor much.
You can see the same resentment from men over these same women being able to choose which men are allowed in relationship or bed or even just conversation with them. That's why there's so many incels and 4channers who post male supremacist shite while also waxing philosophical about their girlsoul among other incels. Hell, most modern TIMs who grew up on internet porn barely even have women in their lives and they just jerk off to anime schoolgirls. Women are an abstract idea to them, and one that should be in open domain for everyone to make use of and profit from. Why would actual women "own" this idea? Why should they get to have a say in it? Same attitudes are prevalent with men silencing women who criticise porn, relationships, sexism etc. - men insist that women either secretly enjoy the role they've carved out for them, and if they don't, they're just man-hating prudes who shouldn't be listened to anyways.
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